The Coming Storm

OPENING DRINKS 5:30-8pm Wednesday 25 September.

Curatorial+Co. is delighted to present a new photographic series by Sydney-based photographer, Simon Cardwell, in our Woolloomooloo gallery.

Throughout this body of work, Simon takes narrative cues from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, exploring the mythological structure of the ‘hero’s journey’. This narrative arc is widely adopted in both literature and film to assert and mirror daily life – challenge, struggle and resolve. Simon has crafted moments from the hero’s journey within this series, which is reflected in the titling of the works. His cinematic approach extends to the process of composing each image where the sky acts as the set, flowers as props, and wildlife takes the stage as characters within each story.

A sense of trepidation is imbued through these meticulously constructed images. Simon oscillates between backdrops of dark clouds, open skies or pink-orange sunset to communicate the uncertainty of change. The timeless allure of flowers serves to beautify the images but also reminds the viewer that the scene is a construct. By seeking and photographing foreign or tropical floral species, he further enhances the surreal otherness of his images. Foreboding is present within each element of the composition, through the placement of each wildlife species creating behavioural tension that mimics posturing. Simon then positions each species in a manner that is poetically dark – snakes wrapped around a stem, butterflies dripping in blood and groups of circling birds in the background.

Simon uses the attractiveness of these natural elements to allure the viewer into the image and then expose dark moments hidden within the work. The fundamental power of Simon’s work is that they are both familiar and unseen – another impossibility that he brings to life in his photographs.