Take a Look: Alex Seton’s exhibition ‘Meet Me Under The Dome’
You have just two days left to catch Alex Seton’s solo exhibition ‘Meet Me Under the Dome’ currently on show at Sullivan + Strumpf Gallery until 23 December.
Below you can find some inspiring images of the exhibition and read about the Alex’s show. Text and images courtesy and property of Alex Seton, Sullivan + Strumpf Gallery and photographer Mark Pokorny, we thank them for allowing us to share this fantastic exhibition. To see more and read an interesting essay by Kim Mahood, click here to visit the Gallery’s website.
Alex Seton: Meet Me Under the Dome
'Meet Me Under the Dome is undoubtedly my most personal show to date. We all have unreliable memories and stories from our childhood that shape who we are. Playing in the Wombeyan landscape made me into the artist and sculptor I am now.'
Taking its name from a famous etching of Sydney’s Garden Palace destroyed by fire in September 1882, the show recalls a former common meeting place that no longer exists. At the centre of the exhibition is The Ghost of Wombeyan, a carving of a life-sized shrouded figure in repose and swathed in cloth. Created from marble from Wombeyan Caves, where the artist grew up, the figure lies in requiem to the landscape and its stories.
A soundscape rings through the gallery on loop. Created in collaboration with cellist James Beck and composer Charlie Chan and recorded on site in the Wombeyan Marble Quarry, the composition incorporates the ambient sounds of the environment, giving visitors a chance to navigate the aural landscapes from the region.
Upstairs, smaller works carved from Wombeyan marble record impressions of Seton’s early recollections: a favourite toy, Bun Bun the rabbit; four pillows in a row, for four sleeping brothers; The Sawdust Short Drop Throne, a wry throwback to the sawdust toilet used as a child; and Dad, I dug a hole!, a collection of mattocks used for tilling and shaping the earth, and planting trees.
Accompanying Seton’s sculptures, a series of photographs of the quarry capture how, like memory, the landscape has been altered and reconstituted over time. The title of each work is replete with loss, such as The Vanishing and A History of Forgetting.