This body of work explores the concept of the known and of the solid in a period of social, economic and environmental uncertainty. These works look to explore the inner reality of being as a solid and an accountable experience. Here the inner and outer meet in the world of solid forms, a step into the world of recognizable matter.

Red is the colour of flesh and the forms – sometimes symbolic, sometimes graphic – show the contemplation of the interconnectedness of things; of sexuality and nature, of the cerebral and the earthly, of solidity and the ephemeral. This is a blurring of flesh and plant. The red blanket we associate with earthly comfort, warmth and security and red – blood, or the body.

The womb and phallice , suspended in space and at times in abstract relationship, are reminiscent of pagan symbology and have elements of the iconic and ornate. Placed dramatically in the midst of empty space, they are at once cerebral (unearthed) and yet refer to the actuality of physical ecstasy and the burgeoning of life above ground and under water.

Symmetry  and asymmetry co-exist and suspended animation freezes the passing moment for the purpose of contemplation and a sense of the known. Human forms are contorted and dwarfed but inseparable from forces of natural growth. We have a place here,but are reminded of our size in relation to the power of natural forces in us and beyond us.

The feminine and masculine forces and strengths reside within us waiting to be awakening and partnered to fulfill the natural process of creativity. The uniformity of the red blanket used to create the artworks enable the images to be read as silhouettes; a projection which allows the relationship of forms to become the focus of tension. In the world of objects, duality is an inescapable truth. Here the iconic forms become the objects with definite boundaries that are in relationship with the interchangeable positive and negative space.

The comfort of being solid alludes to the satisfaction and the acceptance of the physical body and self as part of a whole. It is the comfort of bringing opposing or fragmented aspects together to site alongside one another willingly. It is the acceptance of all aspects of self.

Virgona’s artistic enquiry explores the dynamics of the inner world, articulating in a visual language the unseen elements that affect and surround our experience.

– Kate Butler