Review
SCIENCE BOY AND THE GOLDEN AGE
Hutch Hutchinson and Paul Robert
Runs until November 30
Stride Gallery
The basement of Stride Gallery is a dark, cave-like space. Tangled extension cords hang from the ceiling like overgrown vines and a small white canvas tent is set up at the far end of the room.
There is a long worktable covered with a plastic, polka-dot picnic cloth. It is weighed down by equipment of every description – cameras, lenses, screens, chunks of glass and a plastic skull with eyes that light up. Jars on shelves contain strange specimens – dozens of used asthma inhalers and what appears to be a child’s chemistry set. Curiously, a collection of men’s hats is carefully arranged on the back wall. The whole room is peppered with empty beer bottles, pizza boxes and take-out containers.
"One of the rules is you never have to clean anything up" says artist Hutch Hutchinson with a smirk.
Childhood treehouses, adolescent dorm rooms, art studios and scientific laboratories are the result of, and the catalyst for, Science Boy and the Golden Age. Brought together by curator Lissa Robinson, Hutchinson and fellow artist Paul Robert worked on site for almost two months. Emptying their garages and storage boxes, both artists contributed to the unique selection of objects in the gallery.
"At one point it became quite competitive," says Robinson.
Hutchinson spent his time performing experiments – using a scratched lens to project an image of the moon on one wall, or repairing old electronic devices. "It took three days just to make the skull’s eyes blink on and off," he says.
Upstairs, in the centre of the gallery floor, a tiny video monitor is mounted on a metal tube that can be rotated 360 degrees in either direction. The camera pans over pegboard, an overhead projector and an old stationary bicycle. It is a periscope that works in reverse, giving the viewer a glimpse into the mysterious place below.
Hutchinson’s 24-foot long colour photograph of the same room spans the length of one wall. It was made with a camera the artist constructed himself – the device rotates continuously, capturing one long image. From this unique perspective, the basement walls curve and undulate over and over again.
Hutchinson himself appears at many points throughout the picture, whether hunched over the table in concentration or hanging from a jerry-rigged network of ropes and pulleys from the ceiling. The artist also plays many different characters throughout the image – the prototypical geek in a short-sleeved shirt and thick glasses, a high school shop teacher and a postmodern hipster with bleached hair and a black leather jacket.
On the opposite wall, Robert’s piece resembles a piece of 1950s décor, incorporating a slick, space-age esthetic. An oddly shaped composition of unfinished wood is overlaid with a complex network of curved, intersecting white lines. Upon closer inspection, familiar elements emerge from the drawing – somehow the artist has drawn a simultaneous 360-degree view of the basement room. The image sits on a tilted axis and the wood base forms a grid of latitude and longitude. Notebooks full of sketches and calculations reflect Robert’s careful measurement of each object in the room in order to build the image. Gallery literature explains that the artist used an unusual mapping technique called "sinusoidal projection."
Throughout their time at the gallery the artists worked as a team, each with their own talents and responsibilities. Hutchinson’s experimentation was fearless, putting materials and ideas together to see what might happen. Robert, on the other hand, was the studious one, scrupulously recording all information with meticulous, detailed results.
There is an honest sense of exploration and discovery about this work, using everyday tools and equipment along with childlike curiosity and enthusiasm. Both artists also tackle complex subject matter, subverting traditional representations of space and time. |
