Floor Sanding Fantasies

Robert Wise

November 3 to December 2, 2006

Wise’s first solo exhibition since Dynaflow (AGGV) in 2003, and his second with Deluge. Wise is known for his sophisticated, often interactive kinetic sculptures, which are always a mechanical testament to his background as a visionary engineer. He is also known for his public art commissions, most recently and notably for the Victoria International Airport.

In Floor Sanding Fantasies, Wise takes on, takes apart and cross-wires the visual semiotics of perception and consciousness. Viewers are coaxed into a gentle but undeniable recognition of their own complex cognitive functions as they interact with the work. The majority of the pieces in the exhibition—Gödel-Gödel, Lacuna and Blink—issue ongoing challenges to the theoretical primacy of man and machine, simultaneously demanding technology serve our needs while tacitly acknowledging our concession to its limitations and demands. Wise ultimately puts these privileged conundrums in perspective with Ratgnaw, the bronzed remains of a potato consumed over time by an ambitious rodent, designed to be handled by viewers; the “haptic shock” of its weight a reminder of the rat’s struggle.

The artistic practice of sculptor Robert Wise comprises gallery works, unsanctioned street interventions and public art, and often underscores our uneasy relationship with modern technology. His work attempts to narrow the gap between the act of being and the task of being; using approaches that range from the oblique to the obvious: often employing humour and bathos to that end.