Some exhibitions ask you to look at the work. This one asks you to notice what the light is doing around it.
Melbourne artist Meagan Streader returns with Shadow-makers, a new exhibition developed during her residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris earlier this year.
Opening on Wednesday 16 September at Mars Gallery the exhibition brings together suspended mobiles and wall-based sculptures that play with light, reflection, movement and the architecture around them.
And yes, this is one worth seeing in person.
Paris, Melbourne and everything in between
Developed between Paris and Melbourne, Shadow-makers takes inspiration from the details Streader encountered moving through both cities, tiled patterns, grids, shadows, reflective surfaces, architectural structures and the way light transforms a city after dark.
Rather than reproducing those observations literally, Streader distils them into sculptural works made from materials including copper, iridescent polyester, LEDs and simple electrical circuits.
The result? Delicate constructions where light becomes as much a material as copper or fabric.
Some illuminated elements are held in such careful balance that the slightest movement can interrupt their electrical connection — or bring the light back again.
Look a little closer
There’s another layer running through Shadow-makers, too.
Streader draws inspiration from pioneering women across 20th-century art, architecture and design, including Chryssa, Eileen Gray, Agnes Martin, Anni Albers, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Lygia Pape.
Each sculpture begins with a particular reference to one of these artists before Streader pulls it apart and reworks it through her own practice. Geometry, repetition, textiles and ideas around space are translated into new forms and relationships.
As you move around them, reflections and shadows shift across the room, extending the sculptures beyond their physical edges.
Basically: standing still probably isn’t the way to see this one.
See Shadow-makers at Mars Gallery
Shadow-makers continues Streader’s long-running exploration of architecture, material and the emotional pull of the built environment.
The exhibition runs at Mars Gallery from 16 September to 10 October, with opening night on Wednesday 16 September from 6–8pm.
One for the September art crawl.
Meagan Streader — Shadow-makers
Where: Mars Gallery
Opening: Wednesday 16 September, 6–8pm
Exhibition: 16 September–10 October