'Open closed'

QUT  Art Museum

‘Open closed’ is one of two art exhibitions currently being displayed at the QUT Art Museum.  It showcases the works of three Queensland artists; Lincoln Austin, Sean Phillips and Arryn Snowball.  The first introduction to this show is a blurb written on the wall in large font that reads:

 “Lincoln Austin, Sean Phillips and Arry Snowball are three Queensland artists working in different media, but with a shared sensibility.  Their work presents the viewer with objects or atmospheres for contemplation – repeating modes, shifting visual motifs, words and phrases.  Open closed presents the work of these three artists together for the first time, exploring their parallel concerns and inspirations.”

Based on this description of the show I felt it was my job as a viewer to find parallels and similarities between the artworks.  Whist walking around this seemingly small space I came across many vastly different and yet coherent art works made from a wide variety of materials.  They all share a common aesthetic that appear to be inspired by minimalism, where simple and few elements are used to create a maximum effect. Minimalism is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. 

My immediate response to the show was that the works all share a cool anonymity.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism, Retrieved 10 October, 2012)

Arryn Snowball, “Ashes and Diamonds”, Oil on Linen

Arryn Snowball’s work “Ashes and Diamonds”, is a large scale oil painting on linen.  This work, like the majority of pieces in the show, is restricted to black and white.  Snowball uses very subtle shifts in tone to create layers of transparent white that appear soft and carefully rendered.  I am reminded here of Mark Rothkos’ signature motif of soft, rectangular forms floating on a stained field of color.

Positioned next to Snowballs’ painting was Lincoln Austins’ “Untitled” sculpture.  At first take I couldn’t understand what a clean edged black and white oil painting had in common with a strong, geometric sculpture made from steel and wood.

Looking at these two pieces together I realised they both appear to be ever so slightly moving.  The white layers in the painting appear to move gently backwards and forwards and the sculpture, specifically on close inspection, looks like it faintly pulses as the eye travels across the pieces of steel.  Similarly, the minimalist artists’ created objects characterised by unitary, geometric forms and industrial materials.

Lincoln Austin, “Untitled”, stainless steel and wood. (Detail).

The suggestion that movement, or rather the illusion of movement, as another parallel idea between these works becomes more clearly illustrated by Arryn Snowball’s work “Slow Dance (Sticks and Shadows)”.  This work is a video art piece made up of very simple, geometric shapes and the strong contrast of black and white.  Video art obviously incorporates the use of a moving image, however, I feel as though this work is self-referential in that it is a moving image about movement itself.  We are denied colour and any recognisable form and yet we are provided with a slowly moving minimalist abstraction as shapes spin and twist in white space.

Arryn Snowball  “Slow Dance (Sticks and Shadows)” [Video Still]

The works discussed hereunder maintain a distinctly Minimalist aesthetic. However, it would appear that the artists in ‘Open closed’ also have their roots in the Dadaist Constructionist movement of the 1910s.  Where artists were interested in making art that depends on movement for its affects.  Such artists were motivated by the doctrine that just as they could compose form and colour they could compose movement. 

(http://www.theartstory.org/, retrieved 10 October, 2012).

Michelle Eskola