This phase of Fair Isle both
brings in work of artists Lisa Andrew,
Criena Court, Virginia Hilyard, Jillian Campbell and James Nguyen, Margaret
Roberts, and Ioulia Terizis to the project and carries across the work of Justin Henderson, Andrew Simmons, Clara Chow, Virginia Versa, Sardar Sinjawi and John Von Sturmer.
The concept of journeys presents
itself as one strand within Fair Isle and in this iteration we are presented
with all sorts of forms of transport: from luxury liners to the intersections
of Sydney’s suburban transport system, the rear view mirrors that follow you
around the room, the ominously glowing jellies growing mold in the corner, the
black shapes that punctuate your transit from one work to another, to works
that allude to a journey of great fiction, kaleidoscopic doors of perception
and ghosts that shadow us through deep space.
Lisa Andrew’s work juxtaposes nature and culture—bricks
and mortar below pins that point to map locations with images of the growth
rings of trees. Her umbrella plays off the ‘real’ and its simulacra in the
transformation and substitution of material from the natural world to the manmade,
and seems to float up away from us. All the while Justin Henderson’s ocean
liner offers the promise of ‘minimalist luxury’ with all the extras.
Ioulia Terrizis’s quietly
discrete work ‘Neutrino’ marks space in a different way, both inscribing and photographing
space. Here, we see the real and a representation of it as perceived space,
with three dots marking points of reference that coexist in 2 and 3 dimensions.
In this elegant work, the journey is into subatomic space with the neutrino, the
ghost and boundary rider, from another dimension of time and space taking us on
to another place altogether.
Whereas Sanjay Sinjawi reminds us,
we are all on of life’s journey. He highlights the transitory nature of life
using remnants/shreds of his own clothing along with photographs taken in
different locations of him dressed in their complete form from his past. There
is, again, a notion of the autobiographical in Clara Chow’s video work that contains her lips and human hair, inviting
us to consider identity (politics) here evoking something of the personal as
political or identity politics.
Virginia Hilyard’s ‘Voyage
au centre de le terre’ presents us with a work recalling Jules Verne’s novel by
the same name. Hilyard has scratched away the mirrored surface of the glass of
this wardrobe door to reveal the shape of the glacier Snaefellsjokull as it was
in 1890, almost double the size it is today. It reflects the shattered vanity in
our belief that we control nature, in a work where science fiction and global
warming meet in an oval looking glass. That same looking glass shape is still
apparent in the contemporary rear view mirrors of Victoria Versa’s work that directs us to glimpse what is passing.
Peering into Criena Court’s work ‘Proposal #9’ we lose all our usual
co-ordinates for gauging space. It presents us a glimpse of the coloured wonder
of the world and the vastness of space where a perception of scale folds in on
itself and true to its description; the work challenges our perception of both
image making and reality. Kaleidoscopic it holds us in its mesmerizing space.
Glowing greenly in the corner is Jillian Campbell and James Nguyen’s work ‘Warning:
Fair Use’ presented a collection of toxic mold agar jellies. This is a time-based
journey, as it bloomed, grew and developed over the period of exhibition. Its
growth gives a sense of accretion to John
Von Strummer’s work Troubadour; its white, polystyrene
surface seemed to emerge from, rather than adhere to, the wall. A tiny Blp by Roberts dialogues with another of his works ‘Found domino’—scaled to size, it sits alongside it on the floor.
If the role of an ARI can be
described, but not limited to, a site for experimentation, a laboratory a
launch pad and a forum, then all of these concepts apply equally to Fair Isle. As
a framework, Fair Isle has allowed artists great scope through the presentation
of a series of interconnected exhibitions where trace, substitution and
dialogue intersect to both enable but also to frame the nature of the work that
each artist brings to this event. The time-based aspect of the project as a
whole will ultimately be more clearly apprehended in its documented format, as
are many durational works and all great journeys.