An exhibition featuring new paintings and sculptural works by American artist Robert Platt will take place at the Burren College of Art Gallery from August 11 to September 24.
In his first exhibition in Ireland, Platt introduces viewers to a dynamic space exploring perspective, optics and the haptic as an agent in the formation of space and vision.
Platt invites a complex and elusive meditation on the dialectics of landscape and vision that are not always revealed at first sight. ‘Dazzle: Dissolution’ presents a dynamic confluence of architectural installation, performance, razzle-dazzle murals, paintings, moving image, and the mediated reality of optical filters.
Visitors will experience a hypnotizing multidimensional way of looking that is not singular but contextual and responsive. In the world of simulacra, simulation and virtuality, our obligation as artists is to remind and provide us with a touchstone of the real in our understanding of the perceived world. The theme of a disruptive camouflage site suggests a fluid and mutable arena for ideas and representation that are both hidden and revealed.
This strategy of hide and seek suggests play but at the same time alludes to the oppressive dynamics of the gaze and contemporary spectatorship. The multiple shifts between substance and virtuality bring viewers a new awareness of the physiological and phenomenological experience of seeing.
Platt’s diverse approach to creative practice explores a range of potential meanings of vision and landscape and the dialectics of visibility and invisibility, passage and obstruction that make up the enigmatic pleasures and meanings of our interaction in the built, natural and virtual environment.
Robert Platt received his MA in painting from The Royal College of Art (2001) and a PhD at Kyoto City University of Arts 2010. His interdisciplinary approaches to the expanded field of painting draw on cave exploration, optics and neuroaesthetics in his approach to forging pluralistic representations and perception of the built and natural environment. He currently lives and works in Michigan and teaches at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design (more: www.robert-platt.com).
“Dazzle: Dissolution” – Robert Platt Solo exhibition
When: August 11th – September 24th 2016
Where: The Burren College of Art Gallery, Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland.
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 11th 6-8pm – Live music by Adam McCartney 7:30pm.