640 gsm paper

2023: Precarious times

This is the third major project for my Studio 2 course, as part of the Master of Fine Art program. This large scale, mixed-media installation exemplified the use of a conceptual framework and iterative installations to progressively develop work, and through the process suggest regenerative possibilities.

It was designed to warn of the accelerating impact of climate change while signalling the redemptive possibilities of nature. The final installation evolved from an earlier Studio 2 animation in which tumbling shapes suggested the use of a vertical flip book to convey time and motion in two dimensions. 

The concept was framed along cartography, calligraphy and oceanography lines, as exploratory prompts. This framework underpinned the project’s expansion over experimental installations as I effectively terraformed the Gossard space (coincidently a technique suggested by Donna Haraway as a way to rejuvenate our vulnerable planet, in her book Staying with the trouble : making kin in the Chthulucene). 

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of final installation of Precarious times, view 1 on 12 October 2023. Acrylic on 250 and 640 gsm paper, sizes variable. Wood painted white and portable white projector. 2023.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of final installation of Precarious times, view 2 on 12 October 2023. Acrylic on 640 gsm paper, sizes variable, shapes made from plaster, wax, wood. 2023.
Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of final installation of Precarious times, view 3 on 12 October 2023.
Acrylic on 640 gsm paper, 56 x 76 cm, Shapes made from plaster, wax, wood. 2023.