Infinite Beginnings

About

Metamorphosis and the experience of time are the subjects uniting the three contemporary artists in Austin / Desmond's major spring exhibition Infinite Beginnings. Tim Lewis, Julian Perry and Emma Stibbon each create work that explores changes of state and the passage of time. Time - as one of the work's dimensions (in Tim Lewis's kinetic sculptures); as a subject in its own right (in the paintings of Julian Perry); or as the unseen hand that shapes the landscape (in the graphic and printed works by Emma Stibbon). The exhibition will present a dialogue between three creative responses to the temporal. The exhibition's title is inspired by the Scottish Geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) who rejected the biblical flood as the origin of all rocks, in favour of an on-going process of generation: Infinite Beginnings. In nature the passage of time is often perceived of in terms of decay, however, the changes of state brought about over time can equally be perceived of as a series of new beginnings. Art can twist, examine, even reverse the normal experience of time. In the creative process, time becomes a component to be manipulated and observed from many angles. A painting is the product of many hours of activity yet becomes fixed in time at the moment of completion, whereas a piece of music or time based media only exists within the time parameters specified by the artist. An awareness of art's ability to address and play with concepts of time unites the three artists across their different disciplines.