Visible/Invisible enters the space between the seen and the unseen, the conscious and the unconscious, testing and exploring boundaries on a visual, spatial, and material level. In this arena of half light, the everyday meets with the wondrous and the strange, and memory, myth, and dreams intermingle with the visible world. This exhibition draws together a range of artists whose work investigates the hidden aspects of our world, and seeks to explore the layers of dreams, experiences, & beliefs that veil each of our views onto the world.

BREAKING NEWS: CLAIRE BRIDGE HAS BEEN SELECTED AS A FINALIST IN THE 2011 SIR JOHN SULMAN PRIZE AT THE ART GALLERY OF NSW.
Artist's statement
My work explores connectedness, the invisible and visible entanglements between humanity and the natural world. What is in the formless unconscious is reflected in form. The planet breathes and sighs to the consciousness of humanity. Symbolic of the feminine, these large orchids, fecund and sensual, water dripping and immersed are nature echoing human form. We see ourselves revealed in the natural world, connected with it as part of the whole. To read more from Claire's statement please click here

Artist's statement
On a purely material level, the works exist in the space of the seen and the unseen. The viewer must look through one image to see the other. Each pair – the negative and positive ­– contains multiples of the idea of the visible and invisible.
By the act of cutting away paper I make manifest the idea of the veil or prism through which we all subjectively experience life.
The works speak about the overlaying of one culture upon another – the visible British and the less visible or (in)visible Indigenous culture of Australia. Initially the Australian landscape and its peoples were seen through the veil of British culture and not for itself. There was an attempt to make it conform to another shape.
The works are created from antique images of native Australian flora. The cut out shapes reference patterns prevalent in British wallpapers around the time of settlement.

Lizzie Buckmaster Dove
SILVERGATE: MOUNTAIN
BELL/Darwinia Meeboldii
hand-cut paper unframed
20.35cm x 15.15cm
x 2 works (pair)

Lizzie Buckmaster Dove
SILVERGATE: BOTTLEBRUSH/
Beaufortia sparsa
hand-cut paper unframed
20.35cm x 15.15cm
x 2 works (pair)

Artist's statement
These memories, messengers from the unconscious, remind us of what we are dragging behind us unawares. But, even though we may have no distinct idea of it, we feel vaguely that our past remains present to us.
Henri Bergson

What could be more invisible than memory and yet it manifests itself in our present continually. The past affects our interpretation of the present and shapes our actions. Our past enters our future through impulse, driven by complexes shaped by our personal and inherited history. To shed, slough off the past to enter each situation as if anew requires wisdom, detachment from emotional states and self awareness. The practice of meditation in daily life as well as my art practice are the early steps on the path of a very long journey. It may seem ironic then that the imagery is a gathering of the past. A pastiche of classicism and the gothic sensibility layered with scientific drawings, ornate and multilayered. A feminine and fantastical world born out of practicing mindfulness and extended periods of times spent consciously observing bodily sensation and the nature of their arising and passing away, while maintaining equanimity.

This work is Metta, it is made with love, it is meant to bring joy, each intricately cut piece brings me peace of mind, I am centred and happy as I work. State of mind (the invisible) made visible.

Artist statement for the works on paper.
My intention for Visible/Invisible was to create works that pondered the relationship between our instincts and the trappings of civilisation. To that end I called on the forbearance of my very dear and highly creative circle of friends to pose for me. But because of that the drawings  quickly became something else. I found myself striving to convey what I know in my heart about the people that inhabit my world. The birds flew in and took up roost to help me convey the inexplicable. Each bird is very particular to its human. There is the visible outward persona that the objective world sees but once relationships are formed and life's experiences shared we do not see objectively. There are the things we know and feel about each other and there is the beauty that is not about packaging but rather, is about what life does with us and how we in turn choose to respond to it and each other.

