On the Way to Ithaca: HIDDEN Rookwood Cemetery Sculpture Walk 2013

November 17, 2013January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, fabric, steel, bamboo, 320 x 350 x 750cm

HIDDEN

On the Way to Ithaca was created for the fifth HIDDEN Rookwood Sculpture Walk held at the Rookwood Cemetery; the largest working cemetery in the southern hemisphere. The exhibition was curated by Cassandra Hard Lawrie. 40 selected artists responded to themes appropriate to the site such as life, love, death, loss, memory and mortality as well as the culture around memorial, eulogy, burial and ceremony.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Have Ithaca always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years……..

Constantine P Cavafy

However long our life may be our journey is punctuated by many beginnings and ends. These moments are marked in funerary architecture and memorial landscaping by gates, arches and avenues. On the Way to Ithaca is an ethereal response to these forms as we travel between our first and last breaths; our lives shaped by our ties and connections to one another. The installation aims to explore the tension between life and death, and the fragility of life, as we journey towards Ithaca.

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation detail

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation detail

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation view from the All Souls Chapel

CREATIVE PROCESS

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca proposal drawing

On the Way to Ithaca, developing the work in studio

On the Way to Ithaca, installation on site

Wind Songs: Art In Odd Places

November 5, 2013November 18, 2019 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, Christina Frank, Lisa Marshall, *Wind Songs*, umbrella covers, thread, dimensions variable

WIND SONGS is a public art project created by Suzanne Davey, Christina Frank and Lisa Marshall for Art in Odd Places Australia 2013 exhibited 14-15 September Dee Why Beach, 21-22 September Manly Beach.

WIND SONGS is a dynamic, colourful installation that uses an everyday object, the humble umbrella, and transforms it from the ordinary into the extraordinary. A mass of umbrellas have been de-constructed and re-configured in new and surprising ways. The ‘fly away’ work responds directly to the elemental landscape of Manly and Dee Why. Floating in the sea breeze it sings songs about fragility, struggles and the power of transformation.

Wind Songs Dee Why Beach

Wind Songs Manly

Project Rationale: Umbrellas are utilitarian objects charged with memories and a myriad of metaphorical possibilities. Nostalgia for summer holidays at the beach, fresh sea breezes, life saving flags, experiences of wild storms, rain and wind and our basic human need for shelter and protection are all evoked by the humble umbrella.

Umbrellas are also delicate and fragile objects. In strong winds umbrellas have a tendency to ‘fly away’ and de-construct. On windy days at the beach runaway umbrellas cartwheel dangerously across the sand. On wild wet days locations such as the Manly Corso are littered with discarded rain umbrellas, sad and forlorn, inside out and broken.

The installation is a large colourful, geometric canopy/banner/structure constructed from found and collected umbrellas and arranged together in a tessellated pattern. The installation responds directly to sea breezes, creates bold shadows patterns on surfaces and creatively expresses the umbrella’stendency to ‘fly away’ in response to wind. Through its dynamic composition, its re-construction and final transformation of multiple umbrellas into a new form Wind Songscan remind the viewer of…….

the fragility of life
being in the moment, the brevity of life
everyday struggles: weathering storms, the whirl of life, the risk of the things we depend on de-constructing and flying away.
transformation and re-ordering eg: moving through major personal changes or crises
memories and nostalgia for summer holidays, childhood, beach days

Wind Songs project proposal drawing

On the Edge: Coal Loader Waverton

July 24, 2013January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

bamboo, fishing line, paint, fabric, 70 cm h x 450cm l x 180cm w

On the Edge is an ephemeral kinetic installation exploring balance and counterbalance in the elemental landscape; the ebb and flow of tides, bobbing boats and floating buoys, and the waft of sea breezes. Inspired by the movement of cranes, it responds to the Coal Loader as a site that seeks equilibrium between its industrial heritage, community usage and as a delicate ecosystem on the edge of the harbour.

A site responsive work exhibited at the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Waverton for The North Sydney Art Prize: toward 2020 exhibition 27 July – 5 August 2013

UNFURL: exhibition at Eramboo Artist Environment

April 19, 2013 | Suzanne

unfurl: to reveal or unfold, become, uncoil, open, develop, expose, gradually change, expand, blossom

Suzanne Davey, Trajectory, side view, ceramic, thread, wood, nails, paint, sand, 40 cm x 50 cm x 30 cm

Eramboo Artist Studio celebrated its newly renovated Gallery and the three new studios with an exciting contemporary art exhibition, UNFURL, held 1 March – 17 March 2013. It revealed itself to be a cutting edge centre of contemporary arts production and innovation by showcasing the work of eight of its artists. On view were painting, sculpture, printmaking, and ceramics by Irene Gorman, Lisa Marshall, Michelle Perrett, Eva Frengstad, Bridget Armstrong, Christina Frank, Suzanne Davey and Sally Howe. The exhibition was curated by Manly Art Gallery’s distinguished senior curator, Katherine Roberts.

