rotton sun
rotton sun - projection installation, hand printed photographs. Exhibited as part of Silent Raptures at Stockroom Gallery in Kyneton, July 2020. Curation and exhibition text by Angela Connor. Artists: Belle Bassin, Jeremy Bakker, Adam Boyd, Mel Dixon, Jasper Jacobson and Lucy Foster.
https://stockroomspace.com/silent-raptures-curated-by-angela-connor
Silent Raptures presents the work of six artists exploring presence and absence. The works form a collective of perennial questions relating to time, mortality and meaning.
Lucy Foster’s video work rotten sun, compiles footage of a smoke-hazed sun taken from online archives of the 2020 Australian bushfires. The title of the work comes from Georges Bataille’s text of the same name, who describes the sun as the most abstract object. The sun, in this instance, becomes a focal point of extreme weather conditions. Veiled by smoke, the rare sight is filmed by a collective of people through their phones across different locations and points in time.
Foster’s use of the sun's image elicits an overwhelming response, oscillating between a sense of awe and terror. On the one hand, the everlasting beauty of the sun alludes us, and on the other, our attention weighs heavy on the ominous truth that is signified by the red fissure in the sky. rotten sun gives example to the endless archive of digital imagery, and how each of us unconsciously film the same subjects through a metaphorical lens. In an age characterised by denial, the smoke enables the once blinding sun to be seen - an abstract object then enters into reality.
Order of Imagery:
1. Video Documentation of 'rotten sun,' projection onto floating screen, 6:05 minutes, Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton, July 2020.
2. Photo Documentation of 'rotten sun,' projection onto floating screen, Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton, July 2020.
3. Photo Documentation of 'portrait' & 'fissure', chromogenic handprint on gloss, stained Tasmanian Oak frame, 8x10,” Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton, July 2020.
© Lucy Foster. Living and working between Naarm (Melbourne) and Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Castlemaine) on unceded land belonging to the Wurundjeri and Jaara Jaara people of the Kulin Nation.