casting shadows/drawing light
Karen Casey’s latest exhibition combines natural ochres, fabric and rear illumination in an array of richly latticed surfaces with hypnotic, almost trance-inducing, intensity. The impressions taken from crazed and cracked concrete floors and pavements are the culmination of several years of experimentation with a personally developed technique that the artist refers to as ‘ground-printing’.
Casey had previously used this process to create textural surfaces for installations such as Dreaming Chamber, her multi-sensory environment exhibited in the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery, 1999/2000. More recently she devised a means of refining and stabilising these surfaces so that they are individual artworks in their own right. The resulting one off impressions form this unique and evocative series of works.
Despite being derived from constructed surfaces, these images seem to capture a sense of the urban landscape in its former natural state. With an elegant meditative presence each raw edged piece is contrasted against a soft grey metal mount, and hangs somewhat in the fashion of a Tibetan tangka or Chinese scroll painting. While clearly contemporary in design, these luminous works establish a visual conduit to the ancient tempo of a living earth.
Drawing on the randomness of natural terrains, Casey’s complex land maps form a fluid tableau of multiple-associations. One senses in these nebulous textures the origins of narrative and the unfolding and expansive potential of human imagination. The effect is not merely visual, as many of the works have the qualities of a living organism. Not surprisingly, the theme of a link between the beat of the earth and the pulse of human existence lies at the heart of Casey’s art. It underscores a fascination