Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present Lemon Light, the solo exhibition by Alichia van Rhijn, awarded the 2019 Sabbia Gallery Exhibition Prize for National Art School Graduates in Ceramics.
Alichia van Rhijn is a South African born Australian artist. With a background in architecture and design she has a passion for creating sculptural and installation-based objects and forms that examine memory, trace, trauma, experience and loss. Solo shows include; A Sense Of Being, Gallerysmith and The Middle Distance at Boom Gallery in 2019; My Mother Told Me (Never Wear Pink And Red Together) at Stockroom Kyneton in 2020; and most recently Smoke Signals at Stockroom Kyneton.
Lemon Light by Alichia van Rhijn, presents sculptural works that reference early memories of childhood, both before her immigration to Australia and after. Multi-faceted elements and anthropomorphic forms are in a state of flux. Shifting and changing as they span the fluidity of time, these forms investigate phenomenological notions, alluding to personal and shared experience, memory, nostalgia and trauma. Through the use of distilled minimalist forms, symbolic and ritualistic totems are arranged throughout the space, hoping to initiate pause and contemplation.
van Rhijn’s installations catalogue her experience of displacement through material investigation, where memory and experience of place are key elements. ‘Making as thinking’ paired with an experimental approach to process and technology underpins the creation of objects that float between the real and a child-like whimsical world that elicits an urge to interact and play.
