Buried Light 2011 Umbrella Contemporary Studios
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Robyn Veneer Sweeney - Artist's Statement
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The Lissajous/Pendulum/Maps Suite
“As mediators between an inner mental world and an outer physical one, maps are fundamental tools helping the human mind make sense of its universe at various scales”
History of Cartography Vol I. Edited by J B Hartley & David Woodward
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In preparing for this exhibition, I spent time investigating the Lissajous Curve and its variants such as the Lissajous Web and the random Lissajous Curve.
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Lissajous Curves are generally produced by pendulums or computer generated through a mathematical formula. The Lissajous form is similar to a spirographical figure but created in a theoretical 3D space. One of the distinguishing features of most Lissajous figures is that the lines from which they are constructed are looped – that is, without end.
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For me initially, the random Lissajous form mimicked nature and had its own sensuality both in its production and in its presence. As the works developed, they took on further layers of reference to maps and pendulums. The looped nature of the Lissajous became a personal metaphor for journey and repetitions of history.
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The works in this exhibition reference 3 works of fiction about epic journeys, the first being Henry Handel Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which moves between Britain and the goldfields of Australia. The second is Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, an important work of fiction to the 1960s transcendental movement.
I read both of these books in my youth and they have stayed with me as ‘maps’ for reviewing my own movements in life (both physical and psychological) – the dead ends and the occasional freeways. The third journey novel is Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before, read some 5 or 6 years ago.
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I began by constructing small maquettes that investigated the 3D nature of the Lissajous form. This led to drawings where my body, or gestures, mimicked the pendulum. Over time, the pendulum became the predominant interest, finally leading to the installation I, pendulum.
The Nano Suite
"...we can only add to the world, where we believe it ends, more parts similar to those we already know (an expanse made again and always of water and land, stars and skies)."
Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before
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The miraculous images of nano-technology allow us to see the smallest architecture of substances, almost another world. Crystalline shapes, bubbles, threads, lumps and nodes are just some of the many forms revealed by electromagnetic scanning or mapping. They are of this world and out of this world. The colours assigned to various nano-objects are shimmering and lustrous.
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As with most new discoveries in technology, there is always the potential for helpful and harmful uses.
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One of the processes I used in exploring Nano-technology was to spend many months growing crystals which, because they were not formed with pressure or chemical process but through evaporation, have degraded and are now mere digital memories, their physical existence have become large creeping explosions of powdered minerals to found in various places in my studio. This deterioration of a moderate sized crystal into what seems a huge amount of powder is a perfect metaphor for the growing waste created by technology.
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In the nano works, there is an oblique allusion to Yayoi Kusama’s work and, again I reference the three previously mentioned fictional journeys. Held within the intentions of the works are fear and fascination, attraction and repulsion of new technologies.
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In the final work of this suite, Agarttha, (a legendary city that is said to reside in the earth's core), I have created an ephemeral work that is bound to decay in a short period, perhaps attacked by microscopic bacterial spores and finally, there will be only the digital images left.
The movement of fluids suite
"This is a beautiful river," he said to his companion.
"Yes," said the ferryman, "a very beautiful river, I love it more than anything. Often I have listened to it, often I have looked into its eyes, and always I have learned from it. Much can be learned from a river."
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
As an elemental force, abundance of water has created havoc since time immemorial. As an environmental element, the lack of water creates death or scarcity.
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The alchemical nature of joining pigments and fluids together produce a never-ending variety of shapes and colours essential to the process of painting. In producing ‘The Movements of fluids’ artworks, they reference some of the images usurped from Nano-technology.
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The cycles of water are reflected in the random Lissajous forms and are another reference to journeys and repetitions of history.
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I began the water works inspired early in 2010 by the environmental tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and ended it with references to the massive floods experienced by the 2011 Queensland and Brazilian floods.
Article for ARTGAZE MAGAZINE with Bernadette Ashley
Finding Buried Light in inclement weather.
