Back Catalogue in Black and White
Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin
Dec, 2014
Coronet 28:05:77, 2013, Acylic on hessian with aluminium support bar, 180 x 515 x 55mDigital Galaxy, 2013, Acylic on hessian with aluminium support bar, 180 x 550 x 55mGALAXY, 2014, cylic on hessian with aluminium support bar, 180 x 574 x 55mEpisode, 2014, Acylic on hessian with aluminium support bar, 180 x 574 x 55mRadar, 2014, Acylic on paper with aluminium support bar, 150 x 305 x 55mA New Galaxy, 2014, Acylic on hessian with aluminium support bar, 180 x 574 x 55mDunedin School of Art GalleryThe term “Back Catalogue” refers to a list of all the works of a given artist, writer, musical group or publisher. Such a list usually highlights those items, which, especially in hindsight, have come to carry greater meaning through their subsequent influence over time. The purpose of a back catalogue is to maintain a register but common usage of the register is to pick out, to select, to gather and enumerate, to “put down and declare”. Hindsight involves memory, history and time. A hind sight is literally the rear sight of a firearm, used in combination with the fore sight for accurate aim. It is this lining up, selecting and reviewing, putting down and declaring that forms the Back Catalogue in Black and White.
Soltero’s practice deals with memory and history, with time, space and information. A study of specific works by particular artists is included within this scope. Therefore the content of Soltero’s work, which is underpinned by formative moments in his life, includes formative moments in the history of Modernist Painting while addressing particular contemporary contexts. The work is deliberately produced in a limited palette of black, white and grey, functioning as a discipline in the process of decision making and as a reference to light and space, presence and absence, time and information. Soltero’s work engages viewers in a temporal experience that may also refer to other events, to other spaces both real and conceptual.