Kath Fries Studio: Taper - work in progress for BUNKERED exhibition

Kath Fries, Taper - work in progress, 2014, beeswax, twine, tree roots and light bulb

BUNKERED is a group exhibition situated in an inner city terrace, which contemplates life in a climate-changed future. Fourteen artists are creating works that challenge traditional relationships to domestic spaces.

Kath Fries, Taper - work in progress, 2014, beeswax, twine, tree roots and light bulb

Located in the BUNKERED attic, my installation Taper features entwined roots that dangle dripping with congealed beeswax. They stretch down from the pitched darkness, through the ceiling beams, towards a solitary dim light bulb. The roots are dead, dried and fragile, trickled with beeswax and wrapped in twine, some are almost fossilised into stalactites.

An attic purports to be safe haven, the room furthest from the street and closest to the sky, an enticing quiet place for humans, flora and fauna seeking refuge from the outside world. But a garret is also traditionally a place of poverty and madness, where creatures and people eventually meet their demise.

To taper is to gradually grow narrow towards one end, to taper off; and a taper is a thin candle. Located in an internal space that narrows into a pitched roof, where wax stalactites and plant roots hang like upturned candles thinning to a dripped point, Taper implies that escape is impossible. Uncontainable toxins and pollutions leach through the earth and air, seeping into our interior spaces to potentially poison all aspects of our lives.

Kath Fries, Taper - work in progress, 2014,
beeswax, twine, tree roots and light bulb

BUNKERED ARTISTS: Aaron Anderson, Lisa Andrew, Sarah Breen Lovett, Kuba Dorabialski, Kath Fries, Yvette Hamilton, Anna Horne, Rachael McCallum, Sarah Nolan, Office Feuerman, Katy B Plummer, Madeleine Preston, Marlene Sarroff and Lotte Schwerdtfeger.

BUNKERED

6 - 27 September 2014
Open: Thursday to Saturday 2-5pm
26 Ross Street, Forest Lodge, NSW 2037
www.branch3d.com.au

Opening Event: Saturday 6 September, 4-7pm (tickets)

Artcycle tours: every Saturday
Artist talks: Saturday 20 September, 2.30pm

BUNKERED is curated by Sarah Nolan, with an exhibition essay by Yvette Hamilton, and presented by BRANCH3D Gallery as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2014

Download the Bunkered catalogue

The opening afternoon, Saturday 6 September, 4-7pm, is a free registered ticketed event. Tickets are available through Eventbrite. There will be six half hour timeslots scheduled for groups of up to 18 people visiting at a time. The meeting point is Forest Lodge Hotel, 117 Arundel Street, where BUNKERED volunteers will give you a designated time to visit the exhibition. All other opening times will not require a ticket, Thursday to Saturday 2-5pm until 27 September.