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LINDEN – CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS, 26 ACLAND STREET, ST KILDA
(Until December 16)
The Innovators exhibitions at Linden are an annual event providing free exhibition space to young emerging artists. Curatorial assistance is given to a range of individuals interested in presenting challenging visual explorations.
The Innovators Program Committee who select the works have a number of selection criteria and aims, such as selecting proposals that reflect a contemporary approach, and that are experimental and innovative.
Experimentation is perhaps the most striking aspect of all the works on display. Nicole Byrne has produced beautiful sculptural pieces that have the illusion of growing from the gallery walls and floor. Using masking tape, Byrne has created repeated patterns resembling giant sea sponges. The works surround the viewer, seeming to pulsate like living organisms; and reflect the artist’s interest in the natural environment. Titled Repetition, Byrne’s pieces are striking in their scale and aesthetic beauty, but above all it’s the materials used that really stands out.
I love the way many young artists use materials not traditionally employed in the creation of art. Over the years I’ve seen art made from scourers, polystyrene, wax, chocolate, lipstick and now masking tape. The result is breathtaking.
In the front gallery, Narinda Cook has also created sculptural forms that look like amorphous organs from within the body. Using scale and bright colour, her objects recall Patricia Piccinini’s blob-like sculptures. Flocked in bright red and pink, they radiate happiness and childhood memories.
In Gallery Three, Mandy Gunn has produced a work called TEXTile, comprised of huge reams of fabric laden with elaborate text.
Galleries Two and Five provide a totally different sensory experience. In these rooms, ‘Paris and Tacky Motel’ (aka the Motel Sisters) have developed one of the strangest installations I’ve seen in a long time. The premise of Bcos We’re Worf It! was to invite seventeen artists to create works about Paris and Tacky; the Paris Hilton, drag inspired, gender bending car crash alter egos of the curators. Video, painting, drawing and sculpture fill these two galleries. Many of the works are grotesque and garish. A video piece of the curators offers an engaging explanation as to what they were exploring in the show.
Innovators 4 is a fresh, exciting program that gives young artists the opportunity to experiment and push the boundaries of visual representation.
www.lindenarts.org
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