16 March – 10 April 2022

Anna Madeleine Raupach

Too Late to Leave

The works in Too Late to Leave are informed by material investigation of maps, data and communication related to climate change. The exhibition explores how interpretation of extreme weather events, both through measurement systems and human understanding and expression, are continuously recalibrated to adapt to the changing environment.

The Slow Violence series consists of large-scale maps of the 2019/2020 bushfires in the Blue Mountains, NSW South Coast, Namadgi National Park, and Eastern Victoria, embroidered into emergency thermal blankets. These pieces re-interpret satellite data representing fire damage through hand-stitching that simultaneously destroys and repairs its grounding substrate. Designed to retain body heat and as a potential signalling device, the thermal blanket conveys fire as both restorative and catastrophic. 

The term ‘slow violence’ refers to implications of climate change that are temporally and spatially removed from sites of immediate destruction. This is echoed in the accompanying video works, where satellite footage of bushfire smoke encircling the earth is reanimated using UV cyanotype exposures, and images from below this same summer sky are chronicled in daily samples compiled on social media.

Through a tactile exploration of temporality and scale, these works interweave personal experience and planetary forces to express a crisis both urgently present and crucially delayed.

This exhibition has been generously supported by ArtsACT

Anna Madeleine Raupach is a multidisciplinary artist who explores how technology shapes our interpretation of the natural world. Her current practice focuses on expressing alternative forms of temporality related to climate change. Anna has a PhD in Media Arts from UNSW Art & Design (2014) and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from ANU School of Art & Design (2007), where she holds a Lecturer position. She has had solo exhibitions in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Montreal and Bandung and has been awarded international residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, through the Art Gallery of NSW (2018); Common Room Network Foundation, Indonesia, with Asialink Arts (2017); and the University of Southern California, supported by ArtsACT.  Across Australia she has participated in exhibitions at Verge Gallery (Sydney), Bundanon Trust (NSW), Watch This Space (Alice Springs), Flinders Lane Gallery and Art+Climate=Change (Melbourne). Her work has been selected for prizes including the Ramsay Art Prize (2021), Blake Prize (2020), Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize (2020) and the Churchie Emerging Arts Prize (2016).

installation images by Docqment

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Anna Madeleine Raupach
Shades of Black Summer 2021
video, 3 min loop
Dimensions variable
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Satellite Cyanotypes 2020
animated cyanotypes, 54 second loop
Dimensions variable
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Sky Swatches 2021
video, 6:15 min loop, tablet
Dimensions variable
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Slow Violence (Gospers Mountain) 2020
embroidery thread on emergency blanket
200 × 127 cm

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Slow Violence (Orroral Valley) 2021
embroidery thread on emergency blanket
200 × 127 cm

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Slow Violence (South Coast) 2021
embroidery thread on emergency blanket
200 × 127 cm

Anna Madeleine Raupach
Slow Violence (Mallacoota) 2022
embroidery thread on emergency blanket
127 × 200 cm