Jamie North: Terraforms at Sarah Cottier Gallery
Living sculptures encapsulating the timeless connection between nature and humanity.
Overview
Jamie North's work is bound to be unlike any art practice you've seen before. Using a single exposed column as a clue, the sculptures featured in his newest exhibition, Terraforms are modelled on the pillars encased in Sarah Cottier Gallery. However, from the slick base upwards the pillars slowly disintegrate, housing micro-environments of many different plant species. Mirrored by the hard glossy floor, it is as if these sculptures are caught in a process of premature decay, invoking a poetic image of ancient ruins being reclaimed by nature. There's even a few companion columns shaped like the remnants of a gate.
Through his practice, North addresses how landscapes are impacted by industry. The accelerated erosion of his sculptures could be interpreted as an ominous reflection of the way we ceaselessly churn through limited resources. In this way, the temporal jolt that comes with this ruinous aesthetic seems to frame humanity retrospectively. In spite of the monolithic appearance of these structures, they are actually built of industrial waste. There is a sharp irony wherein organic life is supported by coal ash and steel stag.
However, North also undermines the monumentalism that has captivated civilisation and infers towards the fallacy of building something that will last forever. The colossal structures of our time are destined to crumble and be re-absorbed back into the landscape they once colonized. North seems to create a microcosmic, gallery-tailored version of this cyclic power struggle between natural and artificial.
Chiselling down the centre of these pillars, North plants the seeds of environmental recuperation. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Australian plant life and unless you're an ecology buff, the subtleties between species might be lost. As greenery clings to concrete, it also reaches upwards and outwards, becoming entwined with other shoots. Combined with the rough composite material of the pillar's core, we are witnessing a back-to-basics blossoming of little ecosystems. There is a deep sense of time and process embedded in these works, as well as an organic re-modelling of structures in anticipation of sustainability.
In addition to North's sculptures, there is an accompanying pair of black and white photographs. Aptly titled Moving Mountains, the glistening contours of these steel slag mountains create the impression that loose stones are sliding forward. Importantly, this is an example of manmade geography, perhaps an example of the kind of monumentalism North negates with his sculptures. Nevertheless, these images reinforce his preoccupation with the various phases of industry. North is keenly aware of how we manipulate environments, rehearsing the way in which materials are extracted from nature, refined, accumulated, used, and potentially re-used.
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