12-line poem of words in [and out of] brackets

WORDING] IN BRACKETS, 2023
12-line poem reconstructed from Sappho’s Fragment 24D (translated by Anne Carson, who uses single square brackets to demarcate space for missing words or illegible letters in the surviving papyri. Still, a whisper emerges. Carson says that brackets “imply a free space of imaginal adventure”; brackets hold the edge of shadow text)
12 flat Make-a-Brackets
24 angle Make-a-Brackets
182 hex-head screws

Documentation images by Tim Woordward

Facilitated by Claire de Carteret & Niko Plaskasovitis
with works by Elia Bossard, Claire de Carteret, Emma Pinsent, Owen Redmond, Rachel Schenberg, Lucy Whitelaw, Othy Willis

boxed set (5 x 4 x mushroom citrus yes black citrus white), 2023
fruit box

boxed set (0 x 0 x no mushroom white), 2023
fruit box, paper straw

sunset boxed set (5 x 4 x yellow citrus mushroom), 2023
fruit box

boxed set (5 x 4 x white), 2023
fruit box, paper straw

boxed set (5 x 4 x yesterday’s mid-blue), 2023
fruit box

boxed set (5 x 4 x today’s mid-blue), 2023
fruit box

Curated by Alex Gawronski
With works by Mitchel Cumming, Alex Gawronski, Shane Haseman, MP Hopkins, Del Lumanta, Zoë Marni Robertson, Rachel Schenberg

Exhibition statement by Alex Gawronski:
Habitually we assume that what we read and say neatly corresponds with what we see and experience. Language and speech however rarely fully align with what we attempt to express or describe. Language communicates but frequently elides our total understanding. This is not so much a question of the sublime, but of the limits of communication. For example, formally considered language is an abstraction of a ‘figure’ and ‘ground’ relationship, it describes and appears. Words conjure value and suggest measurability, while simultaneously being ineffable and imprecise. Naming suggests permanency, but names can be used (and re-used) for different ends. Technology alleges to grant us greater access to everything, yet the practically infinite welter of online information frequently creates ever greater distances between reader and read. Words are also material and bodily, a mouth enunciates sounds as words, just as it tastes and consumes, spits and kisses. The sound of words repeated over and over dissociates meaning for the pleasures (and annoyances) of aurality. To ‘say it again’ is to invite repeated pleasures, or to beg for comprehension when knowing is lacking, or to intimidate when too much has already been said.

or, an
an orange, 2019-2022
2 copper frames, 2 miniature OLED displays, 2 HD videos
4.5 x 5.0 x 1.5 cm (each)
edition of 2 + 1AP

Documentation images by Alex Gawronski

curated by james lynch
works by scott duncan, marta oktaba, rachel schenberg, michael staniak and evan whittington

exhibition statement by james lynch:
Holding in the hand explores the hand and the haptic as interface and investigates the ways a new generation of artists embed artistic processes, materials and surfaces with code and meta-language attempting to understand our digital worlds.


Observation Station, 2022
copper frame, bronze ring, miniature OLED display, HD video (Friday 12pm at Observatory Hill NSW, finger-to-the-wind weathervane, westerly winds/due east, the sky opens up to a day)
30.0 x 5.0 x 1.5 cm
edition of 3 + 1AP

curated by amalia lindo & jacqueline stojanović
works by justin andrews, stephen bram, alinta brown, isabella darcy, laura delaney, stefano condello, gerard kodde, amalia lindo, rose nolan, david palliser, rachel schenberg, jacqueline stojanović, hayden stuart, rudi williams

AUSTRALIAN SUMMER FRUITS, 2021
found cardboard, steel pins
36 boxes, 3.7 x 5.6cm each

image 2: installation image featuring laura delaney, rachel schenberg, rudi williams, and amalia lindo
image 3: installation image featuring rachel schenberg, jacqueline stojanović, rudi williams, amalia lindo, stephen bram, and rose nolan

documentation images by christo crocker

hosted by francis carmody & heejoon youn
works by evangela lines-morison, rachel button, veronica charmont, casey jeffreys, jieun ha, jordan hasall, kiron robinson, masato takasaka, skye baker and nina prendergast

j=ust moving over to the golden furniture, 2018-20
chairs and letters, cast in NYC

a map with feet for letters, 2020
5 copper frames, 6 OLED displays, 6 HD videos, 1,667 artist’s square feet

accompanying map-text by théo robine-langlois (final image)

documentation images by christo crocker

Let's go over it again.

