Island6 – Liu Dao

Andrew Frost

The Shanghai-based art group Island6 has anywhere between 6 and 22 members and includes painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, new media artists, software and digital imaging artists, dancers, writers, engineers and curators. Founded by French curator Thomas Charveriat in 2006, Island6 has a remarkably cohesive oeuvre and their most recent individual works combine animation via LED displays with painting and collage presented as framed wall works.  Island6’s work has a particular sense of humour too, not least in the titling of their exhibitions – Liu Dao translates as “island number 6”.

The animations are simple loops: in Changpao Hustle a pixelated red silhouette of a moving body moves from side to side, its gestures somewhere between dance and kung fu, while in Siren a black police car containing four versions of the same female cop are doing absurd “police” things – bellowing on a loudhailer, gesturing at traffic, looking suddenly left to right.  The pug in Same Old Trick is offered various treats – a hot dog on a fork – and then commanded to do a trick – yet the dog remains unmoved. It’s in this play between static and moving elements that the works achieve their mischievous aims – to entertain you, and then hold you.

Until December 21

Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney

http://exhibitions.connydietzscholdgallery.com

Pic: Island6, Same Old Trick, 2013. RGB LED display, one-way glass, teakwood frame, 103x103x9 cms.