‘Vibrant Matter’ is Julian Day’s first solo show with Dominik Mersch Gallery, following his recent successes in NEW16 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne and the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. ‘Vibrant Matter’ continues Day's investigations into sound's kinetic properties, echoing the 'vital materialism' of theorist Jane Bennett and the potential of objects to act as ‘quasi agents’ in the world. The exhibition features a series of large austere monochromatic voids (black, white, pink) that are periodically articulated by silent subsonic tones produced by hidden subwoofer speakers. This dramatically energizes the surface of each work - a literal visualisation of unheard sound. Day’s work encompasses sculpture, installation, performances and video, combining his twin backgrounds in music and art. Earlier works such as ‘Requiem’ and ‘Two Strong Hearts’ (both exhibited in 2013 at Dominik Mersch Gallery) paired musical instruments such as vintage synthesizers or metronomes to speak to the idealisms and compromises of human relationships. Over the past year Day has pushed into more abstract territory, creating works that deal more directly with vibration, energy and transmission. These new works imbue basic art materials – blank paper, plywood sheets, primed canvases – with uncanny liveliness. Julian Day has presented work in New York, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, The Hague, Berlin, Prague and throughout Australia. He has won several major awards including the ARTAND Credit Suisse Contemporary Art Award, an Australia Council Creative Australia Fellowship, Aesthetica Art Prize (finalist), Dominik Mersch Gallery Award, Willoughby Sculpture Prize (emerging) and the 2015 Fauvette Loureiro Artists Memorial Travelling Scholarship to travel to New York, London and Berlin. His work was recently acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and will feature in Collection Volume Two from late August.
VIEW EXHIBITION VIDEO HERE:
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 Vibrant Matter Dominik Mersch Gallery 2015 STATIC Berlinskej Model, Prague White Noise William Wright Projects, Sydney Studies In Unison Kings ARI, Melbourne 2014 Consensus bb15, Linz, Austria Lovers La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo 2013 Dissonance Sydney College of the Arts Turbulent Geometry Canberra Museum and Art Gallery 2012 AURA Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney (w/ Luke Jaaniste) Jagged Heart Islington Mill, Manchester, UK (w/ Luke Jaaniste) 2009-10 Ceremony Firstdraft, Sydney; Canberra Contemporary Art Space EXHIBITIONS (GROUP) 2016 Collection Volume Two Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney NEW16 Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne CUSP Australian Design Centre, Sydney
2015 8th Asia Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Prague Quadrennial of Performance Space and Design, Czech Republic envelop(e) Dark MOFO/Contemporary Art Tasmania, Hobart Sound And Vision Galerie pompom/MOP, Sydney the NOW now SNO Projects, Sydney 2014 Bildhauen Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney CUSP Jam Factory, Adelaide; State Library Queensland, Brisbane Human Landscape Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney 2013 Bloom Space Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide CUSP Casula Powerhouse, Sydney 2012 SafARI The Rocks Pop-Up, Sydney Transmission Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney Near Earth Art Wollongong City Gallery SELECTED PERFORMANCES 2016 An Infinity Room (AIR) Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane Open Plans Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Moving Collected Ambience Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia 2015 Quartz Bang On A Can Marathon, New York, USA Hammer Action Royal Academy of Music, London, UK Social Systems VIVID Sydney, Seymour Centre GAMES+ACTIONS Art & About, Sydney
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2014 Super Critical Mass MPavillion, Melbourne AIR National Portrait Gallery, London AIR CafĂŠ Oto, London, UK Sonic Social Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Shudder Space Aurora Festival, Parramatta Town Hall, Sydney 2013 AIR Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane Turning The Tables Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne Together We Breathe Library of Birmingham, UK Soundland Underbelly Festival, Cockatoo Island, Sydney Live And Let Die Performance Space, Sydney 2012 Monochrome The Horse Hospital, London, UK Low End Spitalfields Music Festival, Old Spitalfields Markets, London, UK Voice Field FutureEverything Festival, Manchester Cathedral, UK Halogen Sydney Opera House 2011 Sound Whitechapel Gallery, London Vaporisation Queensland Music Festival, Old Museum Brisbane Swelter Make Music New York/MATA Festival, New York, USA INTERCESSIONS Altes Finanzamt, Berlin; TEST Extra, Het Nutshius, The Hague 2010 Resonate Grantpirrie Gallery, Sydney
‘Black’, 2016, MDF, silk, amplifier, subwoofer speaker, 240 x 120 x 24 cm, edition of 6 + 1 AP
‘White’, 2016, MDF, silk, amplifier, subwoofer speaker, 120 x 120 x 24 cm, edition of 6 + 1 AP
‘Pink’, 2016, MDF, silk, amplifier, subwoofer speaker, 120 x 80 x 24 cm, edition of 6 + 1 AP