LINGER | Exhibiton
Linger - Exhibited Sept, 2022 at CA Gallery
Artist Statement
Words by Erin Castle, CA Gallery
LINGER, features a new body of work by Shyanne Clarke with the ocean as its subject. Created during a year-long residency at sub tropic studio, a creative space located in a subterranean bus station, an initiative of the Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance and supported by Sunshine Coast Council.
At its inception the series was informed by charcoal studies exploring the technical rendering of the ocean, attempting to capture movement, light and shadow. From these early studies large acrylic and oil woks on canvas were developed, further exploring colour, temperature and fluidity, the characteristics of the media being incorporated into the portrayal of the nature of the sea.
Clarke uses negative space to create impactful depth and contrast at horizon lines. In the charcoal works Below, Wonder Emporium, and Silent she employs abrupt, abstract marks within the form of the waves, which speak to the surging nature of the tide and power of breaking water.
Pastel pops hovering above the horizon offer oblique reference to the impact of climate change and global warming. They allude to the change in the balance of gases in the homosphere, in the temperature, and the impact on the sea and its environs, above and below the surface. The artist posits-
"What colour would these impacts be? What shape?" Clarke employs these surrealist pastel bands across the series of large canvases. Here they appear, dripping, brightly bleeding into the troposphere.
The works Submerge and Rogue Wave feature small barcode-like marks within the water, offering a duality between society's representation of data, and the marks of reflection of the sun on water through a photographic lens.
For this new body of work Clarke has experimented across multiple mediums, from acrylics to oils on canvas and charcoal works on paper, attempting to capture the depths, and the human response to the power of the sea. The works encourage the observer to pause, to observe the layers and marks and mediums. To linger.
