jones/starling
Art is made by those who are not content with the configuration of human relations to objects and phenomena as presented. Art presents an alternative to the configuration as it stands.1 Lawrence Weiner
The ‘Jones/Starling’ exhibition held recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art was the second in a series of projects whereby an Australian artist is invited to nominate an international artist with whom he/she would like to exhibit. The first such show included the work of Ricky Swallow and Erick Swenson in 2001. This kind of pairing is useful in that it allows for the inclusion of a substantial amount of work, both new and existing, from each artist; it brings together work from Australia and overseas in a given and equal context; and it automatically links the work of two artists to create a focused dialogue. Additionally, as the Australian artist has chosen the other, it strongly reflects the art in which that artist is interested.
The Jones/Starling pairing was fruitful for another reason—it highlighted the differences between the languages of European (or you could even say Glaswegian) contemporary art and those of Australia.2 In the instance of these artists there is substantial crossover—their practices are linked by similar conceptual concerns, Jones has lived and worked in Europe, and Starling has a practice that specifically chooses not to reify central positions or locations.
A key to Mathew Jones’s work in Jones/Starling is the indexing of information, both from wider cultural spheres and from the artist’s own personal experience, and it is a term that he uses repeatedly himself in the wall panels accompanying each work. In Guys I Fancy, a series... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline