Steph Fuller
two minutes to midnight.
Curated by Steph Cibich
Featuring work by Steph Fuller and Emilija Kasumovic
FELTspace
12 Compton St, Adelaide, South Australia
Opening Night: Wed 1 April 2020
Last Day: Sat 18 April 2020
Gallery hours:
Wed: 1pm - 4pm
Thu: 1pm - 4pm
Fri: 1pm- 7pm
Sat: 10am - 4pm
or by appointment
Our world is going to end. It’s just a matter of time.
We live in troubled times. Our existence is cast against a backdrop of escalating climate risks, misinformation and nuclear tensions. Despite all efforts, the new normal feels like a pendulum clock swaying tenuously between progress and Armageddon.
Individuals too feel the weight of time in their everyday lives. Time is relentless, indifferent and before we know it, time is up. How we use our time is critical and in our globalised climate, time is ultimately about keeping score. Because deep down, we’re all counting.
two minutes to midnight. is informed by the Doomsday Clock. Designed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, this metaphorical timepiece warns the public about how close humanity is to destroying itself and our planet with dangerous technologies, nuclear warfare and climate change. At the time of this exhibition’s conception, the Doomsday Clock was set at two minutes to midnight; the closest setting to the end of time as we know it since the Cold War. Now, in 2020 we are closer still, highlighting the urgency of a global existential crisis and the accelerating pace at which our future slips between our fingers.
two minutes to midnight. invites emerging artists Steph Fuller (SA) and Emilija Kasumovic (SA) to respond to these ideas through sensitive investigations of contemporary existence. Curated by Steph Cibich (SA) and presented as part of the 2020 FELTspace Emerging Curator Program, this exhibition features new photographic, video and installation works produced in response to one another’s practice and inspired by collaborative conversations between the artists and curator.
Steph Fuller
Fuller is a South Australian artist working with still and moving images. Her camera-based works explore the natural world under the cover of nightfall, exposing the lesser known vulnerabilities of creatures and objects.
‘When this work was created, Australia was on fire. Every day I saw the devastation on the news and watched fire icons appearing on the state map. A nation was pushed past breaking point. A broken government paraded its flaws. I could do little more than watch both fire and ignorance spread, and mourn the death of the lucky country.’ – Steph Fuller
Emilija Kasumovic
Kasumovic works within an expanded practice of drawing, sculpture and installation. Fascinated in natural phenomena, her work analyses the intersections between science, spirituality and the temporal fragility of materials.
‘We are grappling with the fast pace of change and nihilistic anxiety brought on by annihilating climate change. In response to this, my work includes a spatial installation mimicking both the edge and the surface of water. Polyvinyl stream-like threads are hung to impart a sense of the in-between and the flux in which we currently stand; not quite over the edge, but on the threshold. As viewers navigate in and around the work, they are immersed and connected in this liminal space, in-between the light and the dark abyss.‘ – Emilija Kasumovic
Front Gallery
Emilija Kasumovic
Front Gallery
portraits of the elderly (the quiet Australians) (working title)
Steph Fuller
During the making of another work, I found myself suddenly aware of the personhood of the adolescent gum trees in my backyard. I put a hand to one, leaning into its steadfastness as it supported my weight. I took in the texture of its skin, and noticed the blemishes it was adorned with.
These are black and white portraits of trees. Just as a black and white photograph of an old person asks the viewer to take the time to appreciate the sitter's lived experience, I hope that the viewer sees something human in my subjects. Without any colour to take cues from, the skin of these trees are as telling as a grandmother's hands.
These prints will be uniformly presented on the walls of the front gallery.
Back Gallery
The Australian Dream
Steph Fuller
This video was made while Australia was on fire, in my backyard on a warm afternoon in January.
The hose running on a hot day felt like something tied to my Australian upbringing.
The water spreading is intended to reference the way that fires spread throughout the country over Dec 2019 / Jan 2020.
This work may / may not have accompanying sound - yet to be determined.
Below is a 5 min excerpt, full video pending upload.
5 min excerpt from The Australian Dream, 2020
FELTdark
Night Sky (working title)
Steph Fuller
This video work will play in the FELTdark space (facing out into the street and played after hours).
It is the first time I have superimposed multiple videos together.
It is intended to represent the night sky.
The insects are all dying.
At one point, the insects are arranged to mimic the Southern Cross constellation and
the Pointers (but they move around so it is only fleeting).
This work will go for longer and have more insects (they will be duller so that the constellation is still apparent)