Erica Seccombe
Erica Seccombe
Erica Seccombe, Purity in form #1, from Permutations series 2018
Erica Seccombe, Safe return #2, from Permutations series 2018
Erica Seccombe, Fixed pleasure #3, from Permutations series 2018
Erica Seccombe, Ritual thought #4, from Permutations series 2018
Erica Seccombe, Offering of death #5, from Permutations series 2018
Erica Seccombe, Standing ceremony #6, from Permutations series 2018
Permutations has developed from my interest in how artists respond to nature,
the way nature is formalised and perfected through aesthetic explorations
and how we seek order and structure in nature to give meaning
to existence through repetition, symmetry, rhythm and geometry.
ERICA SECCOMBE
Seccombe evokes an intimate intersection between human and plant by naming each work in this series after the ritualised traditions of Japanese Ikebana, or art of floral display. Also inspired by the philosophical approaches of creatives from the lineage of Western culture, such as William Morris and Paul Klee, the artist recreates aberrant portraits of the ‘friends’ that she has met. Nodding at scientifically-based, genetic modification as well as natural occurring mutations, these flowers demand our curiosity. They belong neither to the cultivated garden nor the wilderness. The placement of stamen, petals, voids and buds morph into the other worldliness of Rorschach inkblots. Intuitively we grapple with our recognition of the perfect specimen, while simultaneously overlaying self-referential imagery from our subconscious.
The Works
Permutations series 2018
Purity in form #1
Safe return #2
Fixed pleasure #3
Ritual thought #4
Offering of death #5
Standing ceremony #6
Photogravure on paper
Edition 2 of 3
Courtesy of the Artist
About the Artist
Erica Seccombe is a visual artist based in Canberra. Her practice spans from traditional and photographic print media and drawing to experimental digital platforms using frontier scientific visualisation software. Since 2006 she has been an artist and resident researcher at the ANU Department of Applied Mathematics and Vizlab, NCI.
Notably, Seccombe’s work ‘Metamorphosis’ 2016, won the 2018 Waterhouse Natural Science Art prize; In 2017 Erica was awarded the Capital Arts Patrons Fellowship, and in 2015 her work, ‘Virtual Life’ 2014 won the Inaugural Paramor Prize: Art + Innovation Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Liverpool, NSW.
The Artist’s PhD GROW: experiencing Nature in the Fifth Dimension is a practice-led research project investigating time-resolved (4D) micro-X-ray Computed Tomography through immersive stereoscopic digital projection installations and 3D printing.
In May 2017, Seccombe was re-elected to the board of Megalo Print Studio & Gallery. Traditionally trained in a print making and drawing, Erica is a proud member of Megalo and continues to be passionate about working in the Megalo studios, she has taken up many different roles as an exhibiting artist, a tutor, a staff member, and have been twice an artist in resident, and was previously a board member (from 2007) and Chair of the Board, (2010 – 2014).
In June 2018, the artist was elected to the Board of ANAT, the Australian Network for Art & Technology. Seccombe was a 2010 recipient of the ANAT Synapse Residency, and continued her support of ANAT as a Selection Committee Panel Member for the Synapse Residency for the past three years.
Seccombe is currently a lecturer in Foundation Studies at the ANU School of Art & Design, teaches for The Centre for Art History and Art Theory, and is the Convener of Graduate Studies Coursework for Visual Arts, Design and Art History and Curatorship.
