BIG PINK

Exhibited

• BIG PINK, Solo Exhibition, Galerie pompom, Sydney. 31 October - 24 November 2019

Erica Seccombe, BIG PINK 2019, installation view at Galerie pompom. Photo: Docqment

BIG PINK

In this new work I explore the saturated colour and the extravagant geometric structure and perfection of a common Dahlia. This multi-petalled variety has been derived through centuries of genetic manipulation to create an appealing and aesthetically perfect flower. Of course, the flower is simultaneously a reproductive organ, and a moment of transition and evolution in the plant’s natural life cycle. Trying to capture the balance between the flower’s hybrid artificiality and its sensuosity underpins these works. I would like people viewing Big Pink to be intrigued, to be seduced by the beauty of the dahlias and to reflect upon their relationships with plants, and the perilous state in which we find nature now.

The mirrored surfaces of the prints in Big Pink and the accompanying film, break down conventional ideas of perspective through the distortion of distance and fragmentation of images. In the reflective surfaces we can see ourselves and our environments through and around the image of the Dahlia. In the film, an optical illusion, a virtual flower rotates in the space before us and is reflected in the prints. The mirrors and film enhance the virtual experience of this work, but the Dahlia we see here is a virtual object in the true sense of the word. The flower is not mesh-framed, instead I have used 3D micro-CT scanning* to acquire volumetric datasets from a living flower. Rendering and visualising the virtual data in an open-source software called Drishti assists in recreating the living Dahlia in a permanent digital and virtual dimension.I hope these works will challenge your perception and transfix you in a moment of wonder.

Big thankyous

• George, Samantha and Ron at Galerie pompom

• Jose Smith, for her stunning Dahlia,

• Dr Ashley Latimer for her inspired 3D Micro-CT expertise,

• Jason O’Brien for his inkjet printing guidance,

• Ajay Limaye; Drishti: a volume exploration and presentation tool,

• ANU Department of Applied Mathematics,

• Vizlab, NCI,

• ANU Centre for Advanced Microscopy, and CT-Lab,

• ANU School of Art & Design, Inkjet Print Facility,

* 3D micro-X-ray Computed Tomography (3D micro-CT) records a fully three-dimensional map of X-ray opacity throughout the entire volume of the object, with microscopic resolution. The system developed at ANU delivers a resolution of two microns, which is approximately 100 times the resolution of a medical CT instrument.