Order and Disorder

Background: The research is informed by the effects of COVID19 that made exhibition and making spaces off limits in 2020. The research re-orients a studio-based practice into the timeframes and spatial conditions of a domestic environment. The materiality (found and scavenged objects, assemblage, an affinity with plastic) is informed by related approaches of artists Louise Nevelson, Isa Genzken and Jessica Stockholder. I ask how these examples can be related to modes of making outside the usual remit of fine art, such as fantasy gaming figures and the practical special effects found in science fiction & horror film genres that inform my research. The sculptural is expanded through experimental documentation posted on social media. In “Where is Painting” David Joselit questioned the location of a painting in relation to its mediated image (think of all those iPhones pointing at famous paintings). I extend Joselit’s question in relation to these sculptures – are they on the kitchen table or on a screen? Contribution: “Order and Disorder”, a sculpture assembled from scavenged plastic things, glancingly refers to Michel Foucault’s “The Order of Things” where Foucault characterises the epistemes of various eras. I ask if this sculpture is a way of characterising an episteme of 2020. Significance: “Order and Disorder” was exhibited in The McLelland Small Sculpture Prize, judged by Jason Smith, Director Geelong Art Gallery; McClelland Trustees and Artists Lisa Roet and John Young AM. Related research (the aforementioned experimental documentation) was exhibited in “The new (ab)normal” RMIT Galleries and the overall project, the scavenged plastic materiality and the experiments with documentation and social media were discussed in an online panel talk with the curators. A third public encounter will take place in April 2021 at The Counihan Gallery and include sculpture, video and augmented reality incarnations of the research.