ART :: Ben Barretto at Gallery A.S

Ben Barretto presents a more defined art object as opposed to the ephemeral performance, sound and installation practice he’s also known for.

Since returning from a self-initiated residency in Los Angeles, Barretto¬†employed a rudimentary hand-made loom with the aim to ‚Äúreference the fleeting nature of abstraction… by feeding them through a process of labour.‚Äù

Developed from small quickly laid down sketches, the composition of these weaves are then digitised to play with colour. This process, along with the gridded method of weaving, and the brilliance of the coloured ropes, make these textiles appear as broken screens or corrupted digital image data. Luminous as if light backed, the works appear as pixels, with the fields of colour create an extremely contemporary and technological subject from the medieval tradition of hand crafts.

Relying on materials available in building centres & hardware stores, Barretto instills the work with an interesting duality; the machismo & stout ruggedness of hard labour with the precision, sensitivity, earnestness & quietness of textile craft making.

Builders rope, bricklayers line, levelling & engineering twine, the artist quipped that he enjoyed sourcing the materials from providers that would be entirely miffed by their final use, noting the irony of using materials that were invariably the by-products rather than the focus.

Though Barretto has been using similar ideas & materials for most of a decade, continuing his ongoing exploration into recursion, repetition & cycles (particularly his motorised sculptures, looped sound work & assisted mechanical paintings) – these works have a firm deliberateness that include chance and randomness with conviction and thoroughness.
Friday 26th October — Saturday 10th November 2012 // wed- saturdays // 12pm – 6pm