‘Little Secrets’ is a progression of Patricia Casey’s interest in interior worlds, private spaces, memory and dreams.
Patricia Casey: Little Secrets
4-22 March 2014
NG Art Gallery
3 Little Queen Street, Chippendale, NSW Australia
[Above:] The Lingering
“We all have an inner core that we don’t reveal, even to those we are most intimate with: little secrets that we keep to ourselves; mental landscapes inaccessible to others. This work is very much about being alone with yourself: finding peace in the quiet; a time to process life.”
Patricia Casey
“The place in us we retreat to, the place where we hide without being seen by others, the refuge we seek when we are afraid, and the dark sanctum that makes lies possible, but also daydreams and reveries and bad thoughts and intense internal dialogues.”
Extract from The Shaking Woman by Siri Hustvedt Secret
Little Secrets is a progression of Patricia Casey’s interest in interior worlds, private spaces, memory and dreams. Her subjects are caught in a moment of private reverie, veiled by elements of the natural world. The mundane is manipulated and transformed into a surreal tableau in which the viewer is invited into a state of internal reflection.
These photographic montages, printed on archival cotton fabric, are all delicately hand embroidered by Casey ““ individual works taking anywhere between 10-40 hours. Using glittering thread and coloured cotton, the artist follows the contours of branches, leaf patterns and blossoms with tiny backstitch and French knots ““ mimicking the circulatory system and nerve pathways hidden within the human body. A flow of energy gently vibrates from the surface of each artwork, enticing the viewer to imagine a secret world beneath these dreamlike images.
There are layers of complexity in Casey’s works. Beauty is contrasted with unease and we are uncertain as to whether the subjects gaze is inward or outward; are they the watched or the watching; hidden or revealed?
Casey’s work makes reference to the historical tradition of “memento mori” in which a lock of human hair, embroidery, fabric, or ribbon are used to decorate the frame or surface area around a treasured photograph, thus transforming the image from a documentary tool into a vehicle of the present.
Little Secrets
About Patricia Casey
Patricia Casey was the Winner of the Head On Photographic Portrait Prize in 2006 and has been a finalist almost every year since. Since beginning her exhibiting career in 1999, she has been a multiple-prize finalist in numerous national competitions. Patricia is internationally recognised having had countless solo-exhibitions locally and abroad. Her works are held in significant public and private collections.
Patricia’s ongoing research deals with the themes of memory, dreams and imagination. While her work is primarily located within photography, Patricia combines her photography with mixed media, craft and installation techniques such as embroidery and crochet to create works that hover between worlds.
Patricia currently has work in a group show at Stephanie Hoppen Gallery in London.
She recently exhibited in the group Summer Show, at Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst.
A Half Truth
View all the images on the artist’s website at www.patriciacasey.com.au
[Text and images supplied by Cassie French at www.popupp.com.au]