[catalogue text for group exhibition at Conical Inc, 28 May - 26 June 2010]

Composition





A composition is an arrangement.
A composition may show a sense of logic or act as a system for the ordering of elements.
Compositions are usually certain but can be otherwise.
A composition can be made to draw an undefined idea out, making it clear through running lines from one element to another.

So a composition can be used to give form to an idea – whether it be an image, a series of sounds, or a number of objects in space. As an exhibition, Composition is an idea to juxtapose the work of four artists – Andrews, Finlayson, Nixon and Takasaka.

The curatorial system behind this spatial composition is open, intuitive and multi-directional. The sense of exchange between works is deliberate, but the result of it is uncertain. The exhibition can be seen as a collage or a layering of individual systems, forming a network of systems, the view of which is different from every aspect.

Closely related to these dynamics of exchange and reference is the idea of reverberation.
As a sonic phenomenon, it can be understood as a three-stage process – source, reflection and diffusion.

From a source, a sound reaches the ears directly. Naturally, this is heard first. The sound is then heard again after its initial reflection off walls, the ceiling, or any other surrounding surface. The reflected sound then gradually diffuses in strength after reflecting many times in various phases and in numerous different directions. This process of diffusion is generally dependent upon the strength and frequency of the original sound source and also the sonic capabilities of the surfaces that it reflects off.

Replacing these stages with artworks, any one example could be seen as a source, with the other contributions standing in as reverberations – in part a reflection of something else, but also as a diffusion too, phasing into a form or a source of its own kind.

The exhibition title also refers to the open-ended understanding of production. Here, studio practices have been re-contextualised. Works have been relocated, reconfigured. Two dimensional concepts have been converted into spatial formats.

The works within this exhibition are elements from expanding practices, similar to the way a sound is projected from a source. In this context, and in the space, they cannot be seen as finished. They do not start and end here. They will lead onto something else, may become something else, are not entirely contingent to, or a response to something else, and are neither entirely permanent nor ephemeral.

These artworks are represented here as transient elements already in the process of reflection. A set of ongoing ideas are the compositional source for each work, and in a way it’s the same situation for the exhibition. But for the viewer, the way all this reflects, and the rate at which it diffuses, is an entirely subjective matter.





Justin Andrews
Melbourne, 2010