the art life

"An exhibition is formed by things in space and time. An Index of Kindness is more like a chamber work. It is allegorical, baroque and it relies of references crossing. By collaging a series of moving images of a violinist who follows the illogical traces of horses on a race track the artist is able to examine the nature and materiality of the musicians technique and what is instrumentation. It is the sound of emotions that turn the air of breath and the aerial into arias. An artists-book pages turn the theatrical idea of the state of Silence into flags – and into 144 pages of performance texts."




"Stuart Fleming draws on different sources for his images. From a slide of cells under a microscope, to topographical mapping and the breakdown of colour through tele-visual media. Through repetitive mark making, Fleming's images evolve like organisms. His painterly pre-set formulas are akin to cellular division."



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You are invited to the opening of the Post Graduate Degree Show at SCA where I will be presenting some works for the completion of my Masters of Visual Arts degree. I will be presenting The Contemporary Art Bench, two Bad in the Bathroom tile works and collected works on paper.

These works reflect a long process of studio and theoretical research undertaken since 2005, culminating in an approach to art making that exists between speculative and functionalist modes of thought as sites of production. In the process of developing my Masters dissertation, I have identified a value in art production that is located not only within its potential as a tradeable commodity but more importantly in its aspirational potential to become that which it is not. In other words I have developed a value system in regards to my own art practice where art production serves primarily to continue to generate questions that make art production necessary. This value system contrasts to other systems of production where value is attributed to a consistent practical implementation, such as in industry – something I have come to think of as being inherently different from art making as it is grounded in a functionalist mode of thinking as a site of production.




I wish to locate my practice between speculative and functionalist modes of thought as it attempts to acknowledge that whilst the power of art production can be observed in its nature as a speculative mode of thought, a tension exists between it and functionalist modes of thought. This tension exists in so much as art making does not have the power of consistent and practical implementation in the same way as industry, but rather is dependant on its affectual nature in relation to the viewer.

My work addresses the area between these two modes of thinking and ways of making by attempting to exist between them. I hope that some of these issues addressed in my Masters dissertation can be observed and considered in the works presented this Tuesday night in the main foyer of SCA and that you will be able to join us for the opening night drinks.

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Reasons to be cheerful, 2008.
Acrylic on aluminium 30 x 37 cm
Alongside modernism's continued possibilities, van der Aa has long been drawn to the poetry of the found, a focus that provides one of two main streams in his work, the modestly titled Easy Pieces. Travelling by foot, within just a few kilometres of his apartment near l'Arc de Triomphe, he finds (on a good day) discarded bar stools, table tops or boxes - objects that to his trained eye are readymade modernist paintings (and are thoughtfully presented as such).

The process involves waiting, during which time the second series progresses. The paintings in the Reasons to be Cheerful series are made, not found. Regularly they involve the interrogation of the standard canvas rectangle, and often also of the 'white cube' gallery space.

Labels: press releases, student art

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 4:47 PM. |