REMOTE
SENSING
Any introduction to this exhibition should re-iterate that the language
of Art is predominantly a visual sensation deeply rooted in
perception and a final realization tuned into a special understanding.
The artist continually attempts to make sense of that in which he
or she is immersed.
In the case of artists living outside of the big cities the local
environment plays a major and pivital role in the manifestation of
the art produced. The consequence of location allows for a clearer
and more empathetic relationship with nature allowing for a clarity
rarely perceived in metropolitan regions.
This artwork becomes the symbolic representation of an original clearer
idea, manifesting itself in diverse forms. In the remote landscape
there is a complex transparency through which the artist negotiates
and finally holds down the image.This image begins its own life as
a transparent under drawing to that which is finally viewed at the
interface (artwork) - the product of a series of hierarchal instructions,
observations, experiences and translations.
In fulfilling its obligation to satisfy the ambiguity of artistic
creation and human taste, the artwork turbulently awaits future translations
and re-renderings by somewhat displaced city dwellers. Their proximity
to real experience is often dulled by proxy - the television
and the media in general stepping in to heighten experience through
a 3rd hand reading.
Within this particular selection of artworks from the South West of
Western Australia there are many works to which one can apply a universal
strategy of understanding, other works require a more open attitude
and intense involvement.
To the newcomer, a visual dislocation or partial rupture of the senses
may occur when trying to make sense out of a particular rendering
of the land or environment.
This latter manifestation shares more with the renderings of Stockhausen,
Japanese Etenraku or the late John Cage, than with a more traditional
view of landscape or visual language in general. For we may experience
and marvel at notations even when we are unable to comprehend or translate
even just an extract from the intricately beautiful structure of marks.
Through this group of works one can examine connections between a
universal language of art, what this language can arbitrarily
do and how these remote artist create order out of a network
of sometimes chaotic instructions and random interfaces that they
have chosen to move through.
This tuned sensing produces images of the remote and
a critical complex made ready for further interaction.
These artworks from a very distant and remote Western Australia are
the realization of localized renderings and experience but are also
very importantly about themselves !
The viewer's responsibility is to connect these works to the
outside world through their own baggage of personal and cultural knowledge,
comprehension and comparison.
A more complex essay contextualizing the work of Douglas Chambers,
Galliano Fardin and Howard Taylor will accompany this exhibition.
Douglas Sheerer (MA) Director, Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth Western Australia
1999