11:00am to 4:00pm 16 Feb - 13 Mar, 2022
Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne VIC 3004
artist: Ben McKeown, Chaco Kato, Steven Rhall and Linda Tegg,
ARTIST STATEMENT
TITEL: Between the lines, among the everyday
Chaco Kato
Material: cotton threads, dried plants, small corner table and materials from my studio
2022
The installation 'between the lines, among the every day’ is a work in progress that I have been developing over the years. It explores my ongoing interest in 'line' and the ideas and form derived from the everyday.
The works in this installation first emerged from my daily morning walks, when I’d pick flowers from beside the walking track. I pressed the flowers, then turned them into small with sashiko stitching. These then sparked inspiration for the larger work, becoming the ideas I followed, or references for the colour and shape.
Creating lines with string, on either a small or large scale, is my favourite artistic form. Indeed what I am most excited about is seeing in-between the lines, called "gyo-kan' in Japanese. The term is usually used in literature, to understand the nuance and feelings that are not written in words. In an art context, between the lines is negative space; the space between the lines. It is an illusion, atmosphere, mistaken impression, imagination; like fog or a mirage. However, it is known that negative space makes a very powerful impact on human perception. Sometimes the space between seems much more true than does the actual image. Perhaps it is an unconscious longing to see something between the lines, and something that exists between the familiar experience of the everyday.
This installation work was created on-site through communication and negotiation with space and time. It is a process of the act of fully understanding and embracing the negative space – the ‘true’ space. There are many disadvantages in this way of working, but this 'temporality' is a crucial point in my practice. It creates opportunities for the work to manifest its own balance between uncontrollability and controllability. Uncontrollability, and unprovability, constitute the most significant and vital essence of my artwork.
I believe art is always the process itself, rather than the outcome or end product. Art practice exists in a state of constant encounters: encounters with new spatial situations, encounters with new social contexts and encounters with new materials and processes. Everything exists in a constant state of flux and lives in the form of impermanency. Art is the record of our everyday life itself.
To embed art in everyday life and habituate new ways of thinking can guide us in experiencing the world more fully. I hope my work openly embraces and questions of our everyday.
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