DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows

DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows, the curated survey exhibition of the last decade of my creative practice and research is entering its last week. The exhibition is at the University of Southern Queensland Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia. The exhibition was curated by the gallery director, Brodie Taylor, JP (Qual), BCRA (hons), FRSA, FSA Scot, MIML, GAICD. The exhibition represents a milestone in my creative and academic journey. 

The show finishes on Friday April 4. Gallery hours Tuesday - Friday 10am - 3pm. 

The exhibition has, according to the Director, attracted hundreds of visitors. I am thrilled! The opening event was also a vibrant occasion, which ended with a panel discussion, 'War in the Age of Hyperconnectivity: What does it look like?'. I was very pleased to discuss military and civilian impacts of signal-enabled hyperconnectivity and the importance of art as a method to examine these impacts, with colleague, Dr. Samid Suliman (Griffith University) and, industry representative, Dave Devine OAM, from Alkath Group-Mellori Solutions.

Here are some photos of the exhibition, opening, and panel discussion. My artist's statement is at the end of the post. And, the exhibition essay 'Against the Sensoration of the World', by Associate Professor Michael Richardson (Uni of New South Wales), is also at the end. 

Beliefs and Battlefields is on the floor. Viewers can walk around the multi-piece painting.

Various parts can be 'read' from different perspectives. 

Left: Ghost Bat, rearrange-able 30 piece painting, 2022-2023.
Right: Ghost Cloud, 2024.

DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows exhibition.

That's me with my exhibition, DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows.

Panel: L - R: Dave Devine OAM, Dr. Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, Dr. Samid Suliman.

        Panel: L - R: Dave Devine OAM, Dr. Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, Dr. Samid Suliman.

People at the opening of DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows.
The event had to be postponed to mid-way through the exhibition due to Cyclone Alfred causing havoc and flooding across a vast area of Queensland.  

Thanks must also be given to Brodie Taylor, JP (Qual), BCRA (hons), FRSA, FSA Scot, MIML, GAICD. He is a terrific curator to work with. He had a vision for the show, and it has worked wonderfully.

Artist Statement

DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows

I invite viewers of my paintings to ‘fly’ in their imaginations, above, below, inside, and around the mechanisms of war and spawning new modes of signal-facilitated warfare - information, hybrid, cyber, space, and electromagnetic. If you ‘fly’ beyond orbiting satellites, the earth-to-satellite environment can be cosmically ‘viewed’, as an extension of landscape. It is an invisible hyper-landscape of signals carrying data and instructions, transmitted at beyond-human speed – lightspeed.

Drone: Ghost and Shadows represents a survey of my work created over the last ten years. While the paintings address militarised technology, the militarise-ability of civilian technology, and increasing military interest in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), each painting has multiple other influences. As a pre-teen I loved biographies of famous scientists - Marconi, Faraday, Curie, Pasteur. I also loved art. During my B.A, while majoring in art history, I undertook a year-long history subject, The History of Science. This subject has profoundly influenced my life’s work, helping to integrate my youthful fascinations, and inspiring me to ‘see’ connections between art, science, culture, technology, society, war, politics, and more. This throng of inspirations has shaped my creative practice, and my interdisciplinary post-graduate studies. 

I grew up on a farm between Dalby and Jimbour, Queensland. As I gazed across the vast landscape of endless skies and flat horizons, I ‘flew’, in imagination, above our farm. I knew what it looked like - buildings, crops, ploughed paddocks, roads - from above.  Childhood imaginational flight is the source of my creative and critical method - ‘imaginational metaveillance.’ I combine it with painting practice to interrogate the visible, and to expose the normally invisible, elements of our hyperconnected world – from civilian and military airborne drones to the lightspeed electromagnetic frequencies our civilian and military technologies rely upon for connectivity and interconnectivity. While imaginational metaveillance and painting are not reliant on digital/cyber devices, or signal connectivity, this does not preclude them as methods to critique these technologies. Rather, they provide a distance from them that affords different perspectives. DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows is your chance to ‘see’ what this distance reveals.

Below is the wonderful exhibition essay by Associate Professor, Michael Richardson (UNSW). 

