Kym Maxwell

A 3 week exhibition at C3 Artspace, running from 26th of January to 13th of February 2013

MARBLE RUN 2: The Materials are Listening

Kym Maxwell and Dirk Leuschner

C3 Gallery

Front Room

January 30th - February 17th, 2013

The second in the series of marble runs: Marble Run 2 the materials are ‘listening’ emphasizes each material’s unique language, the importance of adaptation and the freedom to test theories. The marble listens and responds to the materials en route aided by design and gravity. The expected interacts with the uncertain and serves as a metaphor for alternate realities and stages of growth. The work re-tells the story of an objects life as matter with inherent concerns of weight, volume and velocity sharing duel purposes that are functional and playful, pragmatic and aesthetic. The uncertain referencing a personal reflection on obstacles that aren’t envisaged in the path of the life, that we must ‘design’ in or around. Drawing attention to the spatial and scientific realities of this work the central narrative reflects concern for process and collaboration: Kym Maxwell and Dirk Leuschner create a dialogue about choice and constructivism. 

Referencing Robert Rauschenberg’s Combines, this work presents its own material limitations. A figurative motif, a portal from Minecraft (a teenagers virtual world) acts as protagonist on the table representing mental stratospheres of play that are not material. Likewise the use of a Minecraft soundtrack on the video intertwined with the natural sounds of the marble run references a gameplayers world utilising scientific laws and adapting these laws for personal means. You will hear animal sounds, music and explosion motivating a players’ mental state along with the hand eye coordination that stimulates their senses.

A Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach highlights process, interdisciplinary actions and reflection central to the transformation of knowledge. The definition of knowledge here is one where there is an opportunity for multiplayers, and multiple perspectives contributing to a work of knowledge. In this case the Marble Run is a crossing of boundaries of disciplines in an attempt to 'be together', intertwining different theories, practices and personal knowledge of science. In this case the tension of physics, the language of objects and collaborative processes are represented. As Magdalena Tescani states, ‘...with our intelligence we perform a sense of wonder at things of the world, we present a capacity to be amazed that we are capable of observing, seeing and knowing something more fully. The art of marvelling(sic) is not passive...’

Text: Kym Maxwell and Sarah Daly

Marble Run 

Materials

hardwood                                     recycled wood

pine                                                 toy wooden blocks

rubber ball                                  hand ball

metal ball                                     fabric

Indian wool                                  Indian cotton

postcard from Italy                   crystal glass

seaweed from Gippsland       Lego wheels

branches                                       chrysanthum leaves

toy ladder                                      holy powder

twigs                                                clear plastic tubing

funnel                                              xylophone

gin                                                     embroidery hoop

fabric tube                                     balloons

glass                                                 sequence

glitter decoration                        'Daisies and Crystals' documentation book

hammer                                           wire

pulley wheel                                  cactus in pot spray painted gold 

abandoned nest                          origami

weaving from Fiji                        driftwood from Philip Island

Gifts from Switzerland: postcards and drawings from Gerda Steiner

bracelet                                         dominoes   

cement                                          documentation from a Reggio Emilia school, taken in Italy 2012

mesh                                               body stocking

40,000 yr old fossil rejected from Brisbane Museum as it wasn't considered old enough

rocks from Abbotsford Convent and Mitchell River, Victoria