The 2001 Anne & Gordon Samstag
International Visual Arts Scholarships
| Fassih Keiso | Archie Moore | Rea | John Spiteri | Linda Marrinon | Paul White |
Artist: PAUL WHITE
Detour 1999
installation
variable dimensions
© the artist
Spin again/plastic reality 1999
detail of installation Detour
variable dimensions
© the artist
Paul White uses everyday materials in his sculptural installations. Some objects are purchased, but the majority are found. A bric-a-brac of society's detritus - old plastic toys, blankets, lino - the abandoned, leftover and waste are re-cycled in his work, with a strong formal aesthetic sense governing this reinvestment.
In Detour the choice of materials is the magneto firing the conceptual idea behind the work. A ladder with missing rungs stretches from floor to ceiling, a length of white pvc plumbing pipe sprouts a dangerous bouquet of electrical wiring, feeding bulbs made from the bodies of plastic toys, the synthetic colours emanating a noxious sickly glow. Nearby a striped road barrier is propped a-kilter. Reflecting on the construction of the individual within a conformist social system, the structures which attempt to corral, direct and monitor our progress (the ladders, the barriers, the lit ways) are rendered dysfunctional. With wires exposed, the sinister aspect of the circuitry or system is revealed: shoddy facture and questionable ends.
Robyn McKenzie
From her Samstag catalogue essay
Art and Research
| Paul White Born 1976, Parramatta, New South Wales |
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| 2001 | Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, USA |
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| 1997 | Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), University of Western Sydney - Nepean, Sydney | |
| 1996 | Bachelor of Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney - Nepean, Sydney |
| Fassih Keiso | Archie Moore | Rea | John Spiteri | Linda Marrinon | Paul White |