Too Hot to Handle

Having thoroughly slept off the j-lag, what's a kid to do? Climatise of course! The scorch is a far cry from the negative celcius we had experienced less than a month ago, and after showing up at these exhibitions tonight, one might wonder how the paint didn't melt right off the canvas...

The heat made it unbearable to stick around too long. Which was a shame because all three shows looked rather interesting. On one end of the spectrum, we have Andrew de Freitas at City Art Rooms, fresh faced from art school, putting together an installation based on growing, organic relations. And on the other, we have Simon Ingram, a seasoned pro-fesssionaaaal, shows coming left right and centre (hot off the trail of 'Minus Space' at P.S.1), with his "Why hello Artist, let me introduce you to my good friend Machine, Machine, Artist, Artist, Machine" approach. Then in between we have Kevin Capon and his 20 year veteran-service to photography in the show Echo doing what photographers do best, neutralising contexts, questioning how things are read bladiblah blah...

A quick observation of de Freitas' show revealed that the devil is really in the details. Such as the TV screen held up by terracotta bricks, connecting 3d to the 2d drawing of the bricks themselves. Even the electrical cord held a physical relation to the wall, naturally leading the viewers eye to the screen. The changes made to it since the Elam grad show were mainly the use of photography, snapshots taken on a recent road trip (so I was told), grounding the show into the previously real and actually experienced.

It's also funny to see the link between the snapshots and Capon's photos, some of which are taken of his family on holiday. Both let the viewer unfold thought at their own pace. The two shows run together rather nicely.

Down at 'da Gow' as we have lovingly coined it, the show was installed with the paintings Ingram had done by hand on one end and his famous painting machine ready to go on the other end of the room. The machine was still though, and linen canvases leant against the wall next to it in anticipation of part two of the exhibition where it will be activated throughout the coming weeks. I liked the build up this set created, where you feel as though action could come at a flick of a switch, and yet it's perhaps something, as a viewer, we cannot decide on when.

Us kiddos were wondering how to save up our pennies to buy one of Ingram's Machines. At $18,000 we're a little far from the mark. Perhaps instead, we can do a little 'artistic rehashing' and make it ourselves. Lego: Check. Oil Paint: Check. We're good to go, right?

- Agnes