Odette England and Elaine Duigenan Exhibit at Klompching Gallery
BROOKLYN, NY.- With Micro Mundi, Elaine Duigenan continues her fascination with transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. In this intimate series of images, she has photographed the arterial wanderings of snails, as they graze upon algae, leaving behind an aftermath of claw-like patterns—caused by the rasping action of the snail’s spiky tongue. On a micro level, these rambling, chaotic and protracted patterns, attest to a seemingly plodding yet vigorous life-form. On a macro level, they’re dendritic appearance resemble earth’s estuaries as viewed from far above. By presenting the images within a circular frame, these stunning monochromatic photographs are transformed into floating planets, as we would imagine them to be on a cosmic scale. The planetary metaphor is further enhanced with titles that refer to cartographic terms of old, that placed Earth in a philosophical and religious setting.
“Elaine Duigenan’s images in Micro Mundi show how the random exceedingly slow wanderings of a mollusk feeding can depict our planet’s network of paths, roads, and rivers as we view them exceedingly fast from the portal of space, circling our globe every 90 minutes.”—Leland Melvin, Astronaut.
Odette England, "Untitled No. 2" (2009) from the As Above So Below series. ©Odette England. Courtesy of Klompching Gallery
Odette England’s new body of work is also concerned with the sensory and philosophical interpretation of our world. The phrase, As Above So Below, refers to the widespread indigenous cultural belief that the heavens and earth are the foundation of all creatures, including themselves. In this context, land and sky are more than just geographical icons, they are mirrors in which they see themselves reflected. England has documented the vast desert landscape of Southern Australia, photographing the land and sky from a single standpoint as a double exposure, thus merging the space between as a primal ‘middle ground‘ in which humankind resides. The resulting color photographs are quiet, metaphysical studies that astutely span time and space.
Odette England is an Australian artist currently based in London. She is a graduate of the University of South Australia and City of Westminster College (London). Her photographs have been exhibited in France, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In 2010, she was named a winner of the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers award for the second year running.
Elaine Duigenan is a British artist living and working in London. She is a graduate of Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her photographs have been exhibited in the United Kingdom, United States, Syria, China and can be found in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and The Museum of Fine Art (Houston).
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