Experimenta Social (Distancing) #36:
Light
Expanding on our previous themes of sound and touch, we continue to speak with artists whose work is focussed on provoking particular sensory experiences. This Experimenta Social, we explore how we visually perceive brightness and contrast, through artworks that capture the transformative nature of light. Captivating, seductive and elusive, light can illuminate or distort, manipulating darkness and generating new dimensions in physical space. New technologies have afforded artists a myriad of ways to experiment with the sophisticated use of light and consequently change the very dynamics of an exhibition space and art experience.
For this month’s Experimenta Social talks event we will hear from two artists for whom the play of light in physical space is central to their respective practices. From contemporary sculpture to large-scale installation, these artists are harnessing the energy of light to transform and captivate.
About the Speakers
Laura Woodward
Over many years Laura Woodward has exhibited sculptural, kinetic installations which regularly embody looped systems.
Laura WoodwardDja Dja Wurrung Country
Castlemaine, VIC, Australia
Over many years Laura Woodward has exhibited sculptural, kinetic installations which regularly embody looped systems. The systems, often powered by water, develop through the relationships between materials, movement, time and the artist’s hands, with the system’s inherent logic driving its emergence.
Woodward’s work has been nationally recognised through prizes, grants, public commissions, solo exhibitions and significant group exhibitions. She received Australia Council New Work Grants in 2010, 2013 and 2014, won the Agendo Prize for Emerging Artists in 2009, and won a Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship in 2007. Solo exhibitions include Kings Artist Run, 2019; Ararat Regional Gallery, 2015; Margaret Lawrence Gallery, 2013; and Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, 2010. Curated group exhibitions include Incinerator Gallery, 2017; the Ian Potter Museum (Melbourne Festival), 2016; Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery, 2014; and the McClelland Sculpture Award, 2007 and 2010. Woodward’s public installations include major commissions in Docklands, 2017, and Craigieburn, 2014.
Jason Sims
Jason Sims
Jason Sims is an Australian artist who works in the realm of perceptual art. Utilising the properties of light and reflection, he creates simple illusions of space in the form of contemporary sculpture, large-scale installation and public art. Blurring the lines between reality and illusion, Sims’ captivating work defies notions of physical possibility.
Sims is most interested in producing work that serves as a vehicle to re-imagine the space encountered – to deconstruct perceived physical limitations – and facilitate a kind of meditative response allowing viewers to interpret the illusion of space created as reality. He particularly enjoys working with illusion for its ability to evoke the sublime and its power to interrogate our understanding of the world around us.
Since graduating with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the University of South Australia in 2006, Sims has exhibited across Australia, and in Hong Kong, the USA and Europe. His work is held in public and private collections around the world, and he recently completed his second major public artwork in Adelaide, South Australia.
www.jasonsims.com.au