‘‘Combine The Package You Can Use And Read It In More Versions’’, Curated by James Hope
(Laurel Project Space)
THERE is a clunky, not quite ‘‘right’’ quality to the title of the exhibition ‘‘Combine The Package You Can Use And Read It In More Versions’’ that accurately captures the themes of opacity and defunctness in relation to technology explored in the work of the seven exhibiting artists: Stella Brennan, Claudia Dunes, Jae Hoon Lee, Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris, Robyn Walton and Carlin Wright. Curated by James Hope, this exhibition assembles together relics of technology, and presents the ways in which, in some instances, they can be repurposed.
One example by Robyn Walton comprises an old, freestanding, cathode ray TV placed on its side and hitched to an antennae. This defunct technology has been repurposed to pick up radio and atmospheric noise, natural phenomena, and WiFi signals depending on where the antennae is placed. The black cords between TV and antennae sprawl and coil elaborately in the centre of the gallery. On one side of the TV is a crosssensory artwork by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris designed to emit an earthy perfume when activated by physical proximity to the circuitlike work. The works included in this exhibition span a 20year period in which technology has undergone significant evolution, particularly the internet, which has transformed from potential utopia to surveillance paranoia. Digital video works by Jae Hoon Lee and Carlin Wright speak to this particular transformation.