Falling off the floor

Background: This painting developed via a long-term research focus on ideas around being within unsettled conditions informed by feelings fluidity in our lives. The research investigates ideas of agency and passivity to reflect on how unstructured and unpredictable contexts may affect individual and collective psyches. This research is supported by Rebecca Fortnum and Elizabeth Fisher in their investigations into working via the merging of conscious and unconscious approaches to art practice (2013). The research is also informed by Boris Groys’ ideas that instability and uncanniness are central features of our times and that it is difficult to grasp our reality (2016).Significance: This painting poses the question that perhaps it’s not possible to devise an overarching view of our world and we should opt for a survival strategy of radical momentariness, where fragments can be experienced as a totalising instance. ‘Falling off the floor’, puts forward the idea that to be in the contemporary is to experience life as an accumulation of ubiquitous and peculiar moments. Rather than seeking structure within this tumult we could consider the chaotic moments as a sequence of equivalences where what matters is not a rationale, but rather, feeling our way forward. Contribution: The inaugural Sorrento Art Prize was selected by committee, with the prize awarded to Gareth Sansom, one of Australia’s most respected contemporary artists. The prize was judged by Alexander Grishin AM, FAHA, Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University.

创作背景：本作品源于长期以来对「身处动荡状态」相关理念的研究，该研究以我们生活中流动的情感体验为切入点。此项研究探讨了能动性与被动性的相关命题，旨在反思非结构化且不可预测的环境如何作用于个体与集体的精神世界。该研究得到丽贝卡·福特纳（Rebecca Fortnum）与伊丽莎白·费舍尔（Elizabeth Fisher）的支持，二人于2013年探索如何融合意识与无意识路径开展艺术创作实践。此外，鲍里斯·格罗伊斯（Boris Groys）的理论亦为该研究提供了启发：他认为不稳定与诡异感是我们所处时代的核心特征，且人们难以把握当下的现实（2016）。
作品意蕴：本画作提出了这样的设问：或许我们无法构建对世界的整体性认知，转而应选择秉持激进瞬时性的生存策略，将零散的瞬间整合为完整的整体。作品《从地板上坠落》（Falling off the floor）传递出如下理念：身处当代的我们，实则以无处不在且别具特质的时刻之累积体验生命。与其在这片喧嚣混沌中刻意寻求秩序，不如将混沌瞬间视作一系列等价片段——此时重要的并非理性逻辑，而是凭直觉摸索前行。
创作贡献：首届索伦托艺术奖（Sorrento Art Prize）由评审委员会遴选决出，最终奖项授予澳大利亚当代艺术界最受尊崇的艺术家之一加雷斯·桑森（Gareth Sansom）。该奖项的评审团成员包括澳大利亚国立大学荣休教授、澳大利亚勋章获得者（AM）及澳大利亚人文科学院院士（FAHA）亚历山大·格里申（Alexander Grishin）。