Written by Amelia Pontifex
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Starry night skies, haunting figures and wild animals amongst ethereal landscapes, is how artist Bodhi Del Mar describes many of her works. The Adelaide raised, Gold Coast based artist and photographer completes conceptual and surreal works inspired by her travels around the globe. Her whimsical and metaphorical artworks invite us to take a breath and contemplate our deeper connection with both the natural world as well as our higher selves.
Bodhi Del Mar
Central to surreal photography, especially in the case of Bodhi’s works, is the idea of freeing the mind from external chaos, bypassing reason and focusing on dreaming and the subconscious. This idea of freeing the mind, and allowing it to roam wild is something we see in a literal and metaphoric sense especially in Bodhi’s Africa I Altiora Petamus. This work plays with unusual elements set in visually illogical scenes that encourage the viewer to both take a closer look and metaphorically step back and consider their own place in the world.
“As I explore the outer, so I explore the inner. I’m deeply compelled to examine our connection to the natural world and how this parallels the connection we have with our highest self.”
After studying commercial photography and working in the industry for 10 years, Bodhi deep dived into a creative cocoon. With photography as her springboard, she experimented with a wide range of media to develop her own unique artistic practice. With this new found liberation, she refined her conceptual and composite techniques to create surreal and bewitching imagery from her travels, often speaking to both her outer and inner world experiences.
Bodhi’s artistic practice has increasingly developed over the last six years as she has experimented with a variety of mediums including digital photography, using recycled elements, stencilling and painting. More often than not though, her use of photography and digital manipulation create surreal and whimsical images that reflect her personal and artistic journey.
“I’m drawn to psychology, symbolism and the journey of the human soul. I often use recurring metaphors to tap in and shine a light into the deep subconscious. Each dream-like scene is intended to thoroughly delight and amplify a childlike curiosity and spirit – to hopefully inspire a more mindful heart and heartened mind.”
Bodhi also plays with a number of Classical and Contemporary elements by juxtaposing Renaissance- originated perspective and Latin phrases, with club and hotel-looking interiors, neon signage and the feeling that the observer is either up too late at night or drifting off into a dream-scape.
Like in many Renaissance paintings, we see a mixing of the exotic with traditional themes and a strong sense of perspective. In Africa IV Fiat Lux, we see what we assume to be a mother Leopard and her baby cubs taking the central role with the natural landscape disappearing into the horizon. In a way, we are made to feel that we as the viewer are the foreign object that doesn’t belong as well as feeling like these wild animals have become domesticated and taken over the scene.
It was while at photography school that Bodhi took on a greater appreciation and understanding of the work of David LaChapelle, Annie Liebovitz, Montalbetti + Campbell and Alexia Sinclair. These big-swinger commercial photographers are known for their boldness, their bravery and really pushed the boundaries and levelled up the playing field for a new wave of experimental photographers. Much like the photography by Alexia Sinclair, Bodhi’s works are iconic for their use of intense colours, capture of a moment in time and imbue a complex and throughout understanding of history, detail and symbolism.
“It’s taken me so long to realise – but a lot of the work I’m producing, it’s for others. I feel a sense of calmness and clarity when I look at my own work, when others see it too. All of this imagery and inspiration bubbles up from my subconscious. I think it’s trying to guide me and give me that calmness that I haven’t had for so long. It is that sense of clarity, calmness and serenity that I want others to feel too. I feel like I am holding a thread and I can pull on it and connect us all.”
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