When the Day had Left the Garden
125 x 186 cm
Oil on canvas, box framed in black timber.
"For most of us in Australia, the aurora australis is something that happens further south in Tasmania. With the recent solar activity, and the camera in our pocket, people are pointing their phones at an ordinary dark sky and pulling something extraordinary out of it. Ribbons of red and green that our eyes simply can’t register on their own made me wonder if it was always there but we previously didn’t have the tools to witness it. That idea sits quietly inside this painting. Glazing layers of red and green were built up beneath the surface in colours that exist in the work the way the aurora exists in the sky. In person they’re subtle but hold your phone up to the painting and the camera finds them the way it finds the aurora; to draw forward what is always present but not always perceived." – Kelly Kondis
