The Quarterly 2.3

T H E Q U A R T E R LY B R E N D A M AY

G A L L E R Y | 2 Danks Street Waterloo NSW 2017 | brendamaygallery.com.au

WINTER 2016

VOLUME 2

NUMBER 3

BLA CK BOX PROJECTS ERICA SECCOMBE

POLLY STANTON

Metamorphosis 9 July to 4 August

Undercurrents 3 to 29 September

An exploration of one of the great mysteries of life through the transformation of fly larvae in an immersive stereoscopic projection. Maggots are associated with death and decay, but like caterpillars they undergo metamorphosis before emerging as exquisite insects. For this installation, I visualised and animated virtual pupa data captured through 3D Micro-CT led by forensic research at the Natural History Museum in London.

‘Undercurrents’ is a moving image and sound work that traces the pathway of water as it travels through the distinct sites of the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme, creating an audio-visual mapping that documents changes of place and time over a 12 hour day - from the first moments of the dawn ice-melt, to the last stages of dusk as the current is halted by the dark water of Junction Dam. Shifting and observational, the work presents a cinematic gesture of landscape that is at once ephemeral and stark.

Polly Stanton, ‘Undercurrents’ 2015, HD video, stereo sound -30:45mins Erica Seccombe, ‘Metamorphosis’ 2015 (detail from stereoscopic installation), volumetric data visualised in Drishti. Credits: Imaging & Analysis Centre and Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London.

B R E N D A M AY

G A L L E R Y

2 D a n k s S t r e e t Wa t e r l o o N S W A u s t r a l i a 2 0 1 7 www.brendamaygallery.com.au info@brendamaygallery.com.au tuesday - friday 11-6 saturday 10-6 t. +61 2 9318 1122

9 JULY to 4 AUGUST 2016 DION HORSTMANS, Heavy Metal Dion Horstmans’s obsession with contrasting ideas (flow and stasis, light and shadow) is built upon in Heavy Metal as he examines the notion of strength, weakness, and the passing of time. Malleable precious metals that will tarnish and corrodes sit alongside Horstmans’s trademark steel structures – a material renowned for its strength and longevity.

Shadow, the overarching theme in Horstmans’s practice, transforms works and marks the passing of time; the impermanence of precious metals highlights this notion.

Metallic lustres are exploited - areas are polished to produce brilliant illumination while others are left dull and raw. Light is captured and reflected, darkness is omnipresent and time is frozen in Horstmans’s tangible, static shadows.

Dion Horstmans, ‘hardfreeze 10’ 2016 bronze electroplating on 8mm solid round bar, 240 x 120 x 13.5cm

- Text by Harriet Morgan

KEVIN MCKAY So Bondi This series of small oil paintings responds to the striking architecture and colours of Sydney’s famous beachside suburb, along with the accoutrements of urban living - traffic lights, parking meters, and wheelie bins. I frequently paint en plein air and for this series, turned my back to the beach to record the man-made environment that clings to its margins. Significant landmarks and back street views are recorded with the fidelity of a portrait painter. The everyday is illuminated however, with a theatrical quality, as carefully considered compositions provide the stage for the atmospheric play of light.

Kevin McKay, ‘Blue building, North Bondi’ 2016, oil on hardboard, 25.5 x 25.5cm

6 AUGUST to 1 SEPTEMBER 2016 TODD FULLER, Seven rules for raising your siren A dugong is a terrible thing to waste.

If one falls from the sky, you should always do your best to catch it. If you find yourself catching one, be sure to use two hands and a light touch or even better, a jar half filled with water.

Dugongs are a type of Sirenia and are the loyalest of creatures, with their waggy-slippery tails and their shiny stiff whiskers. Dugongs are generally shy, so if you manage to see a rare dugong smile, you should always smile back. A smile from a dugong is a gift in itself.

Todd Fuller, ‘self portrait with dugong in bathtub’ 2016 acrylic, chalk and charcoal on paper, 73 x 105cm

DIRECTOR’S CUT An excerpt from the private collection of Brenda May Being the director of a contemporary gallery for over 30 years, Brenda May has inevitably amassed an impressive collection of artworks. Director’s Cut is an invitation to view a selection of these acquisitions, purchased within a strict budget and curated by Brenda herself.

It is an opportunity to see the works that she has chosen to live with, outside of the regular rotation of exhibitions that surround her every day at work. While a number of the artworks are by artists that Brenda has exhibited, many have also been purchased from other galleries and from unrepresented artists’ studios. Despite there being no central theme to her collection, certain threads have emerged over the 30 plus years, such as an interest in process and an overwhelming desire to support living Australian artists, no matter what country they may have originally come from.

Bringing the private into the public eye, this exhibition will put her personal tastes on view.

3 to 29 SEPTEMBER 2016 LESLIE OLIVER Now and Then Sculptures as static things invoke an awareness of time.

The stillness gives us time to reassemble the elements in an act of recreation that speaks of the past. The inherent dramatic tensions within the structure send us forward into an imagined future. Einstein’s view of time is like a plane in a fourth dimension where the past/present/future exists simultaneously. By holding still, a sculpture acts as a marker set into the fabric of time. I like to make things to look at... and feel myself in time.

Leslie Oliver, ‘Waiting’ 2016, painted steel, 24.5 x 32.5 x 20cm

ASHLEIGH GARWOOD Under Erasure The photographs in Under Erasure were taken in Iceland, where the landscape and winter light are extremely affecting and remote. The resulting images consider our expectations of nature and the landscape and how these have been predetermined though our relationship with images.

The works are not the result of an experience recorded with the eye. Instead they are a mode of translation, a photographic reality that sits in duality and contradiction from the physical reality it stems from.

Ashleigh Garwood, ‘Under Erasure II’ 2016 screenprint on cotton rag, 100 x 75cm

RECENT AC QUI SI TI ON S

Lezlie Tilley, ‘53.Part’ 2002 Newcastle Art Gallery

Catherine O’Donnell, ‘Silent Sentinel’ 2013 Mosman Art Gallery Waratah Lahy, ‘Double Stair’ 2015 Canberra Museum + Gallery

Todd Fuller, ‘Untitled Bunnies’ 2011 Maitland Regional Art Gallery

Nicole Welch, ‘East West’ 2015 Parliament House Art Collection & Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

Catherine O’Donnell, ‘Time for rounds’ 2014 Parliament House Art Collection

Nicole Welch, ‘Magnificent Prospect #2’ 2015 Murray Art Museum Albury

Robert Boynes, ‘Blind Leading the Blind’ 2015 The Art Gallery of New South Wales

Robert Boynes, ‘Auto Sex’ 1968 The Art Gallery of New South Wales

Nicole Welch, ‘Frightful Tremendous Pass #3’ 2015, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

Cover: Todd Fuller, ‘Self portrait with Dugong in Bathtub II (how to raise a siren)’ 2016, chalk, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 56 x 89cm