Past exhibitions -- 2002

Into the Blue

Tuesday 25 June - Saturday 24 August
Curator Linda Michael

Into the Blue represents new and recent works by six emerging artists from around Australia: Nadine Christensen, Gareth Donnelly, Sarah Elson, Cherine Fahd, Jo Grant and Robert Pulie. Characteristics of the works bear a relation to the five qualities of literature - lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility and multiplicity - as described by author, Italo Calvino in his book, Six Memos for the Next Millenium. Each of the six bodies of work exist, and are presented as discrete entities, but when placed together as an exhibition, they also form a single, resonant structure.

'Lightness' is apparent in the delicate casts and minimal interventions of Sarah Elson, the absurdly small paintings of Gareth Donnelly, and Cherine Fahd's attempts to 'capture the wind' in balloons that are held by her camera before floating off into the ether. Even images of lightness abound - birds, the moon, a clear sky, leaves and flowers.

'Exactitude' is a feature of the acute observations of Jo Grant and Nadine Christensen's meticulous compositions. Robert Pulie's works use simple visual plays and an economy of expression, or 'quickness', that together inspire a fairytale quality, in which one thing magically becomes another. 'Visibility' and 'multiplicity' are created by the artists' idiosyncratic evocation of diverse images, to somehow extend our frame of reference beyond thinking. These six artists present us with fresh approaches to existent images or forms, or wipe the slate clean with a sense of experiment, enquiry and fun. It is the qualities of precision and lightness that take us into the blue, into a realm of possibility and wonder.