OTHER NEWS
In other news, I invite you to watch/listen to the first half hour of my presentation 'Painting the Politics of Drones' at the March Visual Politics Research Program seminar, University of Queensland. The second half was Q&A. 

It can also be viewed on YOUTUBE

Cheers,

Kathryn

POST EXHIBITION NEWS

L - R: Lethal Landscape and Drone Spiral 2

It is nearly six weeks since I last posted. This is the longest absence since starting my blog in August 2006. I normally post about once a week, but I have been busy!

Firstly, for three weeks, my exhibition Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones consumed my time. The show went really well, with lots of people to talk to, sales, and invitations to participate in a couple of events. Once I have more details about the events I will let you know.

Thank you to everyone who came along to see Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones

I have uploaded quite a few photographs of the exhibition. 

The link to the exhibition post where you can read more about Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones, see more images, read my artist statement etc is HERE

NEWS

1. Podcast

2. Finalist in Art Award

3. Panel participant at an international conference

1. I was interviewed about my paintings and research by the lead researcher, Dr. Beryl Pong of the Aesthetics of Drone Warfare project, University of Sheffield, UK. This project is funded by a British Rising Star Academy Award for 2019 - 2020. Please listen to the podcast - it is only 30 minutes. 

2. My painting Drones and Code: Future Now (below) has been selected as a finalist in the $30,000 Paddington Art Prize, Sydney, Australia. I am thrilled to have my painting selected. The prize is for a landscape inspired by the Australian landscape.

3. A panel proposal, that includes a paper by me, has been accepted for the International Studies Association (ISA) annual conference in Hawaii next March. I have presented about my paintings and research at the ISA annual conferences in San Francisco (2017) and Toronto (2018). The panel for 2020 is titled "The Spaces Between War, War Preparedness and Militarism." I am really happy to have another opportunity to talk about my research and creative work.

Cheers,

Kathryn

 Drones and Code: Future Now Oil on linen 40 x 56 cm 2018

 Drone Spiral 2 and Operational Landscape

L - R:  Mission Capable Landscape and Nowhere to Hide 

 A selection of smaller paintings

L - R: Queensland Landscape: Unreal and 21st Century Cloud Fantasy

 L - R: Occupied Landscape, False Lawn and Swarm Clouds Brewing

 L - R: Ubiquitous Surveillance - An Invisible Landscape and Catastrophe of Civilisation

 Works on paper 

 Works on paper 

PAINTINGS IN CONVERSATION & 13 YEARS BLOGGING

Beware the Shadow Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm 2018

Look Again At That Dot Oil on linen 23 x 29.5 cm 2018

13 YEAR BLOGGING 

This month is my thirteenth blogging anniversary! I have, mostly, posted once a week for thirteen years. Yes, my middle name is PERSISTENCE! 

I really enjoy blogging. It has become very much part of my creative practice. As I write I think through things differently, and new ideas are triggered. These new ideas become paintings, and the cycle continues. 

Thank-you to my readers and anyone who passes by, even momentarily.

PAINTINGS IN CONVERSATION 

As I gear up for my forthcoming exhibition Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones   I am thinking about how I might hang the paintings in the show. I will be including some paintings that do not depict airborne militarised drones or indications of their presence. This is a deliberate curatorial decision. It provides another layer to the visual conversation the paintings have with each other, as well as the conversation a viewer has with the exhibition. Given that the title of the exhibition includes the word 'evidence' I want people to look for evidence of drones in paintings that do not depict drones or indications of their presence. What they see or not see, is not up to me. 

When a painting without a drone is hung near a painting that does depict a drone, what do you think happens? For example the two paintings above are in 'conversation'. Look Again At That Dot does not depict a drone, whereas Beware the Shadow depicts two drones. 

What happens when you place a painting that depicts both the pale blue dot and drones? For example, Drone Spiral (No 2) below.

I am really looking forward to hanging  Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones  

Tuesday 27 August - Saturday 7 September Open daily 10 am - 4 pm

POP Gallery, 381 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia.

For more details please check out the exhibition page HERE

Drone Spiral (No 2) Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2018

NEWS

I have two paintings on loan at the Australian Institute of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology  (AIBN) at the University of Queensland, Australia. 

