Lynette Voevodin and Franz Ehmann
But is there any such thing as a beginning. Be natural is there. And a middle. And an ending. Gertrude Stein. Autobiography Number Two 1
The chronological and Hegelian 2 sequences of 'history' are not, apparently, the motivating forces underlying Lynette Voevodin's and Franz Ehmann's collaborative installation , Human Generation, although time is an attendant factor, and spatial considerations dominate the foreground.
The effect of this show by two locally trained artists is undeniably significant. Even 'suffocating ' – to appropriate one recorded comment. "Art that explores the potential for human energy"3 was employed to convey, package and deliver a sense of artistic intention. This fades to a token, a mere bait, when the subject is installed, pursuing a foolhardy attempt to privilege elements.
Through Ehmann , Human Generation appears like a concave mirror of archaic symbolic order, reflected and reengaged via 'Beuysian-spirituality' 4. An almost exclusively figurative presence by Voevodin decentres Ehmann's bodiless flight, adding generative foci yet inscribing the human role.
Generation then calls on notions of production and reproduction, supported by reference to tactile systems of survival and conductivity, honey bees, copper wire and human action. Human Generation was installed like a restrained coil in the Gallery confines. Incredible strength was achieved through an indefinite scope for interconnection between observed and perceived elements. Discard the matrix array for a non-linear assault!
The installation oscillated between sensitivity and brutality, sliding between the visible and the phenomenal, reconstructing and re-presenting the obvious with epistemic intentions and consequences. Reference to a co-existence of polarities was carried through from the organic potato stamp (on one of Ehmann's work benches) carved with the interchange of positive and negative signs , to the