Sydney 2013
ROAD WORKS. Annandale Galleries February 26 - March 27 2013
ROAD WORKS
At one level, I would like these paintings of fractured street surfaces to be thought of as the material of speculative archaeology.Their fragmentation correlates to roads damaged and displaced by coastal storm surges, floods, land slippages etc., the increasingly familiar evidence of extreme weather events. In this context, I see the shattered assemblages as glimpses of the sublime, a growing sense of awe in the face of nature when disturbed.
Other works made in Rome in 2012 also engage with the idea of archaeology. In them I have used cobblestones (‘sanpietrini’) characteristic of the streets and lanes of the old city to construct small dioramas that echo some of the familiar sites of antiquity. Simultaneously, they evoke the forced perspectives favoured by Baroque architects in Rome, such as Borromini’s corridor at the Palazzo Spada. Thus actual bits of road, together with clay replicas in diminished proportions, have become building blocks in my reconstructions of the vestigial edifices of an empire in collapse.
The road has been a core theme in my work for over two decades. In common with many artists, I have found it to be a continuing source of symbolic and formal possibilities. One way or another, this slice of landscape is shared by all humanity.
ANNANDALE GALLERIES 110 Trafalgar Street, Annandale, Sydney . Exhibition dates 26 February – 27 March 2013
- Installation February 2014
- Sea Change 2012
- Sea Change II 2013
- Sea Change V 2013
- Sea Change V 2013 (detail)
- Sea Change III 2013
- Sea Change VI 2013
- Sea Change IX 2013
- Sea Change IV 2013
- Sea Change IV 2013 (detail)
- Sea Change VIII 2013
- Sea Change VIII 2013
- Sea Change XII 2012
- On the Beach (Kingscliff) 2013
- Street (Naples) 2012
- Road (Rome) 2012
- Library 2012
- Pantheon 2012
- Forum 2012