Last Monday I gave a short presentation to the AIBN Board and academics. It was a fun event.  I thoroughly enjoyed the incredibly stimulating conversations I shared with researchers working at the cutting edge of their various fields.

The two paintings Beginning of Everything and Objects (both below) are great works to have hanging in a research institution focused on biotechnology and nanotechnology. Why? Because, both paintings can be 'read' as either something very large or something very small. For example Beginning of Everything could be a vast landscape formed by the cascading tree-of-life erupting from the bottom left corner. Or, it could be a cross-section of something seen under a microscope. The painting plays with perspective - are you above a vast land form, or below some kind of portal enticing you into another universe, or are you witnessing the beginning of the universe? There are many possibilities - that's why I called it Beginning of Everything. Objects can also be 'read' in a multiple of ways. Are the round balls atoms or planets? Are you above, below or with them? 

Beginning of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2010

Objects Oil on linen 85 x 147 cm 2015

Cheers,

Kathryn

OCCUPIED LANDSCAPES: EVIDENCE OF DRONES

Beware, Whispers the Wind Oil on linen 61 x 97 cm 2019

OCCUPIED LANDSCAPES: EVIDENCE OF DRONES

POP Gallery, 381 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 

POP Gallery is one of the Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University, galleries. 

27 August - 14 September 2019

Please read the exhibition essay Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones 
written by Dr. Federica Caso.

L to R: Mission Capable Landscape and Nowhere to Hide

A PANEL DISCUSSION happened on Saturday 31 August from 3.30 pm - 5 pmPanel Members:

• Dr. Samid Suliman, Lecturer in Migration and Security, Griffith University. 
• Federica Caso and Cormac Opdebeeck Wilson, both from the School of Political Science and International Studies, the University of Queensland. 
• Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox.

L to R: Occupied Landscape, False Lawn, Swarm Clouds Brewing

 Installation image at Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones

LINKS

*You can view more paintings on my website HERE

AND - PODCAST

* I was interviewed about my paintings and research by the lead researcher, Dr. Beryl Pong, of the Aesthetics of Drone Warfare project, University of Sheffield, UK.This project is funded by a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award for 2019-2020. Please listen to the Podcast - it's only 30 minutes.

 Mission Capable Landscape oil on linen 72 x 137 cm 2018

OCCUPIED LANDSCAPES: EVIDENCE OF DRONES is my first solo show of new work since 2015. The paintings in the exhibition reflect long-term interests in landscape, symbols [such as the tree-of-life], and existential risk posed by emerging technologies.

The paintings in the exhibition are informed by research into accelerating developments in militarised and militarise-able technology - airborne drones, persistent surveillance and increasingly autonomous systems. This research was conducted as part of my Master of Philosophy degree, completed in 2017 at the University of Queensland. Ongoing research continues to inform my work.

I am interested in how landscape is mediated by militarised and militarise-able technologies. I am particularly interested in examining the signals that enable the operation and functioning of militarised technologies. 

Anomaly Detection Gouache on paper 56 x 75 cm 2016

  Please take a look at Anomaly Detection No 2 also 

Please browse through my BLOG to see more paintings and to read more about my practice. 


_____________________________________________

EXHIBITION ARTIST'S STATEMENT 

OCCUPIED LANDSCAPES: EVIDENCE OF DRONES

Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones is an exhibition that poses questions about the mediation of landscape in the age of the drone, the era of persistent surveillance and the epoch of increasingly autonomous systems. The paintings in the exhibition are informed by my long-term interests in landscape, age-old symbols and existential risk posed by emerging technologies. My work is also informed by research into accelerating developments in contemporary militarised technology. This research was undertaken as a part of my Master of Philosophy [M.Phil], completed in 2017 at the University of Queensland.

In my paintings I invite viewers to fly, in imagination, around, above and below airborne drones that lurk in cosmic skies. As we fly, surveillance is returned to the human being as a kind of metaveillance. In other words we not only monitor the drones, we also observe what they are monitoring. This kind of observation reveals how drones, and their support infrastructure, intrude into the landscape in ways that occupy it. This occupation becomes a stealthy techno-colonisation of landscape and environment when enabling signals, ricocheting from land, into the sky and space, are exposed. By making visible the nets of invisible signals that operatively enable militarised and militarise-able technology I expose how new kinds of topographies are mapped onto landscape. However, rather than a surface occupation, it is a volumetric occupation from land into space. Imposed new signal topographies mediate human activity and movement through the signal-enabled inter-connectivity of our personal devices, computers, credit cards, mobile phones, GPS locators and more. Without signals these devices are largely inert.

