Artists statement

Penelope Davis was born and lives in Melbourne. Davis is primarily known as a post-photographic artist creating photographs without a camera. Using complicated sculptural techniques, Davis makes silicone moulds then resin casts of the now absent objects. Finally light is passed through the casts to expose photographic paper that is developed and printed. The result is an indexical trace of an object many steps removed from its origin. In doing so, the works record not only an image but a process - a chain of transformations and inversions - akin to the processes of photography itself but one that recasts photography in a new light.
More recently Davis has been creating jellyfish forms from a collage of components in a similar way. Taking the detritus of contemporary technologies and combining these with organic source material such as leaves and seaweed, Davis makes casts in silicone, then uses these casts themselves as forms. The artist hand sews these ‘skins’ together to create delicate hybrid forms that resemble jellyfish. These works reflect on, and embody, a painstaking attempt to recuperate an appreciation for the natural world, our symbiotic relationship with it, and the necessity of our shared future.

Physical description

9 x suspended silicone jellyfish sculptures