Hanging by a Thread II by Jim Allen

Jim Allen Hanging by a Thread II

04 February - 07 March 2009
Preview Wednesday 04 February 6-8pm

Michael Lett is pleased to present Hanging by a Thread II, a new exhibition by Jim Allen.

Hanging by a Thread II consists of sculpture, two-dimensional photo-collages and video documentation of News, a performance first staged in 1976 under the title Newspaper at the Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide and later re-staged at the Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth in 2006.

For this re-enactment News was documented by two cameras – the first filmed the artist as he repeatedly read and screwed up a daily newspaper until it entirely disintegrated, and the second filmed the first cameraman, Peter Wareing, accompanied by a soundtrack of crumpling paper.

In the context of this exhibition, with collages featuring now-familiar images of pain and torture from the ongoing Middle-east conflict and symbolic iconography from ancient mythology, Allen’s performance and the manner of its documentation proves its longevity, constructing a complex analogy for the power of representation with all the responsiveness to immediate situations that he is renowned for.

Themes of human suffering are further extrapolated by Allen’s delicate sculptural constructions featuring a reddened gauze bandage, strands of hair and a used, stiff rag. Channeling both the political and material sensibility of Neo-concrete artists such as Lygia Clark, whose memory the original video work Hanging by a Thread is dedicated to, Allen’s installation melds specific and non-specific symbols of individual suffering and grief into a poetic account of political history versus individual history.

Instrumental in the development of post-object and performance-based art in Australasia, Jim Allen’s exhibition and educational history is extensive. During his tenure as Head of Sculpture and Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, from 1968-1976 Allen produced seminal exhibitions such as Small Worlds at Barry Lett Gallery (1969), Arena (1970) and the three-part performance Contact at the Auckland Art Gallery (1974).

Relocating to Australia in 1976 Allen was central in the development of the Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide and Founding Head of Sydney College of the Arts (1977-87). In 2000 Allen presented the video works Contact, Post Objective and Hanging by a Thread at Artspace, Auckland and in 2006 Allen re-staged his 1976 performance, Poetry For Chainsaws, at Michael Lett, Auckland, and the two-part installation O-AR at St Paul Street Gallery, AUT, Auckland.

The upcoming exhibition at Michael Lett will be accompanied by a new publication, Jim Allen: Poetry For Chainsaws & Hanging by a Thread II. This hardbound, 45 page, limited edition publication includes a major essay by Dr. Leonhard Emmerling in both English and German translations.

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