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WEST AUSTRAliAN WEEKENDEXTRA Page 13
VISUAL ARTS
SATURDAY,JULY 1. 2006
Ric Spencer
Energising the grid
For nearly 20 years now Hilarie Mais has been extrapolating
on the grid. Mais is a good example of an artist who has made
a construct her own. Considering the baggage the grid carries
as a modernist archetype and its use in many forms of abstraction,
this is pretty impressive.
I haven't seen a solo show of her work before so it is fascinating
to see how the works interact and how she formulates a composite
narrative through the pieces. I say pieces because Mais' work
could equally be described as sculpture, painting or installation.
This fluidity between labels is just one aspect that helps
Mais shift her grids beyond any form of contained reading.
Other Nature at Galerie Düsseldorf is a slow pond of
work. Deep, drifting and reflective, the show as a whole augments
a soulful reading, all the more amazing again because of her
obsession with the grid. But it's probably because it is an
obsession that I got a fully immersed and focused energy from
these works. And the energy is there to see; Mais is not overly
neurotic about covering up the making - another paradox in
her use of the grid - and her layering, building and construction
are clearly visible.
There are several readings one can get from this, like the
personal subversion of constructed and formalised living or
the freeing spirituality of making an icon your own by investing
it with your energy. But it is probably more enjoyable to
go through the process of making with Mais in her works and
then step back to see how they work on a purely visual level-
because they do surprise the eye.
Rain is a muting of various warm and cool hues. Like most
of the works in the larger front gallery, it is an open construction
of painted and crossed wooden rods. This work really shows
off Mais' confidence in her beloved grid format.
The subtle skill making and allowance of the form to work
its own magic show an artist in control of her process. The
crossings on the grid blur the colour scheme, on this occasion
pushing the paint at an angle to reveal an abstracted lightly
falling shower. Mais' grid allows depth to the vision and
shows on a very simple and skillfully orchestrated level how
to take the viewer's eye on a journey.
Shaft, Rise and Shift each in their own way also use the open-ended
form of the grid to expand the viewer's vision. In the works
at Galerie Düssledorf it's great to see an artist well-versed
in the power of the constructed form and its cultural associations,
how we react to archetypes, and how our minds make these forms
cognisant on so many levels.
Image reproduced: Shaft Catalogue number 2, From Hilarie Mais'
Other Nature exhibition at Galerie Düsseldorf.
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