Into the Blue shows works from 14 artists - Susan Baran, Wendy Currie, Kaye Dixon, Dianne Longley, Silvi Glattauer, Kiera Hudson, Peter McDonald, Senga Peckham, Maxine Salvatore, Eva Schroeder, Ian Skinner, Kim Sinclair, Virginia Walsh and Carolyn Young.
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It celebrates the cyanotype process discovered in 1842, involving two chemicals - ammonium iron (III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide - and UV light. Over time, variations to the original chemical formula have provided more creative possibilities, and the cyanotype print process is used by photographers, artists and creative enthusiasts globally. Works are made by treating a print surface - paper, cloth or leather - with the chemicals which then react to UV light, creating a distinctive blue colour.
On the last Saturday in September, artists worldwide celebrate this antiquarian process on World Cyanotype Day. Into the Blue was planned as a celebration for this year's day - artists provided their works showing how cyanotype has featured in their creative practices.
The works cover a range of subjects. While most are the rich blues we expect to see, there are some with more "whites" among the blues, some toned, and others featuring additional colours.
I particularly enjoyed Kaye Dixon's Bone Women series. She combined sculpture, painting, digital photography, and cyanotype printing to "re-member" her journey home; the long journey to find her feminine power buried in the depth of her soul. Her bone women are sailing and "re-membering" the times when there was an intrinsic connection between all living things.
Keira Hudson's works are printed on cotton with threads attached to some edges. This Melbourne-based artist describes her work as "a jumble of mystery, sexuality, and romanticism". She enjoys pushing the boundaries and her fabric cyanotypes here were created during lockdowns. The images are either self-portraits, or portraits captured virtually - double exposed with dried flora collected from her garden.
Dianne Longley's works on embossed paper using decals, gold and copper leaf and watercolour are not simply cyanotypes - the mixed-media result is a series of delightful works. The decals were made from coloured drawings based on figures from the Renaissance, and the French artist Francois Rabelais, contemporary Japanese kawaii figures and toys, the commedia dell'arte, imagined and real plants, and grotesque imagery through history. Longley says the images "offer possibilities for speculation on life and destiny, the quirky and the curious, and the fascinating possibilities that exist for the traveller".
Susan Baran's Dreaming of Bali series alludes to the time before COVID-19 when the world was a safer place. She dreams of a time when travel is safe again.
Senga Peckham's From The Garden series explores the Japanese concept of ma which combines "door" and "sun". Together they depict a door through the crevice of which the sunlight peeps. Using resources close to hand during restrictions - some Japanese paper left over from another project - converting her laundry to a dim-room and working with plants from her garden and the sun, she sees this as a meditative process, full of hope and possibility.
Carolyn Young's Eliza and the Satin Bowerbird celebrates an illustrator's life. It features a portrait of her sitting inside the outline of a male satin bowerbird (derived from one her illustrations).
Maxine Salvatore's Senza Protezione is about our need for protection against a new virus. Kim Sinclair's Skull & Blooms refers to the cycle of life and to lockdown tension.
Travel to Sutton is now permitted for all Canberrans and other locals, so the show has been extended to November 7. Why not visit the gallery tucked behind the bakery?
