Temporary Dwellings

By Andrew Frost

It is a largely unacknowledged pleasure that Justin Trendall’s commercial gallery exhibitions come without catalogue essays.  Since Cottier did away with most of the inessential trimmings that fringe artist’s shows, Trendall’s works stands alone without the need of a justifying argument, a discursive reading or a contextualising comparison.  Ambiguity is the reward for your effort – never quite knowing what Trendall intends is half the pleasure of these cryptic and often beautiful pieces.

Temporary Dwellings continues Trendall’s work in prints and works on paper, in sculptures using Lego and in the classical and apparently illogical sprawl of interconnected lines in his embroidered prints. Sculptures such as The Library of Alexandria presents the viewer with the schematic suggestion of a classical structure, and the pillar form recurs in the embroidered works such as Metropolitan Instinct which matches the names of Sydney art people to the big historical columns of art history, theory and commerce.  The prints are equally inscrutable, but again the classical form haunts the composition, suggesting a aesthetic of calmness and contemplation.

Until March 1

Sarah Cottier Gallery, Paddington

Pic: Justin Trendall, The Library of Alexandria 2013. Lego & marine ply, 79 x 48 x 23cm.