A blurry face protrudes out from a red hat. Layers of scrawled black lines emerge on a screen. A man falls into a green paint can. A body is slowly enveloped by a beanbag. A pile of colourful masking-tape debris hangs awkwardly in a corner…
What initially appears as a series of arbitrary and disparate events is actually a selection of artists’ work that shares certain conceptual and methodological premises. Curated by Anneke Jaspers, as part of the Firstdraft Emerging Curators Program, between you and me brings together the work of five emerging artists, namely Sarah Jamieson, Paul Greedy, Rachel Scott, Ben Denham and Sam Smith. These artists share not only a concern for a self reflexive awareness of process—a referencing of the 1960s mode of Conceptual Art—but also an awareness of, in a broad sense, environment; whether it be real or virtual, private or public, interior or exterior, internal or external. The tension between these dichotomies is succinctly articulated in Jasper’s choice of exhibition title. between you and me is evocative; it implies a shared relationship, feeling or intimate knowledge of something secretive and private. In this instance ‘between’ stands for interaction. At the core of Jasper’s curatorial concern is the encounter between the viewer and the work of art. Noticing that art being made by her contemporaries was based on an interrogation of artwork-viewer-gallery participatory dynamics, Jaspers intentionally combined the disparate practice of these artists to explore how such dynamics function.
Ben Denham in no strings: pre-cursive (2007) uses potentiometers (sensors) adhered to his arms and legs, which, when activated through imperceptible gestures and micro-movements of the body, control the horizontal and vertical axes of two separate line-drawing