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Indepth Arts News:
"Adam Donovan, Jondi Keane, Rodney Spooner, and Carl Warner"
2002-10-19 until 2002-11-23
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Brisbane, QL,
AU
IMA profiles the work of Adam Donovan, Jondi Keane, Rodney Spooner and Carl Warner. Although each artist has a diverse approach, and the work by each stands alone as discrete solo exhibitions, all four explore different means of interacting with constructed environments.
Adam Donovan’s exhibit, entitled Heterodyning Cage, combines the highly specialised field of scientific acoustics with the visual arts. His work is interactive, with gallery visitors becoming the subject of his work as a number of camera systems track their movements. Donovan examines a very different interpretation of the everyday experience we have of sound. In 2001 Donovan participated in a residency with the Defence Department, sponsored by the Australian Network for Art and Technology. The project was aimed at fostering a relationship between the disciplines of art and science, encouraging new insights and perhaps unexpected outcomes. Adam states "I want to sculpt sound in space and change the way people perceive their auditory environment."
Jondi Keane’s exhibit, entitled ‘Perception Lookout’: The east and west of self-organisation is an installation that uses various means of manipulating the viewer’s response to a visual environment. Keane is interested in the ways our brains reorganise themselves as we are forced to make choices in what we concentrate on. For example, by projecting video footage on top of vinyl relief text, the words and texture of the text disrupt perception of the image. Similarly, the textual information cannot be clearly discerned because of the visual interference created by the moving images. Jondi’s work brings to light some interesting questions about the number of unconscious choices that we are forced to make each day in a world where our senses are constantly bombarded.
Rodney Spooner’s installation is titled Bypass. He typically works with building materials, mostly concrete, and much of the work is site-specific. As the title suggests, the scale of his installation impacts on a viewer’s ability to enter the gallery space, and dictates how the work is viewed. It is ironic that, despite the feel of permanence and solidity that Spooner invests in his work through the use of building materials, much of his work is destroyed after being documented. However, one site-specific work is still available for viewing at 111 George Street Brisbane as it is a physical part of the building.
Carl Warner’s video projection, Under, layers elements of nature and man-made environments. Abstracted still images of concrete structures click over in a slow and steady rhythm. Viewed through Warner’s lens, details of the urban environment that are typically seen as harsh become quite beautiful, and there is a sense of the pastoral in the rhythm of the presentation. IMA exhibition coordinator Ruth McDougall refers to his work as a "concrete pasture".
IMAGE:
Paul Wrigley, 2001
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