Eramboo is located in a beautiful and unique bushland setting in Terrey Hills in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Here artists are mentored by artistic directors Susan Milne and Greg Stonehouse, two of Australia’s most prominent public artists, to develop a robust professional practice.

Trajectory, back view, ceramic, thread, wood, nails, paint, sand, 40 cm x 50 cm x 30 cm

Trajectory, detail, ceramic, thread, wood, nails, paint, sand, 40 cm x 50 cm x 30 cm

Re-Configured, installation detail, ceramic, sticks, steel, paint 110 cm x 120 cm x 15 cm

Re-Configured, ceramic detail, ceramic, sticks, steel, paint 110 cm x 120 cm x 15 cm

Re-Configured, installation view without lighting,
ceramic, sticks, steel, paint 110 cm x 120 cm x 15 cm

Nest, ceramic, sticks, resin, wood,, 50 cm x 25cm x 20 cm

Afterwards, ceramic, glass, charcoal, paint, 20 cm x 45 x 25

Maquette for BREATH, fabric, steel, bamboo, 150 cm x 110 cm x 100 cm

A selection of sculptures by Suzanne Davey, exhibition installation view

Eramboo Artist Environment exterior view

Eramboo Artist Studio Eva Frengstad

Configuring Wonder: Sculpture at Scenic World

April 19, 2013 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, Configuring Wonder, fabric, sticks, bamboo, 8 m x 6 m x 1 m

Configuring Wonder is an installation that responds to the world heritage site of Scenic World (Blue Mountains, Australia) as a tourist attraction, a natural ‘wonder’, and a delicate ecosystem. It was created for ‘Sculpture at Scenic World 2013’ and exhibited along with the work of 35 other selected Australian and International artists.

Suzanne Davey, Configuring Wonder, fabric, bamboo, sticks, 8 m x 6 m x 1 m

Classical notions of beauty include three ’ingredients’: symmetry, proportion and harmony. These notions are also principles of composition throughout art history and abundantly evident in the natural world. Configuring Wonderapplies these principles and explores the discord between notions of beauty and wonder and the use of nature by man. Using the ever present polygon in nature as the foundation for multiple forms they are distorted by the straining of delicate sticks against fabric, tied and tethered all while awkwardly ‘performing’ for the viewer. Between the large number of forms, and their interactions with the flora of the rain forest there is an uncomfortable striving for balance and equilibrium amongst excess (the golden mean).

Suzanne Davey, Configuring Wonder, fabric, bamboo, sticks, paint, 8 m x 6 m x 1 m

The work integrates closely with the site, allowing ferns and small trees to protrude through the installation. Over 60 fabric sculptures are configured in a large diamond shape covering 24 square metres and suspended on a wire net above the floor of the rain forest.

Configuring Wonder, detail of installation unit, fabric, sticks, bamboo, 80 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm

The fabric sculptures are varied in size and shape: some are tethered to bamboo frames and stretched and contorted; others are attached to a golden framework with sticks pushing and distorting the surface. In sunlight the forms are semi-translucent with the outline of delicate sticks visible through the fabric.

Configuring Wonder, detail of installation unit, fabric, sticks, bamboo, 65 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm

Configuring Wonder, detail of fabric sculpture units for installation

The installation was created in response to a site visit in 2012 and took into account the unique physical and aesthetic qualities of its location.

Rainforest site for Configuring Wonder

Configuring Wonder installation in progress

ADRIFT in Manly

April 16, 2013 | Suzanne

ADRIFT, recycled polystyrene, fishing line, glow in the dark paint, bamboo

3.5 m x 4.5 m x 2 m

ADRIFT is an ephemeral public art installation created in response to Manly Esplanade; its physical qualities, and the way people interact with, and utilise the site.

It was exhibited as part of ‘SEE: Manly Public Art Project’ along with the work of 23 artists. The project was the result of a collaboration between Eramboo Artist Environment, Manly Art Gallery and Museum and Kendal Henry, an innovative New York artist and public art curator.

ADRIFT, recycled polystyrene, fishing line, glow in the dark paint, bamboo

3.5 m x 4.5 m x 2 m

About ADRIFT:

Manly Esplanade is a site where drifting occurs, both seen and unseen. The ebb and flow of tourists, weekenders, commuters, ferry’s and boats, wind and water is a constant. It provides escape from the day to day, respite for many socially disadvantaged people and is a site of rescue for some. Along with escapist play and respite comes the flotsam and jetsam of broken boogie boards, surfboards, fishing floats and line, esky’s and buoys drifting on ocean currents.

These leave a dark aftermath: lethal litter for birds and sea creatures and toxic chemicals for our food chain.

Threaded polystyrene shards (like ‘neptunes beads’ seaweed, pearls, swimming lanes) respond gently to air currents. At night the installation glows, referencing the phosphorescence of the sea which carries the lethal drift ashore.