The essayist. Benjamin Forster, Ida Lawrence, Jac Ball, Magda Stanová, Mark Hislop, Mitch Cairns, Nina Ross, Phuong Ngo, Pilar Mata Dupont. Curated by Jasmin Stephens — 3 to 31 August 2019
The essayist
Benjamin Forster (Sydney), Ida Lawrence (Sydney), Jac Ball (Perth), Magda Stanová (Prague), Mark Hislop (Melbourne),
Mitch Cairns (Sydney), Nina Ross (Melbourne), Phuong Ngo (Melbourne), Pilar Mata Dupont (Rotterdam).
Curated by Jasmin Stephens
Opening Saturday 3 August at 2pm
Opening remarks by writer Astrid Lorange > Download as pdf
Exhibition dates 3 to 31 August 2019
The essayist is an exhibition inspired by the literary form of the essay. It presents work characterised by the exacting thinking, careful observation and increasingly confessional aesthetic associated with contemporary essay writing. It is a mode of writing that has come to prominence through writers such as Maggie Nelson and Teju Cole. Against this backdrop of recent attention to first-person writing and the rise of digital readership, today’s essay making – at turns memoir, poetry, philosophy and criticism – is shaped by theoretical shifts relating to feminist, non-binary and embodied approaches to thought and feeling.
The exhibition and its works are not intended to replicate the format of the essay. Their cumulative effect might be to represent or elicit the qualities of an essay. In this exhibition, the artists are addressing a range of concerns. Their works explore private and shared cognition, sensation and allegiances across the body, language, landscape, history and family and include citations and influences drawn from disciplines such as cultural geography, environmental humanities and neuroscience. While reflecting a kind of essayistic disposition, they express different relationships to materials and to considerations of sensibility, structure and form.
Mark Hislop is represented by Wagner Contemporary, Sydney; Mitch Cairns is represented by The Commercial, Sydney; and Pilar Mata Dupont is represented by MOORE CONTEMPORARY, Perth
Mitch Cairns, First Names, 2018, oil on linen, framed, 85 x 74 x 5 cm, Courtesy The Commercial, Sydney, photo: Alex Kiers/The Commercial
Pilar Mata Dupont, The Madman is a Dreamer Awake #1, 2013-15, glicée print, 80 x 120 cm, edition of five, Courtesy MOORE CONTEMPORARY, Perth
Jac Ball, Flatpack, 54 x 34.5 cm, inkjet print on rag paper, 2019. Image: Silversalt
Pilar Mata Dupont, The Madman is a Dreamer Awake #1, 2013-15, glicée print, 80 x 120 cm, edition of five, Courtesy MOORE CONTEMPORARY, Perth
Jac Ball, selected works in situ, all work inkjet print on rag paper, 2019
Nina Ross, That takes Balls, 2019, single channel HD video, 9:30 minutes. Image: Silversalt
Left: Mitch Cairns, First Names, 2018, oil on linen, framed, 85 x 74 x 5 cm. Right: Magda Stanová, selected prints from the series Algorithms in Art, 2015–19. Image: Silversalt
Magda Stanová, from the series Algorithms in Art, 2015–19. Ambiguity, ink on paper, 42 x 30 cm, 2019. The new becomes ordinary. The complex becomes simple. Every cliché was once an original thought, ink and acrylic on paper, 35 x 53 cm, 2019. The phantom could represent an artist, and the detectives, people who visit his/her shows, ink, acrylic, and inkjet print on paper, 35 x 53 cm, 2019. Algoritmy v umení, book, 128 pages, 22.2 x 18.4 cm, digital offset printing, published by Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, 2015. Image: Silversalt
Ida Lawrence, Idris, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 138 x 108 cm. Image: Silversalt
Benjamin Forster, Romances, 2019, infinite edition of unique romance novels, 13 x 20 cm, variable page count. Image: Silversalt.
Mark Hislop, My punctuation is my breath, 2019, graphite on paper, framed, 5 of 13 drawings, 23 x 30 cm each. Image: Silversalt
Mark Hislop, My punctuation is my breath, 2019 (detail). Image: Silversalt
(L) Mark Hislop, My punctuation is my breath, 2019. (R) Phuong Ngo, Untitled (lost and found), 2019. Image: Silversalt
Phuong Ngo, Untitled (lost and found), 2019, inkjet print, acrylic shelf, found postcard, 65 x 45 cm and 8.9 x 13.8 cm.
Ida Lawrence, Idris, 2018 (detail). Image: Silversalt.
Ida Lawrence, Idris, 2018 (detail). Image: Silversalt.
Magda Stanová, Algorithms in Art, 2015–19. Image: Silversalt
Magda Stanová, Algorithms in Art, 2015–19. Image: Silversalt
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
The essayist opening, photos: Alex Mitchell
Links & Downloads
Opening remarks by writer Astrid Lorange > Download as pdf
Magda Stanova’s artist book Algorithms in Art is available for purchase through ArtMap bookstore, an independent bookstore in Prague and Brno, which ships internationally. At: https://bookstore.artmap.cz/en/3874-magda-stanova-algoritmy-v-umeni
Exhibition room sheet > Download as pdf
Benjamin Forster, A Romance printout, 2019. > Download as pdf