Edited by Anna Zagala
Ken Whisson and John Foubister: Going Back In brings together two artists – Ken Whisson, the celebrated Australian-born painter who lived in Perugia, Italy (1977–2014), and John Foubister, working in regional South Australia. A chance encounter in 1984 led to a friendship between the singular painter and his younger counterpart, who shared an interest in the shape-shifting line between abstraction and figuration.
Edited by Anna Zagala, Going Back In draws together their written correspondence, ephemera, artwork and new writing by Anna Zagala, Dr Victoria Perin, and Ken Bolton. Throughout the publication – which is published by Perimeter Editions alongside an exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art – the works of Whisson and Foubister operate as throughlines; distinctly different in gesture, colour, and tone, yet when paired together, able to operate as two sides of a harmonious, painterly conversation. Across four decades and against the backdrop of changing personal circumstances and radically different lives, the publication documents the warm, lively connection shared by two artists working at a remove from Australian cultural centres.
While certain technological and aesthetic elements – hand-scrawled envelopes, early digital video footage, as well as formal qualities of Whisson and Foubister’s work – seem to locate this story within a specific era, this book speaks to the universal value of creative exchange, of the generative potential found in entrusting others with our thoughts, opinions, and artistic process. It proposes that certain friendships – a conversation to which we are eager to return, a place where we discover ourselves anew, where we can make sense and meaning of the world alongside another – are not only sustaining for artists, but necessary.
304 pages, 21 x 16 cm, perfect bind softcover with flaps, Perimeter Editions (Naarm/Melbourne).