Reaching for the paper Monday morning made me feel something singular. The science section 'sif I might want to go to the shops and get me an amount of plums. A test.

On the way over I heard some people speak about the new kilogram. They said from today, the 20th of May, it no longer holds weight. Up until now, anywhere on earth, the kilogram was based on the precise measurement of a metal cylinder that you could hold in your hand. But not your hand. (This artefact of measurement is stored just outside of Paris, under three glass bell jars, in two vaults, amongst six replicas. Protected.) Though since its conception 129 years ago (a century of affairs with a century of wears), the international prototype of the kilogram has lost weight. This tiny weight is lost, which means the rest of the universe gets heavier. Everything weighs.  

Here's my list:
   - SBS and Sky News compares the weight loss to an eyelash
   - The National Geographic to a grain of salt 
   - PBS compares the size of the cylinder to a golf ball
   - Radiolab calls it the size of a plum
   - ABC and The Age, a "lump" of metal
   - The Washington Post, a "hunk"

This day is the last that a metric base unit is defined by something that could be held in the hand.

In this May-old hold, it makes me consider the collective choice to measure, or how one chooses a point of reference within reach to measure.
What’s the radius of the reach? Makes me itch.

In this May-old hold it’s a day-old hold, but it’s a day like any other.

               egggg,
                                          cheese’s never singular       spaghetti, maybe cold
                                          or, an                                   orange

(gold) , 2019

7 copper frames, 7 miniature OLED displays, 7 HD videos
4.5 x 5.0 x 1.5 cm (each)
edition of 2 + 1AP

accompanying text by ash kilmartin 
extraction, 2019
engraved plastic
open edition, available as trade for an object of the same weight

documentation images by christo crocker

an orange
a silver’s worth of orange
a pepper’s worth of
(gold)
or, an
egggg,
cheese’s never singular
spaghetti, maybe cold , 2019 
9 copper frames, 9 miniature OLED displays, 9 HD videos
4.5 x 5.0 x 1.5 cm (each)
edition of 2 + 1AP

/ooo. 
/ooooo. , 2019
steel, wood

accompanying text by ash kilmartin (final image)

documentation images by christo crocker

Atlas, 2019-
10 hand-domed copper hemispheres, victorian ash wooden box with yellow-teak-stain and acrylic circular window

this work is made to be passed on from hand to hand. it was first sent via mail to one of my MFA examiners in april, 2019. verbal instructions invited them to engage with the work, and then to pass it on to a friend once they felt ready to. and then for that friend to pass it on to their friend. and then to their friend. ongoing. (i hear Atlas is currently circulating in sydney, or somewhere in new zealand.) 

KIOSK watch tower, 7-part text printed on 7 pieces of yellow paper folded 7 times and stored in jacket pocket, hard-boiled eggs, kettle, audio recording of eggs boiling, speakers
00:21:00

a performative reading of a 7-part text written in dialogue with eggs and folded notes, performed from 7 vantage points at a former watch tower in rotterdam, netherlands.

documentation images 1-3 by jamie kane
documentation images 4-6 by audience members

curated and organised by jussi koitela, jaana laakkonen + sam basu
with other interferences by jaana laakonen, malin arnell + mario fjell
more 'nformation on project here

                                             
entangling meaning and matter
residency / workshop / exhibition

"within entangling matter and meaning, treignac projet has commissioned three residency/interference contributions. these artistic contributions will react with and produce new works as part of the entangling matter and meaning workshop. artists will spend time (during the month of july 2017) at treignac projet before the workshop to research the context and theoretical background of the event and produce new work based on this research.

the aim of these residencies/interferences is to produce works that facilitate artistic, discursive and performative processes that are related and spun around the workshop and the urgencies that it addresses. the main idea is that the works produced during the residency period will offer a spatial, social, material and discursive input for the workshop itself, but, equally important is that the works take note of the material and historical conditions of treignac projet and area around treignac more broadly. produced works will link the material and social conditions of the site with the situation of the workshop."
~jussi koitela, jaana laakkonen + sam basu

if it were to happen, it would happen in the gangways. so she bent her elbow, what she noticed were the holes, 2017 
water from bordering river vézère, soft pvc, artificially-grown cement stalactites from the reconstruction of treignac projet’s studio space - broken through an malin arnell + mario fjell's participatory interference

personal objects held during workshop readings and discussions

~ string theory, 2017
piece of al-dente spaghetti from dinner - thrown at wall, old yarn from storage of treignac projet’s defunct yarn-factory, water from bordering river vézère, soft pvc, recycled glass, dowels
treignac projet's kitchen

