this week at BLAUGRAU,
MERZ COLLAGES, Kurt Schwitters - Transcription
Drawings
(1998-2001)
ruark lewis
OPENS this ****WEDNESDAY****the30th 6-8pm
may 31 - june 3 2001
hours. thursday to sunday 3-6:30pm
19 Meagher St Chippendale NSW 2008
In Hannover Ruark Lewis had the privilege of tracing
from
original collages by the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters. At
Blaugrau
the artist presents a series of 11 of these tracings.
Needless
to say, the result is not merely a literal copy of the
originals. Nevertheless Lewis enacts a literal
performance to
translate Schwitters' work. In fact these
'Transcription
Drawings' concentrate specifically on the gaps between
pasted
objects in Schwitters' originals. Witnessed are a
series of
drawings in graphite that relate the negative rifts
separating
raw material in the Merz collages. These have a
rigorous
austerity that equally conjures Constructivist plans
and
designs. Each drawing although identical in dimension
has its
own particular graphic tone. Some drawings are
composed of a
few heavy but spare lines, in others these lines are
broken and
discontinuous or else they coalesce in a dense almost
architectural mass.
It is this ambiguity that draws the viewer into the
web formed
by the artist's meticulous tracings. At the same time
the
viewer is spared the laborious and nostalgic reverence
for
influential Modernists conferred on them by lesser
artists.
Viewed as a whole Ruark Lewis' 'Transcription
Drawings'
re-present Schwitters in a manner almost phonetic (as
Schwitters
would no doubt have appreciated). In this way this
series of
drawings has an almost hieroglyphic if not highly
textual
aspect. They appear as if we could speak them in a
tongue only
partially known. Schwitter's abiding interest in
language and
text is thus returned full-circle.
Presented alongside these drawings is FALSE
NARRATIVES, a sound work for text and voice with
Melbourne composer Rainer Linz. The sound design for
audio headphones was prepared to coincide with a new
publication Lewis called FALSE NARRATIVES, NMA
Publications, Melbourne 2001.
Rainer Linz's pursuit is equally concerned with
negative (audio)
space and the perceptible movement between an original
model and
its equally minimalist interpretation. Having recently
shown these discrete pieces in Adelaide this is the
first time that either have appeared on show in
Sydney.
It is certainly the only chance for visitors to catch
Schwitters alive and well in this city.
may 31 - june 3 2001
* opening wednesday 30th 6-8pm *
BLAUGRAU
19 Meagher St Chippendale NSW 2008
hours. thursday to sunday 3-6:30pm
ph. 02 9518 4386 e. [log in to unmask]
w. http://up.to/blaugrau
directors. alex gawronski lisa kelly
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