spectrum warp #3 2022

Summary

This striking painting by Emma Coulter - the epilogue to Coulter's mammoth public art commission painted on the facade of the City Square acoustic shed - is a part of the Metro Tunnel Creative Project Donation received by the Art and Heritage Collection in 2023. The work was featured as a part of the exhibition 'Making the Metro Tunnel: Reflections by Contemporary Australian Artists' which took place at Domain House from 1 April - 7 May 2023.

Commissioned by the Metro Tunnel Creative Program, the exhibition sought to "explore and celebrate the construction milestones of the Metro Tunnel Project, which has been under construction for several years. The artists in this exhibition have taken inspiration from archaeological digs, heavy machinery, the aesthetics of worksites and worker's equipment to produce their own portrayals of the project." - quote from 'Making the Metro Tunnel' exhibition catalogue, 2023

"I like to work with colour in a serial way, through a refined colour palette, creating my own bold, idiosyncratic, spectrum. The ‘spectrum warp’ series, are a succession of autonomous flat paintings supported on traditional stretchers. These independent paintings explore the dynamism of my colour palette in conjunction with warped, geometric, compositional structures. 'spectrum warp #3’, was informed by my site-specific commission for City Square. Within this self-contained painting, saturated hues are carefully placed in the same pattern and geometric sequence. The rules for order are informed by the boundary of the two-dimensional surface of the autonomous picture plane." - Emma Coulter, quote from 'Making the Metro Tunnel' exhibition catalogue, 2023