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Fluorescent Yellow // Electric Lime

Fluorescent Yellow // Electric Lime is part of the ‘Open Borders’ regional presentation series, a unique collaborative of 12 group exhibitions and 3 performances developed and deliverd by communities across regional WA.

Fluorescent Yellow // Electric Lime is on display at the Painted Tree Gallery in Northcliffe daily from 9am  – 4pm, from Saturday 3rd of December until Sunday 22nd of January.

The exhibition opening event was held on Sunday 4th of December at 3pm, with official opening by curator Lisa Radomiljac.

Participating artists

Participating artists are all from the Southern Forests & Valleys region:

Catalogue

Download the exhibition catalogue

Chrysalis by Lori Pensini (Fluorescent Yellow // Electric Lime)
Chrysalis by Lori Pensini

Open Borders

‘Open Borders’ is a series of 12 group exhibitions and 3 original performances held across all 9 regions of WA during 2022-23. Each event reflects the unique interests, artists and experiences of the diverse participating communities (Kununurra, Broome, Port Hedland, Gascoyne Junction, Geraldton, Carnamah, Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Ravensthorpe, Narrogin, Denmark, Northcliffe, Margaret River and Dwellingup).  Interconnected through the central theme of ‘Open Borders’, the project aims to culminate in a survey of contemporary regional art practice at John Curtin Gallery (Perth) in September-November 2023.

Further information about the Open Borders series is on the Southern Forest Arts website here. This includes the unifying curatorial brief written by Lead Curator, Annette Davis.

Curatorial Brief: Fluorescent Yellow // Electric Lime 

What exists within the borders?

When processing the world around us, the human brain is unable to treat every object as unique. The volumes of data that surround us must be simplified and structured so that we avoid cognitive overload. Categorisation comes naturally, allowing us to make sense by organising things, which assists us to communicate, predict, make decisions and navigate.

Colours are one of the first concepts taught to children, and with the idea comes a strict set of boundaries. This is red, that one’s yellow, look – there’s blue, black, white.  We allow these visual experiences to blend, further defining orange, green, purple, grey. As we grow and as our vocabulary expands, we can be more specific and further classify. Lilac. Turquoise. Navy.

ColorHexa, the online colour encyclopaedia defines the colour of tennis balls (#ccff00) as
“Fluorescent yellow or Electric lime”. Are we able to accept such a conflicting definition? Can tennis balls be both green and yellow at the same time? Where does one colour end and the next begin?

Things that have a foot in each camp make us feel discomfort. They create tension as they demand extra consideration before we’re able to accept them. These concepts remind us that our common vernacular is not nearly prescriptive enough, and that our lexicon needs to continually evolve.

This exhibition aims to explore ‘oddities’ or ‘anomalies’, concepts that do not fit within the borders of categories that we create, or our reactions to them – are we accepting or do we struggle?

Local emerging curator

Lisa Radomiljac - Curator of the Open Borders exhibition at the Painted Tree Gallery, Northcliffe 2022

Lisa Radomiljac has a diverse background across varying forms of design; from spatial, display and event, graphic, and textile design. She’s known for her work as a previous Chairperson for the WA chapter of the Colour Society of Australia and locally she is recognised with her work on the Manjimup Art Deco Revitilisation Project, as a design educator and within the local wine industry.