Presented by the Queensland Art Gallery in association with the ENERGEX Brisbane Festival 2000
Exhibition dates: 30 September – 12 November 2000 | Website: www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/fortitude
| Adam Donovan "The use of technology in my work comments on balancing the use of new scientific developments . . . but also claims new technology for art as more than a fetish for quirky machines . . ." Adam Donovan was born in 1974 and was awarded a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Fine Art (Sculpture) from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University in 1994. He has exhibited in Brisbane at a number of venues including the Queensland Sciencentre, Process Gallery and Carbon Based Studios, and at the Pratt Institute in New York. Donovan was recently awarded an Arts Queensland Soundmill Grant for a new collaborative project with composer and trombonist, Benjamin Marks and Chris Davey, entitled 'Phase II'. Artwork
Artist statement Our experiences and emotions, how we deal with them and how we look back upon them, ‘memories’ and a sense of sadness for why we cannot return to a moment in time — my work focuses on issues such as the utopian world depicted in science fiction, which relates to a desire to live forever and the impossibility of ever solving all the problems. The use of technology in my work comments on balancing the use of new scientific developments such as the 'human Genome project' but also claims new technology for art as more than a fetish for quirky machines. Technology is the strongest medium within my work because it has the ability to see and sense the intangible world. It is this invisible world of 'sound, neutrinos and the atomic universe' that plays an important role in our psychological development and dictates our lives more than we would like to think. Life is complex, intangible existential and we invent the questions as well as the answers. On approaching a new work I can’t help but feel 'everything we see or seem is but a dream within a dream'. While undertaking concepts for building scientific artworks I have studied physics part time as to be able to visualise the activity of sound and light propagation. Projects I undertake have been primarily based on the merger of art and science (particularly physics and psychology). In the development of acoustic lenses I have spent many hours talking, in person, on the Internet, and the phone exploring and discussing with scientists from all over the world how to finetune my developments. One particular scientist, Professor John Mainstone at the University of Queensland, has given me a lot of his time to discuss current and ongoing projects. My most recent project has been the acoustic lens project, which looked at manipulating aspects of the unseen physical world by amplifying and focusing energy in the form of sound vibrations, creating a zone of intensity or a focal point. Actual research into the physical properties of sound was an important part of these works and resulted in an installation that was made of seven different beams of sound in which the viewer/listener created their own composition. My sound work has primarily dealt with the process of memory, re-remembering and the impossibility of recreating an experience. Sources of my sound come from such things as machines and surveillance recording devices. These sounds are 'environments' that reveal something about the nature and patterns of the brain, neurological experiments and machines that explore us while we sleep, for example, the body and brain as it flutters through levels of consciousness during a 40-minute sleep cycle and the progression and regression of dreams. The body as an analogue apparatus captured as information and the clinically poetic aspects of memory. For new work I am looking at furthering my collaboration with the scientific community by the means of a residency within a scientific institution for a cross-collaborative project. I am most interested in working with scientists who are developing new sensor devices, such as underwater acoustics, acoustic probes and ocean floor monitoring. Selected bibliography Caroli, Linda, ‘Phase-Inversion’, Eyeline, no. 40, Spring 1999, p. 44. Gallagher, Jane, ‘Poetic license’, The Review, December 1997–January 1998, p. 21 Hooper, Greg, ‘It’s the fridge calling’, RealTime, no. 34, December 1999–January 2000, p. 22. Huppatz, D. J., ‘Adam Donovan’, Art and Text, no. 64, February–April 1999, p. 95. Smith, Sue, ‘Breaking through’, Courier-Mail, 15 March 2000, pp. 37–38. Donovan, Adam, artist’s statement, in Now: Emerging Artists in Queensland, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, pp. 22–23. Solo exhibitions 2000 ‘Phase II: Poetic Dielectrics’, Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane; Holy Trinity Hall, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. ‘Kinexus’, Moving Art Museum, Dallas. ‘Tympanic Membrane’, Modus Studios, Brisbane. 1999 ‘The Turing Test’, The Zoo, Brisbane 'Phase-Inversion’ (collaboration with Benjamin Marks and Ellision), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. ‘Alignment’, Queensland Sciencentre, Brisbane. 1998 ‘Aconoscill’, Process Gallery, Brisbane; Stripp, Melbourne. 1997 ‘Oblong Box’, Carbon Based Studios, Brisbane. 1996 ‘R.O.Y.G.B.I.V.’, White Box Gallery, Brisbane. 1994 ‘Energy Refractions’, Foyer Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. Group exhibitions 2000 ‘Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition’, Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane. ‘Spin Me Round’, Metro Arts, Brisbane. 1999 ‘Exchange’, Pratt Institute, New York. 'Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific' (MAAP), Brisbane. ‘Sci-Art 99’, Sciencentre, Brisbane. ‘Moi’ (collaboration with Peter Alwast), Shop 49b, James Street, Brisbane. 1998 ‘Presence’, Process Gallery, Brisbane. ‘System-C’, Carbon Based Studios, Brisbane. 1994 ‘Graduation Exhibition’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. |
