Exhale

March 20, 2016November 18, 2019 | Suzanne

Exhale featured in the SEED STITCH Contemporary Textile award, curated by Soraya Abidin.

Exhale aims to investigate moments in-between: between our conscious and unconscious states and the interior and exterior spaces we exist in as we navigate the the whirl of known and unknown factors in our contemporary world.

Suzanne Davey being presented the inaugural Betty Stirton OAM Seed Stitch Textile Award prize

Suzanne Davey, *Exhale,* detail, textile, resin, thread

Harbour Sculpture

July 27, 2015January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

Harbour Sculpture 2015, featuring 88 artists; 51 indoor and 61 outdoor sculptures

Suzanne Davey, Echo of Invisible Things, clothing, resin, 240cm x 140cm x 100cm

A Thousand Steps: Keeping Company Manly Art Gallery and Museum

November 23, 2013January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, A Thousand Steps, fabric, wood, bamboo, 350 x 120 x 400 cm

A Thousand Steps is an installation created for the Manly Art Gallery & Museum ‘Keeping Company’ exhibition. New works were made in response to a range of artworks held in the Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection. A broad range of art media was represented including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking, textiles and glass. A Thousand Steps responds to Paola Talberts photograph, Kairos (moment of truth), 2000.

Paola Talbert, Kairos (Moment of truth), 2000, Type C LED print, 47 x 74cm,
Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection purchased 2004

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greekword meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). Signifies a time between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.

Artist Statement

I was immediately drawn to Paola Talberts work, Kairos. The sensuality of the image with its dreamy, floating figure catching her breath and her rich and moody use of light and transparency all had great appeal. I have responded to the work both materially, through the use of fabric and conceptually, by exploring journeys and transition points. Wings have long been metaphors for our desires to explore, take flight, and soar to new heights. A Thousand Steps marks our day to day hopes and struggles as we journey through life.

Suzanne Davey, A Thousand Steps, fabric, wood, bamboo, 350 x 120 x 400 cm

Concept proposal drawing

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

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