MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
Ian Potter Sculpture Court
Pat Foster
and
Jen Berean
Unity and
Fragments
(a brief
interruption)
Opening Saturday 5 October 2013
Commissioned for the Ian Potter Sculpture Court, Unity and Fragments
(a brief interruption) by Pat Foster and Jen Berean considers our daily
negotiations with architecture and the imposition of art on public
spaces.
Referencing the architectural forms and materials common to public
furniture, Unity and Fragments (a brief interruption) continues the artists’
investigations into the hidden systems that make up the sites and
infrastructure that surround us. With a nod to Richard Serra’s ill-fated
public sculpture, Tilted Arc 1981, Foster and Berean’s work subtly impedes
movement through the courtyard suggesting the ability of art to act as a
type of interruption both physically and psychologically.
Hovering somewhere between completion and destruction, Unity and
Fragments (a brief interruption) appears to have been interrupted itself at
some point during its production. This tension between construction and
deconstruction freezes the work in time and space, somewhat challenging
assumptions of order and progress.
With a minimal touch, Unity and Fragments (a brief interruption) cuts
through the open space of the campus courtyard, taking form as an
unnecessary hand rail, stretching from the Museum entrance and jumping
across an existing picnic table to a tree at the perimeter of the courtyard.
Both the materials of urban design – concrete, safety glass, and steel – and
the systems of design that aim to control and guide behaviour, are utilised
and distorted in this work that posits form against function.
MUMA’s annual sculpture commission has been developed to establish new
opportunities for artists, and new models of practice, thinking and research
into public sculpture and architectural practice.
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
Pat Foster and Jen Berean have been working collaboratively since
2001. Employing a diverse and lateral array of media and processes, their
work unpicks the hidden systems that make up the sites and infrastructure
that surrounds us. Within such thinking, contemporary architecture is
deconstructed to such a degree that it is not solely concerned with the
making of functional and utilisable space, but crucially, the determination of
how, and by whom such space is used, and for what purpose. It is within
the juncture of physical environment and psychological effect that their
practice is primarily concerned and manifests within an art context.
They have been the recipients of several awards, including undertaking a
mentorship with Turner Prize winning artist Martin Boyce as part of the Jane
Scally Travelling Scholarship and most recently received the Martin Bequest
Award.
Recent exhibitions include: Parallel Collisions, Adelaide Biennial of Art,
Adelaide, 2012; Double Negatives, Centre for Contemporary Photography
and Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne 2011; ART1, ACCA Regional Tour;
NEW 09, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Their work
has been featured in various publications including frieze, Mousse Magazine,
Discipline and Art & Australia.
See also: patfosterandjenberean.com
Lunchtime Artforum
Date: Wednesday 9 October 2013
Time: 12.30 – 1.30pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre G1.04, Art & Design Building, Caulfield Campus
Free entry – no bookings
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Source image for Pat Foster and Jen Berean
Unity and Fragments (a brief interruption) 2013
courtesy of the artists