Dialogues with Nature

Montag, Daro (2013) Dialogues with Nature. Noosa Regional Gallery, Tewantin/ Festerman Press, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, UK. ISBN 978-0-9544187-8-6

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Abstract / Summary

The work exhibited in the solo show, ‘Dialogues with Nature,’ questions conventional, ‘iconic’, representations of nature through the testing of more ‘indexical’ methods of representation. The underlying rationale suggests that iconic images serve to distance the audience from the subject represented via the one-way act of objectification. In contrast to convention, indexical images – where the object participates in its representation – interpret nature through events rather than objects.

The work’s indexical method involves image-recording plates of carbon powder on glass. These plates are ‘exposed’ in the environment, placed in such a way that living organisms, or natural phenomena, crawl across or brush against them and create an indexical trace. Large, permanent prints are then produced from the fragile carbon drawings., By enabling the drawings to be created by natural phenomena and other species, the work realigns the creative act by replacing anthropocentric creativity with a more collaborative engagement with the ecological environment. This body of work is part of a larger investigation into a specific location in Cornwall, UK, testing creative strategies as ecocentric methods for cultivating greater awareness of a place and its animate being.

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