Jade Williamson
Ruth McConchie’s installation The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk is enveloped by the dark, painted walls of Metro Arts’ second gallery space. Light emitted by a series of reading lamps permeates this dimness, their golden glow revealing a complex and curious arrangement of mundane objects. Swollen ballpoint pens are wedged upright in the cracks between the gallery’s wooden floorboards. Two rectangular light boxes also share this space and bleach any objects within range of their fluorescent radiance; reflective metal bowls, resting on one light box, appear shapeless in its white light. The purity of this light contrasts with the griminess of the bath tubs positioned alongside. Soap scum and dirt stain the tubs, which show signs of rust. Triangular forms are also repeated throughout the arrangement. Oblique fabric pyramids stand erect on a secondary light box. Architectural drawing boards cut into trilateral forms are adjusted to varying heights and black Velcro tape erratically zigzags its way through the space. The central motif of the installation is a suspended network of timber laths that have been screwed together to form an irregular design that appears to defy gravity. This illusion contrasts with the electrical cords and tape visible elsewhere in the space, which permit the viewer to realise the technical workings of the installation.
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
The artist suggests that the work experiments with the potential of the installation to immerse or dissolve the viewer in its complex order1. Jean Baudrillard wrote ‘the pure object, devoid of any function or completely abstracted from its use, takes on a strictly subjective status: it becomes part of a collection’2. Certainly, the objects assembled by McConchie have been abstracted from their function. The now ‘pure’ objects together form a system, a constructed totality that is removed from the external world. Within this system, each object refers to the other only inasmuch as they refer to the underlying artistic schema of the collection. This produces an equalising effect where each element is valid and necessary.
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
An interesting tension in the work is generated from the apparent impossibility to define what binds these objects together. The nonsensical title of the work reflects this difficulty. The arrangement appears to be irrational and exist in a state of inherent disorder, yet meticulously planned, as if a defined process or set of criteria underpinned its creation. The work challenges the viewer by not (quite) allowing them to take refuge in an identifiable synchronicity. As the viewer searches for underlying rhythms or sequences within the work, and begins to identify meaningful relations between various parts of the work, they swiftly diffract. The work remains elusive and unclassifiable. This prevents the viewer from classifying and ‘making sense’ of what they see in ordinary terms and renders the work indefinable.
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
The proposition that the installation explores the potential to immerse or dissolve the viewer presents an interesting quandary. It seems that McConchie’s experimental work both immerses and dissolves the viewer. But how can these two conflicting possibilities both exist? The viewer is dissolved by the work because they exist outside of the collection. For the objects to be ‘pure’ and freed from their functional constraints, they must exist outside of the world of the viewer. Yet, for the viewer to perceive the subjective status of the object, they are automatically subsumed within the complex order of the collection. To perceive the objects as abstracted from their function the viewer must do so within the bounds, or rules, of the collection. Accordingly, the viewer is immersed by the work because by definition the installation is a comprehensive totality. As this paradox unfolds, it becomes apparent that these two notions interconnect to the extent that they both cannot be true, and yet they both cannot be false. Similar to opposing terms like ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect’, both propositions must exist for either one to be possible.
Ruth McConchie, The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk, installation view, 2009 (photo: Artist).
The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk was presented at Metro Arts, Brisbane / August 22 – September 5 2009
Jade Williamson lives in Brisbane after recently returning from studying her final semester of Art History in the UK. She is currently working as a Curatorial Assistant at the Ipswich Art Gallery.
1 What’s on @ Metro Arts, www.metroarts.com.au (accessed August 2009)
2 Jean Baudrillard, 2005, The System of Objects, Verso: London and New York, p.92
