intervention statement: laredo 002
AMARIE BERGMAN
In a derelict saltwater swimming pool at Back Beach, Western Australia, [1] two parallel rods intervene on its surface at the apex marking a transition line between the shallow and deep ends. These sleek, white-as-snow twins, sited on chaotically aged, crumbling concrete, balance at their midpoints with a composure that is, at once, precarious and momentary.
laredo 002, the second in an ongoing series by Amarie Bergman, originated from a revisit with two of her earlier paintings - Goldilocks Zone [2] and Equation no. 1. - that were each reduced to two horizontal lines in the blank space of a monochrome colour field. Similarly, in this latest intervention, there is an apparent blank space - albeit tangible concrete and sand - on either side of an equal sign = but definitely the values of the variables here are hidden / unknown or maybe even non-existent.
Through the visual documentation, a viewer may be persuaded to participate in imagining equivalences that correspond to possibilities, no matter how brief, of absolute balance.
[1] laredo 002 took place at the abandoned 1930s Back Beach Salt Baths. The location may be remembered as "a great folly" by long-term residents of the regional town of Bunbury / Geographe Bay on the Indian Ocean, but - as a relative newcomer to the area - Bergman revels in its potential as a site for temporary art.
[2] “The term, Goldilocks Zone, is used to describe the narrow band of parameters in which intelligent life is possible. In this band, Earth and the universe are “just right” to create the chemicals that are responsible for intelligent life.” Michio Kaku, Parallel Worlds (New York: Doubleday 2003 p389.)]
laredo 002
Back Beach Salt Baths: Indian Ocean / Bunbury, Western Australia
15 March 2021
https://www.amariebergman.com/gallery/images-laredo-002
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