Take a Look: Lea Ferris’ exhibition ‘Homage to the Reef’
Lea Ferris works in Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia and in Pietrasanta, Italy. She combines her passion for Australia’s ancient geological story and it’s extraordinary native ecosystems with her love of working in marble, in the midst of a 2000 year-old marble carving tradition, which has produced the finest marble artists and artisans in the world.
Lea currently has a must see exhibition now showing at Defiance Gallery until 10 December.
Homage to the Reef
Defiance Gallery Mary Place
18 November - 10 December 2020
“The stories of corals are inscribed in the marbles. The marbles seen and touched in this show (as all marbles) are created initially by corals. The calcium carbonate exuded by the microscopic corals millions of years ago, has been heated and compressed by eons of earth processes to become marble. Every vein, every colour, every pattern tells the intimate and broad scale story of coral reefs and life on earth.
The undersea world of coral reefs is more magical, wondrous, complex, and spectacular than our collective imaginations at their very hallucinogenic, kaleidoscopic best. It is a world of infinite varieties of forms; explosions of nowhere-else seen colours; endless diversities of patterns; incessant ever-changing interactions.
The pieces in this show are my tribute to corals - the true sculptors of the reef. They are glimpses of my experiences underwater, conveying my observations (diversity, complexity, weird forms, colours, and beauty) and my feelings (awe, humility, joy, gratefulness, wonder).
At the very same time, they contain a hint of death (for example in Sarco, sarcophyton became encased in a sarcophagus). This was not intended. But it reflects the state of reality now. For the first time ever, on our planet, we, me, you, us humans are causing and witnessing, knowingly, coral death at a rate and scale that threatens the destruction of this magical paradise. Scientists and observers (Charlie Veron, Terry Hughes and Sir Richard Attenborough are amongst my heroes) have been telling us for decades that this is happening. I have seen and touched a once living reef now covered in nothing but green algae.
So, the works in this show are also coral calls for help. I used to think of them as the canaries of the reef. But now I think of them as sirens - not in the strict Homeric sense of singing voices luring us to our deaths, but rather calling to us for help, to save them and, in doing so, ourselves.” Lea Ferris
To learn more about the exhibition click here.
Image credits: top image, Lea working in her Bondi Beach studio. Middle images: left: Lea Ferris, Miracolo, 2019, Marble (Giallo Reale, Pink Portugal, Black Shell, Red French, Ming Green, Green Guatemala, Yellow Mortadella, Rosa Travertine, Sodalite, Yellow Sienna), 30 x 43 x 42 cm. Right: Lea Ferris, La Famiglia, 2012, Verde Connemara marble, 36 x 45 x 37 cm. Bottom: left: Lea Ferris, La Divo, 2017, Marble (Portoro, Ming Green, Yellow Sienna), 32 x 44 x 42 cm. Right: Lea Ferris, Sarco, 2019, Sodalite (mineral), 44 x 65 x 8 cm. Photography by: Stephen Oxenbury. Images copyright and care of Lea Ferris and Defiance Gallery.