Through the other worldly works of Flinders Lane Gallery artists Jacob Leary, Stuart McLachlan, Kendal Murray and guest artists Brad Gunn, Rosie Hastie (courtesy of Bett Gallery), Charli Savage and Cardwell+McLachlan, this group exhibition offers audiences an encounter with alternate visions of reality.Imagined Worlds
Catalogue Essay by Phe Luxford, 2023
Both deeply evocative and richly alluring, the term ‘phantasia’ was coined by Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in his attempt to understand the very human faculty of thinking visually, that moment when “an image occurs within us”[1]. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant, also fascinated by the process of imagining, asserted that its workings were “an art concealed in the depths of the human soul”[2]. For 20th century science fiction writer and essayist Ursula K Le Guin “the imagination is an essential tool of the mind, a fundamental way of thinking, an indispensable means of becoming and remaining human”[3]. Encountered in moments of dreaming, when thinking of the future or pondering the deep past, or even in our attempts to understand the experience of another person, the act of imagining exists beyond the tangible and involves the cognitive culmination of visual recall, memory and perception, mediated by our own personal beliefs, desires and fears. Such interior, private invocations have fuelled the fiction, fairy-tales and legends of all cultures and possesses the power to transform, mediate and enrich our lived experiences.
With an awareness of the complex issues gnawing at the edges of contemporary life – climate crisis, rapidly advancing AI technologies, strained international politics, and global price hikes – the works brought together in Imagined Worlds each propose an alternate engagement with reality, negotiated through the lens of imagination. Whether by creating new and unexpected encounters, processing shared anxieties, or finding salve within old stories, together these artworks afford the viewer an opportunity to engage with mindsets that are expansive, nonconformist and full of wonder.
Playfully dreamlike narratives run through the work of Sydney-based artist Kendal Murray. In her miniature assemblage Deep Sleep, Sweet Entreat, 2022, we are witness to the simultaneous acts of sleeping and dreaming. Tucked under a cozy blanket, Murray’s figurine rests peacefully, their gilded bed nestled high in the branches of a tree. Below, two deer quietly graze on the forest floor, oblivious to the somnambulist above them. Caught quite literally in a moment of suspended reality Deep Sleep gently inviting us into the serene logic of the dreamer’s landscape.
This Mortal Coil, 2022, by Sydney-based artist and illustrator Stuart McLachlan also operates within the realm of carefully constructed assemblage. Contrasting the fragile mutability of paper with the palpable immensity of stone, this work’s construction is as convincing as it is deceiving: catastrophe seems imminent, yet inbuilt stability is at its core. We observe the vulnerable form of a boat-maker and his lodgings, existing in a world seemingly unfettered by gravitational forces. As he works the man appears unaffected by the ever-present danger that looms over his daily activity.In Stuart McLachlan’s collaborative practice with fellow artist Simon Cardwell, Cardwell+McLachlan take these paper sculptures and their wholly immersive environments and render them large within the two-dimensional frame of photography. Capturing hills and forests, animals, oceans and sky, their photos transform the depth and detail of the dioramas into timeless friezes. Observed through the lens of a camera these scenes are released into the eternal world of storytelling and myth. In ‘Longing’ we observe a series of paper planes folded from densely scribed letters have been set adrift. Like actors in a film still, they have caught in a state of preternatural nowness, their messages forever abandoned, having been set loose on the wind. Tasmanian photographer Rosie Hastie’s images also utilise a process of theatrical production. While images such as Norske and Sopanusa appear to depict serene landscapes photographed at the turning light of dusk or dawn, a clever game of duplicity sits at the heart of these works. Looking into these vistas the eye seeks out the recognisable forms of rocks, waves and clouds, only to be greeted by strange forms and hazy edges. The certainty of rocks give way to the recognition of crumpled paper and the waves turn to plastic and dry ice. Like the best illusionist Hastie uses our natural tedency toward assumption and generalisation to conjure feelings of familiarity, and shockingly, in so doing, transports us to an entirely strange place. Sharing a sense of theatricality with the work of Cardwell+McLachlan, Sydney-based photographer Charli Savage is also drawn to the poetic world of storytelling. Harnessing the illusory power of digital manipulation, Savage seamlessly transforms her sitters into storybook protagonists and heroines of fable, each on a personal quest through a vast and wild landscape. Full of fantasy and mysticism Selenophile is a hauntingly decorative image, revealing an interior moment of communion with nature. Evoking something of the pantheistic beauty of Impressionist artist Sydney Long’s 1897 painting Spirit of the Plains, Savage’s subject embodies a state of ecstatic worship in tune with the cycles of the moon. Melbourne-based artist Brad Gunn is also interested in nature’s cycles. Through his fantastical, playful sculptures Pubo, Sodom and Mortem Gunn is depicting the stages of life, from puberty, through maturity and towards death. Fuzzy, flocked and deeply enticing in their tactility, each possesses an air of amiability akin to a bedtime toy or a lovable character from a children’s show. Each exuding it’s own distinct personality – green and plump like a fresh pea, black and prickly like a twenty-something goth, and finally, gloriously, orange like a tree shedding its autumn leaves. Together they create a familial circle of make-believe friends willing to lead the way through an adventure land.
