Artists:
Sophie Carnell
Katherine Cooper
Ron C Moss
Toby Muir Wilson and
Peter Walsh
Scientists
Dr Heidi Auman
Dr Frederique Olivier
Dr Patti Virtue
Enormous congratulations to the Vanishing Point collaborative team for this marvellous exhibition opened before a great throng of people on Friday evening, 1 May. Take a look at the works exhibited and go down to the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies exhibition space and spend time amongst them – let them work on you.
Each artist brings something particular and thought provoking to the collection.
Exhibition convenor, Katherine Cooper’s powerful paintings reveal the magnificence of various birdlife, yet each work holds the poignant plastic image of the Little Red Samurai found in the stomach of a Laysan Albatross during a study conducted by Dr Heidi Auman on Midway Island.
The whole intent, effort and deep listening involved in Sophie Carnell’s careful and creative transformation of the found, the grotesque, the often garish and at base, toxic, into the seductive beauty of wearable art is stunning.
Ron C Moss’ haiku and imagery, Toby Muir Wilson’s marvellous sculptural forms and Peter Walsh’s artwork of petrie dishes containing plastic found in the stomach of shearwater chicks and his photographic works all challenge and also draw us back to the natural world and our human impact on it.
The inspired colour coding of the plastic pieces around the exhibition walls so powerful yet simple; forming a thoughtful “colour spectrum” with strong impact, they bring the rainbow to mind with its significance in various cultures as portals, gateways, bridges or crossing over points. Maybe that’s what we do when we bring the arts and science together – make a bridge, or a way of crossing over to new understanding.
This marvellous exhibition is another demonstration of the role of the arts in telling important stories, over and over in different ways till they become real in our minds.