Dianne Emery, Cicada, illustration, 2011, Crepuscular
Summary
Dianne Emery’s ‘Adult Greengrocer Cicada, Cyclochila australasiae’ was created for the exhibition ‘Crepuscular’, curated by John Kean and held at the City Gallery between May and July 2011. It was one of several exhibited artworks that illustrated and interpreted Melbourne’s fauna at dusk, a time when certain species stir and come to prevail over their urban territory. Take the Greengrocer Cicada: as light falls, this little critter cranks up the volume to a sometimes-deafening pitch; at best, it is a white noise that reverberates incessantly through the early evening.
Emery’s watercolour conveys all the precision and rigour of a scientist that she brings to her art practice, typically working from specimens. But it also demonstrates a more playful, interpretive posture that has her animate her subject to imply some of its fundamental character. Unlike a conventional natural history illustration, Emery does not statically represent her subject middle and centre of the page; rather, it appears to have crawled north, perhaps looking for an exit from the frame. She has also given it dynamism by a soft shadow, which lifts it off the Kelmscott velum surface. Emery’s cicada sits in the twilight zone between science and life.
The artist’s painting ‘Huntsman Spider, Holconia montana’ was also shown in the exhibition and is part of in the Art and Heritage Collection.
