COSMOLOGY AT PURGATORY ARTSPACE

Eternity's Breath Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

Today is the 8th January 2013 and in 3 weeks time my exhibition COSMOLOGY will open to the public! 

So, on Wednesday 30th January 11am at Purgatory Artspace, North Melbourne Eternity's Breath [above] and about another 5-7 more paintings will be hung for you to see. 

On Saturday 9th February 2-4 pm there will be Meet-The-Artist/Private Viewing event.

And, Saturday 16th February is the last day of the exhibition.

Purgatory Artspace, 170 Abbottsford St, North Melbourne  

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am - 5pm

See more paintings HERE

COSMOLOGY STATEMENT

Using age-old transcultural/religious symbols, predominantly the tree-of-life, I explore the close and far distances of the Universe. I visually interpret the tree with 21st century eyes, untethering it from historical interpretations to tease out the messages it holds for us today. After all, age-old symbols have 'spoken' to many past generations. Why, should they not 'speak' to us? Are we indeed listening?

The tree-of-life evokes concepts of systems, all types of systems; vascular, water, cross sections of internal organs, invisible energies driving universal forces and more. Two paintings in Cosmology [Ouroboros and Cosmic Ouroboros] see the tree-of-life coupled with another transcultural/religious symbol, the ouroboros [snake eating its own tail]. The ouroboros has been used by modern cosmologists to visually describe the relationship between the cosmic and quantum worlds. In my paintings I have painted the snake's body with the tree-of-life. The snake eating its own tail also forms a circle, symbolic of the continuance of life, but also suggesting entities such as portals…literal and metaphoric.

The tree-of-life has taken me on a journey where new perspectives have appeared. My investigations of perspective, both literal and metaphoric, have suggested to me that developing skills in 'seeing' multi-perspectives, even simultaneously, will assist humanity in its ageless quest for physical, emotional and spiritual survival. As modern scientific research delves deeper into the vast and the quantum worlds of our universe, how does humanity envision its place within the cosmic matrix? I suggest that new perspectives, seen and taken bravely and confidently, will assist in a compassionate response...after-all it is still apparent that Earth is our only home.

I am inspired by husband and wife team Prof. Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams. Prof Primack is a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Nancy Abrams is a lawyer, and has a BA in History and the Philosophy of Science. They are passionate about the importance of visioning our place within the environment, not only our local and global ones, but also those beyond. They advocate for art's capacity to provide conduits between science and humanity's identity. Here is a quote from a 2001 paper Cosmology and the 21st Century witten by Primack and Abrams.

All possibilities are still open because the meaning of this new cosmology is not implicit in the science. Scientific cosmology, unlike traditional cosmologies, makes no attempt to link the story of the cosmos to how human beings should behave. It is the job of scholars, artists, and other creative people to try to understand the scientific picture and to perceive and express human meanings in it.^‡ A living cosmology for 21st-century culture will emerge when the scientific nature of the universe becomes enlightening for human beings.

Check out Prof. Primack and Nancy Abrams site The View From The Center of The Universe

Cheers,

Kathryn