Politics of Perception

Art + Climate = Change festival, 2015

Latrobe Regional Gallery

27 March - 24th May 2015

Artists - Jasmine Morgan Ryan and Debbie Symons

Artists Debbie Symons and Jasmine Targett are presenting environmentally challenging work at Latrobe Regional Gallery for Art + Climate = Change 2015.

The Politics of Perception exhibits works by artists Symons and Targett that map critical issues surrounding our environment; poetically and potently charting landmarks of anthropocentric disaster that cannot be found on any atlas or world map. This body of work raises critical issues surrounding the subtleties and complexities associated with humanity and its relationship to environmental change.

Latrobe is Victoria’s largest electricity supplier and is home to a substantial forestry industry. The juxtaposition of exhibiting works that communicate deforestation, ozone hole depletion and species loss in this region is a conscious move on the part of the artists. They endeavour to raise awareness, create discourse and reflect on industry impacts. This exhibition is supported as part of ClimArte’s state-wide artist festival Art+Climate=Change 2015.

“We are particularly pleased that Latrobe Regional Gallery is participating in Art+Climate=Change 2015. As a key region in our nation’s agricultural, energy, and tourism sectors, it is vitally important that the communities of the Latrobe Valley have the opportunity to consider and participate in the very important questions that have fallen upon our generation to answer.” – Guy Abrahams CEO and Co-founder of CLIMARTE: Arts for a Safe Climate.

“The works in this exhibition are ‘of our’ time because of the depth of connectedness that they implore. Grounded in personal concerns about global warming and endangered species, they demonstrate more than an environmental theory alone.” -Dr David Sequeira, Director Latrobe R.G

“We are thrilled to see the culmination of this significant body of work presented within the context of the exhibition and festival. Jasmine’s work was created with the support of an Australia Council Grant. It is fantastic that the importance of the issues raised are being supported at a national level and within the regional sector.” -Artists Debbie Symons + Jasmine Targett

The Artists - Melbourne based artists + researchers Symons and Targett have worked closely with one another for some years, producing four award-winning bodies of work. Their practices are sustained by significant research with scientists and environmental data organisations.

Image - Jasmine Morgan Ryan + Debbie Symons, Antarctica: Dissolving Perception, 2009. Detail - Present: Ice Shelf State of Cryosphere.

Art Almanac - Editorial Review

Jasmine Targett and Debbie Symons: The Politics of Perception

This exhibition sees artists Debbie Symons and Jasmine Targett map critical issues surrounding the environment. Poetically and potently they chart landmarks of anthropocentric disaster that cannot be found on any atlas or world map. This body of work raises critical issues surrounding the subtleties and complexities associated with humanity and its relationship to environmental change.

Latrobe is Victoria’s largest electricity supplier and is home to a substantial forestry industry. The juxtaposition of exhibiting works that communicate deforestation, ozone hole depletion and species loss in this region is a conscious move on the part of the artists, raising awareness, creating discourse and reflecting on industry impacts.

To read this article in full - https://www.art-almanac.com.au/jasmine-targett-and-debbie-symons-the-politics-of-perception/

Image - Jasmine Morgan Ryan, Blind Spot, 2014. Presented in The Politics of Perception at Latrobe Regional Gallery.

Artwork Presented -

Blind Spot, 2014.

Perspex with steel mirror.

Size - Perspex L 1200 W 1700 H 2200 mm, Mirror - 1200mm diameter.

Images - (above) at Linden Centre for Contemporary Art 2014 (below) Politics of Perception with Debbie Symons at Latrobe Regional Gallery for Art + Climate = Change 2015.

‘In every observation there is a blind spot, the spot on the retina where the optical nerve is connected making the eye blind on that very spot, all one can do is try to move these blind spots, in an effort to catch a glimpse of the invisible’- Krogh Jensen

Blind Spot maps the 20th century tipping point of awareness surrounding environmental concerns – the discovery of the Ozone Hole. Like an iceberg looming in space it is a dark wonder of the natural world that cannot be found on any atlas or world map. Its appearance in our atmosphere every spring is a haunting reminder of how close we come to pushing our environment beyond the point of regeneration.

As the southern Ozone hole appears to be stabilising, the northern hole continues to grow, breaking record after record every year. This provokes a continuing dialogue on the Montreal protocol: did we get it right and is this the first instance of changing global behaviour to correct the imbalance humans have created in nature?

Finding a means to visually and conceptually fathom this in-perceivable aspect of nature, Blind Spot aims to delineate the blind spot in perception that fails to make the connection between existence and the systems within nature that support it. Beyond the visible, these systems can only be seen when aided by lenses and computers. These devices filter nature, offering a techno- romantic glimpse into existence.

“I wanted the viewer to be able to look up and see the ozone hole hovering in the ceiling of the gallery. By creating a lens-like mirror and installing it above the work, I was able to use the mirror like a satellite, to reflect what was otherwise out of view to the earth bound... The work maps the ozone hole filtered through the lens of a computer, revealing its visual similarity to an iceberg. The narrative of the work highlights the history of ongoing issues surrounding global warming and today’s climate change realities.”

Jasmine’s strength is in reinterpreting traditional craft based materials and techniques, working with new technologies to find innovative ways to respond to the issues her work addresses. Observing nature filtered through imagery from NASA’s Earth Observing Satellite Data Centre, Earth’s life support systems become visible within her arts practice.

Today there is a tenuous relationship between the fragility of our environment and its ability to regenerate. The success or failure of this lies in learning how to make the concerns of these invisible aspects of our life support system on Earth visible so that the unforeseeable consequences never eventuate. The forecast for tomorrow’s weather is reliant on our perception of today.

Blind Spot is a continuation of the body of work - Life Support Systems.

Image - Image - Jasmine Morgan Ryan + Debbie Symons, Antarctica: Dissolving Perception, 2009. Detail - Forecast: Heat (right) – changes colour from blue – red depending on the angle viewed.

Antarctica: Dissolving Perception, 2009.

Made collaboratively by artists Jasmine Morgan Ryan and Debbie Symons

Hand blown glass, mirrored, dichroic, silvered and mirrored glass.

L 200 W 200 H150mm (each dome)

Present: Ice Shelf State of Cryosphere (left)

Collective Past: Climatology Trajectory (middle)

Forecast: Heat (right) – changes colour from blue – red depending on the angle viewed.

Antarctica: Dissolving Perception consists of three hand blown glass domes that research the three central issues surrounding scientific documentation of decreased ozone over Antarctica during the last twenty years. Through shifting scale the domes act similarly to a microscope, magnifying the areas of impact on the ice over the landmass. This research discusses the potential implications the forecast for decreasing ice implies.

Data Sourced from : National Snow and Ice Data Center

This artwork debuted in 2011 in Inside the Realm of Invisible Spheres and in the Art + Climate = Change state wide festival in The Politics of Perception at Latrobe Regional Gallery in 2015.