Garden of Cruel Delights

June 17, 2019November 18, 2019 | Suzanne

site responsive installation Coal Loader Waverton — Suzanne Davey, Garden of Cruel Delights, plants, wood, metal, bricks, stone, jute, copper, 250cm x 250cm x 800cm

A site responsive installation exhibited at the historic Coal Loader, Waverton, as part of the North Sydney Art Prize, curated by Alison Clark. The work was located on the Coal Loader Platform, surrounded by community garden beds. It extends and builds upon The Garden of Cruel Delights photographic series exploring our inter-relationships with plants.

site responsive art installation Coal Loader Waverton — Suzanne Davey, Garden of Cruel Delights, plants, wood, metal, bricks, stone, jute, copper, 250cm x 250cm x 800cm

Statement:

The Coal Loader is an exchange zone between us, plants and environmental forces, where flora experience constant transformation through our destructive and constructive actions. Tactile and material interventions performed on living plants are utilised to examine concepts such as empathy, control, adaptation to showcase the power of plants to lead us to better futures.

site responsive art installation — Suzanne Davey, *Garden Of Cruel Delights*, installation detail

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

The Echo of Invisible Things HIDDEN

September 2, 2014January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, The Echo of Invisible Things, clothing, resin, paint, 240cm x 60cm x 60cm

The Echo of Invisible Thingsis a memorial column, dedicated to human fragility and vulnerability. It is a response to contemporary narratives of abuse, homelessness, abandonment and neglect by public institutions. The work uses a a classic architectural element to reference institutions such as churches, temples, museums, theatres and government. Clothing is utilised as a social and cultural signifier of identity, memory and our psychological ties with others. The clothes are traces of the bodies that once wore them, mementos to individual and collective lived experiences; an echo of tragedy.

Installed in Rookwood Cemetery the work references memorial and funerary architecture such as chapels, arches, churches and temples.

Above: Clothing detail, Suzanne Davey, The Echo of Invisible Things, clothing, resin, paint, 240cm x 60cm x 60cm

The Shape of Air: exhibition at Eramboo Artist Environment

November 17, 2013January 9, 2018 | Suzanne

Suzanne Davey, Zest (maquette), twigs, grasses, wire, wax, 50 x 90 x 40cm

The Shape of Air was exhibited at Eramboo Artist Environment and comprised of works by installation artists Suzanne Davey and Ainslie Murray exploring the tangible nature of air and material echo. Curated by Greg Stonehouse the works investigate a range of ideas drawn from notions about air and immaterial space such as breath, presence/absence, the dissolution of architectural space and atmosphere. Both artists explored these notions through outdoor works in the Eramboo bushland as well as a range of process works in the gallery.

The Shape Of Air exhibition installation

Concepts introduced by Monika Bakke’s book ‘The Life of Air’ were explored, including thinking of air as a crowded perpetual motion component of place and as a dynamic habitat we share through the action of breathing with plants, animals (birds and insects) and microbial life. The works respond to the site by installation placement, using materials collected from it or by engaging with the unique and special characteristics of Eramboo as a place on the urban fringe, surrounded by wild bushland. The spatial intersections ultimately aim to investigate our dynamic relationship with the landscape; as a space where our bodies merge constantly with the environment.

The Shape Of Air exhibition installation

Suzanne Davey, Tangled, fabric, sticks, resin,
wax, wire, 110 x 250 x 10cm

Suzanne Davey, Tangled, (detail), fabric, sticks, resin,
wax, wire, 110 x 250 x 10cm

Ainslie Murray, The Liquid Air (Prototype),
aluminium, acrylic, sand, dimensions variable

Artist talk, The Shape of Air, Ainslie Murray, The Liquid Air (Prototype),
aluminium, acrylic, sand, dimensions variable

Suzanne Davey, Configuring Wonder, installation detail,
fabric, bamboo, sticks, 300 x 500 x 800cm

Suzanne Davey, Configuring Wonder, installation view with
Eramboo gallery, fabric, bamboo, sticks, 300 x 500 x 800cm

Suzanne Davey, Zest (maquette), twigs, grasses, wire, 50 x 90 x 40cm

Suzanne Davey, In Between, fabric, sticks, stone,
rope, tent pegs, 200 x 300 x 550cm

Suzanne Davey, On the Edge, bamboo, fishing line,
wire, paint, 80 x 180 x 450cm

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

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.