TIME MACHINE

2023
Daine Singer Gallery

Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler’s Time Machine presents a recent series of paintings accompanied by a suspended sculptural installation. Inspired by patterns and textures found in the world around them, they create works reminiscent of the scarred stone surfaces of a lichen covered landscape, or a star covered night sky. These works contemplate the visual cues of temporal environmental transformation found in both the terrestrial and cosmic worlds.

The duo’s intuitive approach to mark making and form is characterised through abstraction, distortion and repetition. In a process of endurance, Bae and Lawler create a record of time and evolution through the layering, masking and compilation of materials.

For Time Machine Bae and Lawler draw on the fascinating life of lichen, its unique symbiotic relationship with our environment, and its role as a bio-indicator. Their works emphasise repetition and transformation, combining charcoal, ash, synthetic polymers to create highly textured, patterned surfaces. Bae and Lawler draw on references from the microcosmic patterns of the natural world, to create works that take on a macrocosmic state.