Place In Between: The Changeling

Narelle Autio returns to her renowned cinematic style in this 2020 body of work, capturing the dark depths of the sea and the moments of magic concealed by its murky waters.

This body of work is very personal to the artist, tracing its beginning to an idea born in motherhood, a time the Autio calls immersive and all consuming much like the ocean. As a mother of young teenagers, Autio feels she is coming up for air yet is also suspended in her own new beginnings.

These underwater works, which were photographed under many of South Australia’s jetties, are a metaphor for life and its incessant move towards change, yet they are also capturing the in between moments of the changelings, the place in between. These unstaged works suspend moments of swimmers jumping off the jetty that Narelle is submerged under. In the midst of a magical episode, their bodies are incapsulated in bubbles and motion. As the bubbles dissipate, the swimmer is briefly revealed as a strange figure… they could be fairies or even something more sinister.