'Paul Caporn Works' – the title is a play on words. Yes he does work – and very hard at making the work of play, very serious.
Caporn’s materials for his latest creation are PVA foam and wood. PVA foam is used to create the flexible interlocking rubber matting used in children’s playgrounds as soft fall landing, and Caporn has cleverly crafted this material into a mid-sized facsimile of a vehicle used in the sawmilling industry for stripping the bark from logs (looking somewhat like an excavator with a long articulated arm ending in a pincer claw). In this instance the logs seem to have taken their revenge as the machine is raised from the ground by a log and impaled and crushed by another. Once the aggressor the machine, titled If a tree falls in the woods, is now under siege and forced into submission.
Caporn claims that although not trying to be moralistic his work does reference environmental and economic issues. Although also referencing play, Caporn’s artwork makes underlying cultural and social observations about the environmental impact on our forests for future generations – those who are at play now will have to deal with the very real consequences of their parents and older generations’ decisions.
As a compliment to this large Tonka truck style installation Caporn has created a selection of colourful abstract works using builder’s spirit level capsules and Perspex, transcending their material to become fascinating objects that reference the building industry and his own occupation of exhibition installer for public art galleries. In another section of the gallery he has reconstructed one of the gallery walls to house a screen into which he has projected the motion of seething water. There is a close connection between this work and the spirit levels hung nearby. Both capturing and refracting light, air and fluid.
Paul Caporn has recently had his 'rubber' vehicles very much in the public eye. He was the most recent recipient of the $15,000 Sculpture by the Sea first prize at Cottesloe Beach (February 2012), a participant in Remix at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (April-August 2011) and exhibited Haul Pack in the Murray St Mall as a TRANSART urban art project in July 2011. His enormous rubber crane, Slump, from his 2009 solo show with us was acquired by the Ipswich Regional Gallery in Queensland and AGWA acquired his rubber scissor lift (Insupportable) from the Remix exhibition. His acrylic ‘level’ artworks have recently been acquired by Artbank, the Kerry Stokes Collection and the Holmes a Court Collection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- TURNER GALLERIES | showcasing contemporary art
at 470 WILLIAM STREET NORTHBRIDGE WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6003 - TURNER GALLERIES HAS NOW CLOSED.
This website is an archived record of the exhibitions and artwork shown at the gallery. - Turner Galleries acknowledges the Whadjuk Nyoongar people as the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters where Turner Galleries is situated, and pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
- Website © 2000-2024 TURNER GALLERIES. All images are © the artists and are not to be used without permission.
- This is a millapede project.
