Far Away, So Close

‘Knowledge of the smallest – and largest – entities that we can contemplate helps us to define where we fit into the scheme of things. Rather surprisingly, we find that humans are about halfway between the very smallest and the largest things we know.’ 1

We are limited in our knowledge and experience of the world, in that our eyes are blind to all but the thinnest slice of the universe in which we live. Instruments, therefore, act like extended senses; microscopes reach down into the microcosm to reveal other worlds, and telescopes reach out to reveal worlds outside the earth’s surface. This exhibition seeks to re-introduce worlds that are normally hidden from view, opposite extremes of scale are explored with paint and canvas, the hidden worlds of the micro and macro.

Layers of complex under-painting suggest tiny particles in an infinite universe and the imagination like the paint is left to wander…

‘The Iron in our blood, the oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our bones, are the legacy of stellar processes that occurred before the solar system was formed five billion years ago. As the Great Astronomer Carl Sagan said “we are all made of star stuff’ 2

The Manse, Salisbury House Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2007

Coca Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2008

1 – ‘Heaven and Earth’ intro by David Milan, Phaidon Books

2 – ‘Look Back in Wonder’, Pg 32-33, By Marilyn Head. NZ Listener, 31 March 2007