Cloud Nine: Marieke Dench:

Marieke Dench’s new body of paintings is a contemplation of happiness across diverse national geographies. Known for her ability to translate statistical data into striking visual artworks, Dench here transposes the facts and figures of happiness-by-continent into the form of billowing clouds. Traditionally associated with divine presence, change and interconnectedness, clouds are increasingly seen as symbols of the information age. Dench plays with the ambiguity of the form as both an image of communality but also one where the hard realities revealed by information feeds are brought unflinchingly to light. “Choose your continent of birth wisely”, the artist admonishes. “Europe is the happiest; Africa is the unhappiest”; stark realities that are reflected in countless research projects.

Vibrant colors are used to represent nations with higher happiness scores—blues, greens, oranges and yellows, each with underlying depictions of data streams that contrast the natural and the digital. At times these code streams suggest falling rain that quickly reassemble into graphs and data points.

The paintings enable viewers not only to reflect on global happiness data but to ‘feel’ it in the colours and diaphanous flows. Such an approach challenges viewers to reflect on what happiness means on both a personal and societal level, making the art not just a reflection of statistics, but also a tool for social dialogue.

The works draw on key social markers including literacy, gender equality, family size and age dependency. Yet for all of these references, it is the artist’s genuine love of cloud formations that speaks volumes in these paintings. Notably, it is the view of clouds as seen from above during overseas trips that underscores the sense of joy and wonder that is so apparent in these works.

This new exhibition, titled ‘Cloud Nine’, builds on recent bodies of paintings by Dench, including ‘Comparable Consequences’ (2021) and ‘Monument to Colour’ (2014). As with these earlier bodies of work, Dench continues to draw on global data as a source of inspiration. Her background in printmaking is also referenced in these new works, providing a rich basis of pattern throughout the compositions. These vibrant paintings are also exhibited alongside aluminium wall reliefs, focusing on the distinctive cloud formations.

Damian Smith

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