Multifocal, Glenda Orr, photo by Mel de Ruyter

On first encounter, Bimblebox is a sea of tall gold Spinifex dotted with clumps of rustling poplars, spiky shrubs and squat termite mounds. At eye level, the patterns seem to repeat across the flat landscape, making ‘getting lost’ easy and creating a false sense of uniformity.

Multifocul (detail), Glenda Orr

However, looking more closely, looking up and down and through the magnifying and distorting lens of an etcher’s loupe, there is a myriad of micro patterns and a rich diversity of plants, animals and textures to be discovered.

This loupe had formerly been a tool for the artist to visually check the depth of an acid bite while making etching plates. Discovering its new function as a means to explore the micro-world of Bimblebox was serendipitous. Glenda Orr found she had slipped it in to her drawing tool box and so she started using it as a magnifier to look more closely.

Photographing through the lens often led to an intriguing distorted, multi-focused image of the subject, shifting the focus from recognising discernable discrete objects to an exploration of multifaceted patterns, colours, shapes and textures.

Multifocal (detail), Glenda Orr

This search of the multifaceted micro-nature of Bimblebox, to go beyond the obvious perspective and the narrow focus to look at the ‘devil (or beauty) in the detail’, is accentuated by the montage of many micro photographic explorations.

Multifocal at Sawtooth ARI