Cloud Chamber 2020 (illustrated) by Yhonnie Scarce is based upon the form of a rising atomic cloud after a devastating nuclear blast, the hand-blown yam shapes in glass hang in the air like inverted raindrops capturing the light. Whereas clouds usually signal rain on Kokatha and Nukunu artist Scarce’s desert Country in South Australia, this…
Continue reading » “1000 elongated glass yams suggest toxic plume”
Everything in The air lock on display in the exhibition ‘Air’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane, has some relation to the idea of air, it’s like a giant puzzle, inviting us to consider how the invisible subject ‘air’ can be held in a myriad of ways. Patrick Pound is an avid collector,…
Continue reading » “Objects related to air open to reinterpretation”
The vast plume carefully drawn in Rainbow Herbicides 2018 (illustrated) by Thu Van Tran compiles details of volcanic eruptions, man-made explosions and photographs of clouds taken by the artist herself. The air here is thick and dangerous and marked with six lines of brightly coloured spray paint, reminiscent of a rainbow. Thu Van Tran ‘Rainbow…
Carlos Amorales’s Black Cloud 2007/2018 (illustrated) is a sublime and surreal gathering of 30 000 black paper butterflies and moths in sculptural formations. Alighting on the walls, ceiling, and light fittings, the flight of insects is both wondrous for its unexpected arrival in the Gallery and foreboding in how it darkens and crowds the space.…
Continue reading » “30 000 butterflies & moths migrate to GOMA”
Jamie North develops his living sculptural forms around the contrast between nature and industry, growth and decay, progress and collapse, in Portal 2022 (illustrated), two circular concrete columns composed of cast concrete with aggregates of industrial remains open up to an emergent tree habitat, offering an unlikely home to a number of plant species indigenous…
Continue reading » “Concrete is an unlikely home to an ecosystem of plants”
Brisbane-born Lloyd Rees (1895–1988) is known for his fluid, light-saturated paintings of the Australian landscape in which the human figure and built environment harmonise with trees, cliffs and bodies of water. The artist is also remembered for his expert drafting skills honed over a lifetime of close observation and drawing. Lloyd Rees ‘Bamboos near corner…
Continue reading » “Lloyd Rees: The process of observation & composition”
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