A Section of Time Installation, 2017

‘A Section of Time’ is inspired by two profound moments in our Human Story:

The Beginnings of the Universe. (Sue McLean)

The Transition from Cycladic Civilisation. (Sally Spencer)

The large canvasses are paintings of ideas at transformative moments in time.

From the beginnings of atoms 300.000 years after the Big Bang, when atoms formed, stars and galaxies were born and photons were free to illuminate the cosmos, as in the painting First Light.  Events important at one moment are metamorphosed into building blocks for the ever evolving future.

All the works are imaginings of these moments past, when our future was written by deep and explicit laws of nature, which have enabled us to thrive and understand the universal forces governing the past, present and future of our existence.

The origin of the Universe is pure potential, the flaring forth of life and a fecundity of abundance so great it is beyond our comprehension.  Every point of the Cosmos was a point of explosion of light. This Moment – ‘The Beginning’ – is or was a dark space of opportunity out of which we now know has emerged such life and potential for life.  (Sue McLean)

In the era of the Cycladic civilisation, we see the emergence of human powers unimagined in the tribal world.  In our current era, technology has transformed our existence and in the future we will see ourselves not as tribal, not as nation-state, but as the Earth Community as a whole that will be understood as our home, our womb of creativity and life towards our fullest destiny – to become love in human form; the journey out of emptiness is the creation of love.

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The Cycladic civilisation emanates from the Cycladic Islands of Greece where sculpture and artistic expression represented the essence of the human in body, the defining details of individual forms, in spirit and in possibilities to elicit the dynamic power of human potential.  This era in Human History is the Kernel of modernism, of formal abstraction and of style; it represents light coming out of darkness, of white out of black.

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It was the gateway of self-discovery, the moment when humans could see themselves present in the moment, daunting yet uplifting, macro yet micro, universal yet self-descriptive, seen yet unseen.

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All creation comes from extreme disturbance, from chaos, from upheaval and the drawing together, the melding of diverse elements in order to create life which in this installation is pared down to the essence of that very life.  (Sally Spencer)

T.S.Eliot’s poetry strips away the extraneous and lays bare the human spirit, longing and drive reminding us with optimism that “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”.

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We, the artists, exhort you to reflect on the evolution of your own life that has brought you to this moment and to consider the potential for life and growth that you hold within yourself.    

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Acknowledgements:

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We acknowledge all those who have lived before us, from the beginning of time.

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We acknowledge Gatakers Art Gallery for hosting this Exhibition and in particular Trevor for his assistance.

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We acknowledge Strathnairn Art Centre, Canberra for The Artists’ Residency

and the facilitation of the Bronze castings for Sally.

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We acknowledge Ron McLean for his preparation of the Installation space.