Tagged: Ballard
Metropolis Experiment
Tracey Clement, ‘Metropolis Experiment,’ 2016-17, rusty steel, salt, laboratory glass, cotton, dimensions variable (max height 200cm). Photo T. Clement.
Metropolis Experiment, 2-17 June 2017 at AirSpace Projects, Marrickville.
Metropolis Experiment is part architectural model, part mad science: the whole city is a laboratory. But instead of shiny stainless and gleaming glassware in sterile white surrounds, we are presented with rusty tripods and salt crystals that creep up and over everything, corroding as they go. In Metropolis Experiment something has gone horribly wrong: it’s a ruined model city, a metaphor.
Metropolis Experiment is my third recent body of work which responds to the vivid prognostications of JG Ballard’s 1962 post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, The Drowned World. View the first here and the second here.
What links these works is the image of the ruined city, an image Ballard conjured so evocatively in The Drowned World.
Tracey Clement, ‘Metropolis Experiment,’ 2016-17, rusty steel, salt, laboratory glass, cotton, dimensions variable (max height 200cm). Photo T. Clement.
Thanks to its scale, Metropolis Experiment draws on the conceptual qualities of architectural models (as well as ruins) in order to make a point. As theorists are fond of pointing out, all ruins simultaneously embody both the present and the past.
Meanwhile, architectural models are inherently aspirational. They embody potential, physically manifested, but not quite realised. They represent the future. As a ruined model city (a combination of both) my artwork adds a third temporal stream: the future already devastated.
Metropolis Experiment is a premonition, a warning.
Metropolis Experiment II
Tracey Clement, ‘Metropolis Experiment II,’ 2016, laboratory glass, salt, rust, dimensions variable (max height 100cm).
Metropolis Experiment II is actually part of a larger work, Metropolis Experiment, which will be shown at AirSpace Projects 2-17 June 2017.
This sculpture is the unholy love child of an architectural model and a chemistry trial gone horribly wrong: it’s a ruined model city, a metaphor.
Metropolis Experiment is part of my third recent body of work in my Mapping The Drowned World project which responds to the vivid prognostications of JG Ballard’s 1962 post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, The Drowned World.
It is also my third model city. The previous two are: Post-Premonitionism 2 and Plastic City.
Mapping The Drowned World installation
Tracey Clement with Post-Premonitionism 2 in Mapping The Drowned World, October 2015.
Installation shots from Mapping The Drowned World. Six artists responded to JG Ballard’s novel, The Drowned World
Exhibiting artists: Roy Ananda, Jon Cattapan, Tracey Clement, Kate Mitchell, Janet Tavener and Gosia Wlodarczak
Mapping The Drowned World
Coordinated by Tracey Clement
8-31 October 2015
SCA Galleries
READ the ‘Mapping The Drowned World’ catalogue on ISSUU.
Post-Premonitionism 2: work in progress videos
Post-Premonitionism 2 is part of my broader Mapping The Drowned World project in which I respond to the vivid prognostications in JG Ballard’s novel, The Drowned World.
READ the catalogue for Mapping The Drowned World, the group exhibition I coordinated for SCA Galleries, 8-31 October 2015.
Each of the salt cones in Post-Premonitionism 2 takes about 3 months to construct from start to finish.
Tracey Clement, ‘Post-Premonitionism 2,’ work in progress, 18 Feb 2015.
The first step is to make a cone from a flat sheet of fabric.
Tracey Clement, ‘Post-Premonitionism 2,’ work in progress, 18 July – 27 Sept 2015.
The cones are then strung up, the steel structures are stitched in and the whole thing is soaked with super-saturated salt solution.
This timelapse was shot without a tripod so things move around wildly. This version is all about the buckets!
Tracey Clement, ‘Post-Premonitionism 2,’ work in progress, 18 July – 27 Sept 2015.
This version is slightly steadier and concentrates on watching the rust develop.
Tracey Clement, ‘Post-Premonitionism 2,’ 2015, salt, rusty steel, cotton, dimensions variable, 36 units, height 80-190cm ea. Courtesy: the artist. Installed over 2 days, 3-4 October 2015.
125+ kilograms of salt crystals were added to the sculpture in this installation.
Click HERE for more info and more work in progress stills.
READ the catalogue for Mapping The Drowned World, the group exhibition I coordinated for SCA Galleries, 8-31 October 2015.
Drowned World: Petermann Star Projection
This map is part of my broader PhD project called Mapping The Drowned World, which has included a group exhibition of the same name and a sculptural installation, Post-Premonitionism 2.
Post-Premonitionism 2 installation video
Tracey Clement, ‘Post-Premonitionism 2,’ 2015, salt, rusty steel, cotton, dimensions variable, 36 units, height 80-190cm ea. Courtesy: the artist. Installed over 2 days, 3-4 October 2015.
WATCH Tracey Clement install her work, Post Premonitionism 2 for Mapping The Drowned World.
Tracey Clement: artist and writer 