Roger Kemp (b. 1908, Australia – d. 1987)
Developing rhythm, 1960

NGV, Melbourne, Australia / Visited 19/12/2020

When I first encountered Kemp’s work, I was in awe, it was a discovery, a eureka-moment. Now I am reviewing my photos from that moment and struggle to remember what was so remarkable about it, my memory of euphoric sensation being stronger than my memory or articulated sensemaking. Of course, browsing the photos is not the same thing as engaging with the work in real life – with its scale and materiality etc. But nevertheless, it is quite interesting that in some encounters between the artwork and the viewer there is more art [experience] and in others – less so, even if the work and the viewer are the same. That causes me once again to wonder in what terms it would be most meaningful to frame any attempt to “genealogy” of my practice. Is it really about particular works or particular artists – or is it about those evasive encounters and meanings and sensations that they trigger… Building a genealogy upon the latter would radically reshuffle its construction, not least the chronological element of it…

My memory gradually returns. They key is in the title. Developing rhythm – a sonic reference to a visual presentation and it does make sense, it shows me how the visual can be approached in sonic terms, how their structures can overlap. It is also about the role of the title as such, how it helps me to find an entry point into the work without exhausting it. Now I do remember this little epiphany of varied graphical repetition as a form of musical progression and how I may want to try to combine my sonic and visual works on the basis of their internal structure rather than any other subject matter. At this point I am only considering my options there, more and more frequently noticing potential “musicality” in the visuals and vice versa, it remains to be seen if and when it leads to any complete works. In the meanwhile I do get artistic experiences when observing those potentials, so in a sense discussed above, the art is already happening for me even if I am not yet sharing it with anyone in any other form than this kind of note…