WorksWriting
Caroline Rothwell’s Borderlands
by Anne Loxley
online catalogue, published by Tolarno Galleries
With Borderlands Caroline Rothwell presents her latest fictional world, a bizarre, beguiling meditation on torment, borders, invasion and the environmental consequences of human endeavor.
There is a series of machine embroideries on canvas titled Urpflanze. This title is borrowed from the German writer Goethe (1749-1832) who conceived of the [...]
Architecture of Shadows: the sculptures of Caroline Rothwell
by Christine Morrow
Caroline Rothwell, Blowback, Artspace, Sydney, 4 to 26 April 2008
Sculptures by Caroline Rothwell mostly take the form of filled volumes created by distending fabric and vinyl forms with air or molten metal. These volumes derive from borrowed images of plants, landscapes and other representations of the natural world. The artist starts with an [...]
Transmutation
at TOLARNO GALLERIES
Transmutation, a pre-Darwinian word used to describe ideas of evolutionary change is also an alchemical term referring to the attempt to change a base metal into a precious metal. Both these terms are relevant to Caroline Rothwell’s practice where science, art and perception collide.
Rothwell’s work revolves around our relationship with the natural [...]
What happens when a Mouse Breeds with a Tiger
by Ashley Crawford
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
– William Blake: The Tyger (from Songs Of Experience)
What happens when a mouse breeds with a tiger? And, in this [...]
Slamina
by Jonathan Turner
Cinema is filled with examples of the chaos that ensues when some sort of creature is genetically engineered, scientifically altered or simply thrust into a man-made time-warp. Such classic films as Frankenstein, The Fly, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Godzilla, The Day of the Triffids, King Kong and Jurassic Park provide us with [...]
The Law of Unintended Consequences
by Anneke Jaspers
Caroline Rothwell’s drawings, sculptures and installations consider evolving relationships between humans and the natural environment. Drawing upon a diverse range of sources, from first contact drawings to site-specific historical archives, her works extend the apparent objectivity of these found references into fictive territory. The natural becomes peculiar and un-natural, the familiar strange.
In her [...]
Kotuku
by Lara Strongman
The kotuku is the native white heron, a bird that, in Mäori culture, symbolises all things beautiful and rare. The saying ‘He Kotuku rerenga tahi’ refers to the white heron as a bird of single flight—a sight seen perhaps only once in a lifetime.
Inspired by the kotuku from the bird halls at [...]
The Weeds of Arcadia
by Nicholas Alfrey
All the pieces exhibited here were made during Caroline Rothwell’s three-month residency at the Lakeside Arts Centre at the University of Nottingham. Rothwell is known for her work as a sculptor, but recently her practice has been focused more on site-based drawing, working directly on the wall with signwriters’ vinyl. Her motifs have [...]
Hybrid
Presented as part of Terminus 2006, Hybrid is a site-specific artwork, influenced by a drawing of Sydney Cove by convict artist, Thomas Watling in 1793. The drawing is the artist’s first impression of a gum tree in the Australian landscape, then a daunting new frontier. Rather than a botanical representation, the drawing resembles [...]
Ink Blot Test
Shadows are not part of the real world, but the appearance of a shadow testifies to the solidity of an object, for what casts a shadow must be real.
E. H. Gombrich, 1995
But there is one thing which the severest and mildest cases all have in common, and which is equally found in parapraxes and chance [...]