Double Sun
Jamie Edward
Opening Event
Thursday 8 December 2022
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Double Sun is a series of illustrations and sculptural works by Jamie Edward inspired by childhood drawings. In attempt to find a simple beauty in both process and outcome, the exhibition offers a light-hearted examination of our world and the significance of the sun.
The selection of sculptures and drawings in the exhibition capture both the small cycles of plants turning to the sun, and the longer cycles of the turning seasons. Double Sun illuminates the loose mess of making art, and the joy of living with nature.
The works in Double Sun developed in response to an attempt to make sense of the political and environmental turbulence of recent years. Through open and exploratory work – where a loose and tactile approach allowed for a narrative to gently develop – the sun emerged as a unifying symbol that shapes and informs the human experience. The exhibition orients itself towards the sun, as an essential site of nature, joy and pleasure; as well as part of a cycle of darkness and light.
From the temperate climate of Bruny Island, the works were produced from a location where the presence of the sun is always welcome. The relative remoteness of the island encourages a creative attention with shifts in the weather and light, and the works in Double Sun reflect how the sun provides this vitality and energy. The sun falls on the petals of native orchid flowers that turn towards the light through the day, tomato plants grow tall towards it, people stretch their limbs into it.
These artworks capture personal experiences of the sun, and also reflect on the significance of the sun in art, philosophy, astronomy and literature throughout history. While there is warmth and joy in this work, Double-Sun also references the cold and darkness experienced in the sun’s absence as we turn and transition into night and move through the seasons.
Double Sun attempts to document the intrinsic nature of the sun, through a simple and raw form of ark making. The exhibition is a celebration of the messy, naive and uninhibited expression of creativity. The process of allowing for mistakes and exploratory techniques results in work that catches a glimpse of an elusive moment or idea through abstract representation. Both the subject matter and the art making process are honest, natural and unfiltered.
The exhibition expands upon the artist’s previous work that repeats a simple idea through showing a motif at scale. The every-day quality of the sun – an essential but seldom considered part of daily lives – is brought into focus through this repetition and isolated attention. Double Sun continues the artist’s distinctive approach of using a lighthearted and humorous energy that is underscored with themes of waste and darkness. The works are both bright and grubby, but always joyful in their murkiness.
This exhibition is supported through Arts Tasmania.