Exhibition Buried Light, Umbrella Studio until the 27th Feb
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Indeed, the exhibition was a hairy ride as we lost our frames in the Queensland floods and then having to remove our exhibition for safety on the eve of Cyclone Yasi. However, these ‘inconveniences’ were but small in the larger picture of what other Queenslanders were suffering…
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In the unusual circumstances of being required to provide their own copy for this article, artists Bernadette Boscacci & Robyn Sweeney decided to make a bit of a call and response to segments of Bernadette Ashley’s article in Art Review, Townsville Bulletin February 12th.
Bernadette Ashley - call
“Buried Light is a timely exhibition to have coincided with Cyclone Yasi. The works reveal thoughtful contemplation of the natural world with its cycles and mystery, and exude a deep sense of respect for nature’s vicissitudes.”
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“Subject to nature’s arbitrary power as Queenslanders have been lately, we are forced to rethink our relationship to the environment, to stand back in awe.”
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“Local artists Bernadette Boscacci and Robyn Sweeney appear to have been paying due attention all along”…
“We are forced to rethink our relationship to the environment, to stand back in awe, and to view our world with enhanced attention to detail”
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Bernadette Ashley, Art Review, Townsville Bulletin February 12th P 47
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Robyn Sweeney - response
It is certainly gratifying for me that the environmental concerns behind my practice have not been ‘submerged’ by my very recent move away from a bit of surrealism (amongst other influences) to a newly found liberator : abstraction.
Making the works in this exhibition became an introduction to a very different way of thinking which has enabled me to express that deeper connection with our environment without being undermined by didactics - I really want the viewer to interpret the work as they see it.
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As artists who have collaborated, worked and exhibited together frequently over a period of 11 years, Bernadette and I have a very strong thread that binds us; that we share very similar philosophies towards our environment (both natural and social) which we both include in our creative practice.
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tree 2014 Pinnacles Thuringowra Regional Gallery
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Artist Statement
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To come to this body of work for TREE, I come from a position of loss. As a self-confessed ‘solastagic’, I pine for lost trees and bush.
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Everything about this body of work makes reference to loss through memory, iconoclasm, nostalgia and irony.
The works are framed around some of the visual idioms of my formative years: the kitsch Faux Wood-grain panelling covering the real Baltic Pine walls of a Sydney home; Comics printed with the Ben-day Dots technique; my Grandmother’s Flow Blue transfer-ware decorated with pastoral scenes; mysterious religious icons glimpsed in the homes of childhood friends; Salvador Dali on schoolroom walls and Gothic illustrations in an odd collection of hand-me-down childhood reading matter.
My ‘full of the wonder of nature’ childhood paved the way for environmentalist sympathies. Witnessing extraordinary change since my 1950s childhood, with the spread of cities, industries and settlements taking over places once described as ‘the bush’. For all that progress gives us, it is a double edged sword which causes an unpleasant disturbance when I see abuse of our dwindling natural environment.
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Even with quantifiable scientific proof, Environmentalism is often dismissed as hysterical Leftism or quasi-religious hocus pocus. However; indications that our planet is one complex organism are being discovered through scientific research, with one such finding being the transmission of information from one tree to another by way of a web of fungi conduits.
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I am both supported by communication on environmental issues with others through information exchange on the Internet and equally challenged to accept opposing opinions. This causes anxiety, which could be eased by ‘logging off’ but I can’t ignore being frequently confronted with damage by vandalism to my local environment. So when I feel a bout of Solastagia coming on, I go find a nice tree and give it a big hug.
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Treen Reconstructions 1 to 6
These little treen talismans and icons are to aid those who might be suffering from Solastagia or Nature Deficit Disorder. They are simulacra designed to give a placebo effect, lovingly made with tactility in mind. Some may be caressed, whilst others could be used as visual mnemonics to remind us we need some nature time. The timber used (species unknown) has been collected over several years after floating to my beach from who knows where.
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Left hand Palm Treen
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Right hand Palm Treen
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Seussian Treen
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Horned Treen
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Fibonacci Treen
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Calligraphy Treen
Read accompanying publication: