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City Gallery
30 May - 22 Aug 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
A collaborative artwork is a bit like a baking soda and vinegar
volcano experiment: there's no bang without the right mixture
of ingredients. This may be a rather glib analogy, but Warren
Olds and Douglas Kelaher's collaborative work From Holland
shows how good things happen when artists with different practices
but coinciding interests work together. As Olds has observed:
'I like how the show doesn't just look like Doug's work on
that side of the room, and my work on the other. It's a collaboration
in the spirit of the word - there are connections with our
individual practices but overall it looks like one work.'
In addition to a shared interest in futuristic objects and
environments, both Kelaher and Olds are artists whose artistic
practice is strongly influenced by their work as designers.
Olds' graphic design is print- and web-focused, but he has
in recent years brought his expertise in two-dimensional design
to bear in the gallery context in order to shape and delineate
space. Kelaher's clean-lined modules reflect his furniture
designing; for From Holland Kelaher has produced five
packing crates, creating artworks that reference the transportation
of artworks, introducing a sense of travel and impermanence
to the installation. As Kelaher describes it:
'We installed a transit lounge with luggage for the international
artist about to go galactic. Warren shared his secrets with
me in the fine art of wall painting. We got the hardest edge
on that wall painting and the hard edge united with the luggage
to create an installation that would make a sci-fi geek proud.'
While the wall painting nods towards the Battleship Galactica
and the title makes links to another small, water-logged and
remote country, From Holland is perhaps best understood
with reference to the pervasiveness of Dutch and Scandinavian
design, with its clean lines and utilitarian materials. In
this way From Holland can be seen to both invoke and
embody the idea of a travelling aesthetic.
Courtney Johnston
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