clues

gary deirmendjian selected works

work and practice

I've come to appreciate art as being simply a suggestive form of inarticulate communication. The body and range of my work may be considered to be bound more so by a certain underlying unity of intent born of the above world view, and less so by any conscious attempt at stylistic unity. Through the work I aim only to show, demonstrate and suggest, without consciously taking any moral or ethical position, and without implying or alluding to any remedy.

Aesthetically the work is concerned with creating a suggestive field of visual and physical experience. Typically born of some conceptual impulse, a given work is realised through a process of making towards a felt holistic tightness. I lean strongly towards scale, stillness, the out-of-door and the grounded. Material, formal and symbolic elements at play in any given work are quantifiably reduced and aim at common readability.

The consideration of “actuality” has become an important and vibrant element in the suggestive cloud of works put forward. By this I mean the actuality of “things” themselves holding substantial symbolic and suggestive power that may be harnessed to help consistently charge the potential of meanings in a work.

Here, “things” can be understood as a site, predetermined objects, lived patina, sheer physicality, materials, means and processes of making that can be combined to produce effective suggestion unhindered by language - perhaps pushed even towards the realms of awe.

What always proves exciting is the lure and resistance of an unknown next step, where a leap must be taken, whether intellectual, aesthetic, artistic, physical, material and/or procedural.

The body and range of work may be considered to be, more so supported by an underlying unity of intent - born of the above world view, and less so by any purposeful attempt at stylistic unity. Through the work I only aim to suggest. This I hope to do without taking any conscious moral or ethical position, and by the same token without attempting to provide any remedy.

Some works take several months - in some cases, years - to realise and tend to be physically demanding. I find any felt physicality in the making of works to be a source of satisfaction and a small measure of having put oneself into the work. The aftermath of any muscular discomfort and/or superficial cuts to the body attest in an important way to the body’s memory of the given episodic happening.

When the effort is more social - i.e. involving the skill and assistance of others - the making takes on a mastering flavour where one is at once engaged with an inner field of considerations but must also surface in order to externalise the work's direction.

	clues - world view, work, practice & other
	the source In essence, it is the tidal mechanisms of social conditioning that concern my work - influence, cementing of unquestioned attitudes and acceptance on mass. In turn the work finds inspiration in the ever enduring and conquering individual of any time and place, who has come to see beyond their assumed certainties. On a personal front there has been a lifelong struggle towards a firming appreciation of our oneness as a single species and the fact of our extreme smallness in the context of a vast, humming and indifferent universe. Our tiny momentary existence on a speck of dust set adrift in boundless space is clear. Ultimately it was the felt sublime of this world view and its acceptance that has pressured and continues to fuel my expression. Once a believer I now rest my faith in uncertainty.
	work and practice I've come to appreciate art as being simply a suggestive form of inarticulate communication. The body and range of my work may be considered to be bound more so by a certain underlying unity of intent born of the above world view, and less so by any conscious attempt at stylistic unity. Through the work I aim only to show, demonstrate and suggest, without consciously taking any moral or ethical position, and without implying or alluding to any remedy. Aesthetically the work is concerned with creating a suggestive field of visual and physical experience. Typically born of some conceptual impulse, a given work is realised through a process of making towards a felt holistic tightness. I lean strongly towards scale, stillness, the out-of-door and the grounded. Material, formal and symbolic elements at play in any given work are quantifiably reduced and aim at common readability. The consideration of “actuality” has become an important and vibrant element in the suggestive cloud of works put forward. By this I mean the actuality of “things” themselves holding substantial symbolic and suggestive power that may be harnessed to help consistently charge the potential of meanings in a work. Here, “things” can be understood as a site, predetermined objects, lived patina, sheer physicality, materials, means and processes of making that can be combined to produce effective suggestion unhindered by language - perhaps pushed even towards the realms of awe. What always proves exciting is the lure and resistance of an unknown next step, where a leap must be taken, whether intellectual, aesthetic, artistic, physical, material and/or procedural. The body and range of work may be considered to be, more so supported by an underlying unity of intent - born of the above world view, and less so by any purposeful attempt at stylistic unity. Through the work I only aim to suggest. This I hope to do without taking any conscious moral or ethical position, and by the same token without attempting to provide any remedy. Some works take several months - in some cases, years - to realise and tend to be physically demanding. I find any felt physicality in the making of works to be a source of satisfaction and a small measure of having put oneself into the work. The aftermath of any muscular discomfort and/or superficial cuts to the body attest in an important way to the body’s memory of the given episodic happening. When the effort is more social - i.e. involving the skill and assistance of others - the making takes on a mastering flavour where one is at once engaged with an inner field of considerations but must also surface in order to externalise the work's direction.
	shared space The major thrust of my practice in recent years has become to exist in shared space - by definition the public realm in its broadest meaning. I'm very interested in the notion of art in public, as opposed to public art, with the latter commonly understood as being a brief driven proposition. As an artist, it is for me essential to find means to connect directly with a broader public, one-to-one, free of any obligation, mediation or justification. This, preferably in more public and openly shared space.
	sandstone Sandstone is where it all began. It cast an aesthetic lure that at first encouraging a photographic response (Sydney Sandstone, Craftsmen House 2002 click), and soon after beckoning its direct carving. In time it began to carry significant metaphoric value. A sedimentary stone, it is perhaps the most humble and patient of materials, consisting simply of sand particles bound by a little clay, compacted over an enormous span of time. In any significant hunk the sedimentary processes would have taken several hundred thousand, if not millions, of years to form. It is virtually an hourglass on a massive scale - how does the measure of one’s life span compare in the face of time itself? Having ground traces of organic and mineral inclusions entrapped within its frozen layers, sandstone may also be read as a time capsule. It is absorbent, unable to be polished, and yet is broadly expressive, responding to the slightest change in moisture and light. In sandstone all time is presented at once, clearly indicating that in all that while the grains - as a kind - have remained unchanged. Any discernible aesthetic variation between stones - even those quarried from the same bedrock - are due mostly to the highly localised circumstantial happenings during sedimentation that eventually characterise the clay matrix. That is, the muddy condition that hardens over time and under pressure, slowly fixing the attitude of individual grains. Here sandstone serves as an efficient metaphor for the story of human existence. Each grain of sand, in a matrix of trillions, may be read as a single human life - at once unique and of its kind. One may readily picture their existence as one such grain of sand with its attitude held and its particular grouping characterised by a social context. The stones presented here are all produced from quarried blocks and were largely shaped manually, using controlled rock splitting techniques. The stones in a life (click) , lantern (click) and chasm (click) were purpose quarried - i.e. chosen and taken directly from the bedrock.
	muddy waters The mud used is actual and is extracted from the ground in the immediate vicinity of the work’s making. It is not sorted and at the time of mixing is littered with inclusions, such as twigs, leaves, seeds, stones and insects. Once a certain aesthetic tightness is achieved the mud is fixed through the use of chemical bonding agents that slowly replace the moisture content and harden in time. Mud and sandstone may in fact be regarded as being the different material states of one another - pre and post sedimentation. The use of mud helps render the truth of the body as I see it - just another piece of organic debris. The mud encased figures here may also be viewed as individual grains of sand held by the mud of their condition, that are yet to harden into rock.
	the square The square shape features strongly in my work and is normally implied rather than actual. It is perhaps the most austere of the Euclidian shapes and one least connected to nature. In comparison the idea of a circle, oval or triangle are readily derivable from nature - i.e. the shape of the sun, eggs, or mountains respectively. The square is therefore a purer abstraction of the human mind and in the work it has come to represent the impositions of a purely rational world view.