Artist: Trevor Richards
Work: ASK (2001)
Location: Kellerberrin, Western Australia
“Over the last three years the general direction of my work has been to make connections between late modernist painting, design and popular/mass culture.
The BYOG project has allowed for a commentary on the relationship between art and the every day, in the conception and production of objects. The common thread that links all the work in this project has been the use of four specific colours (dark blue, yellow, orange and olive green).
The Kellerberrin Project was based on a simple premise – to involve the local community in the making of the installation. Residents were invited to contribute objects of any shape, size and material. The limitation was that these objects were to be coloured one of four specific colours. Swatches of each colour were provided to schools, senior citizens and interested people.
A few weeks later these offerings were collected, sorted into like colours and assembled onto the walls of the gallery. Like colours were grouped to show differences and reveal the characteristics of each colour, the orangeness of orange, for example. The installation was intended to be like making monochrome paintings, with the colour carried by the material that the assembled objects are made of.
The colouring seems to have attracted certain types of objects. The yellow and orange displays have a predominately plastic, industrial, domestic quality, whilst the blue and green objects connect with the body - clothing, hats and bags. Shown as a mass against a wall, and separated from their usefulness and normal places they become vehicles of colour. However, viewed in isolation one can imagine each object's place in a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom or shed, and the use they might be put to.
Objects from my collection are also displayed in the same space. The Ironing Boards apply a minimalist painting approach to a domestic form. This also connects with the formal beauty of designer consumer goods, such as the Orange Set. BYOG Drapery refers to the former use of the building.
I enjoyed the spontaneity and surprises offered by this project. I am indebted to the community of Kellerberrin for providing most of the raw material for this work. In particular I would like to thank Mary Burns for her assistance in installing the show and Donna Dransfield and Pauline Scott from IASKA for their efforts in collecting objects.” Trevor Richards, 2001
