The Baroque in 'In the presence of angels'

By Jacinta Giles

'Worlds within Worlds' March 2026

Curator's insight

While living in London between 1985 and 1989, Anne Noble was assisted by grants – from the Greater London Arts Council and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand – to make a documentary essay about an order of contemplative nuns.
In these photographs, which she developed at the cloistered Tyburn Convent in London during 1987 to 88, Noble treated light with particular emphasis as a metaphor for both divine illumination and the sanctifying power of prayer.
As Anne-Marie Davison points out in her article on the ‘In the presence of angels’ series, in Art New Zealand in 1992:
'Noble’s photographs suggest, with gentle seductiveness, the mystical quality of lives suspended between temporal and spiritual worlds. Each gesture recorded has its significance enhanced by its ritualised repetition suggestive of a mysterious reality beyond the visible.'
In this series of photographs, of which two are on display in the exhibition ['Worlds within Worlds', 2026], the artist took her preferred use of black-and-white photography to capture the austere and ritualised life of these cloistered nuns.

Written and spoken by Jacinta Giles (Assistant Curator, International Art), March 2026

This photograph captures a view of a salon-style installation of photographs, with very small works hung at the far edges and the largest works hung in the middle. Multiple artists are represented; however, each photograph included has dramatic, Baroque elements in its composition.

Works by Gavin Hipkins, Anne Noble, Bill Henson, Justine Cooper, Imogen Cunningham, Anne Ferran and Laurence Aberhart installed for ‘Worlds within Worlds’, QAG, March 2026 / © The artists / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA