or, abstraction revisited?
Exhibitions constructed around a curatorial theme, such as Victoria Lynn 's Abstraction at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, are indications of practice rather than attempts at solutions. Traces, rather than conclusions, bear an in-built critique and aim at breaking down distances between art and its audience. The point of the curatorial premise lies precisely in the awareness of limits and not on the transmission of meanings that are given once and for all. Abstraction operates at the level of conjecture-it presents an image of abstraction ... or, abstraction in its own image.
The glance we turn towards the painting is made of visual memory; it is constituted by information and culture and we can impose critical distance, but at the same time it must be remembered both artist and viewer are in play with each other as present polarities. Memory reaches toward the very making of work and we are drawn to myths of why and what makes art. The reality of abstraction today, is that it works with a stylistic tradition that was once embraced as the cultural mainstream. This exhibition bears the weight of its historical associations and, indeed, in a world that has modernist images from shopping malls to airports, the emphasis is on whether a truly 'abstract' art is possible at all.
Another point is the tendency in contemporary practice for art to reassure itself by itself. The discourse constantly adapts to differing viewpoints and judgments and, consequently, there is a constant looking for directions from which it may be possible to regenerate. The question remains, does art adapt itself to discourse or is it always reflection? In Abstraction fifteen artists tackle this dilemma