SIMONE DOUGLAS // in group show 'Conditional/Return' at New York Gallery, Sara Nightingale Gallery

Image: Simone Douglas, Return, detail, in progress

Artereal Gallery artist Simone Douglas joins other Australian born, New York based artist, Zev Jonas, for Conditional/Return, an exhibition at Sara Nightingale Gallery, opening Friday 17 April from 6-8PM. 

The exhibition investigates alliances and kinships, as well as disconnects, between people, animals and their environments. Jonas’ contemplative photographs examine solitude in nature, while Douglas’ nautical sculpture - a reference to her upcoming large scale desert installation - suggests a merger or reunion with the land.

Jonas’ images, taken from his ongoing series, The Condition, explore the tension between isolation and connection, while considering the relationship we have with our surroundings. The work focuses on the beauty and sensuality of seclusion, as well as the search for a sense of purpose and place. Jonas shoots his work on film and presents it with minimal alteration. His images are untitled, undated and non-location-specific, so viewers can interact with the images with no preconceived notions.

Zev Jonas’ work has been exhibited in the US and Internationally. His solo exhibitions include a presentation at the Australian Consulate, New York timed with the release of a limited edition monograph, a copy of which is housed in the Rare Printed Collection of the State Library of Victoria in Australia. His 2011 solo show, Passage, in NY was a “Notable Show of the Year” in NY Photo Review.

Douglas’ Return encompasses work made over a decade of engagement with landscape and environment. It draws from two of her ongoing projects, Promise and Eternal Return. The former is based on a story of a search for the inland sea in the Australian desert; an explorer sails into the desert looking for the sea and finds himself in the ancient seabed. Douglas is constructing a large scale ship made of ice scheduled for installation in the Australian desert in July 2016. It’s mass has been calibrated so that it will take one month to melt completely, leaving in its wake a trace of red native wildflowers, watered by the melting boat. Eternal Return is a body of photo-based works that “hold night and day, the moon and the sun within one moment of extended time.”

Simone Douglas’ practice includes photography, video, sculpture, installation and site-specific works. She is committed to environmental legacy, intercultural facilitation and making art that serves as a medium to activate key issues of our time. Douglas has exhibited in museums internationally and her works are held in the public collections of the V&A Museum, London, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Douglas is the director of the MFA Fine Arts Program at Parsons The New School for Design and serves on the editorial committee of Project Anywhere. She is an honorary faculty member (Research) at The University of Sydney and has curated exhibitions at major international cultural institutions.

The exhibition will run from April 17 - May 17.

SIMONE DOUGLAS EMBARKS ON MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECT TO DATE

The exceptional artist Simone Douglas will embark on her most ambitious project to date in 2015 with the construction of a boat, 35m in length and made exclusively from ice, that will be erected in the outback on the outskirts of the isolated, far west city of Broken Hill.

The project, entitled Promise, has been in the works since July of this year and emerged from the artists’ fascination with one of Australia’s lesser-known tales – that of British Explorer, Charles Sturt, and his search for Australia’s inland sea. In 1828, the explorer and his men came close to death when they transported a large boat through floodwaters into the heat-stricken region, in search of a body of water. Instead, they became stranded in the desert and, were it not for the generosity of the resident indigenous community, Sturt and his men would have perished from lack of water.

The project will see the large-scale ice installation come in contact with the harsh Australian sunlight, causing it to gradually melt into the floor of the Broken Hill desert, offering hydration to the parched soil. The artist hopes the newly fertile soil will prompt the growth of wildflowers, serving as an afterthought of where the boat once stood and symbolic of the outcome of Sturt's expedition.  

“The Indigenous people saved them by generously sharing their precious water supplies. This story will come through as the ship of ice melts down back into the desert, it disappears, and the Indigenous people remain the ongoing custodians of the land,” said Douglas in an interview with Broken Hill Australia.

Douglas, who is born and raised in Australia, but currently based in New York City, continues her preoccupation with the Australian outback and the unique qualities of the Australian sun light through this new ambitious project.

Promise will also be brought to life as a documentary that will explore the region of Broken Hill as well as the artist’s work:

To read more about the project, visit Broken Hill Australia.