CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Ken Smith
A reflection in a building by the sea
2021, acrylic on paper, 53cm x 96cm , framed 78 x 120cm
Artist Statement
"A reflection in a building by the sea”, continues my visual investigation of man-made structures that have been built close to the interface between land and sea. In this instance this image uses part of a building situated at the now redundant Quarantine Station at Point Nepean on the end of the Mornington Peninsula. This building was used as a waiting room for passengers arriving in Australia who had to first enter a time of quarantine because the ships on which they had travelled were found to be carrying infectious diseases. While revealing the history of both its construction and utility, this building is also a marker of stillness within an environment of constant transience. Its form, surfaces and colours, and the way that daylight reacts with these qualities were all used in this painting to evoke the contrast between what is close and what is distant, between an awareness of the present and memories of the past, and between the actual and the imagined.
"A reflection in a building by the sea”, continues my visual investigation of man-made structures that have been built close to the interface between land and sea. In this instance this image uses part of a building situated at the now redundant Quarantine Station at Point Nepean on the end of the Mornington Peninsula. This building was used as a waiting room for passengers arriving in Australia who had to first enter a time of quarantine because the ships on which they had travelled were found to be carrying infectious diseases. While revealing the history of both its construction and utility, this building is also a marker of stillness within an environment of constant transience. Its form, surfaces and colours, and the way that daylight reacts with these qualities were all used in this painting to evoke the contrast between what is close and what is distant, between an awareness of the present and memories of the past, and between the actual and the imagined.
Artwork to scale in-situ on 3.7m wall
