Topography 2

Through drawing, sculpture, installation and painting, Caroline Rothwell considers how concepts and beliefs have shaped and transformed our contemporary world. In her practice, she interrogates ideas relating to consumption and the legacy of colonisation and explores the effect of human intervention on nature.

Developed for her exhibition ‘Horizon’ at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, ‘Topography 2’ incorporates a topographical plinth system and forms part of a tableau of interconnected landscape installations. In this work, Rothwell fuses ideas and references to the botanical world with human and industrial systems to reflect upon and probe how interconnected and dependent we are upon the natural world.

The twisting and peculiar sculptural forms that give the work its undulating contours appear to be constructed from inflated latex invite the viewer to look closer; the soft and shiny surfaces belie their rigid construction as the objects have been cast in gypsum cement. This surreal arrangement of glossy cloudlike forms and hybrid plant-human objects is punctuated by a reflective traffic light, perhaps signalling a warning concealed beneath the soft contours rendered in candy colours.