EXHIBITION ESSAYS & ARTICLES

Exhibition: Superradiant  2012  
Block Projects, Richmond

Where art and information collide, Ashley Crawford, Gallery press release, 2012

Just what is a visual artist supposed to do in a new world of bits and bytes, a world of information overload and pixelated pulsations?

Embrace it, of course.

That is most certainly the position taken by Janenne Eaton in her riveting, explosive new show at Block Projects; a show that swallows information overload whole and throws it back to the viewer in works that fluctuate from the boldly beautiful to the outrageously garish, from the borderline literal – in You have to make your own fun she playfully embraces the visual language of PAC-MAN, one of the earliest computer games – to the downright apocalyptic – in C23w – falls bright orange enamel paint pours across the canvas like some kind of Biblical torrent of fire via the molten silicon lava of overheated technology. Just what is a visual artist supposed to do in a new world of bits and bytes, a world of information over- load and pixelated pulsations?

Information and communications technology are but one slice of contemporary life that Eaton reinvents. Her ongoing interest in archaeology and both natural and man-made environs remains. Street art rears its head in the almost desperate spray-plea for AIR. Nature itself pops and crackles in Uncanny Val- ley – three seasons where the carbonized silhouettes of ferns and palms are illuminated by electrical explosions. In this visual feast Eaton twists the technologies of archaeology to explore the movements of peoples across time and space, and the residues of social, cultural and material adaptation.

Janenne Eaton’s practice incorporates painting, photography, installation and video. Her works have been exhibited extensively in museums, independent spaces and commercial galleries nationally and internationally since 1978. Eaton’s work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Holmes a Court Collection and the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.

-  Where art and information collide, Ashley Crawford, Gallery press release, 2012