In Irish mythology, a thin place describes the meeting of two worlds, the known and the unknown. Thin places are porous, within them there is a narrowing of boundaries as the edges between the elements soften, earth meets water, water meets sky. The artworks of Greg Wood, Zoe Amor and Joel Sorensen may be seen to capture such thin places. Although they each share a geographical context - the land, skies and waterways of Djaara, in central Victoria - their artworks evoke liminal sites between perceived and imagined, the familiar and the mysterious. As Irish author Kerri ní Dochartaigh writes, thin places “make us feel something larger than ourselves, as though we are held in a place between worlds, beyond experience”. While inspired materially by their lived experiences within Chewton’s bushlands, the artworks of Wood, Amor, and Sorensen transcend any specific place.  

In Wood’s paintings, identifiers of place and land give way to the ever-changing conditions of light, sky and air. Under his brush there is a confounding of matter as mountains dissolve while clouds materialise, trees soften and water solidifies. The effect is one of suspension, of being held between this world and another. These are places I feel I have visited, but could never return to as they would be completely changed under new conditions of light and shadow. 

Light and shadow, too, are key elements in the work of Amor. Using charcoal and casting in bronze, as well as experimental materials such as plaster and cotton, hand-mixed pigments, found clay and ink, Amor works across medial. Her artworks capture the nostalgic feeling for a place, the emotional landscape that comes to imprint itself on the rocks, trees and earth. There is a sense of revelation within Amor’s work, flashes of illumination that recall the moment the sun pierces through a cloud before disappearing again. 

The elusive or the ambiguous also features in the work of Sorensen. Resisting easy classification, Sorensen’s sculptures are carved directly in wood, modelled in clay or cast in bronze and cement. Through applied patinas, their surfaces are made materially ambiguous. It is not entirely clear what material I am looking at when I visit his studio one evening, yet the shapes of trees and the faces of animals evidence a witnessing of the natural world around him. Carved with chainsaws and then incised with a hand-held chisel, their marked surfaces hum with a call to touch.    

How might one draw with light, carve with air, or begin to paint our atmosphere? Depicting invisible forces and evoking hidden worlds, Wood, Amor, and Sorensen invite contemplation of other possibilities. Their artworks encourage the act of paying attention, registering the changes around and within you. Through their chosen mediums of sculpture, painting and drawing, their artworks depict moments when the pages of the earth and sky narrow, when you might just encounter a thin place as one world leaks into the next. 

Written by Amelia Wallin  

Djaara, April 2024