Three Winter Coats and a Dirty Knife

Nine Lives 25/08 - 18/09/2011

Brisbane’s favourite cupboard-sized ARI Nine Lives is host to Three Winter Coats and a Dirty Knife, an exhibition featuring five local emerging artists. Drawing inspiration from a Neko Case song, this group show is built around a narrative of isolation in the wilderness. Both the artworks and the installation are raw and uncompromising, lacking institutional polish but with heads held high and justifiably so, as there is some serious skill present in this exhibition despite some rookie errors.

This show’s greatest strength is the quality of the individual artists’ work. Dan Ford’s whimsical drawings depict endearing characters enacting bizarre scenes, neatly packaged in odd frames, stylistically a mix of Korean cartoons and East coast pop-surrealism meeting a French salon. Contrast these with Kylie Spear’s intricate and controlled line drawings, which speak simultaneously of the free-flowing unconscious and obsessive repetition. Despite drastically different modes of representation each of these artists depicts the theme of insanity through isolation with style. But style can never be enough on its own, and though Jesse Olsen has the former in spades and the technical skill to match, his work lacks the substantive content necessary to move from the realm of illustration to that of contemporary art.

Installation shot 

Ultimately the mix of artists works well together, and restricting the exhibited works to ink on paper was a clever move offering welcome continuity to what otherwise could have been an extremely eclectic show. Curator (as well as exhibitor) Ellie Andersen should be congratulated on successfully uniting five artists who cohesively explored her experimental theme, however the overall installation leaves something to be desired. Presumably looking to create an atmosphere Andersen has lit the show with antique lamps and positioned theatrical bric-a-brac (suitcases, leather bound books, horns) around the gallery space. Unfortunately, this attempt to place the artworks within an environment evocative of the overarching narrative fails, leaving an impression of an antique shop that just happens to have some art on the walls.

Although the show is not entirely successful in its execution, it is testament to the importance of ARIs like Nine Lives. Few other venues would encourage such experimental installations as attempted in Three Winter Coats, or offer so much support to what is at the end of the day a drawing exhibition. Galleries like this provide space for emerging practitioners to test the waters for their ideas. And if shoddy, distracting lighting is the price one has to pay to see some of the most intricate and passionate drawings I have seen on show recently, then so be it.

Lisa Bryan-Brown