In extreme cases interconnectivity enables the identification and targeting of people by systems increasingly involved in a conflation of military, security and policing activities. Here, the mediation of human activity and movement is clear. However, the ability to track and monitor general populations is an insidious kind of hostage situation that aides and abets the techno-colonisation. We are all hostages?

In my paintings depicting drones, or indications of their presence, I rarely include human figures, preferring not to attempt to tell the stories of others. However, in many of my paintings I include the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life as a symbol of all of humanity and life. The tree is often under threat from drones or it stands as a beacon of hope, Depending on your perspective, and perhaps where you choose to fly in imagination, humanity could be at risk of civilisation collapse and species demise, or it could harbour clues for a rich and vibrant future.

There is a lot more to think about – but, I will leave that up to you now. I hope you find Occupied Landscapes: Evidence of Drones stimulating, and therefore enjoyable. 

Drone Spiral (2) oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2018

Cheers,

Kathryn

ROLES?

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

It has been two weeks since I posted. This is the longest gap I've had since I started blogging in 2006. I normally post once a week.

 

NEWS

CODE is open! The doors opened on Tuesday and I've been busy...sales, visitors, chatting and more. I hung the show on Monday and I sold the first painting half an hour after the doors opened on Tuesday.

Exhibition Dates: 21 July  - Sunday 2 August
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

I've posted some installation shots of CODE for you. Plus the one below of me on the steps of the gallery.

ROLE AND AGENCY

 

As I have been chatting with people who have visited CODE I have had an opportunity to think about the catalytic agency of the artist and the arts. In most of the conversations I've had people draw upon their own experiences, dreams and thoughts. It's as if the paintings entice and elicit...pulling on people in a way that engages and embraces imagination.

I have previously written that I do not believe the arts or artists have roles. Why? Because, to have a role immediately indicates some kind of prescription, agenda and hoped for or planned outcome/s. Surely the arts is more than this? Surely the arts can agitate, stir and stimulate in ways that are surprising, confronting, beguiling and provoking without an articulated need or prescribed KPIs? Surely the arts are more dynamic than any kind of  'role' could suggest?

As I said...I prefer to describe the arts and artists as having catalytic agency. This description immediately conjures open-ended possibilities for the artist and their audience. An open-endedness means that imagination can take flight...without a flight plan. A destination is not pre-determined...how exciting! It means questions can be asked that have perhaps never been asked before. It means that knowledge can be created in tangential ways. It means that the artist, and the actual artwork, are launching pads which do not remain static. Each visitor with every conversation they have in their own heads, or with the artist or another person, provides another 'life' beyond the materiality of the artwork. This, in turn, means the artwork is much more than a 'product' made by a creative industries practitioner.

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

Over the years I have had many conversations with people who visit my exhibitions. And, even though CODE has been open only two days I've already had some invigorating discussions. The paintings are catalysts...people tell me about their interests, fears, favourite movies, passions, and stories. We take flight together as the paintings draw out of people their ideas about life, Earth, landscape, the Universe, science, culture, philosophy, technology and more.

Regular readers know I love to think about and play with perspective, both literal and metaphoric. Today, through conversations at CODE, I experienced a play with perspective where the possibility of going beyond safe horizons to unchartered territory with others, was realised. I suggest that perspective must be travelled across its close and far distances, in deft and fluid traverse. Advance notice is not necessary...in fact, it could be debilitating, shutting down the playfulness of perspective's improvisational dance. The proposition that artists and the arts have a catalytic agency provides a far more expansive propellant than giving them a 'role' to perform or play. There is no way a simple 'role' could ever be a dance partner with something that has catalytic agency. I see no compatibility. Yet, I suspect perspective is the perfect partner.

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

  CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMIC REVELATION

Cosmic Revelation Mixed media on paper 24 x 32 cm 2015

 

 

It is only 7 weeks until the doors open to my next exhibition CODE.

