Brett Jones

CHI PY’S

Brett Jones image

In the text object accompanying this exhibition, Brett Jones offers three interwoven texts, three voices: the original proposal, elaborations on the ideas in the proposal, and thirdly, reflections on aspects of the other two. In the spirit of textuality, he offers the text publication as an object of exhibition, an object that the reader may or may not chose to read. He has produced a publication that provides some theoretical arguments that circulate amongst the objects (texts) in the space. In a similar way to the air flowing through the space, one can ask how to determine whether the air currents have originated on the outside or the inside of the space. This seems to be his point: that the Text has no point of origin and that it is not possible to determine whether it is inside or outside the objects to which it may write. He claims that if the viewer listens and observes the objects presented may be interpreted in a multiplicity of ways, and that the space is completely implicated in these readings. In this way the objects, highlight the textual production of space and context; the space is integral to the signifiers that are suspended. Yet, in the published text he laments on the problems of opening up readings as soon as the word appears in print. Indeed, I would suggest that you don’t read this publication, rather it’s nature as a pile of newsprint sitting on the floor provides sufficient opportunities for reading and re-writing. It’s all been said before.

Brett Jones works with ideas around the copy and the original. Using various reproduction mediums including casting, photography, video and sound he is concerned with creating opportunities for displacing and unburdening the referent. He co-founded West Space in 1993 where he was centrally involved until 2008. He has exhibited in various non-profit spaces since 1991, received several government grants, generated and managed more than 20 projects including several international projects, published articles and presented papers at international conferences. He is currently undertaking a PhD at Monash University.


 

Jeremy Bakker

Minor Infinities

Jeremy Bakker image

The recent TV show Wonders of the Universe explains the origin and evolution of life in cosmological terms. To do this, it demonstrates that the elements that we are made up of are also inside everything, everywhere—and can be traced back to the very beginning of time. As popular astrophysicist Carl Sagan once said, “Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We are made of star-stuff.”

I get a bit weak at the knees thinking about these ideas. They’re poetic, profound and exhilarating—but comforting, too. Despite the fleeting span of a human life, and our relatively insignificant place in the universe, we are an intrinsic part of the bigger picture. In a material sense, we belong.

Minor Infinities is my attempt to engage with these big ideas of being, time and space in small and concrete ways. By combining simple actions with everyday worldly and bodily materials, perhaps we can glimpse the universal in the particular—and the infinite in the finite.

Jeremy Bakker lives and works in Melbourne. His artwork incorporates a range of approaches including installation, drawing, sculpture and photography.