MICHAEL CARNEY
Low Signal

This exhibition presents a suite of ceramic sculptures and paintings that draw from several visual traditions, including sublime landscape painting, surrealism, ecclesiastical architecture, and classical antiquity. These traditions use atmosphere, scale, and symbolism to pull at emotional and spiritual registers.

The show’s title, Low Signal, comes from the atmospheric qualities of the first painting completed for the exhibition, Soft Meridian. The mountain scene carries a sombre but luminous mood, a quiet sense of melancholy within an otherwise pastoral landscape. The phrase “low signal” suggests a weakened transmission, something distant or partially received. In the context of the exhibition, it speaks to the dreamlike quality of the works, as if the landscapes exist slightly out of contact with the world.

The oil pastel landscapes unfold in soft, hazy colour. Their pastel palette creates a sense of calm that can feel almost utopian, yet the scenes remain subtly uncanny. Gravity, perspective, and logic appear slightly unsettled. These environments feel both recognisable and invented, as if they belong to a larger narrative world. The images operate almost like storyboards, fragments of a place that extends beyond the frame.

Alongside the landscapes are ceramic candelabras that reference classical and religious forms. Their silhouettes recall traditional decorative objects, yet their surfaces appear to melt, erode, or grow outward. Ornament softens and collapses into new shapes. These sculptures echo the landscapes by presenting familiar archetypes in a state of transformation.

Across the exhibition, landscape and objects share a common atmosphere. Natural scenery and architectural forms are filtered through a soft, dreamlike lens. What remains is a world that feels suspended between beauty and distance, where signals from familiar cultural and natural forms arrive slightly faded, unstable, and open to interpretation.

Michael Carney b.1983 is an interdisciplinary installation artist, based on Kaurna Country, working across painting, ceramics, digital media, and installation. His practice explores ontological and metaphysical questions through a blend of traditional craftsmanship and technological experimentation.

Carney holds a Masters of Visual Arts (Research) in 2016 following from his Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours in 2012, from the University of South Australia. For this, he was awarded the National Campus Art Prize for Painting and runner-up for Sculpture.

Post-graduation, Carney completed a residency in Jingdezhen and an associateship at the JamFactory. In 2022, he was awarded the Catapult mentorship from the Guildhouse and received an Arts SA grant for a touring exhibition. In 2024, his work was collected by Artbank.

Carney’s work has been featured in several art publications, including Artlink and the Journal of Australian Ceramics.

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