For their second exhibition, Cement Fondu Directors Megan Monte and Josephine Skinner have paired Turner Prize Winner Laure Prouvost (in her Australian gallery debut) with Sydney based artist Emily Parsons-Lord, in a playful and seductive multi-media exhibition intersecting human sensuality, nature and technology, SENSE. In coming weeks this will be enhanced with live music and performance by other artists.
As viewers we are challenged with how we use our senses to perceive and understand our environment. Our impulse to change our environment using technology, science, hypothesis and superstition is revealed.
On entering the gallery, we are immediately confronted by Emily Parsons-Lord’s installation The weather people are reading a script 2018 where a heat lamp melts gallium overhead dripping and shattering on the ground. It was partly inspired by the weather phenomenon of ‘blood rain’, a theme which will close the exhibition in July.
Building on Parsons-Lord’s previous work, and discussions with Laureate Fellow Steven Sherwood, Then Let Us Run (the sky is falling) explores the possible colour of our future sky (and sunset/sunrises) as a result of climate change. The artist explains, “A popular solution to halt or reverse climate change is “high stratosphere aerosol dispersion”, where a substance (sulphur, or even diamonds!) is released in the upper atmosphere to deflect solar radiation and reduce temperatures. The aesthetic consequence of this idea is the permanent removal of the blue from the sky. Instead, a murky grey/white/green will take its place, and the particles will bend the sunset/sunrise light into glorious explosions of different colours. It is cheap, easy to engineer, permanent, and short sighted. The Sky is Falling is a project to determine the outcomes were this geoengineering idea to take effect, and recreate them as a large-scale installation.”
Showing for the first time in Australia, Laure Prouvost’s films Swallow and Lick in the Past, shift from dreamlike scenarios evoking the classical beauty of nature and freedom of youth, to highlight the small but persistent ways in which digital technologies jolt us away from the idyllic and timeless pleasures of nature. There is abundant focus on the beauty of youth and the sensuality, the succulence of ripe fruit and tactile sea creatures, contrasted with the crassness of city driving.
It seemed that when pushing the button to get some ‘Future Air’ in Emily Parsons-Lord’s The Confounding Leaving, 2016, one may be slightly starved of oxygen. Our senses were challenged once again.
Running concurrently with SENSE, immersive and playful Project Space exhibitions by Tully Arnot (May 12 to June 10) and Leahlani Johnson (June 14 to July 8), bring visitors into a robotic butterfly sanctuary and an evolving display of live flowers. The buzzing butterfly wings invite the viewer to wander amongst the butterflies, relaxed and curious.
SENSE closes on Sunday July 8, with a special live music and performance event created by the collaboration of Emily Parsons-Lord and musicians Jane Grimm and Sue Christie performing on 15th Century string instruments to reflect that ‘blood rain’ was first recorded in that age and has recurred in our century.
SENSE – Emily Parsons-Lord X Laure Prouvost, is on at Cement Fondu, 36 Gosbell Street, Paddington, Sydney [Instagram] from 12 May – 8 July 2018, with events including performance art, music, workshops, a curated closing party and more. The opening night was pepped up by Australian Native cocktails by Trolleyd and Natural Wines by P&V Merchants.
Cement Fondu has lived up to its credo to be fresh, informed and globally relevant. Check out the Cement Fondu calendar for the latest updates on live performances, screenings, parties, events, talks, workshops, social projects, limited release editioned collectibles, and future exhibitions on their website.