Artist Michaela Gleave presents a new way of connecting humanity with our changing climate.
Walking into a Sydney art gallery yesterday I saw a pile of ice on the floor. It was covered in black specks that looked like fallout from exhausts of cars and trucks.
People were gathered around it, talking and drinking wine.
Because it was in a gallery it was reasonable to assume it was an artist’s installation. But it could also have been the result of some extreme weather condition.
I later made a small drawing from memory.
What did it mean?
What was the artist’s intention?
Documentation from the gallery reads:
MOP (Gallery 1) 3 September – 20th September 2009
“Report of unusual meteorological activity: Violent and unstable atmospheric conditions and highly storm-like activity. Severe isolated temperature drop accompanied y strong winds affecting immediate vicinity only. 83mm of precipitation recorded in solid form.
Time: 03.09.09, 1:43am
Location: Sutherland Lane, Chippendale, NSW
Latitude = 53 degrees, 53.2 minutes South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 12.1 minutes East”
Michaela Gleace is a Sydney artist. Working with materials such as cloud, light, rain and ice within constructed, architectural spaces, Gleave’s often-illusory installations hover at the junction between art and science, operating between the spaces of personal experience and global understanding. Returning repeatedly to the atmosphere and global airspace as the site of her work, Gleave’s installations and interventions question the relationship we have with our surroundings, allowing us to experience the processes by which we comprehend reality and rethink our presence within it.
Artist talks: Sunday 20th September 2 pm
MOP – Thursday-Saturday 1-6 pm Sunday & Monday 1-5 pm
2/39 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, Sydney NSW 2008
www.mop.org.au