Heather Ellyard - Continuum 3:uncertainties above and below

CONTINUUM is an ongoing project, a trajectory of all that matters to Heather Ellyard, from black holes to geo-politics, from the universe to very small human details.

CONTINUUM 1: tell me about the heart; the universe is asymmetrical and there is darkmatter, was shown at Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney, in 2012.

CONTINUUM 2: mapping, to remember or to forget, was shown at Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne, in 2013

CONTINUUM 3: uncertainties above and below, first shown at MRAG, Maitland, in 2015 and now at Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree, deals with our increasing vulnerabilities in relation to beliefs, conflicts and disappearances. 

all that was holy,

all that was fruitful,

is makeshift and loose.

like stones in the pocket

and rags in the hand.

shaking.

 At the heart of Ellyard’s work is an artist’s search for meaning, now, in our time, with a mature strength, refined purpose and broad vision. She says: My work is an inclusive, gathering-in of what I sense out there where the world wobbles, shifts, despairs and tries to renew itself, in pieces. And asks: What is the formal language for the sorrows, injustices and beauty of my time?

It is, for me, poetry,

extreme poetry,

I mean, very condensed,

made visual.

Because I am not a poet.

I am an artist,

who uses words. 

I use these findings in a metaphoric, associative way. Meanings are layered and sometimes fragmented, waiting to settle. I’ve reached a place in my life where there are no stops, only pauses, in my search for meaning, with all of its sorrows and bling, with its wonders, ordeals and near tipping points.

For a long time I have asked myself whether and how art matters in an atmosphere of global imbalance, violence and suffering. The only answer I know, for me, is not that beauty counts, but that paying attention, caring, being true to a language-of-meaning counts, and beauty may be a by-product of that process. And poems may rise up.