In Aquacurl Power Station, Henry Jock Walker has stitched wetsuit material into abstractions that memorialise time spent in the ocean. The neoprene surfaces carry the weathering of their former use with a method that brings together pattern making and painting. In the studio you can see it: mounds of used wetsuits like discarded skins, collected by Walker in parallel with his mobile performance practice. The fabric is organised according to colour and texture, a kind of process integrated into a studio engagement.
The wetsuit seams are used as linework that interrupts the flat colour as a fragmented drawing. The works are getting more complex, balancing between an exploration of composition and pop cultural reflection. The shifting textural qualities have a softly sculptural presentation encased by the painted frames. Walker maintains a connection to his action surf painting (made in the ocean in a very different way), but this exhibition offers a counterpoint through its labour intensive ethic. The piecework sewing might be a contrast to his action painting but the free poetry of Walker’s titles takes us there – steamer, new entry or even metallic skin equals Time Travel via superluminal speed. The intense colours hold onto an earlier era of surfing, the nostalgia bleached by the sun.
Henry Jock Walker’s was a recent finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize and his work was presented as part of Sydney Contemporary 2019. This year he launched his film “Little Penguin Cup” which documents his collaboration with artist Nampei Akaki (Japan) and the interactive work Kintsugi Supermarket.
-Melody Willis
