@misc{51b062beb84b499583a7131b66c41584,
title = "Keep your voice low and you can win any point",
author = "Helen Johnson",
note = "Four double sided paintings acrylic on canvas. 'Empire Play (verso and recto)' 280.05 x 214cm 'Or Else (verso and recto)' 280.05 x 214cm 'Stock (verso and recto)' 289.9 x 240.05cm 'McCubbin redux (verso and recto)' 289.9 x 240.05cm Johnson's work discussed in 'The 20 Best Booths at Art Basel', Artsy, 15 June 2016; 'At Art Basel, Restating the Obvious', Hyperallergic, 18 June 2016. 'Empire Play' (2016) subsequently exhibited in group exhibition 'Tarrawarra Museum of Art Biennial 2016: Endless Circulation', Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, Australia, 19 August 2016 to 6 November 2016. This exhibition reviewed in: '5th Tarra Warra Biennial', Frieze, 12 September 2016; 'Art and Ideas in Endless Circulation: TarraWarra Biennial 2016', Art Guide Australia, 31 August 2016; '{"}Endless Circulation,{"} TarraWarra Biennial 2016', Art Agenda, 9 September 2016. 'Keep your voice low and you can win any point{\textquoteright} includes paintings that import, re-situate and coax open figurative imagery derived from Australian archival sources: university theatre productions of the 1970s; stills from early 20th century Australian films that no longer exist; and prints and comics from the early 19th century. Already at a distance from what they represent, these sources are in turn re-translated into paintings. Integrating them into the loaded genre of painting serves as a means to further destabilise these representations, to encourage the possibility of new readings. Relationships of compositional privilege are disrupted by textural variation – for instance, a background is rendered in thick, grooved paint whilst the central figurative imagery is made of subtle washes, flat zones and imprinted textures. In turn these images can serve as a metaphor for the contested ground of the historical construct, as visual and material hierarchies compete to deregister one another. This approach does not result in declarative statements but in spaces for reflection, an unfixing of meanings. Contortions arising from material processes are embraced and encouraged, such that the {\textquoteleft}subject{\textquoteright} becomes a malleable, provisional entity. ; Art Basel ; Conference date: 16-06-2016 Through 19-06-2016",
year = "2016",
language = "English",
publisher = "Art Basel",
}