CELESTON 3 MoB (Museum of Brisbane)
On their third invitation from MoB, Man&Wah presented Celeston 3 as part of the group exhibition Rearranged: Art of the Flower, featuring over 20 artists. Reflecting Brisbane’s subtropical climate, the exhibition explores strong traditions of floral and botanical imagery, engaging themes of place, memory, and history through painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, and new media. For the exhibition Man&Wah created Celeston 3, a large-scale video installation (from their ongoing Celeston series) presented in the Clem Jones Gallery. The immersive 30-minute video work spanned 8 metres wall-to-wall/floor-to-ceiling within a black room, accompanied by custom-built bench seating and subtle neon lighting integrated throughout the space. To enhance the Celeston 3 experience Man&Wah collaborated with cosmic composer Jonn Serrie, whose ambient soundscape subtly fills the refined minimalist gallery environment.
(Below images & videos) Snippets of various elements from the Celeston 3 video work, imagery created from floral and mineral objects captured by Man&Wah which was then processed into moving visuals.
The audience would journey though the entire Rearrange: Art Of The Flower exhibition of lush vibrant botanical artworks arriving at the end of the MoB space at the The Clem Jones Gallery - entering through a neon lit portal entrance into an immersive cosmic-like space that opened up to the Celeston 3 video work and etheric soundscape by Jonn Serrie.
(Above two images) Inside the Clem Jones Gallery showing the two neon lit portal entrance frames that lead into the immersive space. As audiences enter the space and get taken sonically by the ambient soundscape of Jonn Serrie, they are invited to sit and relax on a custom-built bench (wrapped with subtle neon base lighting) and engage with the work at a contemplative pace. The 8 metre wide Celeston 3 video works spans across the entire gallery wall, featuring a panoramic scene just after a transition of kaleidoscopic fractals which gradually morphs into a lush richly coloured montage of succulents.
(Below images: spheres) Sphere visual elements featured throughout Celeston 3 represent Earth’s five elements—Earth (soil, minerals etc), Water, Fire, Air, and Ether (Akash)— together manifest life. The sphere’s textures derive from imagery captured by Man&Wah which include - fire, clouds, minerals, and microscopic floral forms; all processed into evolving, moving visuals.
(Above image) A promotion banner for the exhibition featuring one of the hero shots from the Celeston 3 video work. Created from Man&Wah’s signature cosmic floral portraits (displayed directly below), processed into a spinning mandala wheel. The mandala symbolises the wheel of life and cycle of samsara, with the two smaller outer yellow and pink spheres representing the duality of existence. (Bottom images & video) More elements and snippets from the Celeston 3 video work.
We are made up of the minerals of the earth and cosmos