8 February - 11 March You Get What You Choose : 365 Day Instagram Project
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Marlene Sarroff. You Get What You Choose, 2016-2017. Assemblages of Found Objects.
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These works are a small collection of a much larger collection of 365
works, the product of a disciplined daily practice of making an
artwork, photographing it and posting it on Instagram. The work is a
combination of Social Media, Technology, and Art.
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Marlene Sarroff. You Get What You Choose. 2017. Assemblages of found objects
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The work is made from a diverse range of found things. It is an
investigation of the ordinary from the perspective of the "found" be it
the rejected, the disposable, the temporary or forgotten objects that
are intrinsically part of this creative process. All discovered things
create vital possibilities that are transcended through a daily practice
of living the everyday aesthetically.
Most important is allowing spontaneity, freedom, chance encounters and the unexpected as well as meeting the demands of a daily practice of being vitally alert. What transpires in making the work is accidentally miraculous, an engagement with a new kind of anthropology, an immersion in the pleasures of popular culture, or a meditation on what happens unexpectedly.
It simply
is a means of seeing everyday objects in a new light. As Henri
Lefebvre, a theorist on this subject, notes the "concept of everydayness
(can) reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. At a philosophical
level the celebration of the everyday has oppositional and dissident
overtones, offering a voice to the silenced and proposing possibilities
for change.
Instagram,
is an important component in the creation of this project. Posting the
work daily creates another aspect of showing art by presenting the
Project to an audience that can see and follow as the Project evolves
over 365 Days. Each day is different and presents a spontaneous creation
pertaining to the day of the artist.Instagram is contributing to the
Project as the works will be installed in the gallery space (future) in
the same order as posted on Instagram. The idea of having an instant
viewing audience daily is inspirational for the artist and propels the
work to continually be created and shared. The artist is assessing the
overall look as the work evolves. Each day photographing the work and to
ensure a good image, prior to posting is paramount.
Marlene Sarroff
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| Beginning of Marlene Sarroff's installation of 'You Get What You Choose'. |
Marlene's thoughts on her process in assemblages of found objects made an impression on me in how, through art practice, aesthetics can be used as a vehicle for mindful living in our daily lives. Through finding the manufactured discards and mindful personal response, creative process takes place using simple assembling of disparate found pieces. This body of work follows a strict parameter as described in Marlene's text. In this process, this project has humbly and deeply encapsulated art practice as an ethos for life lived in a mindful way.
Visually, the artworks exemplify art making incorporating materials with trace of
the 'intelligence of manufacturing' with technologies of our time. It is important for Marlene that the found materials are not 'interfered with'. The integrity of the found materials is to be kept intact as much as possible. The outcome and process are dictated by the materials' characteristics. This in itself is a way of relating with respect in one's day to day encounters, being with another being or our environment.
Our environment is mostly surrounded with manufactured materials. The discards appearing in Marlene's works are office stationery,
foam materials for packaging consumer products, advertising off cuts,
rubber mats, factory discards. The emphasis of creativity and making of this body of
artwork is shifted from the making to the aesthetic
'response' and deep appreciation of the materials followed with visual
recognition of creative possibilities to repurpose the found pieces into
a artworks. The result is a 'mash' of the 'intelligence of
manufacturing' of our time and Marlene's aesthetic judgments. On that basis, 'of the time' is intrinsic in the expressions of these works.
The
works also lend themselves to reflect the excess of the society we live
in, a reading suggested by Marlene's title 'You Choose What You Get'. The title suggests abundance of materials. There are choices and the certainty of getting what one chooses is never an issue. All that is needed is a decision. This is not unlike the shopping experience
in
an affluent, capitalist society, where the options of getting a product
serving the same purpose are plentiful. Good judgement and
decision are all it takes to take one home.
As
the industrial wastes are re-purposed for the desired aesthetic experience, Marlene
has assembled endless permutations of these to be had. The artworks are displayed in the lit Slot window, itself a repurposed shop window on Botany Road. They promise a delightful experience with its spendour of colours, textures and shapes- a vision of Utopia of materiality in a lightbox. The viewers get to choose the aesthetic experience brought
to them through 'a work a day' from Marlene's studio.
Anie Nheu
February 2017
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Marlene Sarroff. You Get What You Choose, 2016-2017. |
