Metosis – Meiosis

METOSIS - MEIOSIS

This exhibition of large format colour photographs is inspired by the twin ideas of DNA and inherited memory. The images are about death, decay and transformation, using enlarged details of found objects such as dying flowers, dried seed pods, mould and fungus. Sometimes these objects are superimposed over pages of historical texts, opera guides or newspaper obituaries, playing on the connections between fiction and reality, word and image. Many of the natural forms display strong associations with scars and human flesh, while some photographs show out-of-focus landscapes resembling blurred scenes seen through foggy windows.

Ferman's photographs are exhibited as two long panels of associated imagery running down opposite walls of the gallery. The parallel format refers to the helix configuration that makes up every DNA. On one side are images in cool greens and blues, while on the other are warmer golds, browns and oranges. There is a subtle yet deliberate balance of colour in Ferman's sequence of gem-like tones. The artist refers to the different works as belonging to "the colder, subterranean side" and "the warmer, above-ground side." Together they present a somnambulent atmosphere, rather like the subconscious images that arise from first-level sleep.

"It is a series of parallel images between which the viewer can move," says Ferman. "They are images built on subliminal memory. The images act as prompts, providing clues to the access of a collective memory. Basically my feeling is that if we all have these physically inherited traits like hair colour and eye colour, then why can't we also inherit the thoughts or part of the experiences of our forebears?"

Paul Ferman's work has been seen in galleries and museums in Australia, America and Europe, including the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Wessel + O'Connor Gallery in New York, OPTS Gallery in San Francisco, Galerie Anita Neugebauer in Basel and the recent group show "Uomo Ambiente Territorio," curated by Francesca Pietracci at the Archaeological Museum in Vasta.