Wizards, eucalyptus, emus – they’ve all a part to play in Henderson’s vision of a world on the edge
Eye in the High is an invitation to explore microbiology and the processes of decomposition and regeneration in the natural world via paintings, sculptures and film. Broadly, Tamara Henderson’s works reflect on the impact of human activity on an ecological world that hangs in fragile balance.
At the gallery’s entrance, a pit-fired hand-sized ceramic figure, A Natural Wizard, Eucalyptus in thought (2023), stands sentinel on a ledge. Texturally rough and earthy in tone, the top-hatted and robed wizard carries a vessel containing softly burning incense. A warming aroma of sharp eucalyptus permeates the space and immediately transports the viewer to the Australian bush. Inside the gallery space, a corresponding, diminutive bronze figure, Continuity the bronze wizard approves (2023), stands on a shelf, in front of an open-lidded wooden box containing matches and incense sticks. Beside this, suspended from the ceiling, is the striking, blown-glass chandelier titled Director’s Anchor maintains the plot (2024). Transparent, stacked glass shapes in bright blue, pea green, amber and orange create the spine of the chandelier, appearing to float midair, from which an elegant skeletal form extends, topped with five sculptural forms that resemble question marks – who, what, when, where and why? The work sets an inquisitive tone for the rest of the exhibition.
Beyond the chandelier, three new oil paintings are displayed across two walls. Each of these (A Dream, A compost, A fertile stir; The weighing of the petals on the floral flaneur; and Eye in the High when the body moves, all 2024) describe a stage in the growth of a plant: from a leafy green seed into a crimson flower that blooms upwards from a gnarly, bulbous stem, before transforming into a coiling form that echoes the organic shape of the chandelier; each sits in a vivid blue, sculpted frame made from steel mesh and paper clay from which wavelike extrusions emerge. Henderson’s paintings fuse abstraction and figuration, evoking, via their framing, a sense of theatrical artificiality.
Another space in the gallery is enclosed by a muted khaki-green curtain made from a blend of Japanese cotton/linen, sections of which are dyed with natural pigments. It creates a discrete space for the artist’s film Green in the Grooves (2023). This non-linear journey of colour, light, sound and movement provides 26 minutes and 46 seconds of psychedelic wonderment. At times, the footage is cut together as though following the artist’s stream-of-conscious ruminations on her surrounding natural environment. Henderson combines short vignettes of her garden at home with scenes showing her working on parts of the chandelier at Canberra Glassworks. Woven throughout are snippets of thunderstorms, autumnal tree foliage, vast rainswept hills, pulsating masses of earthworms, the glowing moon at night, the crackling embers of a pit-fired kiln, hyper-saturated footage of flora and typical Australian fauna – an emu, a kangaroo, a koala. Occasionally, there are further glimpses of the artist herself, who is shown mirrored, filming behind the camera lens; periodically her limbs enter the frame. At other times, the imagery is absurd: the ‘evolution’ of four cylindrical garbage bins, shown in different sequences, as they turn from rubbish containers into containers for compost, and finally, become four anthropomorphised figures that whirl on revolving stands, dressed in costumes, awkwardly bopping to the beats playing in their own private garden shed disco. The cycles of nature and the natural environment are present – growth, life, death, decay and rejuvenation. Accompanied by a synthesised soundscape of insects, birds, rainfall and a musical composition, the result is hypnotic, dreamlike and captivating.
Eye in the High is wildly evocative and sensorially stimulating. It draws our attention to the inherent beauty of the microcosms of life and the processes of decomposition seen in the natural world. Like the comforting aroma of eucalyptus that can be smelled throughout the exhibition, Henderson’s imagery lingers long after leaving the gallery.
Eye in the High at PALAS, Sydney, 20 April – 22 June
