medium

Medium – by Vernon Bowden and Sean O’Connell

18 Oct – 3 Nov 2018
Opening celebrations Thursday 18^th October 6-8pm

medium brings together Vernon Bowden and Sean O’Connell to explore the power of objects and matter to evoke meaning.

Through gently manipulated materials and an extension of his wearable work, Sean examines place and it’s overlapping natural and social concerns. These concerns draw heavily on the past, as well as siting themselves in the present, and extending into the future, as hopes of what place should be. From the endemic flora and fauna that erupts in the forests of rural Tasmania where Sean has recently moved, to the roads that cross between towns, the streaming of water down ridgelines into the sea, or the imposed lines of cadastral parcels and plots of land, there is the feeling that “place” brings together all worlds – that it folds across our sense of self amidst a range of natural, social, historic, and economic landscapes.

Vernon explores the thingness of objects; the nature of our relationship with artefacts. In a world full of stuff, what is the role of object makers (broadest sense) in artefact creation? In a throwaway culture – where planned obsolescence is obsolete – marketing and influencers instantly fetishize valueless tat. Why do we empower matter with value beyond its functionality, abstracting objects into keepsakes, symbols and relics? When does detritus change into historical artefact?  At what point does a mythic symbol turn back into a shiny gewgaw? Can object makers move post-object?

Artist Talk with Sean O’Connell – Saturday 20^th October 2pm. Join Sean as he compares living in rural Tasmania with Sydney and how the history and layers of place that he’s have found on his property have affected his practice as a maker.