In the exhibition the artist presents fifteen photographic images and a neon sculpture. The disregarded, overlooked and transitory associations between the self, time and environmentally ruinous modes of consumption are captured within Netto’s presentation of space and form. Through Netto’s eye, these arrested objects and scenes are momentarily liberated from transience, provoking questions of consumption and obsolescence, constant themes evidenced throughout her work.

In the work 'Once in a Lifetime' (2012), the height of Netto’s body (165cm) is traced in neon then separated into two parts to form circular shapes, metaphorically encapsulating the historic and unique eclipse of Venus over the Sun that occurred in June 2012.
The circular motif of the eclipse repeats itself throughout One Two Three Oblivion in both its literal and symbolically powerful form, as generated by human consciousness throughout the ages. A collapse in the time-space continuum is captured, the self faced with the catalyst of the awe-inspiring eclipse and the workings of the universe, time, distance and space. This work expands on concerns initiated with The Artist as Luminous Source (2010), a single neon spiral measuring what Netto articulates as: ‘as long as I am tall.’

Netto’s practice includes photography, sculpture, drawing and video, referencing Modernist design and architecture, nature, science fiction and technology. The re-utilisation of ordinary objects is a reoccurring theme in Netto’s work; expressing personal anxieties in reaction to mass consumerism and the increasingly catastrophic exploitation of all the things we share. The shift between indoor studio scenes, cool landscapes, stark architectural forms and technological artifacts encourage the viewer to question our relationship with the environment and our lifestyles of material obsolescence.

Image: © Vanila Netto, Arc One Gallery