Jenny Crompton

Concerned with the growing pressures imposed on the natural world, Australian artist Jenny Crompton creates effervescent sculptures that ignite environmental awareness and personal reflection. The works delve into the world of oceanic organisms and spiritual creatures, taking the viewer on an otherworldly journey through nature.

After relocating from inner-city Melbourne to the rich coastal landscape of the Bellarine Peninsula, Crompton’s practice has become more meditative as the artist directly responds to the land as it changes. Her current works are formed from natural, found and manmade materials, repurposed to conjure various creatures ranging from representational to abstracted. Crompton examines each organism microscopically, surveying the patterns and shapes, which are later reflected subconsciously in her sculptures.

‘Bloomtime’ explores the seasonal periods when microscopic marine life blooms across the coast. Crompton’s totemic sculptures reference the unexpected emergence of bluebottles along the Anglesea shore in 2016. Contemplating the impact of the bluebottle on the ecosystem, her aerated sculptures came to mimic the floating, breathing and growing she witnessed across the coast.

Crompton’s hive of wired sculptures evokes the outline of phytoplankton and micro-algae, their intricate line work, lightweight composition and fragile forms absorbing the rhythm of nature. Working with recycled copper wire, feathers, kangaroo bones, driftwood, paint and resin, the artist blends earth objects with man-made material to create her ethereal forms. The laborious nature of sewing wire enables time for the works to change and grow. There is a timelessness to these hanging sculptures, which appear both ancient and thoroughly inventive.

‘Bloomtime’ signifies the moment when the waters go unseen, like spirits, highlighting the artist’s celebratory vision whilst also spotlighting to the current plight of the natural world. ‘The coastline is so magnificent, respect the animal and plant life that reside in the waterways,’ Crompton preaches.

EXHIBITION
Jenny Crompton | Bloomtide
1 – 20 December 2018
MARS Gallery, Melbourne