Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

WHAT the spectator gets - out of a work of art can be very differe indeed from what the artist thinks he 'puts in. This difference shows up with Peter Kennedy's two ,exhibitions. His "Luminal Sequences" at Gallery A is meant to be a color -rhythm event, but after a long visit I hadn't consciously grasped the rhythm of the color - changes. Not that conscious awareness really matters. You know that there must be a systematic rhythm and unconsciously I think you are aware of some structure In your experi- ence of the lights. Just like Godard's films, where you don't know that each shot's time -span might in fact be strictly related to the others (such as: 2 minutes. 2 minutes, minutes, 2 minutes) but where you certainly ap- preciate a strong control- ling rhythm. Yet it was the random effects that gave me most pleasure at Gallery A, not the strictly programmed ones. I mean the mixtures of colored light at the openings between the rooms and the variations in color -area that one could compose for oneself by finding different view- points for these doorways. And when one was ob- serving the encounters of opposing waves of colored light at a doorway, one was not Observing the sources of light at all. There were three kinds of light, Single -color soft - edge discs of light were beamed permanently on to the wall by a theatre spot- light. Partially framing eaoh of these haloes were two straight-line nouns, each a different color; and the neon were programmed to switch on and off. Third, a carousel slide - projector is rotated to fill a wall with images of the same neon that were else- where in the gallery, or. slideless, to fill the wall with yellow light. There are three rooms at Gallery A, but only two, doorways give the effects. I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the way the neon tubes provided a faint reference back to that old-fashioned kind of art called painting, ty fix- ing themselves along the horizontal plc Lure -rails. ROOM OF LIGHT ART by daniel thomas The vertical neons were usually In the corners of the rooms. and were thus making a reference to architecture. It was an architectural experience that became the main experience at Ken- nedy's sound -vent at laid- bodress. Although I suspect the artist's main concern ME the sequences and t h e rhythms, and although the final rhythm was simple and powerful and stirring, what the spectator might have enjoyed most was the experience of "sculptural sound." That is an experience of a plain, loft room being totally filled with a given volume of sound. I suppose it can only happen in rather empty rooms, with clear, unin- terrupted walls and ceil- ings. Certainly something very similar happened at David Humphries's Happening "The Homecoming of Alex- ander Neysky" at the Cell Block 'theatre a couple of years ago. And perhaps a dis- cotheque can give a similar experience, on a different level. (Do discotheques still exist? Who remembers the Sound Lounge? That was an experience to remem- ber.) Both Kennedy's exhibi- tions have a 30 cent en- trance charge, which is a gesture towards solving the problem of unbuyable art. Ills neons were without fuss, or by Claude Neon, a good gesture installed, ehich isxpense, w Of co- operation between art and industry. Von Moltke J. W. von Molke, direc- tor of the Bielefeld Mu- seum, Germany, gives two lectures this week. Wednesday: Art Gallery Society at State Office Block on Contemporary German Painting. Thursday: Power Insti- tute at Stephen Roberts Theatre, on Building a Modern Gallery. Musical chairs By now the midsummer gallery staff -s w a p pin g s seem to have been final- ised. Marie de 'religa am' Elaine Robsrtson have ler, Farmer's for Rudy Konion. Reinhard Hassert has left David Jones' for Holds - worth. Jerry van Beek and ty Kelly had already left Barry Stern to set up on their own. Alannah Coleman has left Bonython for London, and Ls replaced by Bron- wyn Thomas (no relation of mine though I'd be glad to claim her). It looks as if Barry Stern and David Jones' have been the best training grounds: besides Jerry van Beek, Frank Watters started with Barry Stern, and so did Rex Irwin of dune Gal- leries. Besides Reinhard Has- sert, David Jones' also once had Robin Gibson, with Bonython now, and Roderick Palmer, who now has an antique shop. 9 P "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 4 n71