Photography: Brenton McGeachie

The world folding in upon itself

19 April - 7 May 23
ANCA Gallery, Canberra

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A fold can be understood as a crease or pleat, a doubling or an overlapping; it involves enclosing something, reducing its surface area but increasing its complexity and thickness. Artists such as Dorothea Rockburne, Tauba Auerbach and Simon Hantaï have all 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.

Here 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, Gadigal/Sydney

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.

The imagery in this exhibition is drawn from the artist’s own photographs as well as film and art historical sources. There are figures who face away from the viewer appearing to be absorbed in activities that take place just beyond the edge of the painting. There are also works which frame a field of colour or space. Blind spots and blank spaces seem to shift in and out of the frame, reflecting on the experience of seeing the world through a viewfinder.

Shanti Shea An’s practice is engaged with an investigation of images, including how they are constructed and how they are read. She is a current PhD candidate at the Australian National University in the School of Art & Design.