Culture

Matthew George Richard Ward, Elle Loui August. Rice & Beans, 127 Stuart Street

Bathed in golden shards of light flowing through from the surreal scene below, Wondering how we ever came to this thank you, for instance. Or possible or just whatever whatever whatever!!!! at Rice and Beans engulfs the observer into an initial state of uneasiness. The quite confrontational, yet poetically orchestrated interaction, made me feel incredibly timid, yet at the same time I was magnetically fascinated by the two figures gliding across the space.
One walks into a naked gallery space featuring only the bodies of Elle Loui August and Matthew George Richard Ward, engaged in repeatable, yet ever evolving, social interaction. August’s haunting stare and twisted form are reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s emotionally explosive and distorted self-portraits. Over time the onlooker drifts seamlessly from being the passive ‘object’, to being the ‘subject’ of the work, as Ward and August use subtle, poetically gestural movements to dissect the gallery space. The way in which they both move is characterised by considered and energetic richness.
Appearing to have evolved from a set of emotional and gestural objective, Ward and August’s constructed situation is challenging to absorb. In using an empty gallery space, they are subverting the traditional context of museum and gallery environment. The gallery context of this work would not have been as effective if they had used chairs as a device to encourage distance. Instead, both danced across a completely bare gallery, forcing one to become magnetically glued to the delicately rendered subtly of their movement. Wondering how we ever came to this thank you, for instance. Or possible or just whatever whatever whatever!!!! communicated for me the fleeting and discounted subtle expressions which exist within temporary bonds. The work is interlaced with an energetic honesty and a deeply intimate mode of expression. It is captivating experience, which exists only in the world of the experience and the memory of those who directly experience it.