ENOKi, Hede, Kuo, & Puspasari - Counihan Gallery
ENOKi
Counihan Gallery, on Sydney Road in the heart of Brunswick, is a council gallery for the people. Currently on view are four shows, each entirely their own: Colour My World by Joshua Hede, Not a fine artist, just a "fine" artist by Judy Kuo, Mulana by ENOKi, and Things I Carried Quietly by Nani Puspasari. The exhibitions did not feel connected, but they did not need to be. Counihan knows their space well enough that each holds its own, no encroaching or overshadowing, despite the airiness of the gallery.
Though distinctly in four shows, Hede and Kuo’s works were inextricably linked. From a recreation of their shared workspace greeting you as you walk in, to the clear echoes in materiality (the same size paper, the same hanging), the case is made for two artists who are intertwined but far from competition. Hede’s colour and texture were a direct contrast to Kuo’s solidity of line and space. Kuo’s works are for the artists in the audience (it’s Brunswick, and statistically to our readers – that’s you) about the hustle of making a living in a gig economy, the microgrant hellscape, the absurdity of what getting by takes. On a return visit, I was lucky enough to see Kuo in action taking teenagers through their process, employing the wry, sardonic, quirky warmth that their works take on.
In the front room, awash with light, Puspasari shone in the details. Though Things I Carried Quietly is a show of both ceramics and works on canvas, it is in the sculptures that the show finds its footing. The middle of the room has a circle of Puspasari’s works, at a level that forces you to look down and look carefully – taking stock of the changing light and angles, feeling a bit like a cat circling prey. The details aren’t just in the works, they’re in the design, being made to look high and low, to find the solid lines weaving through the pastel wonderland the artist has brought you into.
Mulana by ENOKi is a masterclass of a solo show. The variety of colour, installation, finish all allow for the creation of an immersive world across two rooms. Truth be told, it was this show that did not leave my mind, to the point I walked back to Brunswick just to see it again and stand in the wash of colour before committing my final thoughts to paper (keyboard?). ENOKi’s economy of space, using just a few works to pack so much of a punch left me wanting more, but gave me the space to fully digest everything they put on show. The experimentation with display – framed, hanging in the corner, collaged on the wall, hung in the middle of the room – gave the artist a presence in the room, not just on the canvas. Each painting felt familiar, not in form, but in theming. ENOKi’s works let you sit with the images, and at least left me doubting whether or not I had forgotten some long known parables and legends that they had brought into the present moment: greek myths in technicolour (give me a Christopher Nolan movie on these). The artist’s world is colour drenched, the sun and the moon fighting each other, koala cowboys, disorientingly dayglo skeletons, and entirely singular. More than anything, it's a world that made me want more.
All four shows are on at Counihan Gallery until July 19th.