R A P T U R E
SOLO | EXPLORATORY | EXHIBITION

Exposition
SPECTRUM | Gallery & Project Space | Perth | 2002

Context
I have included Rapture on the website for the sole reason that the exhibition documents a highly formative period in my professional practice. These works were developed within the first six-months of relocating to Perth from Melbourne. Aside from longing for the familiar, I was confronting a new landscape with vastly different light and colour. I was particularly bedazzled by the Indian ocean. It was a time in my life when I seemed to only find inspiration by recreational diving and I was considering making the time, and $XXXXX investment, in commercial diving accreditation.



Rapture, 2002. Pianola Rolls, Ink, Oil Paint (detail), Spectrum Gallery & Project Space, Perth 2002. Own Photograph.


Discussion
Rapture consisted of 27 traditional mixed media paintings in the main gallery space. The works documented my response to the highly organised waterways and civil water architectures that I had discovered across the wider city of Perth.

By contrast, the project space was designed to be more personable, immersive and dreamy. The installation consisted of a digital video of my journey across the Swan River reflecting on the wall, ceiling and refracting light over an autobiographical mirror (carved to the shape of my body). Seven delicate hand-printed Egyptian cotton pillows laid on the (dirty) concrete floors (inviting audiences to sit in the space) and spend time with the piece. The paintings on the pillows included images from the main exhibition space and small pieces of poetry and performance instructions by John Cage. The space ebbed and flowed with the rhythms of the digital video and the immersive soundscape. The soundscape, composed and produced by David Pye, (Py & Nova Ensemble) included aqueous-inspired experimental dance-pieces, actual sounds of moving water and passages of looped spoken word by Sarah Jane Pell reciting an extract by Luc Irigary to Freud:

Is there any greater rapture than the sea?
Endless rapture awaits whom ever trusts the sea.
For as she rises and falls, so one's rapture swells and sinks.
For as the sea is rising and falling
Nothing changes in the enchantment of living
moving about endlessly.
And does it matter if the sea is falling over its beaches
or sinking back into its bed?
Is there any greater rapture than the sea?



Rapture, 2001. Mirror, projection & sound, Installation view, Spectrum Gallery & Project Space, Perth 2002. Own Photograph.


Many thanks
Murray Gibbs, Nien Scwarz and James Vernau of the ECU Sculpture department who dedicated their time to assist me with installation.

This exhibition was supported by a Western Australian Performing Arts Academy WAAPA Creative Development Award.


Exhibition Review
Weston, N., (2002) Aesthetic quality speaks volumes, The West Australian, Sep 7, p.12-13

Click picture for close up view

021-1 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil & Acrylic on Pianola Scroll (detail), Dimensions Variable, Sarah Jane Pell 2002.

021-2 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil & Ink on Pianola Scroll (detail), Dimensions Variable, Sarah Jane Pell 2002.

021-3 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil on Board, Acrylic domes (installation detail), Dimensions Variable, Sarah Jane Pell 2002.

021-4 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil & Silver on Board, Sarah Jane Pell 2002. Private Collection UK.

021-5 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil & Silver on Board, Installation of 6 panels, Dimensions Variable, Sarah Jane Pell 2002.

021-6 | RAPTURE | 2002 Exhibition | Spectrum Project Space | Perth Oil & Silver on Board, Sarah Jane Pell 2002. Private Collection WA.