Review: ‘Connection is Solid’ by John Nicholson at Sophie Gannon Gallery, Richmond, Melbourne

Exhibition dates: 25th August – 19th September, 2009

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
Aerial Navigation
2009

 

 

You could say that the essence of the cosmos is not matter, it is consciousness.

It is not the external world that is real – it is “maya”, an illusion, for the real world lies within.

These works, with their striations, strata and suspension are emanations of that spirit – projections of the inner reality.

In terms of the ancient Chinese philosophy Lao Tzu we dream the butterfly and the butterfly is us. If you don’t ‘get’ these works, let go all pretensions and feel their colour as sound, as vibrations of energy.

Submerge yourself in their shape and form. Like DNA structure, a heart beat or the record of a seismic shock these works are music as art, the length of harmony quivering and slipping in our minds, before our eyes.

This is the colour music of Roy De Maistre’s paintings of the 1930’s updated to the 21st century. They are fugues of sound made physical entities, intertwining, coming and going. Here lines, tones and colours are organised in a parallel way – tone after tone, line after line. They are wavelengths of the interior made visible. The connection is solid and fluid at one and the same time; there are many connections to be discovered, many journeys to be made.

I hear them, I like them.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to Sophie Gannon Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
Under the radar
2009
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Installation views of Connection is Solid by John Nicholson at Sophie Gannon Gallery
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
Thrill seeker (detail)
2009
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Roy de Maistre (Australian, 1894-1968)
Arrested Movement from a Trio
1934
Oil and pencil on composition board
72.3 × 98.8cm

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
Slip
2009

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
The wire might sense
2009

 

 

John Nicholson (Australian, b. 1970)
Swoop
2009
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Installation view of Connection is Solid by John Nicholson with on the wall Satellite Graffitti (2009) and on the floor Cascade (2009) and Swoop (2009)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Sophie Gannon Gallery
2, Albert Street, Richmond, Melbourne

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm

Sophie Gannon Gallery website

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