'The world was full of holes, tiny apertures of meaninglessness, microscopic rifts that the mind could walk through, and once you were on the other side of one of those holes, you were free of yourself, free of your life free of your death, free of everything that belonged to you.'

― Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions

The world is full of holes is an exhibition of sculptural models, each depicting a seemingly endless passageway. Familiar spaces that exist in everyday life, on screen, and in our dreams; fading to eternal black. These transitory spaces that are encountered as incidental and unremarkable in our daily lives, are magnified by the constructed nature of the mirrored scene to become imbued with meaning, conjuring feelings such as doubt, detachment and anxiety.

David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton's practice is heavily influenced by pre-cinematic optical illusions, traditional museum displays and theatrical magic. Central to their practice is a preoccupation with an in-between state: the twilight spaces between seeing and knowing, natural and supernatural, aspiration and action, life and death.

Lawrey & Middleton are Sydney-based artists who have worked collaboratively since 2005. Both are graduates of Sydney College of the Arts. Exhibitions include Dream Machines at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (2017); Mind the Gap at Casula Powerhouse (2014) and Other worldly at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2011). Together, the artists have undertaken residencies in Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York, and have received grants from the Australia Council and Arts NSW. Their work is held in public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Wollongong Art Gallery and Macquarie Group.

The world is full of holes is David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton's fourth exhibition at Gallery 9.

Press release courtesy Gallery 9.