Singular Pleasures 1
This is the first of a series of columns I ran in one of subsections of The Age in the late 90s. Solveig Polk , The Scream of the Marmot; Byron Yapp , Shrillness, both at Rectoscope Galleries, Fitzroy. Torquil Sprague , Recent Paintings; Leicester-Farglow 2, Malvern. In The Scream of the Marmot at Rectoscope Galleries, Solveig Polk throws down a clear challenge. This installation, featuring a small fur-covered cube as a narrative anchor, taunts the viewer with situations that are as abrupt as they are hirsute. Representing a thematic elaboration of the polemic stated in Choice/Condiments (1995), perceptions of the discourse between person and place are interrogated further, mediated through (and indeed by) a series of open cubicles. While functioning as both matrix and context for the fur cubes, their patina of gestural incisions suggests telephone boxes. If the notion of time rendered as electrical impulses, is being addressed here, I would have expected it to be execute...