JARRAD MARTYN (VIC) - Displaced Glow

Displaced Glow marries the natural with the urban by collaging an Adele Penguin inthe Antarctic landscape with the dense urban environment of Tokyo, Japan. The artist experiences these two places differently, knowing Antarctica througha series of 35mm film photographs his father took while working at Casey Stationinthe 1980s, and the artists' recent travel experience to Japan. Due to the nature of the Antarctica photos (Martyn’s father took them as ‘happy snaps’, without high-tech equipment) many are out of focus, blurry, and over or under-exposed. The resulting images show high contrast between the subject andthe landscape, making the penguins appear flat and void-like, appearing as uncanny marks of black amongst fields of white snow. In Tokyo, the urban landscape is dotted with neon lights and vending machines, distributing anything from coffee to dating advice, and omitting a powerful glowfrom interior LED lighting. In the depth of night and down narrow roads, the machines appear as portals out of the darkness. ‘isplaced Glow reflects on the human response to natural and artificial lighting, and how we record and remember it. The at-first strange juxtaposition of the penguin and vending machine confuses the viewer, creating an otherworldly sense, but ambiguously suggests a linkage between the urban and natural, the humanandthe environment. This follows the through-line of Martyn’s practice that comments on human activity and climate change.