Common Garden, House to Studio, Fitzroy

BACKGROUND The exhibition examines contemporary art forms that explore the matrix, "triggering concepts of reproduction through notions of original and copy, sameness and difference, real and virtual" (Richards Harding, curator p. 3 catalogue essay). Traditional functions of the matrix in print practice are upturned in various ways by practitioners in this exhibition. All works, along with the catalogue essay, engage in a discursive dialogue that reactivates print-informed practice and places this practice as a key element of contemporary art practice. Artists selected are key Melbourne educators in Printmaking (Monash University, VCA as well as RMIT). CONTRIBUTION Specifically in my work the matrix is destroyed as I produce a print for Common Garden, challenging and contra to the conventional notion of the matrix being retained for further iterative replications. This is new work, not previously exhibited. SIGNIFICANCE The catalogue essay refers to art theorist Boris Groys' The Politics of Installation 2009 and Jean Baudrillard's Simulation and Simulacra 1981, key theoretical references that are part of the discourse of the selected contemporary practitioners in the exhibition. The catalogue specifically captures work in situ at RMIT Gallery, focusing on the specific architectural and thematic context of space, visual and conceptual relationships between works, and is an archival reference for new ways of delivering print media. The panel discussions, floor talks and catalogue add to the live and contentious debate occurring through the national print organization and journal Imprint.