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Andrew McQualter
Two Projects
Het Wilde Weten
7th – 16th April, 2006

Open Wednesday to Saturday 13:00 – 18:00, or by appointment: telephone - 06 3848 3261

Andrew McQualter is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. His work is primarily concerned with the practice of drawing, a process through which he pursues an open, questioning and diverse investigation.

Following a three-month period as ‘guest artist’ with the artists’ organization Het Wilde Weten, he will present two projects in the project space.

Studies for the shape of government is a collaborative drawing project. Following an open call for participants, McQualter has produced a series of nine drawings that document the participants’ subjective knowledge of the system of government in the Netherlands. The process of making the works enabled the artist to explore recurrent themes in his practice, such as the visual representation of concepts and relationships, as well as conducting a kind of “consciousness raising” exercise with artists living and working in Rotterdam.

The presentation Two Projects at Het Wilde Weten, will also include documentation of two site specific wall drawings. These works have been executed in guest artist’s accommodation at Het Wilde Weten and at Hotel Mariakappel in Hoorn. Based on the artist’s observation of visitor behaviour in galleries and museums, both works depict an encounter between a museum visitor and an audio-visual display.

The wall paintings are intended as a gift to subsequent artists using the accommodation. Like many of McQualter’s site specific wall paintings, these works mix whimsy with seriousness – pointing out the absurd nature of everyday situations. However, beneath the humour, a moral seriousness is implied. These images create a feeling of antagonism between sites of production and sites of display - placing a situation that is public into artists’ intimate and private space. Like his collaborative project, these works reflect on the responsibility of artists as citizens, producers and participants in the dialogue around contemporary culture.

Labels: the netherlands

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