EARTH FORCES - An exhibition of works by Noel Hodnett and Julie Pongrac

The works on exhibition here have been informed by both earth forces and ethnic design rhythms. Some pieces are designed to be worn as artworks while others are simply objects to be admired. The fabric“bowls” are in fact not bowls at all. They are not designed to hold anything. They are purely sculptural pieces informed by atolls, lava flows and the possibilities of the fibers used in their creation. If the distinction between art and craft is functionality, then these works hopefully challenge that perception. Unlike the paintings, what is central to the fabric works is that the process of constructing the individual pieces is highly mathematical and by no means random, yet the final design appearance often is…as it is in Nature. Like most sculpture, the final forms, along with their seemingly random surface designs, have to be thought out in advance and constructed, deconstructed and re-constructed before the piece can take on its final form.

The paintings, although informed by the same earth forces as the fabric works, have been resolved in a very different manner. They are initially created from a series of random, subconscious marks layered on the canvas in contrast to the strictly formal process employed in the fabric pieces. These random marks take on a more focused quality as the painting progresses and ultimately culminate in a composition that owes itself to an intimate knowledge of form, colour and subject matter.

Apart from the process and medium, the main distinction between these two art forms is that one has a relatively predictable resolution point whereas the paintings often end up being very different form the original concept. Both the paintings and the fabric work are often completely deconstructed and reconstructed if they are not “working”aesthetically or have become bogged down in the process. The paintings however always retain the history of the process whereas the fabric works seldom do.

What these works do have in common is their adherence to a philosophy of truthfulness to their respective mediums and processes. As with most contemporary art, what may look easily achieved is usually quite the opposite. The times when a solution is indeed easily achieved are purely due to experience and an accumulated knowledge of the subject and the materials at hand…and of course, an element of luck.