How do we perceive light, space & colour?

Australian artist Taree Mackenzie creates videos and installations that explore how we perceive light, space and colour. The artist’s ‘Pepper’s ghost’ works stem from the optical illusion of the same name, originally popularised in the 1800s in Victorian stagecraft and entertainment and named after British scientist and inventor John Henry Pepper. Still commonly used in…

Memories of homeland

In Hafiz in diaspora (illustrated) Amin Taasha has used sheets from a book of poetry by Hafiz (Persia c.1315–90) to render symbols and motifs from his own life and the history and mythology of Afghanistan and Central Asia. These include illustrations of the Gandharan Buddhist–style imagery that Bamiyan was known for; ammunition and weaponry of…

Inside out: Anish Kapoor

Born in India, Anish Kapoor has a rich cultural heritage through his Indian and Jewish ancestral lineage and his mainly British art education. He has been one of the most acclaimed sculptors working in Britain since completing his academic studies in 1979. Although currently based in London, Indian materials and ideas maintain a strong presence…

Laying down the lines: Isaac Walter Jenner’s underdrawing

The oil paintings of Isaac Walter Jenner (1836-1902) are executed in a fine and detailed manner which invite close and careful viewing. Like many artists, Jenner used sketching or ‘underdrawing’ to develop subjects beneath oil paint layers. Here, we highlight the artist’s style and detail some of the discoveries found when we look at Jenner’s…

Chance is a key element of weather paintings

In ‘weather paintings’, Australian artist Lindy Lee looks beyond figuration to embody the forces of nature. Lee creates abstract, constellation-like images that speak to the power of fire, wind and water. To make these works, Lee meditatively flings Chinese ink across sheets of paper and burns holes in the surfaces with a soldering iron. Afterwards,…