Pulse is one measure of being alive and can be palpated in any place where an artery can be compressed against a bone, such as on the wrist, the back of the knee or near the ankle joint. The count of the pulse per minute is equivalent to measuring the heart rate. This exhibition examines artists' responses to being alive, to having a pulse, both in a physical sense, and in some instances in a spiritual sense.
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The curator of this exhibition, Mark Bayly, has brought together a challenging, provocative, but madly overambitious exhibition. The 27 selected artists do represent a very broad church in Australian art and there is a range of some of the big names in Australian art, including Sidney Nolan, Richard Larter, Patricia Piccinini, Robert Boynes and Lindy Lee, together with some little known, local emerging artists aged in their early 20s. It is not a particularly satisfactory mix with some of the pieces appearing to belong in a different league.
Nolan never ceases to amaze one and the two spray-paint canvases from 1982, both in the CMAG collection, One must be absolutely modern and Madame Rimbaud in hospital, have wit, freshness and lightness of touch. Not having looked at them for a while, each time you see them you rediscover Nolan for yourself and witness the remarkable fecundity of ideas and boldness of invention. While he did paint a staggering number of pictures, when he was good, he was brilliant. These two paintings stand out in the exhibition.
Lindy Lee is one of the major figures in the Sydney art scene, but seems to have had relatively limited penetration in Canberra. Her Mudra series of photographic prints on burnt steel plates translate the Buddhist ritual hand gesture, associated with deep meditation and the 108 mudras used in tantric rituals, into art objects. The association of the mudra with the sacred cleansing fire gives these works the appearance of charred icons which within themselves bring together different levels of existence. They possess a presence, as well as having a meditative quality.
Marie Hagerty's contribution demonstrates her long apprenticeship in abstract painting and the development of an exacting technique in the execution of her surfaces. She is now slipping into her paintings' biomorphic elements, which visually tease the eye, while set amongst tightly abstracted surfaces. Her painting, Rider 4, 2013, is a brilliant and arresting canvas with a strong sense of presence and a richness of ambiguity. As an artist, having exhibited for the best part of 30 years, she now has a maturity in the ideas which she sets out to communicate, as well as the skill base through which to achieve this flawlessly.
The artist who calls herself Nell has been building up a reputation with enigmatic pieces mainly shown at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney. Her exhibit here is in the form of an installation, where a life-size bronze figure of a naked woman, painted black, that of a wanderer with a staff, is shown walking through a field of 33 happy glass ghosts.
If this sounds puzzling and intriguing, the title only adds to the mystique: A white bird flies in the mist, a black bird flies in the night, a woman walks, wild and free, she is not afraid to die, 2008. It is quite characteristic of Nell's art that a number of clues are provided which evoke contrasting emotions and it is up to the viewer to arrive at their own interpretation. This installation through its scale and presence plays the role of something of a focal point for the exhibition.
Pulse is a fluid metaphor in this exhibition, rather than a prescriptive theme. Each of the 27 artists can be seen as directly or tangentially relating to the pulse of life.
I applaud this exhibition for its boldness and breadth. To fall short, when acting on a grand scale, is more commendable than to overachieve while exploring some tiny curatorial cul-de-sac.
Pulse: Reflections on the body is on at the Canberra Museum and Gallery until February 22, 2015, Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday noon-5pm.
