Re-Purpose

Re-Purpose takes its impetus from the early collages of Braque and Picasso (and later, from Robert Motherwell) which demonstrate the potential of a ?foreign? object to act as an artistic catalyst. The unprecedented use of pre-existing items in their collages entailed swatches of printed matter or textiles being incorporated (re-purposed) into a new context and given a new identity. It is apparent in retrospect that this use of ready-made items served to challenge the precedence and priority of the ?model? in earlier representational art. The works of these artists has laid a foundation for subsequent practice, where a work?s composition can no longer be dissociated from its subject matter. Re-Purpose presents a range of abstract objects and images by three generations of artists: Matt Arbuckle, Peter Atkins, Chris Carmody, Nicole Ellis, Robert Motherwell, Elizabeth Newman and Trish Roan. All of their works feature a foreign object, a third party, a ready-made pretext or a pre-existing form that generates a fresh outcome. Through incorporation or obliteration, addition or subtraction, the re-purposed template alters its identity and its function. Once the enemy, it has become the ally of invention. This exhibition has been curated by Tony Oates...