UNION

Recurring themes of nature, landscape and creation have
been used symbolically throughout history, from religious
paintings to literature. For thousands of years’ artists have
depicted plant-life to express our complex relationship to
nature along with our desire to control and consume it.
Jamie North is a Sydney-based artist known for his innovative
sculptural works which use waste concrete, steel slag and other
industrial by-products in combination with native Australian plants.
Taking inspiration from the vast scale and severity of manufacturing
processes in direct comparison to the beauty
and fragility of the delicate flora contained within the work.
This duality is used to question our motives and need to consume
while also reminding us to seek out beauty in the discarded.
By using and subverting construction materials, North is highlighting
to the viewer the impact of industry which is hidden from our daily
existence.
North’s preoccupation with methods of construction is evident within
the works through the interplay of surface and texture,
skin and structure, mass and volume. The introduction of glass as a
new material serves both as a practical container which creates and
sustains life as well as a comment on the material itself, which has its
own issues with waste and consumerism.
The works within this exhibition, UNION, offer us an opportunity
to rethink the relationship between art and environment, and the
bringing together of artistic, philosophical and scientific practices.
Jamie North is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
2 | UNION | 5 SEPTEMBER TO 20 OCTOBER, 2019