Black Blossom

Sleek black flowers burst from every branch of the tree; a morbid springtime.

Part of the body of work entitled White Heat || Black Ice: The Illusion of Dichotomy.

Do dichotomies truly exist? Perhaps what we see as black and white is a plethora of shades that are neither. Is ice always white? Is white always clean? Is black truly the absence of colour? If it the absence of colour, is it also the absence of heat? Dichotomies, or perceived dichotomies, are everywhere -
Good vs bad
Black vs white
Night vs Day
Light vs Dark
Hot vs Cold
Nature vs Technology
Science vs Art
Spirituality vs Practicality
Imagination vs Logic
Rich vs Poor

We are fed information via dichotomies from a very young age, as a way to categorise the world we live in and dictate, or explain, human behaviour. Only as we grow do we realise that things are more complex than simply a world of opposites. Contradictions live alongside each other, often bleeding into each other. When the needle swings to the other side, what happens during the momentum? Is any dichotomy truly real, or are we just living between the extremes of darkest and lightest greys?

Even the yin and yang symbol has a drop of its opposite inside each half. On planet earth, our little corner of the universe, we live and play and exist in all the shades of dark and light. Only deep in outer space can we find a true black – a total lack of light, and a true white – a combination of all visible colours. Even in the starkest of contrasts we can find that perhaps things are not as black and white as they seem.

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Nadia Vitlin is an artist based in Sydney, Australia, who has a background in geospatial and biological sciences. Her art brings together the study of nature, humanity, emotions, and sociological phenomena through the lens of the scientist via the exploration of colour and the tactile form of clay.
Using clay as a means to bring the third dimension onto the canvas, her artworks project movement and dynamism by using contours and drapery to play with light and shadow. Using her knowledge of the earth's terrain and the natural shapes found in the world around us - the reflection of water, the pattern of marble, the rolling waves of mountains viewed from the sky - she creates sensuous renditions of her experiences, both tangible and psychological.
Her works come alive under light and change character according to their aspect and the position of the viewer in the room. Being three-dimensional, the eye is drawn to the sumptuous flow of both shape and colour, creating an immersive aura around each artwork that is further enhanced by the different textures of paint. Ebbs and flows of stratified media spread and reach across the surface, drawing the eye gradually around the canvas like the leaf that falls dancingly from the tree in autumn.
She has created several bodies of work in this style and continues to explore this method as well and expand into the fourth dimension of scent. Her experimental tendencies influence the seasonality of her works, and each series creates a different atmosphere and evokes a new plethora of emotions.
She has been featured in group shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and had four solo exhibitions across Australia and Korea. Her collectors can be found all over the world from Holland to the Philippines.