Words: Saskia Edwards
Photos: Jonathan Rae
Original Artwork: Dord Burrough
Objects and their functions no longer had
any significance. All I perceived was perception itself, the hell of forms and
figures devoid of human emotion and detached from the reality of my unreal
environment. I was an instrument in a virtual world that constantly renewed its
own meaningless image in a living world that was itself perceived outside of
nature. And since the appearance of things was no longer definitive but
limitless, this paradisiacal awareness freed me from the reality external to
myself. The fire and the rose, as it were, became one.
That’s Federico Fellini describing a
transcendental LSD experience.
Dord Burrough’s artworks trap you in this kind
of psychedelic fantasy somewhere between a pastel Elysium and a hallucinatory
nightmare. Dord says the delirium-like nature of her works is a representation
of her life experiences.
“Those
psychedelic experiences have an influence on the outcome.
“Those
visual stimulus that one might experience that must have an effect on the way
that I look at the world and paint.
“It’s
sort of aesthetically comes out because that is an inspiration.”
Her current series ‘Feelers’ explores the external
elements beyond temporal existence and the inherent spiritual potential in
everyone.
“Whether they’re extensions of ourselves like
auras and things like that but also of our environment,” Dord says.
“It’s about those non-physical element of
ourselves and definitely spiritual elements to the works and I sort of think
about our relationship with the spiritual in the current social context.”
Through the guise of her ethereal and almost
tactile works, Dord explores the relationship between the spiritual and modernity.
She says society is often left with a disconnected relationship with the
mystical elements of life.
“On
any level, Western culture isn’t left with those traditions that help us
connect with each other and connect with our spiritual self, which I think is
something makes it more difficult anxieties and things that are a big problem
in our society.”
Dord graduated a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
at QCA in 2008. Since then she’s lived, worked and exhibited in Berlin and
currently lives between Brisbane and Byron Bay. She says her artistic style has
been infiltrated with these travels.
“It’s
really about life experiences and things that you draw from those experiences
come out in the works.”
Dord’s
artworks force introspection. It confronts the viewer with the metaphysical
possibilities within us all and our fearful dislocation with the mystical.
The exhibition is on at Ryan Renshaw Gallery
until April 5th.
