What say you?

The latest installation piece, piece of shit that is

Crit Session 4/05/2007

An installation consisting of 2 horizontal lines of 6cm-square painted surfaces in the Elam Mt St Foyer that suggests the merging of 2D and 3D experience of space.

Is it site-specific?

From the first glance one may relate this work to the conceptual and minimalist explorations of space in the 70's, yet there is little evidence that this work is made specifically for the installation space. Rather, it seems more space-specific than in situ -- the squares are places where they are as a result of a brief investigation of the site, and they can be placed anywhere else in the same fashion. It is only when viewing the work from a distance one sees an effect of the line defining the space or setting a boundary. In this case the use of colour seems totally arbitrary and thus shows a lack of conscious artistic decision-making process.

How important is colour in this work?

The use of vivid colours in the work does attract the audience's attention and stimulate visual sensation to the experience of viewing. However, when one comes closer to the work and try to read into each square surfaces, one often feels confused or distracted -- for that each painted surface has no specified content, thus they appear to be hard to focus. The squares seem more like off-cuts of big paintings rather than carefully composed by the artist, which again shows a lack of artistic consciousness. Colour in this work, as a result, appears to be a fetishism of paint and has little effect on the exploration of painting/sculptural space in this work. It is totally unnecessary.

What can improve the work?

Though the squares may act as signatures of the artist, the whole work is void of personal engagement except the labouring from the artist. This can be dangerous if the artist relies on the physical input of the work but not the critical. Many aspects of this work seem ambiguous as to the presentation and what issues it provokes. The most interesting moment of this installation is when the line of squares goes over the surfaces of objects in the given space, i.e. a table. The line somehow dematerialises the surrounding objects and creates an illusion in the three-dimensional space. This would be a plausible direction for the artist to work toward to.

Contemporary artists that can be of reference are Matthew Ritchie, Jessica Stockholder, and Frank Stella.

Many thanks to Peter, Lisa, Fiona, Akiko, Trenton, Ben, Karena, and Kah-Bee