RECENT 2002

RECENT 2002 Exhibition Invitation – A beautiful transparency designed by the talented Angela Layton, now Practice Director/Interior Designer at Arkhefield.

Who can believe it’s eleven years, this week, since I had my first solo exhibition entitled RECENT 2002 at Palace Gallery in Brisbane. Definitely not me. It seems like only yesterday!

RECENT 2002 represented my debut as an artist. The exhibition featured four large-scale installations and three smaller studies. It shared my love of materials and their inherent properties; ephemeral and disposable materials, as well as commercially mass-produced products and self mass-produced forms; each with a unique lightness, thinness, reflectivity, or translucency.

I am presently making a series of new large-scale installations to be presented in the coming spring and summer. In readiness (and to make room and bring order to my studio) I have been filing, packing, and making space for these new works. During this process I came across photographer David Sandison’s original medium scale format transparencies, and friend Angela Layton’s photos of RECENT 2002. Here I share their photography of my major installations from this exhibition!

Near Far 1996 – 2002, (Two Parts, Dimensions Variable). Photography Angela Layton.

Near Far 1996-2002 was installed in the forecourt of Palace Gallery so that it was the first work people saw as they arrived. Made of salvaged timber, woven and held together only by friction, Near Far inspired later studies and The Komodo Series launched in 2008 – shortlisted for The Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award that same year. These artworks also formed the basis of Tracelet – my beautiful bracelet released in 2012.

Collection 1996 – 2002. Photography David Sandison.

Collection 1996 – 2002 was made up of hundreds of hand cut and folded mylar sleeves suspending cherished found and constructed objects, collected over many years. Each object marked a point of inspiration or potential work within my practice. Collection today continues to grow and be a reference point for my future work.

Collection 1996 – 2002 (Detail). Photography David Sandison.

What I found most enjoyable was seeing people looking at this work in-depth, from outside on opening night. The gallery’s lights created a light box effect and illuminated and created delicate silhouettes of each object.

Remember 2000 – (Drafting Film). Photography David Sandison.

Remember 2000- formed part of my Ocular Series and to this day remains a very personal work. The process of making it was a meditation on tactility and memory; inspired by my Father’s possible blindness. Remembering and forgetting for me are interconnected and almost one and the same; an ongoing process of fragmentation and re-assembly of a whole.

All of my work is very beautiful to touch. What ever happened, I always wanted my family to experience my work in any form. Remember 2000- marked this very conscious approach.

Rest 2002 (Stainless Steel Ties. 3000 x 3000x 3000mm). Photography David Sandison.

People were intrigued by Rest 2002. Made of interlocking stainless steel elements it was suspended in a captured moment above the ground. Just out of reach, Rest’s elements quivered with slight changes in air flow or surrounding movement.

Rest 2002 (mid view). Photography David Sandison.

Their thin edges reflected even the smallest presence of light; like dew or a web in the moonlight. It was a very quiet and meditative work. On opening night people lay underneath the work and appreciated it from below.

Rest 2002 (Detailed up close view). Photography David Sandison.

Rest 2002 was reconfigured into other formations including Fall (wall installation) and Align (stacked in line horizontally). It was a pivotal work in my career and today forms part of my personal collection. Rest 2002 importantly inspired another major work entitled Array 2007 – a large-scale 20 x 30 x 1m installation realised for the 2007 RAIA Queensland Architecture Awards Event.

Hundreds of people enjoyed the opening night of RECENT 2002; experienced the artworks; stayed on; and gave amazing feedback. Reviews of the work were included in Object Magazine, Artlink and the Inaugural Edition of Artichoke. RECENT 2002 was generously supported by Panduit; an international company that makes high quality items for the mining and industrial industries.

In the decade that has passed these same works have been featured in countless National and International books and magazines as well as online; and have informed future works, commissions and collaborations. So many things have grown from RECENT 2002.

I hope they inspire you today!

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