Repeat again

Repeat | Again is an exhibition of exciting new works produced by emerging Australian artist Timothy Kendall Edser opening at Galerie ZERO Berlin, opening Saturday 2 July 2011. The exhibition brings together two series of works, Tension 16 which was a performance staged in Melbourne Australia in 2009 and Repeat | Again a series of watercolours created during his recent residency in Berlin 2010/2011. Edser’s explores the male form and examines society’s ideals of masculinity. Classical Greek and Roman sculpture, captured masculinity through portrayals of lean, muscular, chiselled bodies. In the 21st century, turning on the television or flicking through a magazine prove that even today, society still shares the similar ideals of masculinity as the ancients. Edser studies the poses of classical statues which convey strength, power and a god-like perfection, unattainable by the common man. Edser explores this concept by placing his body; its physicality flawed by society’s standards, into this sphere. Tension 16 puts Edser’s ‘flawed’ body under the spotlight and into the public arena. Edser challenges people ideals of what, and who, is masculine by turning the masculine gaze back onto its self. The basis of Repeat | Again stems from the feeling of awkwardness the artist feels in many of the environments he inhabits. Edser’s tall stature causes him to bump his head on doorways and light fixtures, stub his toes and difficulty in manoeuvring in small-enclosed spaces. The series of works become an exploration of Edser’s body testing his limits and movability. Edser’s art practice is based predominantly on a continuing series of performance installations entitled Tension. The Tension series centre themselves around the artist’s body, its mass and the way in which it interacts within the environment in which it is placed. Since graduating with First Class Honours in Fine Arts/Visual Arts, from Queensland University of Technology in 2002, Edser has undertaken performances in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and exhibited in Milan, Kuala Lumpur and now Berlin. This exhibition brings together two series of works, Tension 16 which was a performance staged in Melbourne Australia in 2009 and a series of watercolours created during his recent residency in Berlin 2010/2011. The Tension performance installation’s which make up one part of the exhibition are a continuing series that centres around the artist’s body, its mass and the way in which it interacts within the environment in which it is placed. The series of performances become a scientific discovery in which Edser tests the limits of the body and creates new hypotheses about movement and endurance. Tension 16 explores and challenges traditional ideals of Beauty and Masculine identity. Muscular, lean, chiseled bodies are classical archetypes that were prevalent in ancient Roman and Greek sculpture, leaving a legacy that still informs contemporary culture. It is into this sphere that Edser places his body, challenging people’s perceptions of masculinity through turning the masculine gaze back onto its self. The series of watercolours produced for Repeat | Again; like the Tension performance series, continue to test the limits of the body while creating diverse modes of visualizing movement. These new works focus on the movement of the body and are inspired by futurist imagery and early studies of movement by Muybridge. Over the past year Edser has had restricted movement of his left arm after recovering from reconstructive surgery of his shoulder. In this time his sense of movement became heightened through his body informing him of exactly what movements he could withstand. The watercolours have become a study into the movement of his extremities; both realistic and idealistic, and explore the notations of the space the body can inhabit. Whilst in reality the body is restricted to a particular level of mechanics, the watercolours explore new possibilities of movement and rotation and create a new series of shapes. Since graduating with First Class Honours in Fine Arts/Visual Arts, from Queensland University of Technology in 2002, Edser has undertaken performances in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and exhibited in Milan, Kuala Lumpur and now Berlin.