Exchange? [Meet = Meet Another + Another Meets Initial Other]
Cool Change x FORM
Feb 3rd – Feb 23rd 2024
The exhibition ‘Exchange? [Meet = One Meets Another + Another Meets Initial Other]’ featured works borrowed from Kipras Dubauskas, Marta Frėjutė, Anton Karyuk, Loora Kaubi, Joosep Kivimäe, Ieva Laskevičiūtė, Anna Malicka, Ingrid Helena Pajo, Aistė Marija Stankevičiūtė. This project was presented care of; Sophie Durand in the context of Cool Change’s (an artist run initiative) ‘Out of Office’ takeover of FORM Gallery, in Perth, Western Australia.
Musing on the idea that travelling (noun) is the moment when one invents understanding [invokes] perception perceives a reality, classifies as a whole and fails to recognise that this potential is a mere fragment or perhaps even a fiction. Caught between the state of being a tourist and a local one can recognise that they are at the edge of knowing. The task is to ask at what point can one step beyond that or recognise that they can’t go further without accepting the experiences of others as truth. Within this relation or rather alongside these relations sit suggestions and speculations. With correspondence at play, reciprocation is actioned in the present tense. An introduction (noun) manifests in the moment before; it is a suggestion and a speculation of what is, what could be and what has been. The plausible and the propositional in dynamic movement. Shadows and echo but what shadows and echoes could be when they exist in the future tense.
This project emerged within the context of one of two residencies within Cool Change’s ‘Out-of-Office’ takeover of FORM Gallery (15 January – 25 February). Returning to Boorloo/Perth on a summer vacation from her new base in Vilnius Sophie travelled home with the exhibition works. In the larger tradition of artists travelling with small physical artworks in their luggage to aid the economic presentation of national or international art, all artworks have travelled with Sophie within an airline’s luggage limit. Some extra details were prepared in Perth with support of local artists.
Cool Change is an artist-run initiative based in Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia. Since their inception in 2018, Cool Change have hosted exhibitions, artist residencies, performances, workshops, and talks alongside a small shop. Volunteer-led and not-for-profit, our organisation is committed to presenting experimental and critically engaged artistic practice in a welcoming and accessible environment. From 15 January to 25 February 2024, Cool Change was ‘in residence’ at FORM Gallery. Anticipating the onslaught of heat and festival season burnout, Cool Change embraced this mutual out-of-office-ness with procrastination and time spent at the beach while presenting an exhibition, an artist residency, and a series of public programming events. Collectively titled ‘Out-of-Office’, the artist-run initiative will use these activities to consider the increasingly blurred boundaries of labour and leisure, moving between the HARDLY WORKING slacker aesthetics of the recent past and the WORKING HARD grind set of late-stage capitalism.
“FORM is an independent, non-profit cultural organisation established in 1968 that develops and advocates for excellence in creativity and artistic practice in Western Australia. FORM’s activities span high-level artist development and exhibitions, place-making and strategy, social and multicultural engagement, cultural infrastructure development, Aboriginal cultural maintenance, research, and advocacy. All of these activities are connected by the exploration of artistic excellence, whether through processes or outcomes. (From FORM’s Linkedin).
Photography: Sherrie Paddon
