Visible Things

Visible Things
1998
16 wall mounted dinner plates with painted text: 300 mms diameter
suspended glass and metal bowls
reflected light and shadows


'Standing beneath and within the work we find ourselves in a hanging forest of glass and metal crockery, where plates and bowls twirl on invisible fishing wire, as if suspended by an Alice-in-Wonderland anti-gravity. Around the wall, the artist places numerous white plates, each one sporting black text.

Fereday's room of ethereal mobiles both enchanting and quietly provocative. After recovering from the visual dance of light and shadow within the space, we are prompted to read the philosophical statements on each plate. While it s not clear where these words come from, they seem familiar, as if we have hear them before. One phrase, "I am never sure of my place", sums up the cadence of the overall installation: a poetic statement about muddled contemporary identity within a constantly shifting and mirage-like social environment.'

Anna Clabburn, exhibition review, "Restoring our faith in those ordinary things", The Age, 1998


 
 
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