In ‘Partly Altered Aperture’, Melbourne-based artist Alice Wormald builds on her practice of creating oil compositions from fragments of found imagery and collages – producing exact replicas, from the colour of the ink to the texture of the paper.
By using ‘disassociated imagery’, Wormald plays with the concept of negative and positive space. Her assemblages frame the landscape and create a sense of depth that forces the eye to oscillate between focusing on the details of surface textures and hues whilst drifting every so often into the organic scenery. Through this back and forth, as well her painterly techniques that capture the effects of reproduction and the pictorial depth of seemingly imagined worlds, Wormald strikes a balance between fantasy and reality.
Wormald’s dexterity with the brush and scissors has enabled her to create surreal spaces where abstraction and naturalism perfectly intersect, forming an opening (or an aperture) into natural worlds filled with trees, rocks, forests and desert.
‘Partly Altered Aperture’ demonstrates a refinement of Wormald’s exploration into collage and found materials that culminates in a body of work that is both meditative and disruptive.
Gallery 9
Until 17 March, 2018
Sydney