The lunar landscapes of Clare Humphries: Viewed 15 September 2023

Humphries, Clare. 2023. Perspectus Australis (with feet opposite). Linocut print. Print Council of Australia Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Clare Humphries's Perspectus Australis (with feet opposite), 2023.

I have been aware of Clare Humphries lunar themed work for a few years, and in particular have wondered at how she achieves her painterly effects with linocuts. Hence, I was intrigued by her latest works on show at the Print Council of Australia Gallery, seen on 15 September 2023.

In the catalogue description of this work (Humphries 2023), the artist explains that she inverted 17th Century celestial maps, which positioned the night sky in the Southern hemisphere as upside down, from the Northern Hemisphere perspective. The two part print is derived from a 1676 publication and locates the viewer close to the Greenwich meridian as a universal reference point for longitude and latitude measurements. While I could read this work as a comment on post-colonialism, I am more interested in the aesthetics and techniques used.

The work has an ethereal indistinct quality, amazing given the binary nature of a linocut print. Its palette is suitably muted, to avoid distraction, and in fact reminds me of the colour scheme for the installation of Reflection Model (Itsukushima) 2014. The percept is a highly resolved work, while the affect is one of envy (Hickey-Moody 2013, 85-86). I wish I knew how to achieve such depth with a linocut.

This work, plus the Rembrandt True to Life exhibition, inspires me to get back into print making, the major focus of my Diploma of Visual Art at RMIT TAFE.

Bibliography:

• Hickey-Moody, Anna. 2013. "Chapter 4 Affect as Method: Feelings, Aesthetics ad Affective Pedagogy." In Deleuze and research methodologies edited by Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose, 79-95. Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, United Kingdom).

• Humphries, Dr Clare. 2023. Sea Sings, Lumen & Wings Realm: Jo Darvall, Martin King and Clare Humphries. edited by Print Council of Australia. : Margin Press.

Colonial era violence unearthed by Christine McFetridge: Viewed 8 September 2023

McFetridge, Christine. 2023. Basalt Study. Installation. First Site Gallery, RMIT Melbourne, Australia.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 1, 2023.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 2, 2023.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 3 (video work), 2023.

I saw this small-scale exhibition on 8 September 2023, in the RMIT First Site gallery. It relates to the deliberate destruction of part of Birrarung by colonial powers in the 1870s.

Due to the scale and integrated nature of the mixed media works, this dossier entry is for the installation as a whole, adopting a Langer-type approach to viewing it as one indivisible work (Chaplin-Dengerink 2019, 194).

The installation consists of a video, a low-technology overhead projection of an archival map, two ink-jet prints and seven A4 pages loosely pinned to the wall, featuring with copies of newspaper articles and letters from the late 1870s. The texts variously seem to be protesting or endorsing the destruction, although I am not too sure as I found them hard to read. Fragments of the text are highlighted in red.

The wall text provides an effective summary of the installation, which is encapsulated in the installation’s sub title When I see basalt now, I think of violence, and expanded upon in the video, which features the artist travelling by train and narrating the sorry tale of colonial-settler destruction of a basalt ledge which spanned the width of the Birrarung. This arbitrary act by patriarchal colonial authorities greatly damaged the river’s eco-system, and stands as a forerunner of human-instigated environmental damage through global warming (IPCC 2023). It is ironic that my only knowledge of the engineer responsible, John Coode, is through a fire at the chemical storage facility at Coode Island in 1991 (Mitchell 1991).

The cave-like site of this installation is highly appropriate for the excavatory nature of both the causal event and McFetridge’s research, while the use of a low technology overhead projector and archival materials aligns to the archival nature of the project.

I interpreted this work through the framework of post-colonialism, and also ecological activism. It affected me deeply, invoking great sadness and frustration at the enduring impact of patriarchal powers on the environment and the vulnerable. This type of wanton destruction still occurs, evidenced by Rio Tinto’s intentional obliteration in 2020 of a sacred site close to Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara (Thomson 2023).

This installation further fuels my intention to highlight the risks of global warming through my practice. It also reminds me of the benefit of site specific installations.

Bibliography:

• Chaplin-Dengerink, Adrienne. 2019. The philosophy of Susanne Langer : embodied meaning in logic, art and feeling. First edition. ed. London ;: Bloomsbury Academic.

• IPCC. 2023. 2023: Summary for Policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC).

• Mitchell, Sue. 1991. "Chemical Explosion at Vic Depot." Australian Financial Review, 22 August 1991, 1991. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/politics/chemical-explosion-at-vic-depot-19910822-k4ic9.

• Thomson, James. 2023. "Emotional Rio chairman recalls horrors of Juukan." Australian Financial Review, 24 May 2023, 2023. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/emotional-rio-chair-delivers-home-truths-on-juukan-gorge-anniversary-20230524-p5db0h.

Decoding the signs in the work of Melody Spangaro: Viewed 31 August 2023

Spangaro, Melody. 2023. 119 CVR. Drawing. M16 Artspace, Canberra, Australia.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Melody Spangaro's 119 CVR, 2023.

This work is by a close friend. The title is a coded reference to the address of the subject of this work, a house destroyed in a bush fire. Decoding this textual code (Chandler 2022, 150) would require specific knowledge, knowledge the artist has chosen not to share for reasons of privacy and also to elevate this work as a symbol of the broader global threat posed by climate change.

I saw this work on 31 August 2023. At nearly 4.5 metres wide, and dominating one end of the long gallery space, it stood out for me from the 11 works on show. The muscular scale of the work and its unflinching gaze on the devastation wrought by fire trigger the latent sense of fear many people have about bushfires, a fear exacerbated by recent fires in Europe and Hawaii.

The work also creates a sense of awe at the skill of the artist to engender a sense of hope, through the play of light and the new growth in the foreground.

This work reminds me of the benefit of conveying an element of hope to engage the viewer in otherwise bleak subjects.

Bibliography:

• Chandler, Daniel. 2022. Semiotics : the basics. Fourth edition. ed.The Basics Series. New York, New York: Routledge.