A Poem of the Sea is artist, Sally Simpson’s exploration, through the metaphor of water, of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. It is also a celebration and a demonstration of the expressive power innate in the act of drawing. The artist articulates the metaphor of humanity’s ongoing relationship with suspension or suspense, as evoked by bodies in water.
The shoreline, where land and sea continuously act on one another, exemplifies the relationship with timelessness and change. The transparency and robustness of drafting film dissolves the boundaries between the place and act of drawing, immersing the artist in the flux between land, sea and self.
A human can only survive for moments underwater, yet immersed we are suspended between life and death, and we lose connection with the gravity that hinges us to the rest of the world. It is both an unnatural and natural state with many associations. The expression of the feeling of being within water evokes the loss of the defined boundaries of the self and all the paradoxes it contains. The artist’s relationship with water is both wonder and anxiety.
A Poem of the Sea is curated by Peter Haynes.
OPENING EVENT 6pm – 8pm, Friday 12 December 2025
RSVP via Eventbrite or email [email protected]
IMAGE Sally Simpson, Treading Water #8 (detail), 2025, charcoal on drafting film
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