SPATIAL DECONSTRUCTION #30 (SOCIAL FABRIC)
Emma Coulter responds to the landmark architecture and space of the Shepparton Art Museum through a new site-specific art wall commission titled spatial deconstruction #30 (social fabric).
Drawing upon the idea of SAM being both an ‘art container’ and communal space for social interaction, Coulter responds to architectural elements of the building’s form. This multicoloured intervention wraps the art wall in a new sculptural form. Coulter intuitively deconstructs the feelings and elements of the architectural envelope and reconfigures them through the lens of her practice, creating a composition that is both uniquely hers and a distinct reflection upon the vertical geometry of the SAM Building.
Her work, spatial deconstruction #30 (social fabric), marks the 30th in her series of spatial deconstruction works that she has been developing for the last decade.
Shepparton Art Museum - Furphy Family Art Wall, Level 4
LET THEM FEEL THE LIGHT
LET THEM FEEL THE LIGHT, NOW COMPLETED
let them feel the light, 2023
2 pac alumnium panels, glass and LEDs,
12 metre HT x 10 metre wide x variable depth ranging from 150 to 300 cm,
Yarrila Place - Coffs Harbour Cultural Centre, NSW
Let them feel the light is a large public art commission recently completed for Coffs Harbour’s new civic and cultural centre, Yarrila Place. An integrated three story sculpture commission, the work traverses the light filled atrium space, dispersing colour and light, in acknowledgement of the meaning of Yarrila, whilst also drawing inspiration from Coffs Harbour’s geographic coastal location.
Coulter was awarded the commission through her winning concept design proposal from a national shortlist of artists obtained through a national expression of interest process.
INFINITE SYSTEMS
INFINITE SYSTEMS SOLO EXHIBITION @ JAMES MAKIN GALLERY
EXHIBITION RUNS 15 June – 2 July 2023
Gallery hours: 12 to 5pm, Thurs to Sun
In her latest body of work, infinite systems, Coulter explores the limitless possibilities of the application of her idiosyncratic colour system across various supports. Through her expanded painting practice and spatial outcomes, Coulter makes reference to the mystical, conceptual and organisational device of the grid: autonomous works, composed within the demarcated surfaces of traditional canvas supports, sculptural steel structures and the gallery walls itself. These mediums create boundaries, providing a framework for the infinite system for coloured geometric shapes and structures to play out, interconnect, repel and at times deceive the eye. Perceptual optics challenge the navigation of space through colour vibrations. Whilst Coulter’s works are self-referential, the infinite compositions of tessellated geometry and spectral colour appear almost cropped from a much larger conceptual fabric, referring to something well beyond the frame. Through her chromo-spatial practice, the artist challenges the possibilities of the physical boundaries of her spatial supports.
Coulter works with colour in a serial way through a refined colour palette. Developed throughout her extensive artistic career and meticulous practice, she has created her own bold, idiosyncratic spectrum. This chromatic language, like her expansion of the supports of her individual works, is apparent across the entirety of Coulter’s practice and situated distinct bodies of work outside of their moment of exhibition, in dialogue with each other. Her work is an investigation into the semantics of colour and form – the creation of meaning and language through spatial and colour arrangements in infinite systems.
Photo Ivana Smiljanic
MAKING OF THE METROTUNNEL
Making the Metro Tunnel – reflections by contemporary Australian artists
Domain House, Botanical Gardens (former ACCA Building)
Exhibition runs: 1 April – 7 May 2023
open 11am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday, from 1 April to 7 May, at Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, South Yarra.
Presented by the Metro Tunnel Creative Program.
Image by Charlie Kinross