Nike Savvas | ’17 Seconds’
Presenting her first solo show at Dominik Mersch this October, Nike Savvas continues to push her work in new directions as she explores the process behind remembering in her latest geometric works.
Inspiration for the work came from Savvas reading The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse. A response to oppressive times, and about the longing for a new order amongst the chaos, the book explores the interconnectivity of everything in life. As well as an individual’s search for authenticity.
Exploring the interconnectivity of memory and how it is collated, 17 Seconds draws from an experience by Savvas, who had a thought for 17 seconds, which she then remembered and recorded the thought.
Examining the networks of thought and association in this process, Savvas explains, “The process of remembering leads to a scenario of association perhaps best described as a perceptual collaging of fragments from memory. In this, not all information is recalled and often some parts remain omitted. This is drawn from a notion of chance – where a work results from the conflation of ones imagination, chance thoughts and memory. The process is left open, is often automatic and pre-empts the creation of new work and new meanings. The work in this show continues my interest in mental imaging, perceptual phenomena and the creative process”.
An exhibition that developed since her residency in Paris earlier this year, it showcases new works using different colour palettes, media and formats. The centrepiece is a freestanding geometric large-scale installation. As intriguing as it’s patterns are entrancing, ’17 Seconds’ promises to be both visually arresting and mentally engaging – and longer than 17 seconds we hope.
EXHIBITION
Nike Savvas | ’17 Seconds’
6 October – 29 October
Dominik Mersch Gallery
Courtesy the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney.


Michael Vale views colonialism as the elephant in the room when it comes to Australian history and Australian art. He observes that through a strange...
(for Michael Petchkovsky) You passed so quickly, it pulled the oxygen out of the air Drawing sorrow in behind you, like a myst Burning...
While most of Hobart is asleep, Maggie May Jeffries is crawling around in her backyard nasturtiums with a torch, finding inspiration in the intricate details...
i make it so that that every place i live is my home so i put my bed on the wall closest...
after Gbenga Adesina The first text message was sent as the year closed. Before that, red-faced men stood and demanded translation. They wanted us...
Evie Adasal always wanted to paint, but she hesitated. “I graduated from art school in the ‘90s in photography and film,” she recalls. “When I...
Frank was born in Singleton, New South Wales in 1959, and has been represented by Roslyn Oxley9 since 1982—a relationship that spans more than four...
Standing before a luminous artificial sun or walking through rainfall inside a gallery, audiences might mistake spectacle for Olafur Eliasson’s primary concern. Yet, beneath the...
The exhibition unfolds as an ode to Country, grounded in careful engagement with land and the ongoing presence of First Nations custodians. Slee returns, in...