THE WEST AUSTRALIAN WEEKEND EXTRA.
VISUAL ARTS
Ric Spencer
SATURDAY APRIL 21 2007 page 13

History and the age of anxiety
Terrorism and the environment are on display in two of Perth's latest exhibitions

Climate change, oil prices, terrorism, etc, etc, etc. sometimes it can seem too much. Currently in Perth are three shows that give
us some insight into the overwhelming nature of our times.

At Galerie Dusseldorf John Teschendorff's History ofIdeas IV immediately reminds us that these times, although predominated in a peculiarly idiosyncratic way, are nonetheless history repeating itself.
Looking like rustic tablets and superbly referencing texture and patterned motif, each work seems an appraisal of contemporary angst while simultaneously goading us to seek history's lessons. Teschendorff, through a combined use of abstraction and text, has produced a series of rich and very political works. In an art climate where many works are whimsical'at best, Teschendorff has given us a blast of the monumentalinart and judging by this excellent series, he feels now is not the time to be faint-hearted.
Much of the work gets into the political space of an East/West dichotomy. Paintings like XXXVII Guantanamo Fence, XXIX Temple Guantanamo Bay and XXXIV Plague (Traitors Gate) all utilise a strong sense of iconic abstraction to . make the viewer engage in a sense of destiny. This is destiny being played out not only in the world of global politics but in the whole idea of representation itself We are repeatedly told we are watching history unfold, seemingly on a day-to-day basis, and much of Teschendorff's imagery understands the guiding way weare fed this information from above, distanced and protected.
In a work like Stealth (Silk Road to Freedom) we look down on a plane dropping bombs. It's a jolt because the abstraction of the image reminds us we have never been there, above a Stealth bomber, yet the imagery is so familiar. Familiar too are the ideologies that govern our planet today. Teschendorff's work engages them briefly as they continue to go around in history, battling each other in a never-ending Orwellian dance.

Also at Galerie Dusseldorf are Valerie Tring's peculiar watercolours small studies on soft kangaroo skin. The way the watercolour sits on top of the hide completely grabbed me. It holds but it feels it could wash off at any moment. Her series based on cyclone Tracy's destruction of Darwin complements this technique beautifully.
Again, like Teschendorff's work, many of the images in her Anxiius Watercolours collection are taken from aerial views. Buildings are crumbled, ripped apart like so many skeletons by the force of nature. Tring's use of watercolour is really contemporary and affects an urgent reading from a usually relaxed medium. This paradox will bring about a shift in viewer response, creating an uneasy space that Tring fills with anxiety.
Her other smaller series is a beauty. Anxious Emblems shows small boys play-fighting with kangaroos well, sometimes with kangaroos, sometimes with each other. The 12 works in the series add up to a brilliant little ditty on expectations of violence, nationalism and masculine behaviour.

Illustrated:
John Teschendorff's XXXIII Plague (House of the People).
Valerie Tring XXIV Ruinscape (after a cyclone)History of Ideas IV and Anxious Watercolours are at Galerie Dusseldorf
Glyde Street. Mosman Park, until April 29.

tory of Ideas IV and Anxious Watercolours are at Galerie Dusseldorf
Glyde Street. Mosman Park, until April 29.