late january exhibition — faridah cameron: becoming and dissolving

Transitions: Day to night; spring to winter; raw to ripe. These are the precious markers of time that painter Faridah Cameron captures so poignantly in her Becoming and Dissolving solo show.

In Faridah’s painting Dawn, a magnificent sun rises and pushes the moon into the night sky. In Ripening the canvas is split by a jagged seam. On one side the fruit is raw, on the other it is ripe for eating. “These are the transitions that happen day in and day out in the natural world. We let them go unnoticed, but they are important marks in our life,” Faridah tells us.

Inspired by a passion for sewing and textiles, Faridah has developed her own unique style. Extraordinary abstracts are intricate in their minute detailing and divine patterns. Tiny stitch-like marks speak of fabrics and threads. “Simple mark-making that adds up to something very complex. Just like stitching when you are sewing.”

This talented creative is also an author. Faridah will be launching her book Letters to Dead Artists, at the exhibition, and her musings, like the one to John Olsen, highlights art is in the eye of the beholder: “The truth is, John, that I’ve never really liked your paintings… I realise it’s presumptuous of me to pass judgment like this. What do I know? One’s response to art is always personal and subjective, coloured by experience.”

Faridah Cameron’s Becoming and Dissolving exhibition opens at Handmark on Friday January 30 and runs until Monday February 16.