Material Fiction

The aesthetic ‘attitude’ is restless, searching, testing – it is less attitude than action: creation and
re-creation.(1)

Material fiction invites viewers to open their eyes and challenge their perceptions. The exhibition consists of
a series of installations by Kate Rohde, Sherrie Knipe, Debra Porch, Jane O’Neill and Shane Kielly which explore the way reality is constructed and presented
as a social phenomenon.

The artworks included in the exhibition endeavour to explore our idea of Truth. Whether through deceptive use of materials or spinning fictional narratives, Material Fiction is concerned with illusions - spectral
and unreal.

A dialogue with each artist began via email during November. This dialogue concerned each artist’s practice and processes and their work’s relationship to the idea of fiction. The artists’ responses have been incorporated into the discussion that follows.

Jane O’Neill
“Flight to Melbourne” 2004
Jane O’Neill uses envelopes to construct her work by cutting small sections from their interiors and sticking them together to form patterns. The technique is similar to mosaics, except that it is more ephemeral. O’Neill lets the patterns guide themselves in an organic way. The random nature of this approach lends itself to a sense of infinite possibility in the different configurations that may occur.

The patchwork layout of small squares depicts an
aerial landscape. It is a fictional landscape, nowhere
in particular. Each section of paper is patterned in an intensive linear network that suggests variously: irrigation lines, fences and ploughing patterns in the soil.

Jane O’Neill a stickler for the tradition of letter writing, and she believes her work with envelopes has grown from this tradition. For O’Neill, there is something very satisfying about deriving pleasure from something that is so ordinary that it is often overlooked. She has a collection of all the different envelope patterns she has come across, and sometimes feels as though the entire history of Op Art is contained within these printed samples. She is concerned that eventually the whole tradition of envelopes will disintegrate, and all correspondence will be computerized.

Four different people have become O’Neill’s regular suppliers of source envelopes and through this process, they have become enthusiasts about the patterns. O’Neill tends not to use her own mail and likes the fact that aspects of other peoples' lives intersect through the work: one person's job application beside another's gas bill beside another's donation to charity. This constitutes a story in itself.

Sherrie Knipe
“Small Wonders” 2004
Small Wonders is Sherrie Knipe’s first body of bronze works. Knipe uses a mode and scale of manufacture that is borrowed from the jewellery discipline and casts the resultant objects in a non-precious metal. The works are made using the lost wax technique, with each small component adhered to the next to create each structure. The works are initially assemblages of multiple components prior to being cast as a single object.

The works all have an organic / domestic dichotomy. For example: a leaf made of houses and a house made of leaves. The leaf chosen for this particular piece recreates that of the deciduous tree outside the artist’s residency in Melbourne during 2003. The artist watched the tree change with the seasons and this observation translated into work that began to incorporate organic elements. Knipe also enjoyed her survey into using a material that is mineral as opposed to vegetable – previous works of hers were usually made of wood. The work titled Dandelion Tea represents another domestic item, scaled down and recontextualized into an organic form.

Shane Kielly
"I've got that in mono" 2004
Shane Kielly’s work is inspired by a generation’s obsession with fame. The work comments on the ability of reality television programs – such as Australian Idol – to make (almost) anyone famous by recreating existing songs. It also refers to the increasing social and cultural status of being a DJ by interpreting and mixing a selection of other artists’ works.

The artist presents a collection of 32 of his favourite albums. Keilly believes his varied collection of records is testament to himself as an authentic individual with many different personality layers and accumulated experiences. Kielly has spent his life collecting records and believes that vinyl record albums are more soulful because of the scratches and flaws, the incidental noises that a CD can never provide with its perfect, clinical, featureless sound recording. Kielly has sourced most of the records from Op Shops, garage sales and Ebay. Some of these items are priceless but the artist invites the viewer to engage with the work as casually as one might when flicking through a stack of records in a store or in someone’s personal collection.

Kate Rohde
"Shelf Life" 2004
Since she began working with themes about animals and nature Kate Rohde has built up a repertoire of materials which she feels best suits the various objects she is creating. The material changes over time, or is superceded by the discovery of a new material, but ultimately every material she adopts caters to her desire for her works to have a crafted, handmade quality.

Mostly Rohde tries to loosely replicate elements of nature that she finds beautiful or interesting as a homage of sorts. The process of making something brings Rohde into a close relationship with her subject because she researches the animal, plant or mineral, and studies numerous images of it. Rohde could potentially make exact replicas but is more interested in the errors that occur precisely because the materials she uses are not quite right for perfect replication. For instance, Kate recently “made” a tropical squirrel native to India, but halved the size of its body and extended the length of its tail as she felt this would be how she would like to experience viewing this squirrel.

In an artistic strategy that may be likened to “playing God” Rohde likes to imagine the world being filled with even more interesting things than it already is. Using the conventions of museum display to present the objects suggests they are ‘real’ in the sense of ‘scientific fact’. Museums are dedicated to enlightening us about aspects of our world, and never invite us to question the truth authenticity or authority of the information they present. Rohde has long been fascinated with old museum displays, in particular the ‘wunderkammer’ approach to displaying natural and cultural curiosities side by side, without imposing any real system of order on them.

Rohde’s own version of the museum is not beholden to factual knowledge about our world, instead interpreting it rather more creatively. Her work serves to undermine the very factors that give the real versions of such specimens their value as museum pieces: the process of evolution, geological upheaval, chance and the passage of immense stretches of time that have brought them into existence. Everything she makes is created in a matter of months, or even days, a mere speck on the geological and evolutionary time scale, so it is difficult to define what true value these objects may represent. Like the way a novel builds up a detailed and carefully crafter explanation of a series of events that never actually occurred, Rohde’s work is based in this world, but just happens to fictionalise it, telling stories about it that never really happened.

Debra Porch
“From Quivering” 2004
Debra Porch’s works are inspired by her personal history. When questioned about her artistic influences she responded by quoting the artist Annette Messager:

Art should make life more interesting than art.

Porch’s use of materials is inherently connected to her approach. Debra does not separate the ‘reason’ behind the work from the material ‘things/s’ in the work. The approach is the base – the ideas, the reason for –
the use of the materials follow, and hoping that they provide the gravity (or significance) to the ideas.
Her works operate more in terms of mystery or paradox and memory plays a big role in the works. Porch’s work concentrates on the invisible space of memory – objects reflect a glimpse in a trail of thoughts. Thoughts which once appeared visible - but now appear 'real' only in their invisibility. The ‘objects’ are material – but empty, focusing on mortality, absence and the body.

Porch believes there are many storytellers amongst us. Histories are passed on. The objects are metaphors for 'everyday' histories - 'everyday' stories, and breathing. (2)

When questioned about the fictitious nature of her works Porch commented that perhaps everyone’s memory is somewhat like fiction, our own invention or fabrication. Many artworks seem so connected to fiction, particularly when there is limited information, such as text, supplied to aid the viewers interpretation. Involving yourself in an artwork has often been compared to immersing yourself in a novel.

Complied by Renai Grace from dialogues
with Jane O’Neill, Sherrie Knipe, Shane Kielly,
Kate Rohde and Debra Porch.

Thanks to Christine Morrow for her assistance.

1. Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art (Indianapolis, New York and Kansas City: Bobbs Merill Company 1968 p242
2. from the Tracking Cloth exhibition artist’s statement 2003