‘Howard Arkley: Fabricated Rooms 1997 and Sampling 1998’, Tolarno, Nov.-Dec.1998
‘Howard Arkley: Fabricated Rooms 1997 and Sampling 1998’, Tolarno Galleries, 121 Victoria Street, Fitzroy, 28 Nov.-24 Dec.1998
Returning to the strategies of Arkley’s late 1970s door-format shows, this exhibition transformed Tolarno into the combination of (i) a virtual display home (Fabricated Rooms, shown in the front gallery, still in its 1997 form as shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales: for installation photo, see 1997), and (ii) the simulacrum of a home furnishings show-room (‘Sampling’).
As his visual diaries show, Arkley had harboured the ambition to create such a show for many years, and carried it out here through reference to commercial displays, fabric shops, etc.[1]
Some of the ‘consoles’ displaying a selection of patterns were provided with ‘spare’ canvases, to enable purchasers to make their own changing display. Some pieces ‘sampled’ his own earlier patterns, including graffiti-like black sprayed line-work recalling his early 1980s style. Other works played on the optical principle of ‘Moiré’ patterning first explored in the ‘Pointillist Suburb’ series in 1994.[2]
A detailed check-list and good installation photos exist.
(photo: installation shot of ‘Sampling’, showing, on the floor, from left, nos.13, 7 and 8; and on the walls, from left, nos.3-6, 16, 14, 17-18 and 9-12 [Arkley archive])
1. Fabricated Rooms = original version of Fabricated Rooms (1997-99) (Corbett Lyon & Yueji Lyon Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Melbourne): see comments under 1997 above
2. Riteroom (1998) (now Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide)
4. Sampler: Contemporary (1998)
6. Sampler: Traditional (1998)
8. Swatch Trestle (1998) [3/M] (Corbett Lyon & Yueji Lyon Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Melbourne)
9. Matrix Console (1998) [3/M]
10. Filagree Console (1998) [3/M]
11. Lattice Console (1998) [3/M]
12. Curlicue Console (1998?) [3/M] (Coll.John Buckley, Melbourne)
13. Vermiculate Veneer (1998) [3/M]
14. Embossed Bracket (1998) [3/M] (Buxton Collection, Melbourne)
15. Ormulu Bracket (1998) [3/M] (Buxton Collection, Melbourne)
17. Scalloped Bracket 1998 [3/M]
18. Lacquered Bracket (1998) [3/M] (Buxton Collection, Melbourne)
19. Laminated Bracket 1998 [3/M]
[1] For detailed analyses, see Spray (rev.ed., 2001), 133-39, and Carnival 78-79; for further comments on Fabricated Rooms, see main entry (1997) and also 1999 (for the Venice installation).
[2] For ‘the Moiré effect’, see Carnival 73ff.