Interior Music

Mobile phones, traffic horns, TV chatter and radios. Seemingly assailed by walls of noise in every aspect of life, the power of silence can easily be forgotten. These themes of sound and silence have inspired Interior Music, the latest book from Melbourne artist and photographer Jenny Bolis.

A slender, elegant volume, Interior Music follows the growing trend of self-publishing, and is Bolis’ second volume. Her first, The Psychology of Trees, explored the feminine psyche through a series of startling landscapes shot the suburbs she grew up in – Coburg, Thornbury and Northcote. In her new book Bolis continues her preoccupation with landscapes, shadows and twilight, this time heading further afield to Castlemaine.

A moody body of work, Interior Music is awash with impossibly black blacks seeping across the page. Bolis says she’s inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and explains how she attempts to capture “the loss of light” in her work. Beyond the shadows, many of the works reflect on in-between moments: the moment before a candle is snuffed, the moment before a piano key is struck, the moment before the sun sets. These fleeting moments give the reader pause to consider their own often hurried lives.

Two essays from Melbourne writers Ashley Crawford and Megg Minos are a fitting bookend to this work. From Crawford:

“These are the moments when the clamor has died down,
where the phone is out of range, where the sirens are non-existent,
where the music, rather than pounding from an iPod,
comes instead from memory.”

Interior Music is available at Readings, Brunswick Bookstore and Horton Books.
For a full list of stockists or to purchase online visit www.anitatraversogallery.com.au/home.html.
See more of Jenny Bolis’ work at www.jennybolis.com.