Title

Re-vision (melancholia).

Author

Alexander, George

Publication date

1988

Type

Exhibition catalogue essay

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Re-vision (melancholia).
by George Alexander

It can be argued that art is a form of knowledge, of experimental Knowledge. This involves an extension of present Knowledges, of older visionary traditions, with first-hand plastic accounts of a sensory investigation of nature, of crystals and colours, light effects, time relations and situations in space. Owen’s themes include astronomy, physics, physiology and design. For over a decade and a half, he has tried out microscopic and telescopic, infra-red and ultra-violet glimpses of consciousness.

These investigations have been accompanied by notes, sometimes cryptograms, odd jottings, diagrams on scraps. In a way these are not merely an adjunct to the work, they are the work. They form what he calls an ‘amusing physics’, the science of imaginary solutions, a shadow science based on exceptions.

© George Alexander, 1988.
Extract from Alexander, George, Robert Owen ‘Transits’, exhibition catalogue, Wagga Wagga: Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery, 1988.
 

Last Updated

13 Sep 2020