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By: Damien Worst
Date: 18th Oct 06
Medium: Sculpture
Drink: Bottle of red
What:
Emily Floyd - New Ways of Thinking
When:
Tues-Fri 12-6, Sat 1-5
Where:
Anna Schwartz Gallery, 185 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
How much:
Free
Image:
‘Steiner Rainbow’ by Emily Floyd
That heavy weight we feel when we walk into a gallery? Ignore that; that's the white elephant of theory and history that squats grossly in the corner of every white cube in every art scene. The already-said and the already-dead that executes every new idea and slots it neatly into the catalogue of 'nice tries'. Its the hipster death squads determining how 'real' a new artist is being.
Emily Floyd's new show of installations and sculptures actually suprises you by pointing to the elephant and not having a fit in the process. Simple, elegant craft is married to intelligent but unweighted refrains on theory and craft. ‘Dostoevsky is here with me, right now’ and ‘Gen-existential Crisis’ betray an approach to art informed, even haunted by theory.
As luck would have it, Floyd's work is acutely aware of how damn dull it can be to fuse theory and practice. The exhibit of minature rainbows, wooden words, sculpted dioramas and giant anarchy icons is worth a visit, brightening up the usually dour 'money' end of the Flinders Lane art scene.