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Lionel Bawden's American debut at Frey Norris

Sculptural works that suggest interconnected realms of discovery and dark psychological states.

In his debut American exhibition at Frey Norris, San Francisco, Lionel Bawden explores themes of flux, transformation and repetition as preconditions to our experience of the physical world, essential to the construction of identity. Each work of art is an opportunity to reflect on one's preoccupations, while each also transmutes the momentary through familiar systems and materials. Bawden's core practice exploits hexagonal colored pencils as a sculptural material, reconfigured and carved into amorphous shapes, mining the material's rich qualities of color and geometry. These forms harness the metaphor of many possible drawings held in delicate suspension within the work, in a suspended state of articulation.

The artist's sculptural works also harness landscape as a stand-in for the body and locate one's inner world within a mythical and geographic underworld, suggesting interconnected realms of discovery and dark psychological states. Patterns oscillate as forms dissolve and seep into underground refuges.

Within The World of the Surface, Bawden takes inspiration from Jean Cocteau's film Orphee, employing the 'crossing of the mirror' as a state of transition between physical realms and regions within the human psyche. The mirror takes on multiple emblematic roles: as void, reflected/transmuted figure, and state of disappearance. This series of works, across two and three dimensions, engages the gallery space as a network of transition points between the world of the surface and interior realms.

Top: Lionel Bawden, <i>the reflection,</i> 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. Left form 11 x 8 x 5 in / right form 11 x 8 x 5 in. Photo by Craig Bender.<br />Above: Lionel Bawden, <i>underworlder,</i> 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. 11.5 x 8.5 x 10.5 in. Photo by Craig Bender. — Top: Lionel Bawden, *the reflection,* 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. Left form 11 x 8 x 5 in / right form 11 x 8 x 5 in. Photo by Craig Bender.
Above: Lionel Bawden, *underworlder,* 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. 11.5 x 8.5 x 10.5 in. Photo by Craig Bender.

Bawden's new forms also exploit pattern as a tool for deep focus, creating vortexes in space, portals by which one is transported through fascination. The world of the surface of these forms is a gateway to the interior. There is a dimensional shift as exterior pattern extends down the length of each shaft of color; the surface becomes the body of the work and two dimensions are extruded into three. The forms are placed on black Perspex, mirroring the works and creating a shadow world, visible within the dark mirrored surface of the shelves. This reflective play, within the installation, puts the forms under constant observation and creates another dimensional shift- each form and its enantiomorph, forever separated between realms. The reflected forms 'cross the mirror,' standing in for the figure, at once narcissus, mesmerized by his own reflection and Orpheus, slipped into the underworld in search of his lover. The pattern acts as a state of entrancement and a momentary transcendence of the world of the surface and the world of the interior.

Lionel Bawden, <i>jewel linking (dense field),</i> 2011. Coloured pencils, ink on paper. 30 x 22 in. Photo by Craig Bender. — Lionel Bawden, *jewel linking (dense field),* 2011. Coloured pencils, ink on paper. 30 x 22 in. Photo by Craig Bender.

The World of the Surface continues Bawden's fascination with oblique approaches to articulating aspects of the human condition. The series of drawings that sit alongside the three-dimensional works are similarly grounded in pattern, approaching drawing as a methodical knitting project, constructing networks of honeycomb cells. The act of drawing replicates the devotional, repeated gesture of crochet or knitting, fingers weaving a small dance, looping thread to create a play of pattern across a larger form. The visual appearance of the colorful cells directly references the ad hoc beauty of hand knitted rugs and patchwork quilts. Both craft practices are traditionally an act of devotion and a marker of passing time, where the object created holds within it visible evidence of the time it took to create. This dual role of pattern as a thing of beauty and as a marker of time refers back to the process of the artist's honeycomb pencil sculptures and Bawden's core theme of repetition as essential to and emblematic of the human condition.

Bawden's works harness landscape as a stand-in for the body and locate one's inner-world within a mythical and geographic underworld, suggesting interconnected realms of discovery and dark psychological states.

Lionel Bawden, <i>crossing over,</i> 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. Left form 11.25 x 5 x 2.75 in / right form 13.5 x 6 x 4.25 in. Photo by Craig Bender. — Lionel Bawden, *crossing over,* 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. Left form 11.25 x 5 x 2.75 in / right form 13.5 x 6 x 4.25 in. Photo by Craig Bender.

Lionel Bawden is an Australian artist working in sculpture, performance, drawing, installation and painting. He is a graduate of The Australian National University, School of Art 1997 and has been awarded residencies internationally including the Creative New Zealand Artist in Residence program at Dunedin Art Gallery, New Zealand 2003 and Art OMI residency, Omi International Arts Centre, New York (2009). Bawden was the winner of the prestigious Wynne Prize (2009) at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Bawden is co-director of Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney.

Lionel Bawden, <i>gate keeper (II),</i> 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. 11.5 x 9.25 x 4.25 in. Photo by Craig Bender. — Lionel Bawden, *gate keeper (II),* 2011. Coloured Staedtler pencils, epoxy, incralac on black Perspex shelves. 11.5 x 9.25 x 4.25 in. Photo by Craig Bender.

Lionel Bawden: The World of the Surface
On view through 26 November, 2011
Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern
161 Jessie Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94105

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Lionel Bawden's American debut at Frey Norris

Sculptural works that suggest interconnected realms of discovery and dark psychological states.

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