RE:VISION I Aidan Gageler & James Rhodes
Opening October 29th 6-9pm
Open 10-3pm October 28 - Nov 1
As one day slips into another we inherently create memories of our experience. Utilising a multifaceted approach, Dr. James Rhodes and Aidan Gageler explore the experience of life and the memory of existence in their exhibition Re:vision. Rhodes and Gageler have different approaches to making, yet find a unique crossover in their conceptual interests. Rhodes directly affects his works by embedding his awareness of time and memory into his materials, leaving behind subtle symbols for the viewer to unpack. Gageler renounces the camera in favour of found materials and chance, drawing attention to alternate records of shared times passed.
Re:vision is the second duo show by Gageler and Rhodes. The exhibition brings together these two artists as they enquire about art's ability to move ‘beyond recording.’ Art is a mediation between the unseeable and the understandable, it is a tool for forming, more so than representing. The experimental nature of the artist's work seeks to disrupt the pre-existing ways of seeing as they favour enquiry and the possible aspects of their mediums. The intrinsic abstraction of the works obscure our ability to immediately recognise what it is that we’re looking at. Drawing upon embedded and personal memory, the works do not mourn what once was, but rather invite speculation of what there is and what else there might be.
Gagelers images are from his first exploration into colour after years in the black and white darkroom. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism and the Konkrete Fotografie movement, he eschews the camera in pursuit of self referential photographs. His images investigate the difference between reception and perception; how we can all look at the same thing but what we perceive or see will be very different. They are made using bygone era film stocks with unknown providence with some exposing for up to 70 years before processing. The sheets of film have been exposed to and processed with the same ingredients as all other colour film but depict a radically different narrative. Aidan Gageler is an Australian visual artist living and working between Awabakal (Lake Macquarie, NSW) and Yuin land (South Coast, NSW). He studied Fine Art (Hons) at Camberwell College of the Arts, UAL, graduating with first class honours. His work is held in private collections around the world.
Rhodes' works explore his memory of Kooragang Island through subtle symbolism that can be found in the subject matter and materiality of his works. Rhodes has used photography, painting, video, and sculpture to uncover his own experience of Kooragang Island. Each work has been created using materials or light from Kooragang. By spending time on the Island and recording his experience of it, Rhodes has been able to make sense of what has constantly drawn him to spend time there. Each different medium allows Rhodes to discover new things about how the landscape impacts him, and how he in turn impacts the environments he encounters. For each trace that is left in his memory, another is left in the landscape. Rhodes is an Australian artist working on Awabakal Land (Newcastle NSW). He was awarded his Ph.D in Fine Art in 2022 from the University of Newcastle. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia and the USA.