Over a year ago I embarked upon the endless project of indexing the various series of books, papers and ephemera that have been both the material and the documentation of my practice across the past two decades. I developed a system that could be used to refer to any page or any item, made tentative first steps at indexing, delighted in deliberate reflection and accidental discovery – and soon began to experience INDEX-SYSTEM as a complex work in itself.

In March I will show a small selection of INDEX-SYSTEM objects and ephemera at Mailbox Art Space. A set of mailboxes presented at eye level in the foyer of art deco beauty 141 Flinders Lane, Mailbox supports artistic experimentation and the exhibition of new work. Exhibiting work in a formal space frames it anew, adding most commonly the whitespace of plinthed context for appreciating objects as individual pieces. Exhibiting work in a public space, within neatly crafted boxes once forming part of the postal system, frames it within a context of movement, of active distribution and distracted attention. This is how we comport ourselves towards our work.

I’m keen to know what you think.

 

 

INDEX-SYSTEM
2 March – 2 April 2016
Opening 6:00pm 3 March
Mailbox Art Space
141 Flinders Lane Melbourne

With critical response by Dr Ben Eltham

How can ideas for unrealised projects come back into current thinking? How is unresolved thinking reworked? How do we mark the discontinuous histories of our practice? index-system is an activity, an archive and a tool. For twenty years Esther Anatolitis has documented and critically reflected on her practice with rigour and care. index-system makes a work of that rigour, opening it to new reworkings both formal and accidental. This exhibition presents text and ephemera from index-system, inviting you to imagine the constructive disruption that recomposes your own work. The opening night performance will disrupt that rigour and care, reframing system as play.