David Jolly
David Jolly Hothouse
7 February –8 March 2008
In this exhibition, we have the great joy in uniting works David Jolly completed during a year long residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia, in 2006 with a new body of work that David has been working on since his return that draws on his experience of Malaysia.
The two bodies of work have never been exhibited alongside each other, but together they intertwine to create is an intimate visual journey through diminutive glimpses of Malaysia seen through the eyes of David Jolly.
The sensation of being immersed in the world is a key feature of Jolly’s aesthetic. The layered pictorial spaces draw us into their intriguing sense of depth. Reflections envelop us in a wrap-around world. We find ourselves looking at things from a very personal and embedded points of view.
In the process of creating this new body of work Jolly has immersed himself in his immediate surroundings and provided us with insights on contemporary Malaysia. Many of his observations focus on the fecundity of modern life in the Malaysian hothouse. The smokestacks of an oil refinery rise like snorkels from a seemingly infinite sea of plantation palms… A broken highchair, sitting in a dry riverbed, supports a satellite disk that turns its hopeful face towards the heavens. We find ourselves in the mids of a complex ecology where modern industry and the natural environment seem to feed off the same elan vital. Jolly’s artworks invite us into this volatile mix and ask us to feel both its horror and its beauty.
Stephen Zagala, Melbourne, 2006