The Sublime

Throughout time, the word ‘sublime’ has been associated with awe-inspiring landscapes, the fear and beauty of the great beyond, and the uncontrollable forces of nature. For this exhibition, the participating artists were invited to re-examine the sublime, not through the grand scale of mountains or storms, but through a more intimate focus. Instead of channelling their exploration through sweeping horizons, they were prompted to consider the space between above and below, the ground and the sky. In doing so, they question the thresholds and limitations that human experience is often confined to, and how meaning is shaped within this in-between state.

Current QCAD University students and alumni, Rose Alexander, Finnian Mullen, Isabelle Cowan, Maria Hill and Chelsea Carkeet respond to this invitation through a diverse range of material approaches. Some works trace intergenerational memory and inherited narratives, while others attend to shifts in perception, to the behaviour of shadow, or to the subtle instability of light. Temporal distortion appears throughout the exhibition, with certain works stretching or pausing time to enforce reconnection to moments typically fleeting. Collectively, these practices suggest that the sublime can be found at the scale of the everyday, embedded within thresholds where an ordinary moment begins to transform.

Together, these works present the sublime as something both grounded and expansive, anchored in lived experience yet reaching toward realms that exceed it. The Sublime invites viewers to consider how awe, curiosity and transformation shape our understanding of ourselves and the worlds we inhabit, and how connections to self can be just as vast, disorienting and powerful as the external landscapes traditionally linked to the term.