Charles Robb: Catacoustics
Ponder both form and purpose in a merging of the familiar and strange.
Overview
In the space where someone makes art, two things combine. The product of their efforts takes shape as a tangible object, and the tools of their labor remain scattered around it. The artwork is the main attraction, but it wouldn't have been possible without a range of mundane items and materials.
With Catacoustics, Charles Robb connects the two into composite sculptural forms or installations. And he does so while considering another important artifact of the creative process: the public monument.
Accordingly, as he explores the slippages that occur in an artists' studio, as well as the contemporary possibilities of his chosen medium of sculpture, he also constructs a fragmented replica of the Ian Fairweather (1891–1974) memorial rock on Bribie Island. Inside and outside forms of art merge, as do the familiar and strange, and the meticulously crafted and refined but also strangely disorienting, in an exhibition that ponders both form and purpose.
