Hidden in the Folds
Logan Art Gallery, November 2022
Warwick Regional Gallery, July 2023
Hidden in the folds is a profound and responsive textile exhibition by Chrys Zantis. The culmination of works span assemblage, installation, wearable and participatory art. Zantis explores the mysterious workings within the folds of grey matter in our brains, while synthesising intricate layers of scientific data, metaphor and myth.
This exhibition extends on Chrys Zantis’ 2019 residency with Associate Professor Marta Garrido at the Cognitive Neuroscience and Computational Laboratory (University of Melbourne), and the resulting exhibition, Beneath the Surface (2018-2019), Inside Out (2019 and A Landscape of Resilience (2021). Her new works delve deeper into the relationships between the internal and external. Zantis moves beyond the biological processes that influence the psychological and cognitive aspects of brain function. She poses philosophical questions about consciousness and perception, linking aspects using a powerful mythological narrative.
This transformational myth is told through the archetype of the heroine, linking scientific research with metaphorical concepts. Zantis uses partial and entire birds to symbolise the heroin’s awareness. Individual wings or birds appear as thoughts throughout the works, while a murmuration of a thousand birds becomes an expression of consciousness.
Emergent systems like this link elements throughout the exhibition. The collective of each individual thread or bird, like the collective behaviour of biological systems convey a greater meaning. Acting together, we see sophisticated and nuanced portrayals of internal thought processes and an emergence of conscious awareness. The collective efficacy of community over the individual, reminds audiences they are not alone.
Hidden in the Folds interrogates relationships between the human mind, body and consciousness, as well as the patterns of synchronicities between us and the natural world. It is a sophisticated exploration into our uniqueness and similarities from mythological and metaphysical perspectives.
Video by Carl Warner
Photography by Lee Lou Blooming and Christina Lowry
