Nancy Whittaker, Tarrangower Times
As the Maldon in Winter 2022 Festival becomes ever colder, another intriguing exhibition will open at the EDGE Galleries on Saturday, 9 July, from 5pm -7pm.
The exhibition entitled Shroud is more than fascinating in itself. However, the opening will be further enhanced by performance artist and EDGE Galleries Director Simon Dow presenting a provocation, which is called ‘the conditioning’. It is a performance art piece and not necessarily dance as such, at 5.45pm. An event not to be missed! This will be followed by Bruce Esplin AM.
Sydney-based artist Gary Deirmendjian is showing his work at EDGE galleries in Maldon as part of his exhibition ‘Shroud’, which runs from 9 July –to 7 August.
Gary will exhibit sculpture, photographic images, installation and video work as he ‘takes over’ the entire EDGE gallery, including the Edge Below cellar space. Gary will also make copies of his monograph book ‘A Prevailing Sense of Disquiet’ available for purchase.
The works include: 15 sculptures ranging from plaster, resin, clay, ceramic, timber and mixed media. Five wall-mounted mixed media sculptural works. Eighteen photographs, ranging from large to small.
Two flatbed scans. Three video works. Plus installation.
Gary was born in Leninakan, Armenia and holds a Master of Fine Arts, Sculpture, a Bachelor of Engineering (Aeronautical) and is currently a lecturer in the Sculpture BA program and a Post Grad Supervisor across disciplines at the National Arts School in Sydney.
He has exhibited widely throughout Sydney, including site-specific sculptural and installation works, in addition to invitations to show work in Rome, Italy, Denmark, Berlin, Germany and Canberra.
(L-R): Gary Deirmendjian – embedded not – image by Gary Deirmendjian; It came at some cost – 39cmH x 37 x 30 / plaster and resin; With awareness he was clad – 8.5cm x 38 x 10 / mixed media. Photos courtesy Tarrangower Times
Gary has contributed to a number of books and publications and was a commissioned artist in 2020, where he showed a major moving image of public artwork.
In his Artist’s statement Gary has written, ‘… once a believer, I now rest my faith in uncertainty.
There’s been a lifelong personal struggle towards a firming appreciation of our oneness as a single species, and of our extreme smallness in the context of a vast, humming and indifferent universe.
The understanding that ours is a momentary existence on a speck of dust adrift in boundless space, has gained considerable density.
The tension between the felt sublime of this base truth and the many ways in which we are ushered away from knowing it fully is somehow the surge underlying the expression ”¦ in all its forms.
The core interest lies in the tidal mechanisms of social conditioning and one’s place in the given oceans of unquestioned attitudes and mass acceptance.
The expression in turn continues to find inspiration in the ever-enduring and conquering individuals of any time and place, who have pushed through and come to see beyond the assumed certainties”¦’
Gary’s work explores these issues through sculptural works, for example, the head titled ‘It came at some cost’, which is very like the death mask of bushrangers from the past.
Gary has used X to present a bleak three-dimensional image. It may cause you to wonder what the cost was exactly. Truth perchance?
His other work, ‘With awareness he was clad’, is even more intriguing in its depiction of an armless figure, which appears to be melting away as it stands before you. One wonders what the figure was aware of to become virtually disembodied.
Altogether the exhibition may cause you to think about our human existence in a new way, maybe with a sense of disquiet, or you may simply be inspired by the sheer skill and workmanship in the variety of media presented in the exhibition.
Either way, it is an exhibition not to be missed, so put it in your diary now as a – must-visit.
For further information: EDGE Galleries, 35-37 Main Street, Maldon. RSVP ASAP to 0400 337 301.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 8 July 2022.
