BYOBU
June 2017
BAROMETER Gallery, Sydney
BYOBU is a multi-panel image, and structural installation exploring the intersection between image, surface, and structure in relation to the aesthetics and function epitomised by Japanese folding screens, or BYOBU. The spatial installations, constitute a hybrid form of landscape and architectural representation. The works engage the viewer in a visually and emotionally generative dialogue, questioning what is present or appearing before them while enabling a contemplative experience of space, structure and gestural image.
The imagery depicted on the textile screens/panels have been created by exploring both hand and digital techniques. Digital photographs of a body draped in patterned cloth, has been re-interpreted through a process of gestural drawing, using thread, on dissected, vertical panels. The thread intersects the textile base to create a drawn and multidimensional surface similar to an ethereal landscape. The line and marks left behind on the transparent textile surface indicate not only a visual residue or trace of form and image but also action and gesture of the artist’s hand. The oscillation between materiality, surface and image that this creates, induces a multi-faceted experience of an unfolding scene, spanning image, space and body. BYOBU opens up an opportunity for experiencing the indeterminate and indefinable image/form that is in a state of constant flux between imaginative emergence and disappearance.