Art report from Australia: work by Glen Clarke

The report below is by a guest blogger, Erika Martens in Melborne. She's been to Qdos, Lorne.

The gallery is located in the wooded hills, very quaint. (Lunch etc also quite nice.)

They have exhibitions and a sculpture biennale. I was fascinated by this artist:

Glen Clarke. See his work here; an article on a recent exhibition is here.

He has a thing about distance (what's too close, what's too far?) So he has grids and repetitive patterns in his pieces. 

Detail of "The Big Wet"

He also folds money bills of diverse currencies into tiny origami shirts and uses these in his art.

We loved the piece called 'Tinnie' -

It uses a grid of suspended threads to hold origami paper money shirts in place to form the shape of a small boat. The view changes depending on which side the viewer chooses.

The size is nearly realistic.

The detail is mad.

It's meant to reflect the multi ethnic and precious nature of Australian society.

Quote from Tinnie artist statement:

For many years much of my work has been based on the following premise:

The correct distance between objects is critical, whether that distance is physical, cultural or emotional.

Two objects too close to each other become one, two objects too far no longer relate to each other.

A few years ago I heard a phrase that I found extraordinary yet articulate is terms of the Australian vernacular.

"Australia is made up of people that other countries do not want."

This quote is in essence a unifying factor of the Australian ethos. It is a well-known phenomenon that most of us arrived by boat and continue to do so. 

Refugee arrivals by boat continue to dominate government propaganda and electoral debate. 

Australia is a long way away from everywhere. "the tyranny of distance" is constantly revisited. 

The physical, cultural and emotional distance to many previous homelands, the diaspora is an ongoing contributor to the Australian psyche.