in other words what I mean to say is, 2017
water from bordering river vézère, soft pvc
treignac projet’s water lily pond + duck pool + outdoor wooden bench + visiting ducks

if it were to happen, it would happen in the gangways. so she bent her elbow, what she noticed were the holes, 2017
oranges from nearest supermarket in treignac
treignac projet's studio space

curated by theia connel & grace herbert
with works by sarah jones, pip o'brien, theia connell and grace herbert

eating itself out, 2016
L-R: eating itself out (freezing of trapped water); eating itself out (wind); eating itself out (acid);
eating itself out (radiant heat); eating itself out (repeated impact)

cast concrete filled with water then frozen; cast concrete with embedded fan;  cast concrete with embedded lemon, lemon zest; cast concrete with pyrotechnic composition, exploded through inserted sparkler; cast concrete with embedded small cast concrete ball, broken out through rolling
~final image by theia connel.

to maybe stir the edge of a hole's hind leg, 2016

13 concrete casts of holes with volcanic sand (during the casting process, the volcanic sand in the concrete mixture is drawn to the edge of the mould by a magnet placed on the exterior of the cast. the edge is manoeuvred and once cured, a fissure is rendered of the magnetic field. the sand is then extracted from the crevice), rare-earth magnets, threaded steel poles, black volcanic sand extracted from hole casts, hd video 3’13” 


"volcanic sand found on the beaches of puerto viejo, on the caribbean side of costa rica, has been used for its fine grain and magnetic properties. the sand is highly responsive. to magnets, kicks, wind, dogs digging holes and shitting. we approached some of puerto viejo’s shitting dogs and tried to sabotage them. the tour guide had explained that the dogs have evolved with magnetic tailbones that position their anus directly over the slipping magnetic sand at the centre of a hole. to maybe stir the edge of a hole’s hind leg we de-magnetised the beach. the first dog, his magnetic arse now irrelevant, tried to define somewhere to shit, lay down, contemplated at eye level the undulations of sand, the thousand dimpling gradients shifting in the wind, and looked further to the hardening and now softening line where the sea toyed with its own definition: felt constipated, then beached himself in the vast absence of edges, comatose. the second shitting dog did the same. our magnet-tour was cancelled for existential torture."
– martyn.s.g.

between (and not in-between), 2015
cast concrete, colourbond steel, rare earth magnets, flatscreen tv, video (on loop)

thumb pulse on wrist pulse, 2015
lapel microphone, contact microphone, cast concrete with imbedded rare-earth magnet, audio receiver, audio transmitter, colourbond steel sheet, bass amplifier, effects pedal, mixer, ¼ inch cables, video on loop, tv screen, floor-boarded room with exposed wire ceiling

a lapel microphone is imbedded into a spherical concrete cast, and a contact microphone is attached to the outside of the cast. the cast sits on a steel sheet within a floor-boarded room, and the microphones are connected to an amplifier. a video of a thumb pressing on a wrist is played on a screen at wrist-level. as one walks throughout the space, the presence of footsteps travel through the floorboards and through the metal sheet, triggering the two microphones in the sphere - one on the inside, and one touching the outside. the body intra-acts with the space and the work's internal rhythm. each step triggers the sound of a double-beat, a pulse.

curated by hana earles
with works by emily yuting chen, callum harper, kaho hashimoto alix leggas-schafer + rachel schenberg, jimmy nuttall, natasha madden, ruth o'leary, hannah raisin, georgia robenstone, nina siska, ella sowinska, jacqueline stojanović, du ve and alex vivian 

pillar of support, 2015
poly fleece, fibre filling, polyester thread, pillar in carpark level 7

curated by rachel schenberg
with works by ira abdul rahman, gemma crocetti, hana earles, alice gascoyne, joe gauci-seddon, callum harper, rigel maple, jordan mitchell-fletcher, eve pawlik, marko radosavljevic, rachel schenberg, jaq stojanovic, michael whittingham and jess williams

untitled (up for a goodtime), 2015
clear garbage bags, fan

⊇, ][, 2014
plywood, clear garbage bags, fan
215 x 90 x 410 cm

⎣∩⎦, 2014
balloon, concrete, zinc-coated steel
110 x 20 x 30 cm

curated by peter hill

( □ ) , 2014
acrylic perspex, aluminium, concrete, plastic roasting bag, fan, portable battery

sala della vittoria (the victory room), 2013
12 found fans, clear garbage bags
700 x 400 x 300cm