Narelle Autio’s Collection Water Hole

 

Image: Untitled #14, 2012 – Type C print

82 x 120cm, edition of 8 + 2 AP

I am inspired by this collection in particular because I think there has been a focus on light. The water reflection shown in this image, as well as those in the rest of the collection demonstrate the reflection of light and water.

Narelle's Water Hole collection of 28 prints has the power to make you feel as though you are diving the dark mysterious depths of the ocean; they almost have a sense of claustrophobia with the pressure of the weight of the water on your chest, but give you an astonishing look into life underwater.

The dark undertones make you feel as though you are being drawn into the darkness but that life is still around you as you head towards the only light available to you. The addition of plant and animal life is like a reassurance that you are not plunging to the depths of darkness below.

“Narelle Autio’s vibrant and award-winning images of Australian coastal life have won her impressive national and international acclaim. Since they were first exhibited at Stills Gallery in 2000, her vivid photographs have also captured the hearts and imaginations of viewers. One beauty of Autio’s work is its ability to speak to so many people about their own experience of being coastal dwellers. Another is the play of colour and light in the photographs, giving them a magic and painterly quality that transcends the usual depictions of the beach. Autio’s images give back to the coastline the complexity, drama and beauty that are eroded by postcards and clichés.

Narelle Autio’s new work Water Hole 2012 celebrates the otherworldly beauty of the dark waters she encountered whilst travelling through parts of Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Driving through these dry and remote areas, she found herself pulled towards the isolated bodies of water that dot the landscape. These water holes dictated the path of her travels, crossing the parched earth of the day to arrive at waters edge by afternoon. Her underwater worlds contain an element of dark fantasy, like the mythological underworld of Persephone. Plant life rises, waxy and gnarled in texture like sculptural forms, weed scratches the surface of the visual plane like abstract expressionist drips of paint and uncountable hexagons of light seem to equally construct the images from dots as they fleck and obliterate their surfaces.”


Source: http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/autio/index.php?obj_id=main&nav=1