The Rainbow is yours with Volume

Lisa Andrew


Exhibition Dates:
16 July – 31 August 2009

Launch:
Saturday 18 July, 3-5pm

Exhibition Location:
beta_space, Cyberworlds Gallery, L1 - Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

Curator: Julia Burns

Courtesy: Connie Dietzschold Gallery

Lisa explores the idea of ‘selling a place’ with her colourful, neonbillboards advertising distinct suburbs in Sydney. We see both thefantastical vision and the reality in one. Looped video projection,striking images and reflections help to invent the final impression. Rhythmic,interactive and kinetic sequences re-create the flickering ofadvertisements caught in the mind's eye.

“I was originally drawn to the widespread use of colour in the names of towns and suburbs in New South Wales - in fact, throughout Australia - and how these names are often at odds with reality of the place itself. It's almost as if those responsible sought to idealize the landscape, to name it in a way that would attract and impress, conjuring up an image of a place that people would feel good about being associated with."

In this way these names can be associated with a kind of advertising, behaving as much as status brands do when the very fact that you use them - or are seen to use them - makes you feel good about yourself.

So to create a physical connection between places that have colour in their names I drew an arc - as you might the arc of a rainbow- from the coast to the mountains, intersecting a number of these places, of which the principal ones depicted here are Rosebay, Redfern, Blacktown, Silverwater, and Black Heath.And to dramatise my passage along this arc I decided to use the analogy of a driving trip, visualising what I would see if I were on a highway confronted with a cacophony of outdoor advertising as I moved from one place to the next. So here they are projected as billboards of sound and motion, as seen from a car in motion, mirrored on the floor with the colours of their names."  Lisa Andrew

Max/MSP Programmer: Wade Marynowsky