Art / Afternoon of the Harpies. Judith Nangala Crispin and Stephen Harrison. At Grainger Gallery, Fyshwick. To August 30. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY

The artworks of poet and visual artist Judith Nangala Crispin and visual artist Stephen Harrison, both locals, combine to make one powerful exhibition.

There are multiple accounts of what Harpies are and when the idea first appeared, but let’s give it to the ancient Greeks because they get the credit for most mythological firsts. Harpies are a female personification of catastrophic winds, hurricanes and violent storms.

In this exhibition, the artists have created sculptures, installations, and photographs to investigate mortality, the invisible, and the enigmatic connections between people, the natural world, and they allude to the thought that there might be something beyond the world as we see it. Combining photographic techniques with sculpture and painting forms, they have created something special.

But Nangala Crispin goes even further with her designs and poetic titles. In several, there’s a religious context, which is seen in the shape of the artworks. In ‘Don’t wait until it is required of you to become the Sun’, it’s shaped as a triptych with a predella, which is borrowed straight from Christian altarpiece tradition. Another, ‘Now, while it’s still Dark’, is shaped as a headstone with shoulders, closely related to the arch shapes used in church doorways.

This is not by accident that these shapes symbolise religious forms. Maybe Nangala Crispin is borrowing the authority of religion as a way to say that art holds just as much power and mystery as religion, but she could be stating a personal connection.

Whichever way Nangala Crispin’s artworks are viewed and interpreted, they pull you in to their intimate world of dark mystery.

Stephen Harrison’s artworks are perfectly matched to Nangala Crispin’s. In tone alone, most mirror the other works.

Harrison’s sculptures are like small worlds. The stories in each contain multitudes. Some playful, some devastatingly dramatic, like his Smoking Angel, in bronze. It bursts with energy and offers an almost satanic presence.

The ideas in Harrison’s works seem endless. There’s philosophy, history, the technical and handmade objects, the whimsical and profound. His materials seem to be whatever he can get his hands on. He makes these into profound artistic statements. His art is full of wonderful things. But it’s hard to know an artist’s intention. Are there elements of madness in his pieces, or is he just being playful and experimental? I’d say the latter.

The interesting idea that arises from the works in this exhibition from both artists is that they feel real and surreal at the same time. But perhaps they contain too much.

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