FAMILIAR STRANGE

 

MAMA ALBURY JUNE 01, 2023

 

This collection of new works by artist Julianne Piko seeks a place where human and natural forms co-exist, between the enormity of the past and the prospect of an ecologically uncertain future.

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Many of the works in Familiar Strange consider the material life of products like ceramic and masonry. These are materials that outlive the individuals who craft them, existing as either useable objects or relics for thousands of years. It is possible to imagine a world where these materials remain after our species has gone. The organic matter that is presented alongside these forever materials such as honeycomb, charred timber and dried flowers, create a sense that the various lifespans of all these elements co-exist only in this moment. They will move out of alignment as time moves on.

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Informing these ideas of permanence and entropy is a set of visual cues that speak across time - ranging from hard edge architectural abstraction to forms that speak to ancient ritual. Other recurring motifs are water, reflection, and balance.

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All these considerations amount to a collection of works where the preciousness of the present moment is central. It is in the present where decisions are made about what materials we leave for the future. It is where we decide what we learn from the past and what we ignore. These moments dictate what impact we have on the world that exists beyond us.

- Micheal Moran, Curator MAMA (Murray Art Museum Albury)