A Wild and Fragile Coast
Sarah Low
18 April–5 May 2024

Sarah Low paints plein air, immersed in the landscape. "My day is regulated by tides and weather; I hear the constant rhythm of the sea, I record the changing colours of the landscape and the flowering cycles of plants."

Exploring themes of endurance and fragility, my recent work has focused on the basalt cliffs of the Mornington Peninsula, exploring the interplay between pounding ocean swell and fortress-like rock formations; between constant movement and apparent stillness.

On this wild and dangerous coastline the cliffs rear up like giant bulwarks against the ceaseless pounding of the ocean, and remind me that geological time is slow and this planet will outlast us. And yet this beauty is fragile; like icebergs, fragments calve off, become isolated and slowly disintegrate. I wonder how sea level rise and increasingly frequent and ferocious storms will batter this wild and beautiful place.