Culture

DPAG
Until September 19

 
Effigies is a sculptural installation by New Zealand-born artist Alicia Frankovich which is currently on show at the DPAG. This new work comprises six subtly interacting sculptural pieces that display the artist’s interest in re-contextualising everyday objects to create an interactive and challenging set of works and viewing environment.
Visitors are first confronted by a large metal frame, on top of which a full tray of eggs is precariously placed. The door-sized frame and the title referencing the classical Greek figure Orpheus invites the gallery-goer to walk through the doorway as if entering through some sort of transformative gateway. However, the eye is promptly drawn to the egg on the brink of toppling out of the tray and one pauses expectantly to witness it smash. Once the visitor has been slightly disquieted by this prospect, the next unnerving sensation is generated by the sound of a spout of compressed air mysteriously jetting into the gallery. The source is a barely noticeable copper valve set into the wall just above eye level that is triggered by a sensor hidden from the visitors. This work demonstrates the interactive element of viewer participation, or human ‘activation’, without which the work would simply be a small, inconspicuous blemish on the white gallery wall. 
 Activity in this form, and in the ever-present aspect of performance in Frankovitch’s work, is an important aspect to this installation. Raw clearly displays the artist’s construction of the work in and for the particular space. Frankovich has dripped resin down the gallery wall from ceiling to floor to resemble a steady water leak that is caught in a dilapidated sink, hanging askew by chains from the gallery wall. The environment of the clean white gallery space provides a contrast for the images conjured up by the viewer through associations of grungy public toilets. The sound of water dripping constantly into a shallow pool in Pas de Deux does much to reinforce this. The entire gallery space becomes one unified work as the viewer passes through and around each sculptural piece to the sound of the walls themselves gasping air and leaking to the sound of dripping water. Frankovich’s installation is a multi-sensory environment that is playful yet challenging, encompassing and activating visitors.