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DROP THE DUST
Margaret Worth and Pamela
Kouwenhoven at Flinders University City Gallery, 3 July - 29
August 2010
An exhibition of recent work presented for SALA 2010
And all our yesterdays
have lighted fools_
The way to dusty death
Shakespeare, Macbeth, V,
v, 19
Drop the Dust comprises two- and three-dimensional
artworks by established South Australian artists Pamela Kouwenhoven
and Margaret Worth. The jointly conceived curatorial theme focuses
on the pervasiveness of dust in our lives, whether it takes the
form of infinitely small or imperceptible cosmic particles, or
huge, frighteningly visible dust storms. In the context of this
exhibition 'dust' is conceptualised as a physical presence in
the universe -- from the cosmos to the kitchen sink, as it were
-- but also as a philosophical and metaphorical construct. Drop
the Dust is also a meditation on mortality.
This original and ingenious exhibition examines dust in terms
of its (at times intangible) materiality, and as a concept that
has, for eons, fascinated theologians and philosophers, and more
recently, astrophysicists and other scientific and medical researchers.
The idea of dust permeates religious texts, from the Qur'an ("Man
is made from the dust of the earth"), to Buddhism ("His
success may be great, but be it ever so great the wheel of fortune
may turn again and bring him down into the dust") to the
Christian Bible ("For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return").
Dust is a potent metaphor, reminding us of our impending mortality
and eventual destiny: reduction to particles of dust. Dust also
acts as a powerful memento mori, a trope for human impermanence,
cautioning us against excessive materialism and acting as a metaphorical
injunction against unbridled human desire for worldly success.
Included in this engaging exhibition are Pamela Kouwenhoven's
large-scale abstracted malthoid works. Malthoid is a membranous
substance used to line Australian water tanks. Kouwenhoven is
an avid collector and re-assembler of discarded remnants, that
she transforms, bower-bird-like, into captivating artworks. More
often than not clumps of hair, fluff, fur, feathers, grit and
dust cling to these derelict malthoid fragments. Each crater-like
malthoid surface presents a kind of archaeological record, bearing
witness to events and weather patterns that have occurred over
an extended period of time.
Central to this exhibit is an abandoned dust-, grit- and rust-ingrained
corrugated iron water tank that Kouwenhoven has installed in
the gallery space. Kouwenhoven and Worth have also created a
splendid collaborative tree fashioned from steel and encircled
by shards of shattered, toughened laminated glass.
Margaret Worth's works in Drop the Dust evince a similarly
beguiling, left-of-field quality. Worth's 'dust domes', in principle
not unlike larger-scale versions of the glass- or plastic-encased
snow domes that were popular as souvenirs and collectors' items
from the late-19th century, are truly original. Inside these
six transparent bell jars, Worth has placed a range of small-scale
architectural models of atypical domestic residences. A Nissan
hut, a model of a futuristic home, and a predominantly flat-roofed
house with a modernist, flip-up roof design of the kind favored
by migrant architects and their clients in postwar Australia
(especially as holiday houses) are included among these diminutive,
white powder-coated residences. Inside the glass casing enclosing
these architectural specimens Worth has placed finely textured
house dust -- comprising fluff, hairs, sand and grime that she
and Kouwenhoven gathered for their project. Known in the slang
of yesteryear 'beggar's velvet', or even 'slut's wool', these
randomly structured, strangely beautiful house dust conglomerations
contrast fascinatingly with the formal, domestic microstructures.
Worth has also constructed a large screen comprising six standard-sized,
conjoined doors, coated with a dusty, granular surface and diverse
flotsam and jetsam. The installation Bottle Bush has been
created from painted steel, acacia wood and compressed plastic
fizzy drink bottles containing fine particles of red sand and
dust collected from the Aboriginal settlement of Amata in South
Australia, where there is no shortage of red dust. Finally, in
her floor installation, 'Ancient Accumulations under Pressure',
Worth has hand-sculpted compressed white rag paper into structures
suggestive of the ancient geological landforms of the Australian
desert. By positioning these forms on a bed of red sand intermixed
with ground down bones, the artist creates an evocative contrast
between different textures of dust and decay.
Pulvis et umbra sumus: We are dust and shadow, wrote
Horace. It is doubtful whether Drop the Dust could have
been conceived or realized by less experienced, more youthful
artists. Underpinning Worth and Kouwenhoven's marvellous exhibition
is an acute awareness of mortality.
Christine Nicholls
June 2010
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GEMs [glass with embedded metal and sulphides]: Cosmic Encryptions 2010
mixed media with projection, steel, shattered glass variable dimensions
Collaboration with Margaret Worth
Flinders University Art Museum as part of the SALA ,South Australian Living Artists
detail of glass floor
