Robyn Stacey Tear Drop Garden, Carrick Hill, 2016. Type C print, 110 x 146.7cm. Courtesy of the artist and STILLS Gallery, Sydney.
Robyn Stacey Wendy Whiteley’s Library, Lavender Bay, 2016. Type C print. Courtesy of the artist and STILLS Gallery, Sydney.
Robyn Stacey Lighthouse Wharf Hotel, Port Adelaide, 2016. Type C print, 110 x 161.7cm. Courtesy of the artist and STILLS Gallery, Sydney.
Robyn Stacey Rose Seidler House, 2016. Type C print, 110 x 146.7cm. Courtesy of the artist and STILLS Gallery, Sydney.
In her latest solo exhibition, photographer Robyn Stacey uses the ancient technology of the camera obscura (Latin for ‘dark room’) to create surreal, topsy-turvy images in which gardens seem to dangle from bedroom ceilings and clouds appear to race across carpets.
“It is this in-between space that I find so fascinating: you are in the world but removed from it at the same time. You can see everything that is happening outside the window, but it’s like being in your own private movie.”
Stacey’s multilayered, colour-saturated images are created without digital manipulation. They capture what she calls a “temporary liminal space, a visual mash-up of ‘out’ and ‘in’ side”. This haunting collision of exterior and interior is fleeting, since each camera obscura is dependent on the angle of the sun and only lasts for a few hours.
Stacey first began using a camera obscura to record the transitional space of hotel rooms. Then in her Cloud Land series, some of which will be on show at Stills, she concentrated on the city of Brisbane. In her most recent photographs, she focuses on spaces inhabited by artists.
Stacey explains the allure of these interiors, saying, “We seek to be moved by the artist’s space, as if by walking through the studio we will suddenly be struck with inspiration. Or perhaps by gazing at the space we will start to make sense of the artist’s persona. The myth of the artist becomes absorbed into the fabric of the building, making them very potent spaces.”
Robyn Stacey
Stills Gallery
6 October – 5 November
From matrescence-themed collages and intimate family portraits to a series of events centred on the intersection of design and fertility, revisit six pieces from the Art Guide archives that explore the relationship between art and motherhood.
In his first commercial presentation in Australia, one of Mexico’s most acclaimed contemporary artists uses his architectural background to create poetic, finely calibrated sculptural investigations of spatial perception, balance and equilibrium. Jose Dávila’s Physics of Uncertainty is now showing at COMA Gallery.
Tina Havelock Stevens likes to feel the wind in her hair, which probably goes some way to explaining the generous punk spirit that infuses her multidisciplinary practice, the subject of the exhibition Now is a Beginning at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.
Using a hand coil pinch technique, the pots created by the Hermannsburg Potters of Western Arrarnta in Central Australia illustrate the lived histories of the artists and their surrounding Country. Their latest creations are now showing at Bett Gallery in Hobart.
Consuelo Cavaniglia’s sunny studio in an industrial area of Sydney’s inner west reflects the artist’s fascination with light. Her recent glass works, now showing at Chau Chak Wing Museum, play with apertures, shadows, reflections and transparencies.
First held in 1990 at Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, Desert Mob is the oldest of Australia’s thriving annual program of Aboriginal art fairs. With its 30th anniversary coming up in September 2020, Kate Hennessy looks back on Desert Mob 2019.
