Slidings
Solo Exhibition at The Lock Up, Newcastle. 2017
In his solo exhibition SLIDINGS, artist Jamie North uses the dark history of The Lock-Up as a back drop for the narrative of a tragic accident involving North’s great grandfather at Lysaght's steel works in 1932. This family history is fused with Newcastle’s industrial heritage, reflected in the materiality of the artwork produced for this exhibition: raw steel and the waste products of it’s manufacture - slag and scale.
There is a pervasive sense of a world at tipping point, or perhaps past the point of return in North's work. His installations are an exploration of the tension that exists between humans and nature and the inescapable cycles of corrosion, decomposition and renewal.
Jessi England Sideris - Director, The Lock Up
Slidings 2017 (installation view)
Heraclitus 2017
cement, coal ash, blast furnace slag, iron, steel, various Australian plants, including:
Aphanopetalum resinosum (gum vine)
Pandorea pandorana (wonga-wonga vine)
Pyrrosia rupestis (rock-felt fern)
Ficus rubiginosa (Port Jackson fig)
Dictymia brownie (strap fern)
78cm x 47cm
Heraclitus 2017 (detail)
Ingress and Egress 2017
cement, blast furnace slag, blue metal, iron
32cm x 35cm and 50cm x 38cm
Remainder No.12 (on steel incline) 2017
cement, blast furnace slag, marble dust, steel
30cm dia
Remainder No.10 2017
cement, blast furnace slag, marble dust, steel, Pyrrosia rupestris (rock-felt fern)
33cm dia
Oracle Bone 2017
found steel scale, steel plate, cement, coal ash
160cm x 50cm
Rock Suspension (Newcastle) 2017
blast furnace slag, steel, various Australian plants, including:
Geitonoplesium cymosum (scrambling lily)
Muehlenbeckia axillaris (matted lignum)
Adiantum aethiopicum (maiden-hair fern)
Pyrrosia rupestis (rock-felt fern)
dimensions variable
Rock Suspension (Newcastle) 2017 (detail)
Rock Suspension (Newcastle) 2017 (detail)
Rock Suspension (Newcastle) 2017 (detail)
Rock Suspension (Newcastle) 2017 (detail)