The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) presents ‘First Amongst Equals (Part II)’, a dynamic display of Australian and international artists concerned with film, kinetics, colour, sound and time. Their approaches are diverse and draw on techniques from across the twentieth century, with works spanning 1936 to 2012. The exhibition is the second installment of a pair of connected shows, and very much a development on the first, displayed at Gertrude Contemporary in July.
The concept is intriguing: 5 artists of different backgrounds and periods, brought together in one time and space to present work that spans several decades of art history. Engaging the viewer on multiple sensorial platforms, the exhibition is an explosion of colour, light, movement and sound, intermingling both within the artworks themselves and around the display. The dynamic environment created is in some sense a microcosmic reflection of a dynamic century of technological and artistic innovation, articulated through the clever directorial vision of PICA’s in-house curator, Leigh Robb.
Robb says that she is interested in minimalism and post-minimalism in art; and in particular the concept of doubling in art; pairing, re-enactment, synchronicity, diptych, symmetry. The show itself as a dual presentation can be viewed within this framework, considering how the two contexts and events relate to each other, as distinct forms crucially linked. The idea of doubling manifests itself particularly in the pairing of artists, bringing together art from very particular and distinct periods and places, in the PICA and Australian context. “I wanted to keep it modest and just concentrate on a small group of artists so that those works could be looked at in close comparison with each other, and set up a series of pair structures between the works”, says Robb. All the artists featured in the show are distinct, yet interconnected. “It might seem like quite an unlikely grouping of artists, but there’s incredible sympathies there and wonderful symmetries or counterpoints that are opened up between those works, and end up dealing with quite universal concepts of time, the body and the experience and phenomenology of colour,” Robb says.
London based artist Elizabeth McAlpine brings her complex multimedia art to Australia for the first time, presenting works that feature a Super 8 projection, plaster cast gramophone, pinhole camera photographs and sculptures, found postcards, and a flickering installation of printed shadows. Her installations investigate the relationship of light and temporality to film, providing a conceptual stabiliser to ground the other works featured in the exhibition.
Joining McAlpine are Len Lye, Christian Marclay, Paul Pfeiffer and Australian Rebecca Baumann. Baumann and McAlpine were the only two artists commissioned for the exhibition, with Baumann creating a “colour environment” that became a constructed context for the other works featured. The resulting Colour Cave was an important means of creating “intimate pockets” says Robb. Christian Marclay is known for his dynamic multimedia productions, with a vast range of creative influences. Featured are some of his lesser-known works that deal with sound, echoes, symmetry and the limits of duplication. Paul Pfeiffer’s highly influential work Morning After the Deluge is also on display, as well as some early work by the late Len Lye, in which he scratched directly into celluloid film.
The exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for viewers to consider Australian art in an international and historical context, through the innovative curatorial premise of Leigh Robb in bringing together a diverse yet innately linked group of artists.
PICA
November 3 to December 30, 2012
Western Australia
Rebecca Baumann, Automated Monochrome (White on White), 2012,
100 flip-clocks, laser cut PVC, batteries, 129 x 359 x 9cm, duration: 24 hrs
Courtesy of the artist and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Exhibition View: First Amongst Equals (Part II), 2012
Courtesy of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Photography: Tony Nathan/Imagelab
