Contemporary Australia: Women

122 ‘Webs from my garden’ series 2004–05 Enamel on spider web with adhesive and sealant on paper Installed dimensions variable Purchased 2005. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Opposite Untitled (from ‘Webs from my garden’ series) (detail) 2004–05 Enamel on spider web with adhesive and sealant on paper 27.7 x 41.8cm (comp.) Purchased 2005. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Untitled (from ‘Webs from my garden’ series) (detail) 2004–05 Enamel on spider web with adhesive and sealant on paper 27.7 x 41.8cm (comp.) Purchased 2005. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery The shifting nature of Selig’s work, its perceived appearance in relation to the Gallery architecture and its ability to change form depending on the position of the observer, may suggest a somewhat postmodern sensibility. But here, again, it finds an analogy in modern physics. Since Einstein, relativity has been integral to how we understand the world around us — it has become common knowledge that all matter is largely a relation between space and energy. However, German quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that there are fundamental limits on what is possible to know about the physical world. It follows that Selig’s work can be interpreted as a response to both scientific concepts — on the one hand, committed to the rules established by physicists; on the other, inspired by the possibilities of the unknown. Consequentially, the architecture of Selig’s work considers the delicate woven forms once inhabited by nature and the unseen subatomic forces that shape everything that can be seen, heard or touched, from the micro activity of insects or atoms, to the macrocosm of the Milky Way. Andrea Bell