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Ricky Swallow’s exhibition at the Australian Pavilion was one of the better showings of work in this year’s Venice Biennale. Although this may not necessarily be the compliment it appears, given the sub-standard of other countries’ pavilions and the tediously uninspired Arsenale, nonetheless Swallow would have competed amongst work of a much higher standard. Sparse but solid, the exhibition followed neither the path of Great Britain or the United States (playing it safe with Gilbert & George and Ed Ruscha respectively) nor of attempting to be ‘contemporary’ to the point of ridiculousness (Germany’s Thomas Scheibitz and Tino Sehgal).
Swallow’s series of six large, (mostly) freestanding sculptures was carefully arranged in the potentially difficult space of the split-level Australian Pavilion. It is for such sculptural objects that Swallow has become known, although the work in ‘This Time Another Year’ turned from his usual ‘modern’ subject matter and media to carved wood and more timeless themes. The monochromatic appearance of the pale maple and jelutong wood gave the works an appearance similar to his earlier mdf, cardboard and balsa-wood sculptures, though were more sophisticatedly rendered. Out of the one medium Swallow denoted myriad surfaces and materials, including metal, fabric, bone, fur and flesh. Many viewers invoked the ‘craft’ behind the work—it seems that, as with a highly realistic painting, the ability to recreate objects with a close degree of verisimilitude continues to arouse wonder. Yet, despite the fact that such skill is hardly to be denigrated, this observation was always offered apologetically, as if to praise the works’ ‘craft’ was a kind of back-handed compliment, a deprecation of the ideas behind it and a detraction from its very art.
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