Chrys Zantis’ fascination with the parallels and possibilities of art and science, especially neuroscience, underpins a profound exhibition, Hidden in the Folds at Warwick Art Gallery for Jumpers and Jazz in July 2023.
The culmination of works for Hidden in the Folds spans assemblage, photography, textiles, and papercut installation. Using knitting, sewing, embellishing, soft sculpture and intricate papercutting the motifs become a narrative tool to symbolically express topography of land, brain and celestial bodies and their similarities in mapping.
This exhibition expands on Chrys Zantis’ previous exhibitions and residencies which fortified her interest in the human brain. Her new work, for Hidden in the Folds, delves deeper into the relationships between the internal and external. She poses philosophical questions about consciousness and perception, linking concepts by using a powerful mythological narrative.
Cutting edge brain scanning technology witnessed during her residency with Associate Professor Marta Garrido at the Cognitive Neuroscience and Computational Laboratory (University of Melbourne) inspired many of the works, such as two elaborate headdresses using electroencephalography (EEG) caps transformed into mythical helmets showing internal brain structure and fluttering thought processes.
Zantis borrowed the Australian Budgerigar motif used in the neuroscientist’s fMRI experiment to represent thoughts.
The 1000 paper birds, in the installation Murmuration, is a work of poetry and beauty. She explains the inspiration for this beautiful artwork. “Linked by powerful mythological narrative, these thought budgerigars take flight across the wall. Their shifting size and directions suggest a real flock of birds frozen in an ever-lasting murmuration: the enchanting phenomenon of collective flight patterns that lends the artwork its name. Some birds are hand beaded, others cut from printed maps.” The artist will be working with Gallery volunteers to install all 1000 budgerigars on the foyer wall.
Gallery Director Karina Devine, on one of several meetings with the artist, specifically requested that one of Chrys’ earlier works be included in the Warwick exhibition. The Land Squeezed the Life out of Me is a custom made easy chair that represents the psychological narratives faced by women living in isolation on the land.
“This work tells a multi layered tale of a woman who followed her love from Milan to South Australia. At first romanced by the farm life and land, as the seasons came and went, she found the life and toil on the farm relentless and smothering”, says Ms Devine, “The clever physicality of the armchair that Chrys designed with the arm rests rolling inwards instead of outwards gives a tangible experience when you sit in it, you feel comfortable but also just a little smothered.”
Hidden in the Folds interrogates relationships between the human mind, body and consciousness, as well as the pattern of synchronicities between us and the natural world. It is a sophisticated exploration into our uniqueness and similarities from scientific, mythological and metaphysical perspectives.
Chrys is presenting a workshop, an exhibition floor talk and an illustrated lecture alongside the exhibition as part of Warwick Art Gallery’s program during Jumpers and Jazz in July. Her work also inspired a new and lighthearted event called Yarn Bomb Your Brain which invites creative individuals or groups to make and wear something that either warms or represents embodies our wonderful brains. Credit Union and Rose City Artz n Framing have sponsored the $500 prize pool.
Book for workshops and talks at www.warwicktickets.com.au
Warwick Art Gallery opens every day during the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival from 10am to 4pm.
Jumpers and Jazz in July begins on Thursday the 20 July and continues until Sunday the 30 July.
The full festival program is on the festival website www.jumpersandjazz.com.au
