By Mick Sowry
2023
archival inkjet print in American walnut with gold detail
image size: 10x16.7cm
'frame' size: 26.7x36.7x3cm
ARTIST STATEMENT
"These images are largely informed by a lifetime of loving the sea. If they have an aim, I’d say it is simply to open eyes to the wonder in the small as much as the majestic, revealing the things that we don’t take the time to see. A world unfolded in such a way that, I would hope, reinforces our collective desire to save it.
In this tight collection of pieces, I’ve been asked to introduce some small works. By taking near abstract details of larger images, and creating these ‘objects’ I’m seeking to make these small observational moments precious by creating physical ‘windows’—as opposed to conventional frames—to some sort of wonder.
The larger works are landscape, but intimate too, as they are compressed moments that invite you to look deeply, and, again, ask you to reconsider how you see.
I’ve been image making all of my life, resisting moving into a more public space as it was ‘just a thing I did’. I’m still unnerved by exhibiting as it suddenly changes the dynamic of why I do this. But losing Sue changed everything. Life becomes even more precious, and unnerving as well. There is an urge to do.
The theme of the exhibition is again based around the book I published last year – ‘a spark becomes an is’ – which in turn is a line from a poem I’d scribbled in a notebook, one I’d forgotten was there. The book, and the work I show, is is my way of dealing with life, when life comes unstuck."
Mick Sowry is a local photographer, film maker and co owner of The Great Ocean Quarterly - an incredible magazine of ‘art, ideas and the sea’.
