On the Road: Redbase, Puzzle Gallery, The Commercial, & Syrup Gallery
Belem Lett at Syrup Gallery
Sydney is not a city I spend much time in. Between the ever increasing cost of flights, and that a singular sandwich was going to run me $29, weekend sojourns are not often in the cards. The only thing that could get me on a Jetstar flight at 645am is love – platonic, lifelong, very true love. And the promise of an extra day to see as much art as possible. I did go to the AGNSW (and loved the Young Archie and And Still I Rise) and of course White Rabbit, but we aren’t going (that) highbrow today.
Redbase Art Gallery was hosting Eastern Abstraction, containing the art of Li Kezheng, Tian Longyu, Paul Bai, Sungmin Park, and Tifani Anggun. The works on show, a collection of abstractions in differing forms, made for a worthwhile diversion. Tian Longyu and Sungmin Park play with form and illusion. Longyu’s work, at first glance seeming solid, perhaps planks of painted wood, at closer inspection they are in fact layer upon layer of paint. The final artwork is outside the canvas, in the shadow mimicking a city skyline, projected upside down below the work. While the work itself is no doubt abstract, its end product is not – it toes the line of abstract form, relying on methodical planning and layering, none of the near violent interventions most think of when hearing the work abstract. In the same vein are Park’s evolution series. The illusion of these being tile works is so strong that had I not spoken to the staff and read the room sheet I would have left thinking they were glazed ceramic works. The resin layered painted works are glossy and gorgeous. Park plays with the trust you have in your own eye, making you question what exactly is in front of you.
In the same complex as Redbase, Puzzle Gallery was a total surprise to me. This small space, literally the size and shape of a single car spot, was filled with Here Before by Ryan Ouyang and Lily Tsuruko Tucker. I wandered in and was treated to a saddle made of wood, an embroidered towel, and pointillism relief in metal. The show feels like memories just beyond your own recollection – the beach towel of a childhood trip, a rocking horse standing still, a saddle for Bec’s horse girl heart. I wish it was in Melbourne, it deserves a second look (and a third, and fourth) but White Rabbit called and I was powerless to resist. I wanted to stay, to linger, to remember, but I will have to do so with words rather than my own eyes. Both shows were a good taster for what I would see once I made it to White Rabbit. Far from lowbrow, the institution is the gallery that I point those only briefly in town towards. Ever evolving, their current showing was entirely deserving of my afternoon.
Art galleries are better with friends, especially those that will drive you to Marrickville to maximise your experience. You’re going to go to two: The Commercial and Syrup Gallery. The Commercial was mid setting up for their afternoon launch of Jazz Money’s Lightning for a song, but we got a look in before the 2pm opening. The blackened spotted gum lettering, the neon words on the floor, the soaring concrete walls all make for a gallery experience I haven’t quite found in Melbourne (except for maybe Haydens). The red/orange neon of the floor reads like the pilot light, breaking into a forest fire that has smouldered into the works on the walls. The work is a further exploration of the marrying of poetry and visual art that seems to be on the rise.
Finally, we headed into Syrup Gallery on the advice of the lovely gallerists at The Commercial. When prompted with the fact we only had time to check out one more show before our evening plans took over, they were unanimous in needing to see Syrup. On show was Belem Lett, whose work I’ve run into time and again in Melbourne (formerly at James Makin Gallery). Through both sculpture and works on canvas, Lett wields light and colour with such power that at his best, they seem lit from within. Some of the few works I have seen recently that outshine the vibrancy of the white walls they are on, Lett’s work is immediately recognizable. Years after my first encounter with these strange, near tubular shapes, I’m more enthralled than ever, repetition not losing a mote of impact.
Melbourne’s art scene is my home, but there is so much to be found in new galleries and new spaces. There’s so much more to be written about Marilyn Russell, Suzann Victor, Indra Sinkhwal, Sahshi Dhar Sainju, and Lok Chitrakar at the AGNSW, a deeper dive into White Rabbit (especially Sun Xun and Ma Ke), maybe even shelling out to go to the MCA, but that is for later. Puzzle Gallery’s artists felt strangely prescient, works I’m looking forward to looking back on, Jazz Money was art for an Australia in crisis, Belem Lett finds moments of brilliance in abstraction for the now. Sydney’s art felt tangibly different to that of Melbourne’s, or maybe that was just the sunshine talking. Everything looks better in natural light.