REVIEW: In the Year 2525

This selection of Grays newest work revolves around the same concept realised in three different ways. Gray examines the Moiré (pronounced: mwa-rei) effect: an optical illusion which occurs when two sets of grids or sets or parallel lines are overlaid at slightly different angles.

This work is a departure in terms of aesthetics and mediums compared to Grays previous work of delicately sculptured miniature craft forests of paper tendrils and fern fronds or organic colourful chaos, which was a notable presence in his 2010 solo exhibition (‘Attack Decay Sustain Release’) at Craft Victoria and which was the sole focus of his exhibition (another solo: ‘Tudo Que Acho/ Everything I Think’)the previous year (2009) at The Narrows.

The moiré effect is an illusion, a suggestion of something that doesn’t exist and Gray likens this to anthropological forecasting: seeing what is present within contemporary culture and trying to predict the as yet unrealised, undetermined and unknown future. This act of seemingly logical-soothsaying by some individuals has had devastating effects, like the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, although more often it has been responsible for envisioning optimistic future utopias as dreamt by writers and dreamers of science fiction, such as musicians Zager and Evans who penned the song ‘In the year 2525’ which forms the title of the exhibition.

These thoughts of the far off future was also inspiration for Grays sound work exhibited as a part of The Zero Dollar Show at West Wing gallery (a temporary space run by West Space) a month before ‘In the year 2525’. Gray recorded an audio tour of Melbourne Central as though the shopping centre were a complex projected reality used as a teaching device for students in the far future as a part of a history lecture.

Grays musings of the moiré effect are manifested as three distinctly different types of work: a large scale installation, smaller drawings, and framed moiré patterns screenprinted on mylar which have then been placed over moiré screenprints on paper, which capture the effect in action.

The installation (above) is comparable to his miniaturist jungles of vegetative paper works, except on a larger scale and utilising more industrial materials. Multiple A2 sized sheets of Perspex with parallel lines created with black electrical tape are suspended from the ceiling, which demonstrate the visual interference of the moiré pattern in the wild, a natural environment of angled planes (ply wood panels) and bold straight lines ruling their way through the chaos (long strips of electrical tape).

Grays framed works (above) act like smaller versions of the installation: live captured moiré patterns, confined to a restrictive enclosure, living examples of visual interference keep in captivity and trapped for its privileged owners wall.

The drawings are perhaps the most curious of the trio. Being works on paper, the lines share the same flatland and fixed positions, the human eye (and mind) can’t compensate for the discrepancy caused by the mismatched angle of lines.

The exhibition will also host a series of ‘acoustic tests of pre-post-human perception’, which is a pre-post human way of saying 'gig', which will include Snawklor, Mof Far Far Rah, Julian Williams, and Northlands at Utopian Slumps gallery on Sunday 20^th of Feburary from 6:00 til 9:00pm.

The present is just a suggestion of a future illusion.

ON NOW - only from the perspective of an observer located upon the surface of the earth does day and night occur - Bianca Hester

"only from the perspective of an observer located upon the surface of the earth does day and night occur"
Bianca Hester
The Narrows
02 April - 02 May 2009

ON NOW

An eclipse is only viewable by someone standing on the surface of the earth. The same goes for the more common phenomenon of night and day... and anyone wishing to view Bianca Hester's exhibition, "only from the perspective of an observer located upon the surface of the earth does day and night occur" at the Narrows. Be aware that this isn’t only just Hester’s show, its gravity's as well. It’s a collaboration.

The door of the gallery is kept open by two forces: large, heavy, grey cinder blocks on the floor and a strip of tape passing across the space of the open door from the frame to the door itself, making the gallery space, directly interconnected to the world outside. This idea is reaffirmed as the viewer notices that the installation exists outside of the space as well, penetrating the wall of the gallery and into the hall through a newly cut hole and, out of the office window, and into another second storey window across the laneway. In this inclusive act of the outside wall in the installation Hester is making the public statement that the laws-o-physics apply inside of the gallery just as much outside, specifically gravity.

The floor is paved with the large grey cinder blocks that keep the door open, another reference to gravity, this time through weight, a couple of sparse lengths of fluoro orange rope pulled taut dart at all angles across the space and outside of it, imitating beams of light or the uninterrupted path of matter invasive particles soaring across the universe, and lastly a strip of tape gently meanders the length of the space via the walls (the height presumably limited by Hester’s reach) like a far off smokey whisp of a barely visible horizon; all phenomena unique to an observer standing on the surface of the earth. The real gold in the installation is Hester's glass of water and the lighting, but I'm not going to tell you why, for the same reason I didn’t tell you that DiCaprio died at the end of Titanic: spoilers aren’t very considerate.

"only from the perspective of an observer located upon the surface of the earth does day and night occur" is in part art-povera melded with aesthetic-pseudo-science but mostly it’s a great example of Hester’s ability to see common materials in new ways, ways in which these common materials take on new qualities and also reflect non-physical ideas and thoughts, both of which were apparently inherent the entire time but not seen.

http://www.thenarrows.org/index.html

http://www.biancahester.net