ouside interfrence 29 sept- 16 oct 2004
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review / catalogue / opening
Joan of artOctober 8, 2004 Miss Collins goes under the knife in Shane Forrest's poster-inspired show. Dominique Angeloro reports.OUTSIDE INTERFERENCEWhere: A-Space on Cleveland, 420 Cleveland Street, Surry HillsWhen: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5.30pm, until October 16More information: 9698 5156It's not often you get to view art fitting for the design of an '80s sweatshirt. But the giddy colour assault of Shane Forrest's exhibition Outside Interference provides such a joy. This solo show at A-Space on Cleveland is a combination of attention-seizing works on paper and a series of perforated wooden sculptures. Forrest is a Sydney artist who scavenges public spaces for billboard posters, which he gathers into orderly heaps. Then he slices into the thick piles in search of visual riches. The resulting compositions could be thought of as delirious maps of popular culture. Curiously, much of the excavated paper is fluorescent, marking all the works with a dizzy mix of clashing colour. The artist deliberately flirts with overkill, at times even embedding his eye-candy compositions with found items such as a chocolate wrapper. But what's particularly interesting about these poster works is that Forrest experiments with a variety of methods of paper mutilation. The surface has been roughly torn away in works such as Data Ribbons and Broadcast. They resemble rugged flags, with horizontal strips ripped from their surfaces producing jagged bands of colour.However, in other instances Forrest displays an obsessive attention to detail, engraving intricate patterns with carefully controlled scalpel incisions. In Rolling Joan, a poster of an Andy Warhol screen print is posed as the surface image of the work. Joan Collins's face has been cut into, with severe slivers of paper extracted from the image. The decorative contours seem laced with violence, winking at Collins's love affair with the cosmetic surgeon's knife.Alternatively, a number of works have been embellished with cut-out daisy shapes that recall the craftiness of floral decoupage. In All Over Pattern Cuppa, Forrest turns up his kitsch value by constructing a three-dimensional cup and saucer out of these daisy chains.The freestanding sculptural pieces that accompany the wall works continue Forrest's aesthetic obsession with pierced surfaces and dissolving boundaries. These works are model mock-ups of proposed large-scale sculptural projects. Crafted from punctured panels of white painted wood, these forms appear to take inspiration from disintegrated human silhouettes. Caption: PHOTO: Collins class: Rolling Joan by Shane Forrest.
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Outside Interference
When Shane Forrest was a boy, televisions weren’t the sleek commodities they are in 2004. Reception was variable and the screened image was prone to disintegrate into rolling distortion. This flickering corruption of the image made a profound impact - several decades later the artist cites the televisual dysfunction as a major influence on the perceptual processes at work in his large-scale collages.
More precisely, Forrest’s idiosyncratic practice relies not only on collage, but also on the much rarer French tradition of de-collage, or cutting into the paper layers. The artist chooses to re-work scavenged street and billboard posters. Consequently there is a deliciously random quality to Forrest’s subject matter, as it reflects what he’s been able to find on Sydney’s hoardings and streets.
Sydney Morning Herald art critic Dominique Angeloro recently pronounced Forrest’s Outside Interference series as ‘delirious maps of popular culture’. In the current series, pop star of the moment Holly Valance features in Holly Holly Holly and also Six Eyes and Two Mouths, while popular culture perennial Joan Collins is transformed in Rolling Joan. And they are indeed ‘delirious’ –densely built layers of paper are torn and cut into so that in the case of Six Eyes and Two Mouths, the pop princess’s features disintegrate. The iconic Warhol poster which forms the basis of Rolling Joan remains recognisable, nevertheless Forrest’s knife has inscribed it with curving ribbons of colour – transforming the pop icon into an ‘op pop’ icon.
Forrest sees his collage/de-collage practice as an extension of painting, which he describes as a matter of ‘layering and scratching away’. His interest in the ‘tension between ground and figure’, and his ‘drive to integrate the two’ reflect a couple of timeless concerns for painters. We would do well to remember that these strangely alluring works which force reflection on perceptual and optical processes have their origins in a 1960s rolling television screen. Anne Loxley
When Shane Forrest was a boy, televisions weren’t the sleek commodities they are in 2004. Reception was variable and the screened image was prone to disintegrate into rolling distortion. This flickering corruption of the image made a profound impact - several decades later the artist cites the televisual dysfunction as a major influence on the perceptual processes at work in his large-scale collages.
More precisely, Forrest’s idiosyncratic practice relies not only on collage, but also on the much rarer French tradition of de-collage, or cutting into the paper layers. The artist chooses to re-work scavenged street and billboard posters. Consequently there is a deliciously random quality to Forrest’s subject matter, as it reflects what he’s been able to find on Sydney’s hoardings and streets.
Sydney Morning Herald art critic Dominique Angeloro recently pronounced Forrest’s Outside Interference series as ‘delirious maps of popular culture’. In the current series, pop star of the moment Holly Valance features in Holly Holly Holly and also Six Eyes and Two Mouths, while popular culture perennial Joan Collins is transformed in Rolling Joan. And they are indeed ‘delirious’ –densely built layers of paper are torn and cut into so that in the case of Six Eyes and Two Mouths, the pop princess’s features disintegrate. The iconic Warhol poster which forms the basis of Rolling Joan remains recognisable, nevertheless Forrest’s knife has inscribed it with curving ribbons of colour – transforming the pop icon into an ‘op pop’ icon.
Forrest sees his collage/de-collage practice as an extension of painting, which he describes as a matter of ‘layering and scratching away’. His interest in the ‘tension between ground and figure’, and his ‘drive to integrate the two’ reflect a couple of timeless concerns for painters. We would do well to remember that these strangely alluring works which force reflection on perceptual and optical processes have their origins in a 1960s rolling television screen. Anne Loxley
Data Ribbons 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Six Eyes and Two Mouths 2004 street posters: collage and de-collageNocturne 2002street posters: collage and de-collageOutside Interference 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Rolling Cowboy 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Rolling Joan 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
& 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Broadcast 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage Narrowcast 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Cross Pollination 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Holly, Holly, Holly 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Veil 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Stream 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Burgeoning Blooms 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Filter 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage Flush 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Fold 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Flotilla 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Bar code 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Nocturne 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Six Eyes and Two Mouths 2004 street posters: collage and de-collageNocturne 2002street posters: collage and de-collageOutside Interference 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Rolling Cowboy 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Rolling Joan 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
& 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Broadcast 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage Narrowcast 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Cross Pollination 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Holly, Holly, Holly 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Veil 2004 street posters: collage and de-collage
Stream 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Burgeoning Blooms 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Filter 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage Flush 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Fold 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Flotilla 2001 street posters: collage and de-collage
Bar code 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage
Nocturne 2002 street posters: collage and de-collage