The world folding in upon itself, 19 April - 7 May 2023, ANCA Gallery, 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson ACT. Photography: Brenton McGeachie.
Which is the reality and which the projection? It is often not possible to say, for emulation is a sort of natural twinship existing in things; it arises from a fold in being, the two sides of which stand immediately opposite to one another.
- Michel Foucault, “The Four Similitudes” in The Order of Things, 1966
Artists such as Dorothea Rockburne, Tauba Auerbach and Simon Hantaï have employed practices of folding within their work. This often leads to unexpected forms and compositions, whilst also making visible a certain tension that persists between our understanding of surface and space within painting. Looking to the art of the seventeenth century, folds also appear in various guises, from the drama and theatricality of folded drapery in baroque art to the depiction of folded paper in illusionistic letter-rack paintings.
For Shanti Shea An, the gesture of folding is explored through the formal qualities of mirroring and doubling. In some works, a sheet of paper is folded to reveal both sides simultaneously. In others, the fold brings two figures closer together—perhaps into conflict—suggesting an impending break or rupture. Throughout these paintings, the fold becomes a way of reconfiguring an image and meditating upon the processes of painting and looking.
Back to front, 3 March - 19 March 2023, Airspace Projects, 10 Junction St, Marrickville. Photography: Docqment.
The works in Back to front extend Shanti Shea An’s interest in ideas around flatness, blankness and ambiguity within painted images. Shea An addresses these pictorial concerns through the depiction of scenes that appear still and almost silent, focussing her attention on moments where activity is paused or a sudden recognition is taking place.