 

As always I am excited and nervous. But, I do look forward to seeing an exhibition hung and I love chatting to people who come to see it. I like the buzz.

 

WHY CODE?

I've chosen the title CODE for the exhibition because it's a loaded word! It allows me to play with secrets...those that the universe may hold tight, but we humans want to explore and understand. In the 21st century 'code' also takes on technological imperatives that influence our everyday lives. It propels us into the future with its unseen and unheard language working in the background of computer systems around the world. 

 

So, I try to tackle the secrets of the universe with my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. My last post Tree-of-Life Dreaming explains some of the reasons why I love to use the tree-of life as a visual guide in my work.

 

Tackling computer code is a different thing altogether! I am not a computer scientist, however I do understand computer code's instructional symbolism. In some of my recent paintings I have included binary code representing LIFE. In a couple of the paintings I have juxtaposed binary code with the tree-of-life. Now...these were fun to paint...they tickled my sense of humour, but also stimulated lots of thoughts about existence and the future.

 

If you are interested in code and the future you might like to listen to Prof Stuart Russell speaking at the The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University, about artificial intelligence. His speech was called The Long-Term Future Of [Artificial] Intelligence  I find it rather interesting that there are brackets around the word artificial! It kind-of alludes to intelligence, in its entirety, being questioned. Yet, I have listened to the whole presentation and I am excited about the future. I am also so very happy that really really intelligent people are thinking critically about AI development, to ensure that it will be for the benefit of humans and the planet.

 

COSMIC REVELATION

So, let's talk about the painting above Cosmic Revelation. Well the word revelation gives a bit of a clue, given my previously stated quest to reveal the secrets of the universe! The wavy lines could be strips of code imbedded in waves of energy? Or they could be whispering contours of another universe existing simultaneously with ours? But what about the spaces in between? Are they like the 'unknown' in black holes...some kind of energy concealing the continuity of wavy energy? These alternate spaces play with perception, at one minute appearing to be in the foreground and the next receding away from the viewer. They almost act like a wave themselves...maybe detected from a different angle?

 

Cosmic Revelation is what I call a cosmic landscape! It has landscape elements, yet it is not Earth-bound. Regular readers know of another of my quests....to untether landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

 

Cosmic Revelation will be in CODE. It's at the framers now, being framed up for exhibition. Although, I will also be exhibiting some unframed works on paper, so that buyers can choose their own frames.  

 

INSTAGRAM:

If you just want to see paintings please follow me on INSTAGRAM @kathrynbrimblecombefox

 

 

 

CODE

 

Tuesday 21 July - Sunday 2 August

Open daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Graydon Gallery 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

POST EXHIBITION REFLECTION

 L to R: Birth of Worlds, From Here To There And Everywhere and Past and Future Landscape

 

My exhibition Untethering Landscape: From Earth-Bound Horizons is now closed, but there's always a reverberation that continues after an exhibition ends its incarnation within a gallery space! I have some installation photos in this post, but you can see more at the exhibition's webpage HERE and at my last post HERE

I am pleased to report I had many, many visitors to the exhibition, I made some good sales and have a few more in the pipeline, plus I am pursuing avenues in the US.

Also, visitor numbers to my BLOG have greatly increased over the last week or so. THANK YOU visitors!

Me briefly talking about Life Takes A Cosmic Perspective

 

 

I did a lot of talking at the exhibition...and not only at my artist's talk. The engagement with people was fantastic. I've uploaded videos, in this post, where I very briefly chat about two of the paintings in Untethering Landscape. Love my Aussie accent...well not entirely?! One video is above and the other is below.

 

And, the 3D glasses were a hit. Yes, my paintings go 3D when viewed with 3D glasses. I do not try to paint 3D...it just happens. But, I am very happy that it does happen, because...after all...I am dealing with other dimensions...out there! I write about the 3D phenomena HERE

 

 

 L to R: Birth Of Worlds, The Universe Draws You Out Like A Multi-Dimensional Horizon [Inspired by Tim Winton], Birth Of Landscape and New World Habitability: Vacation Anyone?

 

Me briefly talking about Pale Blue Dot

 L to R: Prelude To Landscape, Landscape With A View, Surrendering Horizon and Life Takes A Cosmic Perspective

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com