In art theory, a trick of the eye is called trompe l’oeil and the purpose of this technique is to make the viewer believe they are seeing something when in fact, they are not. This visual effect is created through the mastery and manipulation of objects and materials, as well as the spaces they occupy. The key here, is the use of and experimentation with materials, rendered in ways that are not of the usual, a practice that unites artists Gabrielle Adamik, Lee Bethel and Aaron Fell-Fracasso. Materialistics is an exhibition that does not set out to trick the eye, but rather, to present familiar materials in unfamiliar ways.
In this exhibition, Gabrielle Adamik’s glass sculptures bring the unexpected to the forefront with their bold pairings of materials. These gestural works sit on the precipice of stability and fragility as smooth, glistening glass springs out of heavily flocked, recycled timber bases. Whilst the fine glass fronds reach out and interact with the space around them, the bases act as counterweights that anchor and steady the works. The outcome is an unexpected interaction of two processes and outcomes, with Adamik nudging her materials into delicate yet supportive arrangements.
An intimate relationship with material informs Lee Bethel’s practice and her resulting artworks are accounts of time, texture and dedication. This show presents Bethel’s works that have been made through the process of arranging hundreds of small pieces of hand ripped paper onto a backing board. The result is a vast landscape of contours through which the eye is invited to meander. Materialistics also gives the rare chance to see Lee Bethel’s sculptures which provide a continuation and development of the practice evident in her wall-mounted compositions.
Aaron Fell-Fracasso’s works offer the viewer a rich plane upon which are impressed a number of determined and purposeful landmarks. At first glance, there is a resulting uniformity to the artwork due to the use of a homogenous palette, however as the artwork allows the viewer time and space, an array of colours and textures emerge. By mixing sand with oil paint, Fell-Fracasso is able to sculpt the paint using tools both industrial and self-made. These sculpted ridges, smudges and scrapes have a familiar quality to them and infer, rather than make obvious the process by which they are made.
This is a group exhibition in which the focus is placed on the surface, texture and topography of an artwork. Materialistics is suggestive of a paring back to the essential elements of an artwork, to the careful selection and relationship between artist and medium, highlighting the way that material informs practice and vice versa.
- Eva Balog
