Green and Black Reflection painting

BACKGROUND Green and Black Reflection, acquired through the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists was one that curator Emma Mayall, described as demonstrating the creative vigour and profound sensibilities of contemporary artists working in Australia today. "Reflecting on the often confounding nature of human existence and the complex cultural, artistic, social and political mores of our times, contemporary artists are at the vanguard of current thought and inquiry. In challenging and compelling ways... Works collide, repel, fuse and coalesce, revealing each artist's unique engagement with the prevailing issues of contemporary life and artistic practice. Poetic, experimental, enigmatic, and sometimes ordinary, each work resonates in unexpected ways for contemporary audiences". Thomas' research on reflections in a range of contexts investigates delay and variation in reading, place, time and circumstance both within, and of, the frame as well as beyond. This experience extends the pictorial traditions of colour, surface and scale into real space as it explores themes of temporality and the experience of space, and even art itself. CONTRIBUTION The exhibition placed this work in relationship to other examples of contemporary abstraction, revealing new readings, further exploring ideas of fleeting moments as nuances of seeing, time and space. The work is read by the viewer engaging with it in its space, Reflections enable disparate readings as one's angle of viewing changes. Thus the work's readings are fleeting and unique. This innovation means content is interpreted over time and space as a real time experience of reflection painting as an installation. Reflection puts the viewer 'in the picture' in a double sense, reflecting on time, place art, its meaning and one's role as observer. SIGNIFICANCE A floor talk discussed the role of colour and time in these works. Another Thomas work, Amid History2 was also acquired.

背景 《Green and Black Reflection》由维多利亚当代澳大利亚艺术家基金会（Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists）收藏，策展人Emma Mayall将其描述为展现了当今澳大利亚当代艺术家的创作活力与深刻感知力。“当代艺术家反思人类存在常有的令人困惑的本质，以及我们这个时代复杂的文化、艺术、社会与政治习俗，他们是当代思想与探索的先锋。以富有挑战性且引人入胜的方式……作品间碰撞、排斥、融合与凝聚，揭示每位艺术家对当代生活及艺术实践主流议题的独特参与。这些作品或诗意、或实验、或神秘，有时亦显平凡，每一件都以意想不到的方式与当代观众产生共鸣。”Thomas关于多语境下反射现象的研究，探讨了框架之内、框架本身及框架之外的阅读过程、空间、时间与情境中的延迟与变化。这一体验将色彩、表面与尺度的绘画传统延伸至真实空间，探索时间性、空间体验乃至艺术本身的主题。

贡献 该展览将这件作品与其他当代抽象艺术（contemporary abstraction）范例并置，揭示了新的解读视角，进一步探索了作为视觉细微差别的转瞬即逝的瞬间——即观看、时间与空间的微妙关系。观者在作品所处的空间中与之互动并解读作品；随着观看角度的变化，反射现象催生多元解读。因此，作品的解读是转瞬即逝且独一无二的。这一创新意味着内容需在时间与空间维度中被阐释，成为作为装置艺术（installation）的反射绘画（reflection painting）的实时体验。反射现象从双重意义上将观者“置于画面之中”：既反思时间、空间与艺术及其意义，也反思自身作为观察者的角色。

意义 一场现场讲座（floor talk）探讨了色彩与时间在这些作品中的作用。Thomas的另一件作品《Amid History2》也被收藏。