Triangulation: Julie Brooke & Susan Buret: Triangulation 1

Triangulation 1 was the first exhibition by Brooke and Buret at Gallerysmith Project Space in Melbourne in June 2015.

In the summer of 2014 Brooke and Buret both began making work using the colours and forms of butterflies. Brooke’s paintings arose from a collaboration with applied mathematicians who analyse complex structures inside butterfly wing scales, while Buret’s work was informed by her observations of Blue Jewel butterflies, Hypochrysops delicia, in her garden.

Using the shared visual language of grids and geometric forms, Brooke and Buret explore the possibilities of tapestry, painting and modular constructions to establish the third point of the triangle. However, they approach their investigations from very different points of view. During a residency in the ANU Department of Applied Mathematics, Brooke, a former research scientist, began collaborating with topologists who investigate a complex structure involved in the formation of butterfly wing‐scales. Brooke’s paintings explore the metaphorical and mathematical implications of this form, with a particular focus on how mathematicians visualize and communicate abstract concepts. Buret’s two and three‐dimensional works, on the other hand, emerge from her direct observations of Blue Jewel butterflies in her garden. Buret, a former restaurateur whose undergraduate studies were in psychology and art history, is now a mid career artist and an ANU MPhil candidate. She brings her background as a maker and her tacit knowledge gained from observation and material engagement to her investigation of painted pattern and illusion in extended pictorial space.