Curated by the Brisbane-based artist-run-initiative No Frills*, ‘Lean Towards Indifference’ brought together the work of local artists for whom humour and play operate as significant factors within their practice. Installed in the Metro Arts space, the show provided a coherent thread between both the similarities and variances of the artists’ work, which succeeded in painting a portrait of their practices as places where serious ‘play’ and fun can happily coexist. Less obvious on first viewing, but equally important in the context of an exhibition like this, it also showed how these practices can critically explore and question the conventions and assumptions of both the art world and popular culture.
Perhaps the tone of the exhibition was humorously (and suitably) set through its title, the exclamation mark proclaiming a spirited movement which sits in opposition to the timidity of the suggested ‘lean’, and which takes interest in that which generally heralds apathy and a lack of criticality (indifference). Altogether, the complications, contradictions and general absurdity of the title seem to serve as a key to understanding what has brought together both No Frills* as a group, and in turn this group of artists’ works.
Courtney Coombs’ work, the first encountered in the show, subtly set the tone for that which followed, and, arguably, acted as the best reference point for the show. Solo show (2009) is a scale model of the Metro Arts gallery space, complete with a square of foam wedged in the exact same place that the model rested in the real space—the model being placed to block your path in a way similar to how the foam would. At once a meticulously crafted object in its own right