Carlton Gallery Exhibition - It's Been Bit of a Weird One

"It’s been a bit of a weird one."

Carol Bisset is a Tauranga based artist and teacher with a studio at the Incubator in the Historic Village; she has exhibited extensively across New Zealand and Australia.

Ongoing recent events connected to the pandemic outbreak have tested our resolve to stay connected physically and emotionally. For many of us it has made us examine our sense of ‘belonging’ and where we call home.

Carol’s body of work is a personal response to some of the key issues that have arisen as a result of the pandemic; issues relating to identity, anonymity, ownership and connectedness.

Every object in this exhibition acts like a ‘drawing’, in that it describes people, places and time, sometimes obliquely by way of a diffused shadow of text cast on the wall, or symbolically as with the cast buttons differentiated only by the coloured shadow they leave behind.

The coloured ‘trace’ on the wall from multiple buttons acts as a reminder of the loss of personal identity when those affected by the pandemic become nothing more than a series of media statistics.
Strong directional light, and the ability to play with shadows has become an important feature in Carol’s work; it acts like a focal lens in which shadows intensify as the viewer changes their angle of vision.

Light and shadow add depth and perspective to the plastic chains, quietly mirroring elements that may at first glance be unseen. On closer examination the work reveals the familiar ‘covid commentary’, interspersed with private messages.

The fluctuations that take place within the work remind us of the state of uncertainty, fragility and impermanence we find ourselves in today.