4 minute read
Naomi Evans — LANDSESKY: Griffth University Art Gallery, Brisbane
Planes and spaces, volumes, elemental phenomena, ephemeral images – where defnitions of one thing predicate consideration of what they are and are not – LANDSEASKY linguistically posits consideration of three nouns — so simple and restrained. By deleting the spaces between words, Kim Machan’s exhibition title, however, asserts connectedness with a range of associations – linguistic, observable and imagined. The potency of interstitial states, or ‘between’ zones , is evident throughout LANDSEASKY in touchstone artworks featuring geographically distant regions, cultures and philosophies. The constancy and mystery of a horizon line fusing sea and sky or land and sky is fgurative of Machan’s compelling themes for consideration — what is the nature of the screen, projection and movement that so effectively pries our perceptions open, reinserting spaces in which to savour complications of words, symbols as aggregate elements.
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Griffth University Art Gallery is based in Brisbane, Australia, in a precinct called South Bank. Brisbane is often referred to as a ‘River City’, and our metropolitan area is characterised by a broad curlicue of water funnelling through highrises and parklands. Griffth University Art Gallery is modest in scale, and housed within the campuses of Grifffth University’s Queensland College of Art. It is an angular building divided into three gallery spaces where we contend with several oblique and acute angles.
The screen-based exhibition LANDSEASKY occupied the vertical, horizontal x and y axis of our gallery walls, but also includes sculptural components into the third dimension. Derek Kreckler presents images of crashing waves on a shore over a massive cut screen of Tyvek material that sways and breaks apart when hit with the breath of an oscillating electric fan. Barbara Campbell’s interactive video reveals a slice of vision mimicking the view from an animal or bird ‘hide’ (the built structure that conceals the presence of humans, and cameras, with the intent to observe wildlife without disrupting their behaviour) and this slice of video responds to sensors tracking the speed of a viewer’s movement toward the screen or back, frustrating or rewarding the viewer with glimpses and misses.
As a curator of screen-based exhibitions, with Kim Machan I cannot ignore the 3D-ness of the equipment present in spaces, the ‘methods of production’, as they fundamentally impact our viewing experience, however successful a work might be in seducing our attention to and seemingly through the area of a projection. Jan Dibbets’s seminal silent flms from 1971 called Horizon I, II, III — Sea presented on loan from the Stedelijk Museum, The Netherlands formed the central locus of Griffth University Art Gallery’s two chapter approach to realising LANDSEASKY. On the foor, seven projectors with 4:3 aspect ratio were readily apparent along with the small media players and syncing cables. Prior to this exhibition, Dibbets’s two and three-channel pieces had never before been exhibited together, given that seven expensive and specialty use 16mm projectors would have had to be sourced or loaned. The transfer of the flms to HD video, with the artist’s explicit approval, is a highly signifcant moment to acknowledge here. That technological possibility has made it possible for viewers to experience the flms in a way that the artist desired, but that even he at the time of making was not able to achieve. The transfers are excellent and we are enormously privileged to be among the frst institutions to realise the full installation and present that experience in Australia. Occupying three large walls in our main gallery, the horizon that fuses sea and sky rose and fell, pitched, drew back and enveloped the viewer.
Wang Gongxing is another pre-emninent artist whose current work engages with technology that was previously unavailable, to sync and choreograph multiple screens and sounds. The installation of an artwork titled The other Rule in Ping Pong showed a ping-pong ball shot from one wall-based projection, as if down into the space of a fatscreen monitor (lying horizontally like a table) then ricocheting upward into another projection. The installation required exactitude in order to maintain the playful absurdity of his piece. The fdelity of the sound deftly supported the illusion of an actual ball.
We are grateful that Wang Gongxin, and Wang Peng, represented in this exhibition with two works Beyond and Feeling North Korea, both gave generously of their time and few from China to Brisbane to participate in artist talks. Their knowledge, dialogue and open-ness in sharing their approaches to art making was invaluable.
In collaboration with Machan, and in respect of the artists’ wishes for presentation of their work, we were able to present 18 artworks across two installation chapters. While Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 phases had distinct characteristics, the totality of the exhibition stays with many people who saw the show, and have commented that the practical separation is almost forgotten. The works have had time to resonate and coalesce in conversation long after they were seen. Movement on screen manifests an acknowledgment of time passing in a way that circumnavigates our three starting words – LANDSEASKY devolves 2D, through 3D and into the fourth dimension. And Machan’s selection of conceptually rigorous artworks might be approached through a cluster of meta-narratives but also on the most personal and idiosyncratic level, which of course is where memories reside.
Naomi Evans
Griffth University Art Gallery Actiing Director (2012 –2015)
Installation view at Griffth University Art Gallery.
