NEARLYTHERE
Our urban landscape is full of words. Be it advertising, signage or graffiti, text permeates our conscious through its repetition and banal presence. Sarah Nolan plays on these ideas with this installation NEARLYTHERE - the density of the words stacked within the gallery space seemingly vibrating with the hum of the traffic.
It reminds one of the drag of lights as one passes quickly in the traffic, only half recognisable reduced to trails of colour. And yet upon closer inspection, Sarah’s font is meticulously crafted from fabric remnants. NEARLYTHERE is the collision of domestic and public space.
Hovering on strings there is something tenuous about this installation. Is it meant to be read? Or just absorbed for its obsessive aesthetic play? The process in making this work and installing it was a laborious one, and not unlike a piece of intricate embroidery, Sarah found herself consumed by its intricacy. It is an interesting place for an artist to engage with an artwork on a very intimate or micro level and yet remain alert to its spatial engagement with the scale of the street.
Simply, NEARLYTHERE is a mantra of persistence in our urban grind.