When art needs an essay to be understood
By Robert Nelson
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ACCA until 15 March
Thereâs an ingenious drawing machine at ACCA. On a raised platform, an armature pulls at 100 strings in a linear backward and forward motion. The strings run up the wall, fly across the space and tug at pieces of charcoal moored to the opposite wall.
Tracing inscriptions 2020, installation view
Credit:ACCA / Robert Andrew / Andrew Curtis
The resulting drawings resonate with one another in analogous actions. The spectacle is engaging, as you try to work out the engineering: how do the strings coordinate the curved gestures on the wall? On a symbolic level, the work is tantalising. Itâs like an allegory in which divine will is perfectly organised and controlled by a matrix, but perfect compliance does not eliminate chance and chaos.
Overlapping Magisteria: A sensory tussle
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Overlapping Magisteria: A sensory tussle
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There are curious scents and sounds in the gallery: something richly organic, straw-like and earthy in one room, a hint of charcoal in another. A scratching here, a soft flapping there, the hum of spinning fans elsewhere. It’s an invitation for visitors to activate their less-privileged senses – eyes, of course, being their usual tools for experiencing art. These sensory stimuli are an invitation to recalibrate, for here at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), something of an ancient battle is underway.