In late 2010, the Australian artist James Geurts and the Canadian-based artist, writer and curator Dr. Julie Louise Bacon travelled to Israel/Palestine for 3 months to undertake a body of practice-based research on the poetics of water. Drawing : on Thresholds explores the ways in which the material and metaphoric properties of water express aspects of the symbolic and social life of the human, as well as our relationship with landscape. The artists based their exploration at water sites of both contemporary and historical interest, developing works using a set of materials and methods, including video, time-lapse photography, text, performance and installation processes.
The subject of water is highly charged both regionally and globally, given its importance to the human on physical, cultural and political levels. In their research work, the artists sought to explore the thresholds between the different languages and spheres of interest that frame water, evoking both the local and the universal. Ultimately, the sense of threshold in the project refers to the transition from poetic to critical space in which the fundamental relationship between the human and water bodies is drawn out. This presentation at CCA proposes a sample moment in the project’s unfolding trajectory.
The artists gratefully acknowledge the support of the artist and curator Adina Bar-on, and Arts Victoria in Australia.
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