Suzie Idiens’ meditative new series quietly contests the boundaries between painting and object, surface and depth, colour and the monochrome.
Neutral Ground comprises eight sculptural wall-mounted panels. These simplified forms are layered with various tints of soft grey paint. Each object is seamless, as if industrially fabricated. They gently occupy space and superficially achieve a lightness and neutrality that encourages their own invisibility. Upon closer looking, complexities emerge: shadows gather weight, colours deepen, and tones shift as you move around each piece.
Idiens’ reductive investigations direct us towards the power of our perceptive capabilities. She challenges the concept of neutrality and invites us to see more in the most minimal of surfaces. Her highly reflective finishes cleverly illuminate the challenge: their liquid-like purity return the viewer’s own self-image, while at the same time encourage a view beyond the surface membrane, into limitless depths of colour and paint.
Born in the UK, Idiens studied art and design at the Royal College of Art, London. Since emigrating to Sydney in 2006 she has exhibited in Berlin, Sydney and London as well as the Melbourne Art Fair and Art Stages, Singapore. Idiens is currently showing in Visions of Utopia, a historical survey of Australian non-objective art at the Wollongong Art Gallery.
Neutral Ground is Idiens' third solo exhibition at Gallery 9.
Press release courtesy Gallery 9.
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