From Stella Rosa McDonald…
Collage is a perfect game of chance, the lucky meeting of materials and form, the precise assembly of sign and symbol. Collages are not simply collections but chronicles of an invisible order. The works are supported by two heuristic propositions: that there is an inherent balance in the tension of opposites and a tenable logic to the process of trial and error. The exhibition, featuring large-scale collage, drawing and sculpture by artist Matt Bromhead, is quilt like, recording the associations between attraction and repulsion, distance and proximity.
The title is twofold, referencing the tension between players in that game as well as the layers of movement that accumulate during the course of a match.
Bromhead’s collages use paper he made by hand, using early Chinese papermaking techniques that he honed while travelling in China. The material was brought back to Australia and assembled (or Chinese Checked) during a residency at the Bundanon Trust and later in the artist’s Sydney studio. Bromhead’s deft collage and sculptural assemblages suggest the ephemeral progress of thought, implying the instinct of play and the magnetic tension between opposing forces.
Until September 28
Wellington St Projects, Chippendale
Pic: Matt Bromhead, Bob Sobs, 2014. Charcoal, chalk, collage on paper, 90 x 122 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
