'Like a wall, very black' a 'disappearing sea', a 'vertical rise' , These are eyewitness accounts of when the tsunami that hit Aceh Province, Indonesia in 2004. The Fremantle shore borders the same Indian ocean, an earth quake prone region that caused this and other Tsunamis. Documented and anecdotal accounts of strange ocean activity all along the Western Australian coast highlight the close connection we have to the people who suffered from this natural disaster. Penny Coss' work in Cliff St aims to realise this connection through a bodily or physical comparison to the height and force of the Tsunami that reached 30m when it hit Aceh Province.

Penny Coss has participated in institutional group exhibitions nationally and internationally including Itami Art Museum, Osaka, Tokyo, University of WA, The Verge Gallery, University of Sydney and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. Penny has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1994. Often attracted to landscapes that have troubled or shared histories, her recent installations reference encounters with its biology, botany and geology. With oblique references to energy and landscape systems in extremis Coss has focused on natural and manmade disasters including the Fukushima Tsunami, floods and bushfires with a specific interest in algal bloom.

Photos: James Whineray