Gary Poulton

Time is a mental construct, that we pass through on our way to understanding who we are. My work, in whatever form it takes, is simply a documentation of that journey.

."For the orthodox, such a book as Genesis could only be written on Vellum with a specified ink, in a state of awareness induced by ritual and sustained by special rules. This was enacted to ensure accuracy and longevity of the document itself. The functional aspects of being a scribe have now slid across to editors, dseigners and proof readers. Once the plate is right the print will be too. But to print the same text in dust? The scribal rules also have an effect on the scribe. This aspect is amplified in Poulton's version, made visible to the observer and even extended to the observer's role when in front of the work. Now that accuracy of the text is guaranteed by the plates, the printing process itself, in this case the use of dry powder subject to even the smallest deviations in proceedure or the smallest lapses in concentration, is given all the emphasis. Printed in this way, the 'Book of Genesis' becomes a vehicle for creation for the attention associated with the act, and the hubris as well"...

....." All art is a trace of the artist, but in permanent art, this trace becomes the artist. We speak of a Raphael or a Boullee. All installations are temporary too, regardless of their materiality. But in the case of Poulton's light grey print, the fact that it was unfixed and part of an architectural rather than pictorial space meant that it's presence as a trace of a temporary installation was secondary. Rather it pointed to the ritual of making, towards doing rather than keeping. In Poulton's map, this ritual, while not explicit, was there to know about. Apart from the care with which the dust had to be placed, each segment was printed on the overturned block used to print the previous segment, locking the sequence into a one-way flow. In Poulton's terrain, time is a vector, where there is no going back, where you can't, to paraphrase Herekleitos, step on to the same dune twice."

'Dust to Dust' Alex Selenitsch

Imprint,  (The Journal of Australian Contemporary Printmaking) Autumn 1995, Vol 30 , Number 1

The above extracts are from a three page article dealing with works that I installed in the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra 1993. This consisted of a 35sq metre print in unfixed powder and the Book of Genisis on aluminium plates in unfixed powder. These were supported by a 7 metre print on acetate, a 21 segment print on laminated sagami paper panels, 10 zinc plate engravings and a 6 block wood engraving.

Recent Exhibitions

2010

Digital Fringe
Melbourne

NSW Parliamentary Plein Air Photography Prize
‘Finalist’
Parliament House
Sydney

Moran Contemporary Photography Prize
‘Semi Finalist’
online until June 2011

2011

Hipstamatics

The Orange Dot Gallery

54 Tavistock Place

London

Download CV here