Tasmanian artist Jacob Leary also invites a playful aesthetic into his practice. Citing his inspiration in the crystalline worlds of science-fiction writers such as J.G. Ballard and Phillip K. Dick, Leary uses everyday objects to conjure up strange alien landscapes both wondrous and confounding. Interested in the limitless possible outcomes our future holds, Leary’s cornucopian assemblages act like lustrous topographical frontiers. In Enchanted Uncertainty, 2023, small shiny objects form heady piles of clutter and accumulation: ravines and mountains of meaning, culture, context and consumerism all blend into each other in a wild and colourful vista. No longer functional, but none the less acting as a form of archive, these beads, buttons, pom poms and plastic flowers form a rich ecosystem suggesting transmutable possibilities. What comes next is anyone’s guess. While a playful enjoyment of the fantastical and the curious is certainly a significant part of Imagined Worlds, a deeper concern for open-minded questioning also sits at its core. The ability to tap into the act of imagining, to harness the lessons and insights revealed to us through our dreams, our spiritual connections, our shared cultural motifs and our interior psychology, ultimately aids us in better understanding who we are now, and assists our navigation through the truths and challenges of this corporal world to which we are temporarily bound.
[1] Aristotle, (De Anima iii 3, 428aa1–2)
[2] Kant, (Critique of Pure Reason A141-B181)
[3] Ursula le Guin, “The Operating Instructions”, in 'Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016', Small Bear Press, 2016, pg 3.
KENDAL MURRY Artist Statement "I have imagined tiny unique worlds with narratives of wonder where characters exist in altered realities, with symbolic creatures, landscapes and interior scenes that offer poignant expression to the tiny tales. Inside mirrored compacts and atop landscaped coin purses, the little dioramas simultaneously reach for the personal and the fantastic."STUART McLACHLAN Artist Statement "The purpose of art is to excite the senses, to convey a different point of view. That doesn’t always mean being pretty. I like that my sculptures generally have an uneasy quiet tension running through them, it’s not enough for a piece to be pretty, for me it has to say something."ROSIE HASTIE Artist Statement"Truth and deception lies at the heart of my work. My mind is always desiring purity and absoluteness, or states that cannot or do not exist. These works come from my 2016 series, 'The Elsewhere', presenting constructed 'landscape' spaces which can only be inhabited through the imagination. The works explore photography's ability to transport the viewer to new places through the experience of colour, light, texture and space. Utilising modest materials such as crumpled paper and the backyard science of bicarb soda and dry ice, these ‘paperscapes’ conjure feelings of wonder, but on closer inspection reveal oddities in their detail. Similar to being woken from a dream, the mind inhabits a place that can only exist in thought."ROSIE HASTIE PROFILE & CVCHARLI SAVAGE Artist Statement "Adulthood, for so many, carries with it the abandonment of the curiosity we had as children. As the mundane realities of everyday life preoccupy our entire being, we disconnect from our inner child and forget what it means to explore and play. The art I create seeks to provide escapism and alleviate internalized darkness brought about by the struggles of daily life. I explore themes relating to braving the unknown, jumping down the proverbial rabbit hole, finding familiarity in the unfamiliar and confronting our emotions. The inspiration behind my work links back to one universal idea: the idea of reigniting that childlike curiosity within."CHARLI SAVAGE PROFILE & CVBRAD GUNN Artist Statement"I have created a series of surreal characters depicting various stages of life from puberty to death. They depict an alternate reality where colourful creatures subvert and reflect our deepest desires, fears and transgressions."BRAD GUNN PROFILEBRAD GUNN CVCARDWELL+McLACHLAN Artist Statement
Cardwell+McLachlan is the new collaborative project between photographer Simon Cardwell and sculptor Stuart McLachlan. Through the creation of mythical scenes, the pair pose questions regarding the ‘progress’ of humanity and our impact on the natural world. All aspects of the tiny sculptures are created by hand – from the drawing of concepts to the cutting, gluing and eventual building – everything is considered. Painstaking care is taken to create these stories, to draw the viewer into an alternate world. The final shot creates a sense of awe, exploring identity in the context of environmental concerns, human freedoms, and isolation. A deft command of light, colour and focus helps to create a moment that is at once intimate and overwhelming.
CARDWELL+McLACHLAN PROFILE & CV
JACOB LEARY Artist Statement "These artworks continue my interest in exploring alien landscapes, futurescape scenarios and object-derived growth systems. Focusing on a sensuous relationship to the surface I aim to build up an excessive relation to detail allowing the work to reveal itself to a viewer in a multitude of layered and complex ways."
