Multi award-winner Kim Carpenter AM has had a huge career at the top of Australian theatre – now, he’ll jump back into his first love, painting and drawing, for WILDE: Life & Fantasy.
Kim's career includes significant roles in leadership – Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Of Image, Artistic Consultant for The Disney Corporation Asia-Pacific, Head Of Design at NIDA, Co-Artistic Director of Nimrod, and Resident Designer at both Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company.
Kim was made a Member Of The Order Of Australia in 2013, for significant service to the performing arts.
Kim's return to his love for art comes after closing Theatre Of Image after 30 successful years.
This new exhibition, WILDE: Life & Fantasy, can be seen at Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries in Sydney. It's made up of 19 new paintings inspired by Oscar Wilde’s most fantastical stories, and tumultuous life.
Here, we chat to the visual storyteller Kim Carpenter himself about the exhibition, and what inspired him to bring Wilde's stories to life with art.
Tell us a little bit about you, as an artist.
I see myself as a visual storyteller when it comes to conceiving and imagining new paintings. I guess my background as a director and designer in theatre has influence on the storytelling impact on my art. Prior to focusing 100 per cent on my artwork I was founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Of Image – a visual theatre company which performed all over the world, and crossed language barriers.
The Young King – To Be King
Where did your love for painting begin?
I was lucky enough to be born with a natural talent. As a tiny child nothing would stop me from enjoying drawing all over the walls of my family home to the distress of my parents.
How would you describe your style of painting?
To use known terms it’s best to say my art is figurative, stylised and surreal, with a love of colour.
And what inspired you to create a collection inspired by Oscar Wilde’s stories?
I adapted and designed Wilde’s story ‘The Happy Prince’ for The Australian Ballet in 2020. This experience set me on a path to read more of his stories and to delve into his short (died at 46), extraordinary and uncompromising life. His insatiable love of beauty – combined with his observations of the human condition – I found inspiring.
The Selfish Giant – Joy
What kinds of things have you taken into consideration when creating these paintings?
I have considered Wilde’s stories written for his two sons and “the eternal child in all of us” contrasted with his gay life and “beautiful boys” and all-male tea parties. Then the two-year prison sentence for indecent behaviour gave us the brilliant ‘The Ballad Of Reading Gaol’.
Why do you think his stories have lasted as long as they have in the minds of so many?
His stories are timeless as he addresses social and political behaviour and divisiveness (between rich and poor) with a sharp wit and a contemporary wisdom that will always be relevant in the way our world repeats itself. His quotes appear on t-shirts and mobile phones all over the Western World – e.g. genius is born, not paid. . .
What’s your favourite?
I like each painting for different reasons. Some I sweated over, some came easily, like gifts. I will always enjoy looking at ‘Rascally Street’ because there are so many little stories unfolding within the one picture.
A Life: Oscar Wilde – Tea Party
How are you hoping audiences respond to your work?
With enough curiosity and pleasure to want to own one.
Is there another author or artist you might want to explore with art in the near future?
I think Shakespeare may well be on the to-do list – ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’? I directed and designed this many years ago with Hugo Weaving as Oberon. I would enjoy reimagining it in pictures.
WILDE: Life & Fantasy is on at Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries (Sydney) from 2-16 April.
This story originally appeared on our queer sister site, FROOTY.
