From Sharne Wolff…
Didn’t someone wise once say that great art poses more questions than it answers? In the post-Google era when the answer to almost every question is available via a few keystrokes, Nola Diamantopoulos encourages her audience to resist the urge for instant gratification.
Quest is a performance work by the artist set in a social, or interactive, context. For each day of the exhibition the artist will be present in the gallery but will maintain complete silence. Visitors to the show are encouraged to join this encounter by posing a question to the artist in writing, to which she will respond with a further question. And so on… By forcing the participant to concentrate on the question rather than the answer, Diamantopoulos places responsibility on the asker and shifts the viewer’s perception from an art object to this newfound relationship. She also undermines the notion everything an artwork means can be found within the art itself or, perhaps, that there are any answers at all.
The artist, wearing a double hat as a trained psychotherapist, worked with this performance on previous occasions but has found over time it has developed from something that’s purely fun into an activity that develops “a level of awareness and …a certain level of intimacy in a very short period of time” – probably about the same time it takes to ponder six good questions.
Until November 30
Artereal Gallery, Rozelle
Pic: Nola Diamantopoulos, Quest (Performance image – September 2013). Courtesy the artist and Artereal Gallery.
