Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present this beautiful exhibition from South Australian glass artist, Jessica Loughlin.
Loughlin’s works encapsulate an emotive response to the wide open spaces of the Australian landscape and how they affect us. Her work deals with seeing places we can’t reach – seeing this distance.
For her exhibition, the first solo since 2011, it is the familiar space above us, one we can only ever look upon, never truly be in, which inspires her. “We can only remain on the edge of an this infinite space. Is this a real place or a space for our imagination?” Rather than landscape her works aim to be an embodiment of a state of mind, a cerebral stillness.
Loughlin’s new works alludes to air more than any previous works, “My landscapes are blurry and by using a combination of light and glass they address visibility and the act of seeing”.. More than representing place itself she is interested in the viewer and how we perceive place and respond to it. For this exhibition she has been influenced by the transition some of the romantic painters made in the relationship between the landscape and the viewer, such as Casper David Fredrich’s “Wander Above the Sea Fog” 1818 and some of John Constable paintings including the cloud series. I am more interested in their ideas rather than the dramatic paintings. As Fredrich said “Close your body eye so that you may see the picture first with your spiritual eye” and it is this spiritual eye that I am seeking to understand.
