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Tim Silver

(Australia 1974– )

Title
Untitled (object) (Cedar Timbermate Woodfiller)
Place of origin
Sydney → New South Wales → Australia
Year
2011-2012
Media category
Photograph
Materials used
archival pigment inkjet print
Edition
1/5 + 2 AP
Dimensions

80.0 x 204.0cm each frame:

a - photograph; 80 x 204cm

b - photograph; 80 x 204cm

c - photograph; 80 x 204cm

d - photograph; 80 x 204cm

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2012
Accession number
180.2012.a-d
Location
Not on display
Further information

'Untitled (object)' 2011-12 features the artist cast in the form of a classical nude. At first statuesque, the artist’s face and body seems calm and dusted with frost as if released from a cryogenic time capsule. The slow degradation of the figure is documented in a series of photographs. Cast in synthetic wood filler, a material conventionally used to conceal imperfections, the material has been manipulated to create this revealing self-portrait which transitions and decays quite rapidly after being cast.

The images are at once beautiful and haunting. Their apparent aging is visceral as we witness cracks and crevices emerging in their surfaces, and the body tilts forward under the burden of its own weight. The figure responds to exposure to the air and the passing of time – creasing and shrinking, overrun with fault lines, and slowly crumbling down to an abstract pile of rubble.

This work explores our relationship with antiquity, and the importance we afford the past. It is perhaps also significant that the figure of a contemporary artist is subjected to this process, a figure in constant dialogue with conceptions of the future and debts to the past. The positioning of the body and the ‘hoodie’ over its head and shoulders imbues the work with both a classical and a contemporary sensibility. The past exists here in the ruins of the future.

Bibliography (3)

‘Elastic Conceits’ by Christopher Allen, pg. 14-15., The Weekend Australian 31 Mar 2012-01 Apr 2012, 31 Mar 2012-01 Apr 2012, 14, 15. Review of Parallel Collisions: 12th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

‘Infinite possibilities’ by John McDonald, pg. 12-13., The Sydney Morning Herald 10 Mar 2012-11 Mar 2012, 10 Mar 2012-11 Mar 2012, 12, 13 (colour illus.). Review of Parallel Collisions: 12th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

‘Wandering between the lines’ by Dylan Rainforth, pg. 17., The Age 04 May 2012, 04 May 2012, 17. Review of Parallel Collisions: 12th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.