Prompt, as a verb means to cause or bring about (an action or feeling). As a noun it is an act of encouragement. Humphreys’ works are these things. They stand inert, yet they encourage the viewer to be active, to become ambulatory in the viewing and comprehension of forms that reveal the potentiality of dimensional shifts.
Prompt is a series of five iterative patterned cubes, that appear like large-scaled colourful wooden block toys, to be scattered and rearranged back into order.
Prompt encourages interaction – inviting the audience to engage in playful ways, considering ways of looking, perceiving and viewing. As the viewer moves past the gallery window geometric forms shift into view, facilitating a more active engagement with the static work. Illusory shifts reveal three-dimensional forms collapsing into two-dimensional shapes.
Petalia Humphreys creates what might be considered three-dimensional paintings – reductive abstract paintings that reveal a concern for location, colour, light and space. Site-specific works reveal concern for the physical mapping of spaces, of spatial and perceptual shifts. Humphreys’ hard-edge, geometric forms encourage an interactive approach, inviting the audience to engage in playful ways, considering ways of looking, perceiving and viewing. Working with building materials, Humphreys’ practice spans from small-scale hand-crafted paintings through to large site-specific public art installations.
Petalia Humphreys lives and works on Gubbi Gubbi land. Born and raised in Queensland, she graduated from QUT with a Bachelor of Art, Visual Art (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Education (Visual Arts) in the late 1990s. Humphreys has worked as art educator and has exhibited at the Brisbane Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Metro Arts, and Brisbane Powerhouse.
Image: Petalia HUMPREYS / EPLC #1 2022 / acrylic on plywood / 28 x 28 x 28cm / © Petalia Humpreys