Artist statement for Falling From Grace.
I've been thinking about the phrase falling from grace, I like the potential ambiguity of it. Conventionally  there is the notion that some misdemeanor has occurred and angered the gods, causing the offender to fall out of favour and out of heaven. But I think it could also be construed to mean that a creature might be born of grace, that it might just tumble fully formed out of a state of beatitude. Then I happened upon an interview with Samuel Beckett where he said,  'the fall of a leaf and the fall of Satan: its all the same...Wonderful, isn't it? The same thing'.

I love how, when I am engaged in the creative process, thoughts, ideas, and readings seem to converge or offer unexpected gifts to the work at hand.

Michelle Dawson
Building
Colour pencil, watercolour and
earth on paper (framed)
66cm x 82cm

Artist's statement:
What happens to dreams when the dreamer wakes up? The struggle to hold on to that memory is  difficult, as dreams are elusive by nature and  slip through one’s  grasp like fine sand through a sieve.  During the night a dream will dominate the dreamer’s whole universe but on waking will disappear and become invisible, like a mist in the morning sun. I have been playing with the concept of dreams as part of my ongoing art practice for some years now. From this I have created my own imaginary world where dreams no longer belong to their inventer but have a life of their own and drift in a universe where the visitor can only reach them again, through dreams.

Artist's statement:
Notes on rendering the invisible visible through landscape painting
Of particular interest to my work is the idea of phenomenologist Erwin Straus, that 'the space of landscape is the space of sensation', that landscape painting 'makes visible the invisible'. Indeed, 'great landscapes all have a visionary character'. My painting practice takes place in remote regions of Australia, including Arnhem Land and the rural area of Darwin in the Northern Territory; arguably great landscapes of 'visionary character'.  I believe that painting sensation directly from such visionary country has the potential to open up the development of a unique aesthetic, particularly when explored through concepts of contemporary myth as a manifestation of invisible force. Thus, I suggest, through a combination of art, philosophy and the extreme space of remote northern Australia, the event of painting enables the invisible sensation of force to be rendered visible. 

To continue reading Caroline Rannersberger's full artist's statement, please click here.

Artist's statement:
'And slowly answered Arthur from the barge...'
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idyll's of The King

I seek the half light space at the changing of the day and paint that light to invoke the hope and mystery of our world--in both a scientific and a poetic sense. Sunsets are hard-wired into primal collective psyche: we stop and pause before them; we recollect our nostalgias and gain life-strength from these. The painted scientific overlays present explanations of the world, like making notes on the visible. But sometimes very simple acts, such as a simple boat trip at dusk provide meditations on the nature of invisible mysteries - of history, of life and of death - as invoked by such diverse artists as Viola in 'Going Forth by Day, 2002' and Tennyson's 'Morte D'Arthur, 1835'.

Peter James Smith
Passage 2011
oil on linen
30 x 122 cm

Artist's statement
We are alone as we face the animal world, alone in our human element. Sometimes, when our eyes meet these animals, we feel some signs of intimacy. The sensation of a real contact, a mutual recognition, momentarily troubles us. But our minds quickly draws us back to our own world, and the animal, a temporary companion, is lost in an inaccessible land with an unknown language…………The world of insects is one of the most remote of the non-human worlds.
Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou, Microcosmos – the invisible world of insects.

These particular Phasmids or stick insects revealed themselves, in all their beauty, as encased specimens within the Brisbane Museum. Only now these lifeless objects, with wings extended are fully visible.

Christine Willcocks
Phasmid -
Table Des Matiere
graphite, watercolour
on a reclaimed book
page (framed)

Artist's statement
For me, butterflies represent ambivalent qualities of fragility and strength, flight, relocation. Their lightness and fragility make me feel that they are almost able to fly between dream and reality. I used the silhouette of a butterfly with layers of my patterns to express the moment just before waking. In that moment of dream and reality, I feel that we are at our most vulnerable, but at the same time able to see the strength of our true selves.