Where the Light Falls: Stories of the Everyday

This new work explores the idea that human presence can be deeply felt, even when unseen. It invites the viewer to imagine the narratives and lives that unfold within quiet, intimate spaces, where the intangible presence of inhabitants lingers. Light plays a critical role as both witness and storyteller, illuminating remnants of daily life and drawing the viewer into the subtle drama of domestic interiors, where it reveals, conceals, and transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

As the philosopher and phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty stated, “painting does not imitate the visible; it renders visible.” In this body of work, I investigate the interplay of light and shadow to reveal how the act of seeing conjures a world that exists in the tension between the visible and the invisible, the known and the unknowable.

The theme of absence as presence has long been central to my practice. From the large-scale depictions of empty dresses in the late 1980s and 1990s to the empty roads and landscapes that followed, my work positions the viewer as a witness — someone who recognises, yet is separated from, familiar scenes. These works serve as reminders that we are always only the observer of others’ lives, not the participant, and can never know the full story.

This latest body of work is directly influenced by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and the prolonged lockdowns in Melbourne. Spending extended periods at home, I observed the changing qualities of light through the seasons and the ebb and flow of domestic life, both during the day and on restless nights, discovering a new landscape within my own walls.

Adriane Strampp
September 2024

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JAN MANTON GALLERY
54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe
Qld 4005 Australia

HOURS:

Tuesday – Friday 10am – 5pm
Saturday 11am – 4pm

Shadowlands 2016 oil on linen, 91 x 274 cm

View catalogue here.

JAN MANTON ART
1/93 Fortescue St Spring Hill
QLD 4000 AUSTRALIA

HOURS
WED-FRI by appointment only
SAT 10am-4pm

www.janmanton.com

Transition 2015 oil on linen 152 x 152 cm

This new work by Adriane Strampp continues to explore the remembered landscape; fragmented views of journeys made reflecting Strampp’s own peripatetic upbringing and sense of dislocation. It reflects upon the passage of time, absence, memory and loss, portrayed in largely monochromatic, improbable colour. The work posits our own tendency to colour our memories and reflections.

As Strampp describes a sense of transience and motion when there is no final destination, we are taken along for the ride, fleeting glimpses of the passing landscape that give us non-specific views that nevertheless involve a sense of familiarity. It is the movement, the lack of connection that concerns her, rather than the traditional art historical landscape. Occasional reflections are placed across works such as Rise 2015, deliberate visual barriers, so separating the viewer from the landscape, transforming them instead into an objective observer. As with her earlier work, subtle visual barriers at odds with the image are frequently employed as a means of creating uncertainty and unrest.

Strampp’s surface is a time-consuming construction involving the use of wax and delicate colour washes that depict the hazy, ephemeral and elusive nature of memory. As paint is allowed to run and dissolve there is a melancholic sense of transience and at the same time, in keeping with the notion of fleeting memory, other areas are painted in detail. The strong hues are used for their capacity to elicit emotional responses, as well as to capture the subjective nature of memory.

Download catalogue here.

For all enquiries please contact jan@janmantonart.com | +61 7 3831 3060

JAN MANTON ART
1/93 Fortescue St Spring Hill
QLD 4000 AUSTRALIA

HOURS
WED-FRI by appointment only
SAT 10am-4pm

www.janmanton.com