Glenn Locklee has written a lovely positive review of Anie Nheu and Jan Fieldsend’s exhibition Playbox: sixtoeight

Playbox continues from Thursday 7 August to Saturday 9 August and again from 14 to 16 August, 11.00am to 6.00pm Thursday/Friday and to 5.00pm Saturday.

Anie Nheu, Problem Child, 2014. Acrylic paint on wire mesh. Photo credit: AirSpace Projects.

Jan Fieldsend, Quick Sketch, Swan, 2014. Paoers – carbon, crepe, found japanese woodblock. Photo credit: AirSpace Projects.

And just in case you want to know what it’s all about:

Sydney artists Anie Nheu and Jan Fieldsend work independently then collaboratively to bring together a collection of unlikely objects and materials to stunning effect. While the title Playbox holds childhood associations, this exhibition delves into adult considerations of bodies, emotions, memories and inter-cultural space. Seductive hand painted and drawn surfaces are juxtaposed against industrial and manufactured materials that carry signifiers of culture, place and history. The result is a sophisticated installation crafted with intense deliberation and intelligence.

Informed by the thoughts of the Japanese school of thought Mono-ha (Nheu) and the practice of Ikebana (Fieldsend), extensive time and attention has been paid to the arrangement of things to provide a multi-sensorial experience. Western art history has not been overlooked and references to Minimalism, the Pattern and Decoration Movement and Abstraction abound.

While there is a strong sense of play and collaboration in this installation, playmates Nheu and Fieldsend have left behind a sense of nostalgia, and an emotional residue that is unsettling but fascinating. Works titled Problem Child, Disassembled Monument for a Slow-Motion Dancer and The Tooth Fairy are all shaped and placed in such a way that that it leaves no doubt that this installation is not a consequence of child’s play.