Three Master's students from Curtain University offer very different exhibits that communicate unrelated concepts. Buemi refers to gender identity, Ettrick plays with grids and Zadow attempts to capture a moment. Together the exhibits utilize the space well and provide interesting viewing.
Buemi stretches her exhibit along one wall to present as a narrative. Inclination, Initiation and Identity involves a collection of 'noughts' and 'crosses' cut from perspex and decorated for the most part with black leather and pink lace. We approach the first segment and identify the pink fuller shapes as female and the black pointed ones as male, as they fit neatly together. We follow the narrative as shapes 'pair off' then a certain ambiguity infiltrates our preconceived notions of masculine man and feminine woman. The pairs can be read in a variety of couplings where the concept of masculine/feminine is more relevant then the physicality of male/female. The final section sees each leather and lace shape as an individual identity within the group.
Buemi's exhibit makes good use of the audience's predisposition for coded readings of colour, shape, decoration and texture. This permits different interpretations according to the viewer's own experiences. For example, besides the gender specific reading, the work can just as easily reference cultural or religious differences and ambiguities. This is a highly engaging exhibit, well conceived, constructed and presented.
Ettrick's work references the computer and the grid. The computer may be a relatively new drawing tool but the grid in art has been around a long time. In her series of seven digital print outs, each entitled Software, Ettrick works in equal partnership with a computer to compose an attractive collection of black fine line grids on white paper. The effects of the computer's tricks with shadow and distortion are interesting but curiosity soon evaporates when the only message communicated is 'I can do this!'
Digital prints always raise questions on how much of the image is a true refection of the artist's concept. Is the image edited by the computer's grunt or the parameters of the software package? Do the restrictions of the tool effect the artist's interpretation of the concept? The answers to these questions will emerge from tertiary art schools this decade - but will they be arty or IT?
More impressive is Ettrick's Hardware - 3 neatly 'arranged' in the window. Here a dish of cut electrical cable acts as a bed from which a fine wire 'vine' grows. These short silver wires collect and connect to travel outward reaching for what - energy? A visually inviting work that repels the temptation to touch.
Zadow presents the installation Falling Leaves which, on my visit, had already fallen and looked like a pool of water. It was explained the blue leaves were suspended from white balloons and drifted down at the opening. The artist was demonstrating how the same moment, experienced by many people, will have a variety of interpretations. This is a fine concept, and perhaps the opening was a fascinating experience but what is left for those of us who arrive some time later? A pile of blue paper and white balloons not unlike a patio the morning after the party, and we can't remember anything.
Moments are slippery little things that fly by in flocks and Zadow attempts to capture one, not by freeze framing it like a still from a movie film, but by acknowledging its value. This is better displayed in the small back gallery, beyond the pulled back paper drape of autumn hues, where the artist has recreated a cool damp forest floor of blue and gold leaves and round white mushrooms (touch lights). It suggests a place where valued moments are stored for reliving.
These three artists present thought provoking exhibits that questions the parameters of society, technology and personal experiences. What more do you want?