Kath Fries Studio: Grove, 9 - 30 September 2010

Kath Fries, Grove, 2010, installation view

Grove - a site-sensitive installation

The Japan Foundation Gallery Sydney, Mon-Fri 11am-4pm

Chifley Plaza, Level 1, Chifley Square (Hunter St) Sydney CBD.

Kath Fries, Grove, 2010, installation view

"... In the Bible, people are made from ribs and soil. In Mexico, it's corn. In Japan, a baby gets found in a stalk of bamboo. Loss and grief aren't usually the first words that come to mind when thinking about Japan, but nonetheless they're the themes of one of its oldest written myths — as a couple find and lose their only daughter. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is actually about not getting married and humiliating high-level officials. But at the back of it there are deeper themes — returning to real life after meeting gods and divinities is painted with the same pain as that of finishing a great novel. Nobody in this tale ends up without suffering, except for the one person in it who might have been happier if she had. Kath Fries' Grove takes inspiration from this story and promises to take you into the dark bamboo cutter's world where the myth takes place. Dim shoots of bamboo, a silver moon and strange shadowy lattices will inhabit the gallery space of the Japan Foundation for this third, and final, exhibition in the Facetnate 2010 program." Zacha Rosen, http://concreteplayground.com.au/event/6200/grove.htm