Rachael McCallum's Unicorn Spew,

Rachael McCallum's UnicornSpew ~The online journal of Artness as-it-happens.


Friday 16 January 2015

FERAL - Articulate Project Space & #puddleproject

YOU may have noticed a couple hundred photos hashtagged with #puddleproject, it is all for this exhibition in Articulate Project Space, Leichart, SYD.
Feral is a progressive exhibition I shared in, find out more here;
http://articulate497.blogspot.com.au/

This work is an exploration in fluidity. A manifestation of the scientific premise that all matter is in a process of motion; "flux".

Have you ever read Alex Garland's book 'The Beach'?, it is one of the many holiday classics to peruse, one which caught my attention many year ago (no, not because Leonardo Di Caprio was so young and gorgeous in the film version). There is a small section that I found interesting referring to the infinite possibilities that the universe holds. If the universe is infinitely expanding, there is infinite possibilities that there are worlds just like ours, infinite opportunities for a world that is practically paralell to ours.

This isnt the first time such an idea was published, and it wont be the last, but the idea is a curious thought experiment. Paralell. Like a mirror, possibly just reflecting, or possibly a window into that other world. Maybe a bit more organic than a mirror, more like a puddle. A reflection in a surface caught between two substances (i.e water and air, or metal and glass). It is the subsance between the two - the dividing surface that caught my minds attention.

In my mind, that surface between substances was just lick the reflective substance to a mirror, or the field of a doorway between two rooms  - penetratable but separate.





And so I began a huge experiment series that was to explore this area between things. It wasnt about space, but about the way the light acts on the surface between. Warping, like the photo above.

So I filmed bubbles underwater and their reflections underwater (only visible at a 42 degree angle) hoping to find a way to compare the similarities between bubbles rising underwater and their inverse partner ;  droplets of water falling in air.

Both organic spherical entities rushing to reach their equilibrium, and only visible because of the augmented speed and direction of light reflecting from them.

The video in itself isn't much, but as a beginning, it is great.


I want to capture or represent this complicated idea that many invisible things a fluctuating around us - which are only visible by the light reflecting differently. (Light is so essentially linked to time, and so in order to simply this idea, I will refer to time, rather than light - even though we need one to have the other. )

The patterns in the light reflected by the water make a lace structure of strong ans weak refractions as the waves undulate ;


And so - I endeavoured to make warped, waved mirrors, to try to capture this feeling. Many methods and materials were explored -  like Resin layers, Gladwrap portals, and loads of hot glue.


There are plenty ways of making the rift between things change the light- one of the ways I look forward to making my own is finding a nice slab of glass to smash, but it will have to wait, in time :P




And just in time for the exhibition - Perspex was abused to make an undulating surface. Fabulous with a reflective paint underneath. I am still searching for the depth and drama that water surfaces can warp with, but many steps in the right direction were made for this exhibition.

Here are some observed examples of the surface interrupted/light redirections that I am hunting, with  imgs of some linked experiment art pieces of a reproduction of this effect; 




A comparison against flexible stone of Clay and glaze was made - to really make a link between the two transformed, gooey solid liquids.

Below is a series of images from the final installation at Articulate Projectspace, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichart









There is so much to consider in this area of research - polarized fields is just another fascinating surface disruption/light redirection tool to explore



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