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An Ideal for Living
p16_artmatters_250.jpgInnovators 1: An Ideal for Living
Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts
26 Acland Street, St Kilda
(Until April 13)
 
Curated by Simon Gregg, this group show at Linden features the work of Hannah Bertram, Iris Fischer, Briele Hansen, Sanné Mestrom, Susan Milne, Anna-Maria O'Keeffe, Jessica Page, Izabela Pluta, Julia Silvester, Camilla Tadich, and Louiseann Zahra-King.

The exhibition’s title, Innovators 1: An Ideal for Living, is intentionally contradictory. The art on display is predominantly about impermanence, decay, and the disintegration of memory, the domestic sphere and objects in general. The eleven artists in the show have created works that are, through their materiality, incomplete, fragile or in some way about absence.

For the opening of the exhibition, artist Hannah Bertram created decorative motifs made from sand resembling ceiling designs from bygone eras. Mirroring in a sense the Linden gallery, the designs appeared like stencils across the floorboards. As part of the opening, visitors were invited to walk into the space, and in the process onto the designs. The result was the eradication of the work to varying degrees. I must admit to a feeling of sadness at the destruction of these beautiful designs. For the artist this ‘was’ the work. The viewer’s interaction lay at the core of what the artist intended – to create memory, longing and absence.

Briele Hansen’s projection in a blacked-out room invites the spectator to lie down on a cushioned chair and look up at water gurgling above. The inversion of the usual looking down into the water causes an interesting dynamic. For me the installation was meditative, allowing the viewer to enter an almost dream-like state while watching the animated image.

Louiseann Zahra-King has created incomplete and fossilized doilies set in bronze. The works are delicate, and yet, being made from bronze, become symbols of a kind of fractured permanence.

Susan Milne’s sculpture of a vacuum cleaner and a portable TV are constructed from concrete, again testifying to the monumental role these objects play in the domestic sphere. However, made from concrete, the sculptures become dysfunctional ‘copies’, no longer able to perform domestic duties.

The first in the series of Innovators programs for 2008, An Ideal for Living is a welcome addition to the contemporary arts landscape of Melbourne. Look out for future exhibitions in the series.
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