Dahlsen’s exhibition at the new Tweed Regional Art Gallery in Murwillumbah NSW Australia, explores the creative act of selection and the beauty of elements from the natural world that are often discarded and disregarded by contemporary society. On display in the Gallery’s largest exhibition space, the Withey Family Gallery, From Floor to Wall is a survey of work produced by Dahlsen from 1999 to 2004. His early works were assembled from timber and plastic objects that had arrived with the incoming tide, left high and dry at the highest point of the beach after being jettisoned, moulded and pummelled by wind and water.
During this process natural objects become smooth and weatherworn, bleached like the bones of long dead animals. Man-made objects retain their sharp, iridescent colours and hues; like beacons on a sun bleached surface, returned to a civilised shore. One imagines Dahlsen on the beach selecting and collecting these objects, deposited randomly by the tides.
In one series of work Dahlsen recycles the ubiquitous plastic bag as his primary medium. “Blue River”, a finalist in the 2003 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, reveals the texture and brilliant colour of a common object that has now become a worldwide environmental scourge. Dahlsen’s most recent work explores the potential of computer and print technology, by producing digital prints as documentation of installations and assemblages, objects can be continually reused and reordered.
Recently, Dahlsen was the first Australian to be chosen to join the ranks of such renowned international artists as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente and Damien Hirst whom have all been commissioned to create artworks by V & S Absolut Spirits, Sweden. ABSOLUT DAHLSEN, a sculpture made from recycled thongs, was unveiled at the Sculpture By The Sea exhibition in Sydney during October 2004.
Dahlsen’s work speaks of the way we discard what society considers to be of little importance. In choosing to treasure what most people see as trash, the artist creates an opportunity to coerce some semblance of order out of chaos.
John Dahlsen uses an absolutearts.com portfolio to promote his work. View more at: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/j/johndahlsen/ or his site at: http://www.johndahlsen.com/
IMAGE
John Dahlsen
Multi Coloured Plastic Installation
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