Theo Koning’s exhibition of new sculpture is inspired by being at the intersection of many spoken languages whilst in Basel in 2015, and thinking how this might translate into new visual forms.
Koning is a very well known and highly respected Perth artist who has been exhibiting since the early 1970s. His artworks can be found in numerous important public collections, including the Art Gallery of WA, Art Gallery of SA, National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, and many more.
For several years his found object based artworks have had much in common with the Japanese notion of wabi-sabi - finding a quiet beauty in imperfections, and accepting the natural cycle of birth, growth, death and decay. Koning collects objects with forms or finishes that appeal to him, methodically stores them until needed, and then creates unique assemblages from them.
In 2015 Koning was artist in residence, via the Artsource Basel Exchange Residency, at Atelier Christoph Merian Foundation Studio in Basel for six months. Whilst there he was exposed to many different spoken languages, and also to a soundscape installation and performance at the Electronics Institut HEK. He described how “fragments of sound, speech and noise from many sources collected and constructed together could take one on a vivid, visual journey." This started him thinking about the inherent, or innate, ‘languages’ that objects possess, and how combining objects creates new narratives, or a new ‘language’.
Koning realised “the found material or object can already contain so much identity that it is rendered difficult to transform and becomes 'the found object' existing within its own context and exhibiting its own language." However this meaning, or language, had the potential to be changed when placed with other objects. His challenge was to “subvert, convert, and reinvent the identity and language of the found material or object, without submitting to its presumed identity and language." Viewers will find that he has been extraordinarily successful.
All quotes from the artist’s exhibition statement, August 2016.
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