Fields of Vision: Art and Astronomy

A collaborative exhibition with Macquarie University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy to coincide with the 2014 Astronomical Society of Australia Annual scientific meeting.

Broken Moon, acrylic, by Rhonda Dee. Photo by Rhonda Dee, courtesy of the artist

Humans have long pushed at edges of the imagination through exploration of the Cosmos; the never resting mind wants more.  My work is an investigation into the desire to move beyond the confines of the body, to cross psychic thresholds; to interrupt geographical, spatial and cultural demarcations.

I question whether our individual experiences make up an ‘internal map’ of our reality, and to what extent that and not any universal truth or principle guides us. Within this framework of thought and feeling, I explore the visual fall-out that comes with the continuous creation and de-creation of identity. My works underscore the condition of transformation itself as a highly poignant state of being.

For more than two decades, I have been crossing freely between the mediums of painting, sculpture, and installation, and most recently, incorporating sound and theatre as a way to expand possibilities and communicate to a wider audience. Inspiration is paramount to my creative process. The form of each work remains open in the conceptual stages and is only determined by a medium’s ability to deliver and communicate feeling.

Holes, portals, and maps are repeated themes that come together with a hallucinatory vividness in my recent works on Mylar film.  Sculptures incorporate the concept of portals through signifying the everyday disruptions that shape and change us.  In “I Should Have Spoken … (when I had the chance)” – a solitary figure wanders atop a split galaxy caught between projection and regret; cast out into the ever spending universe.  Other works evoke ichnography of the spiritual/physical body and the desire to come to terms with the unknown.  Ambiguities create spaces in the visual field which are unsolvable.  In all my works, I resist resolution, rightness, and completion, because these notions are ultimately resistant to transformation.

Opening Night: 21st Jul 2014
Time:  06:00 pm – 08:30 pm
Venue: Macquarie University Art Gallery, (Building E11A) Eastern Road, Macquarie University, North Ryde
Exhibition Runs: 18 July 2014 – 22 August 2014
Artists include: Giles Alexander, Bronwyn Bancroft, Mark Davis, Janet Dawson, Paula Dawson, Rhonda Dee, Julie Dowling, Frank Hinder, Mike Kitching, Andrew Nott, Arthur Wicks and Vernon Treweeke.