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BA(t)CH Gallery
Rudimentary Tensions - Resisting Equilibrium
04 April – 08 April 2016
 
Maddy Anderson’s body of work Rudimentary Tensions - Resisting Equilibrium played with sculptural performance and material appropriation. As the title suggests, this week-long show inhabited the space through acts of balance through the temporal activation of the installation. Conceptually, Anderson’s work engaged the viewer through energising the senses of touch and the subconscious associations we make with materiality and their signifying emotional properties.
 
The junction between fluidity and solidity played an experimental role in activating the senses within the space where the viewers’ image of the seemingly temporal material malleability (think the tap dripping pink gloop) was in fact in a solid state of permanence. Similarly, this demonstration of sensory junction was epitomised through the engagement with weight, tension, and duration through the spectacle of the hanging performative work. Here, the gradual material transitions meant an explosion of tension from the act of puncturing, where a blue fluid protruded from a static, solid vessel creating a fleeting performance of temporal action of materiality. The pleasure here was a clever physical transition of material states of being, creating a sensory interaction of re-materialization of the traditional functions of the materials (concrete, resin, etc.). This further asked the viewer to approach the amalgamation of static sculpture in the space through the senses of flow, movement and malleability.
 
The physical hardness of material was softened by the vivid colour use; bringing a childlike consciousness to the robust form, for instance the hanging broken chain on a concrete block is starkly pink and displayed with seemingly soft material properties. Here, the viewers’ reading of the object was articulated again by a juxtaposition of fluidity and solidity, or conceptually a hardness and softness with our relationships with different colours and textures.
 
The dynamic curatorial arrangement further invited a playful disposition, where an unconventionally low screen position challenged our interaction with the materials. Where becoming physically lower asked the viewer for a close exploration of the material layers in the space. The video-loop engaged the viewer with the action of touch, that is, watching a hand play with a circular sculpture. This sculpture was then inconspicuously placed on a power outlet in a static state. This video engaged with the tangible nature of the show, and the screen position, layered with pink gloop itself began to relate to levels and intersections of materialization. Rudimentary Tensions - Resisting Equilibrium was a fine interaction of the viewer and the artist’s relationships with touch and the tensions between materials signification and actual physical state.
 
Elizabeth Boon​
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