AC [ Direct ] I / II and AC [ Chapel ] will be presenting three new exhibitions

Hong-Kai Wang: “The Importance of Good Conduct” AC [Direct] I and II presents “The Importance of Good Conduct,” by Taiwanese artist Hong-Kai Wang. In her cross-disciplinary sound and audiovisual pieces, Symphony and The Broken Orchestra, Wang investigates cultural and political conformity, deconstructing the influences of social norms on the individual.

Through a re-contextualization of common sounds and spaces, Wang challenges convention and accepted behaviors. Often collaborating with visual artists, theater directors, music composers, filmmakers and choreographers, her work reveals unexpected expressions and meanings within the overlap of aesthetics and quotidian life. Filled with poignant ironies and an experimental “purposeful play” reminiscent of John Cage, Wang resists the prescribed confines of any situation or medium.

In AC [Direct] I, the audiovisual piece Symphony juxtaposes the constructs of individuality and nationality through Wang’s encounter with the Immigration Naturalization Service in Garden City, Long Island. Her mechanical interrogation is heard simultaneously over Debussy’s melodic symphony, Clair de Lune, led by an anonymous conductor in silhouette. In a clash of orchestrated forced and free will, harmony and acceptance become incompatible , dissonant forces.

Located in the front of AC [Direct] II and played from a 5.1 sound system (including benches for the audience) is Wang’s The Broken Orchestra, which explores the boundaries of conventional uniformity and euphony within music’s standard complement. For this work, nine musicians separately recreated an early childhood performance of Bach’s Ave Maria by Wang and her brother. Isolated from the ensemble and responding to the naiveté of an imperfect and distorted instrumentation, the musicians’ sensibilities were open to personal associations and idiosyncrasies. The results of their interpretations are remixed into the original recording in an eternal loop of creative chance and circumstance.

Elizabeth Gower: Amor Infiniti AC [Direct] II presents Amor Infiniti (love of the infinite), an ongoing project of cutout paper plates by Australian artist Elizabeth Gower. Each “design” is unique, utilizing the six-point symmetry of the snowflake and the infinite variations possible within that geometric system.

Gower’s work has always involved the collection and collation of materials, images and data into systems of order. This collection, begun during the winter of 1997 in London, was the result of two incongruous s timuli. The first was the observation of stenciled snowflakes on storefront windows (the integration of aspects from consumer culture can be found throughout Gower’s work). And the second was the influence of “A Sense of Order” by E.H. Gombrich, which revealed the fact that after photographing 3000 snowflakes, none were found to be identical.

Gower began exploring the possibilities of a relatively simple system which would result in an infinite number of variations. Using equally elementary means, a compass, ruler, pencil and retractable blade, six-point symmetrical designs were cut into the flat circular base of paper plates. The ready-made disposable paper plate is an extension of her practice of incorporating discarded materials retrieved from the urban environment.

To date Gower has amassed approximately two thousand variations of cutout geometric designs and patterns. None are repeated, which demonstrates Pythagoras’ dictum “limit gives form to the limitless.” Like all collections, this one (and consequently this project) will never be complete.

John R. Neeson: Northern Light / Fugitive Light [The mirror] makes this place that I occupy at the moment when I look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it [the site] has to pass through this virtual point which is over there. —Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces”

Within in the AC [Chapel] and along the AC [Direct] exterior walls are two site-specific installations by Australian artist John R. Neeson. Northern Light and Fugitive Light are based on the architecture, variations of light and light sources within the AC galleries. Through precise compositions of actual and painted representations of mirrors, Neeson creates mimetic representations of fragments within the internal and external spaces. Each instal lation requires the passage of the observer through it in order to complete the work.

In Northern Light, parallel lines of beveled, rectangular mirrors alternating with tromp l’oeil representations of these mirrors, are placed on opposite walls of the AC [Chapel]. The mirrors reflect the light and architecture of the space as well as each other, while the painted representations replicate the mirrors they replace within the line. The installation fluctuates between a phenomenological and visual experience of his work and the space it occupies.

Located on the AC [Direct] exterior walls is Fugitive Light. In this installation, circular, concave mirrors sequentially reflect and distort aspects of the area and variations in the lux of its’ illumination and surrounding structures. The work is fluid, illusive, transitory and like all Neeson’s installations, specific to the site and impossible to duplicate elsewhere.

Expanding upon the traditions associated with still life, landscape and portraiture, Neeson challenges reality and illusion creating an ambiguous relationship between the art and the role of the spectator. His work is influenced by the enigmatic and complex paintings The Portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his Wife (‘The Arnolfini Portrait’) (1434) by Jan Van Eyck and Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas (1656).

John R. Neeson lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. He has a PhD from Monash University (Melbourne) and has completed post-graduate work at The Royal College of Art (London). His work has been exhibited in numerous venue-specific and solo shows as well as in major group exhibitions in Europe, the Middle East and throughout Australia including The University of Tasmania (Hobart), University of Sydney, Heidi Museum of Modern Art (Melbourne), Royal College of Art (London), Museum of Contemporary Art (Brisbane), World&r squo;s Fair (Seville), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), Museum of Contemporary Art (Brisbane), Fondazione Bevilaqua La Masa (Venice), Student Cultural Centres (Belgrade and Zagreb), Australian Embassy (Paris), Chameleon Contemporary Art Space (Hobart), University of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), Museum of Modern Art at Heide (Victoria), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris) and The TarraWarra Museum of Art (Victoria).