Absence of the Inner
3-29 August, 2009
An empty vitrine, void of material matter other than hot air, suggests suffocation. It alludes to the fate of the subject inside suffering a slow death. Paradoxically, hot sticky air can also generate life, such as within a hot house. With these ideas in mind, Claire Gallagher surrounds an empty glass vitrine with a mix of living pot plants and taxidermied animals. The environment she creates is oddly eerie and monstrous, yet at the same time illustrates a continuation of life. Absence of the Inner suggests that the human desire to control, manipulate and contain the living may originate in an underlying fear of a rampant, uncontrollable nature.
Claire Gallagher is currently completing her Honours degree in Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts and works across sculpture and installation to create environments that explore the tensions and parallels between the living and the dead, the artificial and the natural.
