Review on the open closed exhibition

Barbara Vivash

S2765600

Review on the open closed Exhibition

The exhibition, open closed, at the QUT Art Museum was launched on September 1, 2012 by David Broker, Director of Canberra Contemporary Art Space. The exhibition presents the work of Lincoln Austin, Sean Phillips and Arryn Snowball

The QUT Art Museum has a reputation for presenting thought-provoking contemporary art. In open closed, the three artists present works in diverse media actively exploring a shared comprehension of the basic elements of the everyday. Even though each artist’s work is innately different, the shared proximity reveals their inspirations and corresponding concerns.

The juxtaposition of Lincoln Austin’s geometric hard-edge sculptures with Sean Phillips’ poetic text scrolls and the monochromatic images of Arryn Snowball, highlights the differences in form and media. And yet, the invitation to the viewer to share the fleeting insights of each artist creates the intimacy of a secret. As one transverses the gallery, one is enveloped in an intrigue.

“Their work presents the viewer with objects or atmospheres for contemplation: repeating modes, shifting visual motifs, words and phrases.” This is a quote from the curator’s synopsis at the entrance to open closed. Immediately to the right, is a definitive enclave with the Sean Phillips engraving, open closed 2011 (Fig. 2), Lincoln Austin’s Imperfect Pattern LXIII, 2012 (Fig. 3) and Arryn Snowball’s video installation, Slow Dance (Sticks and Shadows) 2012 (Fig 4).

In Rosemary Hawker’s review, she writes: “Their interests coalesce in the ease with which seemingly stable materials and their relations can be made to appear as their opposites.” In this enclave, Sean Phillips uses simple black on white text demonstrating this concept in his engraving, open closed 2011 (Fig. 1), where ‘open’ becomes enclosed and ‘enclosed’ becomes open. Echoing the concept, Arryn Snowball creates a video with sticks and shadows where shadows become solids combining with solids to create volume and depth from the angular silhouettes. Lincoln Austin weaves mirrored glass and silicon to create an Imperfect pattern from perfectly aligned squares of mirrored glass while the viewer’s reflection distorts its perfect regularity.

In open closed Arryn Snowball has included three of his ‘sheet’ paintings which were inspired by the fluttering sheets on a backyard clothesline. Untitled 2009 (Fig. 5) is more reminiscent of his earlier ‘sheet’ works, where the fluttering forms are represented as translucent veils of uniform tone and scale overlaid to create the sense of an ethereal materiality. In Ashes to diamonds I and II, 2012 (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7), the sheets have evolved into more stylised forms in different tones that suggest depth. The forms have become more abstract and in these works the representation of the light filtering through the fabric has been supplanted by the artist’s interest in spatial composition and the suggestion of form.

One painting represents the transient wonder of the everyday, transforming a banal sheet into an object of contemplation, while the other two images create tension between individualised fluttering shapes, solidifying a moment in time.

The love song of Alfred J Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, is an illusion to the mental monologue of Alfred J. Prufrock as he rehearses a proposal of marriage while walking through the streets of London to have dinner with the woman of his dreams. He tries to resolve his emotional conflicts and attempts to be reconciled to approaching old age. The poem is written as a continuous stream of consciousness as the man considers his surroundings, slips into literary parallels, imagines the actual proposal and dreads the possibility of a refusal.

Sean Phillips renders The love song of Alfred J. Prufrock from corrected poems of T.S. Eliot 2012 (Fig. 8 and Fig. 9) by a collection of used typewriter ribbons and the resultant two pages of text. In his work he transforms a continuous stream of consciousness, the ribbons, into a solid reality – the typed poem. According to ‘SparkNotes’, Eliot’s Poetry , 2012, even though sections of the poem resemble free verse, the rhyme scheme is irregular but not random with the most prominent formal characteristics of the work being the use of refrains.

Sean Phillips has deconstructed the poem to form an actual non-stop stream as he types the work, creating a more plausible representation of the thought process. The type is in pale grey, (grey matter?), with the exception of two sentences; “a minute will reverse. For I have known them all al” and further on; “Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you”, which are typed in black ink. Are these excerpts of significance or picked at random? It does have the effect of making the viewer think and delve into the actual poem, creating a dialogue, a sense of mystery.

Lincoln Austin assembles stainless steel, mirrored glass and wood into precise, intricate constructions. Through geometry, pattern and repetition the artist utilizes mathematics and poetic metaphor to transform these resistant material forms into sculptures which, according to Rosemary Hawker, “are so light and precise as to appear like drawings suspended in air, something that we may expect of computer imaging but far more elegant and far more present and affecting in their material precision.” No end in sight 2012 (Fig. 10), is an inspirational sculpture in stainless steel mesh which is a combination of triangles, cubes and illusion created from transparent, seamless mesh which suggests endlessness. Yet again one alludes to the possible brief, where “seemingly stable materials and their relations can be made to appear as their opposites.” Here a sharp, heavy, impenetrable form appears as light as air - as if it could float like the kite it resembles.

I really enjoyed the exhibition and appreciated the clever placement of the pieces. Similar forms were echoed in other works in close proximity. A good example is No end in sight 2012,(noted above), placed beside Sean Phillips Untitled 1 – 7 2012 (Fig. 11). The work by Phillips is a series of framed lengths of text, where the text has been overlaid and moved so that the continuous stream also forms a zigzag pattern in the list. From a distance the text appears to have been woven, echoing the geometric design in Lincoln Austin’s sculpture. On a nearby wall is a video installation by Arryn Snowball Slow Dance (Sticks and Shadows) III 2012 (Fig. 4) where the revolving ‘sticks and shadows’ pause and a freeze-frame of zigzag pattern resonates with the other two works. Wonderful!

References

Eliot’s Poetry, SparkNotes. Retrieved 5 October, 2012 from http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/section 1.rhtml

Hawker, R., Dissolution: Paintings by Arryn Snowball exhibition catalogue, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2004.

Hawker,R., openclosed exhibition catalogue, (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 2012)

Kubler, A. Lincoln Austin: Capturing Sculpture, “Australian Art Collector” Issue 58, 2011. Retrieved 4 October, 2012 from, http://www.artcollector.net.au/Lincoln Austin Capturing Sculpture

Phillips, S., e-books, kiss-boxes and captive women, 2011, Andrew Baker Art Dealer. Retrieved 4 October, 2012 from http://www.Andrew-baker.com/Exhibitions.html

T. S. Eliot, 1920, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock (Bartleby.com). Retrieved 5 October, 2012 from http://www.bartleby/198/1.html