Indefinite Landscapes Michele Grimston
Indefinite Landscapes is an immersive environment involving three hand-stitched dome tents, sound, light and tactile fabrics, which can be explored synaesthetically. The visitor is invited to crawl inside each structure in turn, passing from translucent swathes of shimmering clouds, to a dense, dark cave, to a broad abyss of softly glowing stars. The installation invites the viewer to explore their sense of being in the world, dissolving boundaries between inner and outer. Each work is a geodesic structure a sphere created from triangles in order to achieve the greatest strength with a minimum of resources. As opposed to small works that invite privacy or intimacy, or large works which might dwarf the viewer, these shelters are precisely human in scale. Their presence is not unlike that of another person in the gallery space, inviting us to encounter the work as a counterpart. The works are places for sensory pleasure, conviviality and reverie. They are a return to nature, to the childhood warmth of allowing oneself to become absorbed in the cradling warmth of the constructed space. Dreamspace III - Interior Landscape. (Interior detail) 2016. Silk, fibreglass, plastic and metal. 2m diameter x 1.2m high. Dreamspace II - Boulder. 2015-16. Fabric, fibreglass, plastic, metal and sound. 2.6m diameter x 1.6m high.
Michele Grimston Paper Mountain, 10-25 September 2016
Dreamspace III Interior Landscape is the smallest dome, large enough for only one person at a time. It contains layers of white fabric sewn together in a gauzy veil that evokes a feeling of motherly cosiness or of seeing the outside world through a mist. Cradled within, one is aware of a hushed sound permeating the space: a grey noise with no beginning or end. The audio loop might be a few seconds long or many hours. The experience of being within interrupts our experience of narrative time. It is this smallest work which creates the mood or emotional tone for the rest of the exhibition. It is a calm and meditative space. Though there is only space for one body inside, there is no sense of isolation. The soft movement of silhouettes seen through its translucent shell is a comforting presence.
The works in the exhibition are laid out sequentially, inviting us to pass smoothly from one to the next. In the centre of the gallery, Dreamspace II Boulder is cloaked in triangles of deep mushroom-brown silks, alternately iridescent and matte. A wet, earthen smell rises from the tatami mats that cover the ground. The spare interior does not beget emptiness, but rather our attention is reflected back upon our body. There is a sense of physical intimacy that reinforces our corporeality. Grimston speaks of this work as a evoking a deep cave, but the gentle movement of air currents against its sides, seen from within, gives the impression of breath and life. In concert with the earthen tones of its silk skin, it is like being within a natural organism or an animate earth. The work recalls the etymological origin of the word geodesic: an earth split in two. The sensory experience of entering Dreamspace IV Infinite Universe is analogous to walking under the stars, or camping outdoors at night. On the interior of the dark fabric tiny points of light resemble a distant galaxy and, on closer study, a microcosmos. In this work, many can lie at one time. The passing of people in and out of the space creates an idiorrhythmic sense of many bodies living in sympathetic cadence. The artist encourages us to see the installation as open ended, to be used as a catalyst for individual reflection and creative production. Indefinite Landscapes has a clear three part division: the body, the earth and the universe. The constant element is the dome structure which carries in its presence something of Benjamin s strange weave of space and time. The regular frame reminds us of networks of constellations, or tree branches or the arteries in our bodies. The installation hearkens to archetypal aspects of nature and to interior psychological space simultaneously. All elements combine to endow the exhibition with a flowing and coherent quality that envelops the participant totally. Within the spaces of Grimston s installations, the visitors perception is necessarily reflected back onto themselves. However, this psychological absorption is often undercut by a heightened physical awareness of the body and its relation to other people in the room. We are made aware of the interdependency of our perception with that of other viewers: translucent materials and haphazard encounters are used to disrupt the idea that subjectivity is stable and centred. The exhibition is only perceived after moving through all of its parts. Hidden from one another, it is impossible to see them all simultaneously. By our immersion in these discrete spaces, contiguous with the real world, we understand our own selves as fragmented and decentred rather than a coherent, autonomous totality. The experience of the exhibition calls into question any sense of mastery we might feel over the world and invites us to instead negotiate it as a series of pleasurable surprises: the soul of sweet delight that can never be defiled. Essay by Alisa Blakeney Dreamspace III - Interior Landscape. 2016. Silk, fibreglass, plastic and metal. 2m diameter x 1.2m high. Dreamspace IV - Infinite Universe. (Interior detail) 2016. Fabric, fibreglass, plastic, metal, paper and light. 3.5m diameter x 1.7m high.
Dreamspace II - Boulder. (Interior detail) 2015-16. Fabric, fibreglass, plastic, metal and sound. 2.6m diameter x 1.6m high. Dreamspace IV - Infinite Universe. 2016. Fabric, fibreglass, plastic, metal, paper and light. 3.5m diameter x 1.7m high.
Michele Grimston holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (honours) from the Australian National University in Canberra as well as a Masters in Community Cultural Development from the University of Melbourne. She has held solo shows at Canberra Contemporary Artspace Manuka and Conduit Arts and has participated in group shows across Victoria, the ACT and Western Australia. She has been the recipient of funding from The Arts ACT Artists in Schools program and the Western Australian Government through the Department of Culture and the Arts. She has also received a scholarship from the Molonglo Group and has undertaken an international residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. Her work shifts between textiles, installation and community practice. As well as her solo practice, she has worked with schools and community groups in Canberra, Newman and her current hometown of Bunbury to create immersive, collaborative arts experiences.
Dreamspace III - Interior Landscape. (Interior detail) 2016. Silk, fibreglass, plastic and metal. 2m diameter x 1.2m high. Thanks to: Sam Beard for assistance and photography of Dreamspace IV Kate Wilson for her writing workshops in the space This project has been funded by the Western Australian Government through the Department of Culture and the Arts Government of Western Australia Department of Culture and the Arts Paper Mountain would like to thank their magnificent Gallery Attendants: Alex Lombardi, Aya Jones, Belinda Birchall, Ben Yaxley, Bronwyn Mory, Carolina Koszelski, Caroline Forsberg, Daniel O Connor, Djuna Hallsworth, Emeline McGrath, Gabby Loo, Grace Le Fanu, Jenni Gray, Jessica Scallan, Jordanna Armstrong, Kate Thresher, Karl Halliday, Kayla MacGillivray, Keely Sheahan, Laura Vermeulen, Lizzie Bruk, Mathew Siddall, Nathan Tang, Nathan Viney, Sharon Smith, Stephanie de Biasi Paper Mountain is an artist run initiative co-directed by: Claire Bushby, Desmond Tan, Johnson Doan, Kali Norman, Steven James Finch The Operations Team: Alex Tate (Marketing Officer) Desmond Tan (Communications Manager) Emily Hornum (Photographer) Indi Ranson (Marketing Officer) Johnson Doan (General Manager) Kimberley Pace (Gallery Manager) Krista Tanuwibawa (Media Officer) Leah Robbie (Front of House Manager) Mark Robertson (Graphic Designer) Mark Wahlsten (Graphic Designer) Phoebe Mulcahy (Front of House Assistant) Steven James Finch (Special Projects) Catalogue design by Mark Robertson Dreamspace II & III photos by the artist Dreamspace IV photos by Sam Beard Paper Mountain is on Noongar land. Printed by Graphic Source Upstairs, 267 William St, Northbridge info@papermountain.org.au papermountain.org.au