Deep Sea Diving - Galerie pompom

Link to exhibition catalogue

Deep Sea Diving contemplates the fragility and vulnerability of photography and examines my deep connection to the medium. Through a series of coincidences and reconnection to previous work, I set out to create a body of work that was full of exploration and new possibilities. Somehow along the way the sea became a motif in the works, enabling me to diverse my art practice on a new trajectory that reconsiders my position as an artist. I majored in photography at art school, but never thought of myself as a photographer. I always questioned photography and interrogated the photographs that I took. Considering that the photographs were more like stand-ins or surrogates for other things, never for what they were.

For this exhibition at Galerie pompom I made a conscious decision to expand photography’s application with canvases and the addition of a number of sculptures. Intuitively I felt it was the right time, right space to push my mindset to other objects that would engage my art practice in new ways. For example, the sculpture Yellow Submarine is connected to my youth and recently resurfaced through the German photographer Thomas Struth. Struth photographed Mountain, Anaheim, California, at the Disneyland attraction Submarine Voyage in 2013. I visited this attraction when I was about 12, 13 or maybe younger, I can’t really remember but what I do know is that it had a permanent impression on me. It was something to do with the romanticised idea of exploration and the excitement for adventure, which photography has always been for me.

Will Nolan, September 2020

Will Nolan is an Australian artist living in the Adelaide Hills. He completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours in the Department of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia in 2008. Nolan has exhibited in a variety of spaces including solo exhibitions at Helen Gory Galerie (VIC), CACSA (SA), and FELT Space (SA), alongside group exhibitions at SASA Gallery (SA), Galerie pompom (NSW), Brenda May Gallery (NSW), Sawtooth ARI (TAS) and Benalla Art Gallery (VIC). Nolan has also received funding from Arts SA, Helpmann Academy and has been short-listed in The Churchie, Bowness Photography Prize, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award and Olive Cotton Photographic Prize. His artworks have been published in magazines, including Art Monthly in Australia, Esquire in Russia and Kunstbeeld in the Netherlands. Nolan is currently a lecturer at the Adelaide College of the Arts, TAFE SA and adjunct lecturer at Flinders University.

This exhibition was assisted by Arts South Australia

Installation images by Docqment

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