“Flight”is a compelling title for an exhibition. The word suggests transcendence. It calls to mind a kind of ideal: the half-formed notion that we could leave the earth, with all of its terrestrial concerns, and float off into the clouds. Weightless. Yet the latest show at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre does not float away. In many ways, it does the opposite, bringing us down to the ground. Within the walls of the Powerhouse, flight is more often than not embedded within the realities of the earthly: our politics, our histories, our futures. In this sense, the exhibition presents a bifurcated gaze, which not only looks to the skies above, but also scrutinises the ground below.
Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro’s imposing, 2023, immediately stages this dynamic, bridging the gap between fantasy and actuality. Hanging in the Powerhouse’s main hall, their sculpture comprises two Beechcraft Twin Bonanza wings, whose form has been drastically reassembled. Here, the two wings have been positioned beside one another, so that the parts of a plane now form the shape of a kite. The 4.3 by 4 metre work almost appears as a visual paradox: it floats, like a kite, defying gravity, in spite of its obvious weight. The form’s duality as both a plane and a kite are brilliantly amplified by its position. Rather than facing the building’s entrance—as would seem the obvious choice—the work is oriented towards the left. This means that the installation initially appears as a single wing of the plane, before transforming into a kite, as one moves around its perimeter and is able to see more of its fully realised form. The wings remain static, yet are transformed. The work embodies both the idly floating kite, directionless and nostalgic; and the furiously propelled aeroplane, driving the global economy.
