‘Cloud’ found me working in a broad range of materials and media, including plastic mesh, wire, and even video. The accumulation of material and gesture that typically characterises my work, here engages the viewer’s senses in an evocative experience. Like a cloud, as the exhibition’s title implies, the work might suggest an interpretation, but at the same time may obscure a clear view.
Read Andrew Lamprecht’s review here.
Sieve, 2003, polypropylene garden mesh, cable ties, 78 x 104 x 130cm
This large, three-dimensional spheroid form is made from many layers of plastic mesh, each joined to the next by a strip cut from the same mesh and cable ties at every junction. The result is a large rounded form inside of which all the space is delineated and accounted for; it is a very straightforward object in that sense. But in another, it seems evocative, inviting us to project an interpretation onto it.
Sponge, 2003, galvanised wire, 223 x 357 x 4cm
Sponge (detail)
Sponge (detail)
I made this by winding clockwise and counter-clockwise springs from galvanised wire, weaving these into each other, and then weaving another pair of opposing springs perpendicularly through that first set. The result is a dense and complex material which attempts to describe the form of a circle projected into a corner, relating it to the nearby Sieve. Once again, despite its very physical presence and all the labour it accounts for, it seems to evoke an interpretation even while resisting one.
Weft
Looped DVD, with footage sourced from Bruce Brown’s Endless Summer
Brown’s 1966 Endless Summer was shot all over the world, arguably creating the template for most subsequent surf movies – a search for the perfect wave. With technical assistance from artist and friend Greg Streak, I took a passage of this film, shot at Cape St Francis (at a break subsequently named ‘Bruce’s Beauties’), and presented it on a split screen, reversed and right-way-round on the left and right respectively, meeting in the middle of the screen. The playback of the two slips in and out of sync, regularly lining up perfectly, briefly creating a satisfying, symmetrical image. Amongst other things, I was investigating that symmetry here, but more in terms of time than space, which the other works were doing.
Heel, 2003, brass, 16 x 2,5 x 4cm
This work appeared slightly incongruous, but I felt that after all the shifting and diaphanous works, I needed something solid and honest. The central section of the door handle was polished smooth and flat by hand, engaging with the body more than the mind, anchoring the show in that way.
Paul Edmunds 