From Andrew Frost…
Just recently in the Guardian Australia a news story appeared that questioned the ability of technology to fix the problems of global warming. While there have been a number of experiments to test the effectiveness of seeding the upper atmosphere, or filling oceans with algae or covering glaciers with plastic, the efficacy of doing so remains uncertain and could even produce the unintended consequence of making the situation worse. Maybe the easiest route to solving the problem, argued the news story, isn’t to trust in technology to get us out of this mess but to simply reduce carbon emissions.
Caroline Rothwell‘s latest show, and her debut with Roslyn Oxley Gallery, is Weather Maker an exhibition that continues the artist’s fascination with the natural world. While quite a few artists have recently begun to explore this venerable subject in contemporary art, Rothwell remains fascinated with the natural world as it appears in human-made environments – past work has pictured weeds and plants that grow in concrete and by the sides of busy roads – the kind of nature that’s encountered everyday, but overlooked perhaps in preference to a Romantic fantasy of nature. Rothwell’s work remains vital in this context as her work connects nature back to human experience often in poetic and gently humorous ways. A series of works on paper that includes SPICE: Stratospheric Particle Injector for Climate Engineering and Cloud seeding pump [both 2014] depict balloons and airships, clouds of dust and exhaust, each work executed using copper leaf and inks made from vehicle exhaust emissions. Wall works such as Composition 1 & 3 [both 2014] depict cloud formations while the title piece of the show Weather Maker is driven by a motion-sensor operated fan, so the movement of the viewer through the gallery creates the effect itself.
Until December 13
Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Paddington
Pic: Caroline Rothwell, Weather Maker, 2014.Bronze, cupric nitrate patina, rope, thread, aerosol can, digital print on PVC, motion-sensor operated fan, 160x38x38cm (girl), 400x160x160cm (overall).
