NICHOLAS JONES MINING THE ARCHIVE
29 OCTOBER - 22 NOVEMBER 2014
114 114Bendigo BendigoStreet StreetPrahran Prahran 3181 3181VIC VICAustralia Australia JOHN BUCKLEY GALLERY ++61 61339428 94288554 8554 gallery@johnbuckley.com.au gallery@johnbuckley.com.au gallery@johnbuckley.com.au www.johnbuckleygallery.com www.johnbuckleygallery.com www.johnbuckleygallery.com
114 Bendigo Street Prahran 3181 VIC Australia +61 3 9428 8554
JOHN BUCKLEY GALLERY
NICHOLAS JONES
MINING THE ARCHIVE 29 OCTOBER - 22 NOVEMBER 2014
8)
The Concise Atlas of the World,
date, dimensions, The Concise Atlas of the World, 2014, altered title, book, 380 x 283 x medium 33mm.photographer image Matthew Stanton
MINING THE ARCHIVE by Kent Wilson
Nicholas Jones is a surgeon of sorts, slicing open bodies to reveal a topography of language – literal and symbolic. Beautifully crisp works are presented as specimens of art, craft and museological artefact. Jones carves his way into the heart of books through portals spliced into their hard covers. As if with x-ray vision we are guided inside the layers of literary narratives and recorded data sets, incrementally descending inwardly in paginated topographical steppes. Jones frames the book object as island object, an isolated repository of data, an ecosystem of coded hieroglyphs. Where geography is formed by the seasonal layering of mineral deposits, the book is formed by the alternated layering of paged text. Where the erosive powers of wind and water carve out bays, headlands and beaches, the artistic urge carves out form with sharpened steel and intellectual decisiveness. Each book stands alone as an island unto itself, with the island of its subject matter rendered like a heart on its sleeve. So too with figurative elements. Silhouettes become relief as shadows carve out form. Memory’s absence takes shape, both filling a void and emptying history. Identity is stamped as a record of records, where features and character are built with slices of time.
Ideas around archaeological discovery leap to the fore as well. Where the uncovering of historical overlays send us back in time in teleological leaps and bounds, Jones carves us forward through the linear textual narrative. The creation of his islands and figurative elements is a negative casting of form where the reveal brings us forward to the progressive outcomes of the stories rather than backwards to their beginnings. This inversion drives a tension in the work that keeps it alive beyond its striking aesthetic appeal. The selection of the books – their physicality, the colour and materiality of the covers, their size and their spinal texts – all indicate a clearly articulated intent. There is a precision in the work that pivots on the nature of the process, the incredibly dexterous cutting involved in the act of modifying, and extends outwardly in equal consideration to presentation in framing and curatorial design. The titles of the books inform the reading of the sculptures as well. In fact, text leaks its way into interpretation directly as you ascribe meaning to the words on the spine and the words opened to us within the pages of the books; and indirectly as you decipher the fragmented remnants of words revealed by the process of cutting. The fragments along the inner coastal walls of the incised island-forms are especially intriguing. Sentences extracted, phrases edited, words parted. Partially inked graphical inlays become quartz and granite cliff patterns to imaginary land formations. Subtle clues are etched as palm lines and character lines in the faces of ghosts. Nicholas Jones is a conjurer of the hidden world, where absence is form and the plateaus of time are shot through with relation. The books lining my bookshelves have never been the same since discovering his work and more importantly, my understanding of records and archives is forever expanded.
English / Greek Dictionary, 2014, altered book, 77 x 15 x 11mm. image Matthew Stanton
Travels in West Africa, 2012, altered book, 256 x 157 x 23mm. image Matthew Stanton
English / Italian Dictionary, 2014, altered book, 82 x 57 x 12mm. image Matthew Stanton
The Wisdom of India, 2013, altered book, 145 x 219 x 29cm. image Matthew Stanton
title, date, dimensions, medium photographer
title, date, dimensions, medium photographer
Life World Library: China, 2013, altered book, 279 x 214 x 15mm. image Matthew Stanton
Russian Chronicles, 2013, altered book, 288 x 231 x 41mm. image Matthew Stanton
The Glorious Years, 2014, altered book, 382 x 311 x 32mm. image Matthew Stanton
Handbook, 2013, altered book, 254 x 179 x 83mm. image Matthew Stanton
BIOGRAPHY Nicholas Jones was born in 1974 in the United Kingdom. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1997, Master of Fine Art at RMIT University in 2001 and a Graduate Diploma of Education at The University of Melbourne in 2003. Nicholas has held a number of solo exhibitions including, To The Islands, (Stockroom Gallery), Without Bias (Craft Victoria), The Garden of Forking Paths (Geelong Art Gallery), and taken part in many group exhibitions in Australia and North and South America, including The Libris Awards (Artspace Mackay), Democracy (Grahame Editions Gallery), Unfold, (45 Downstairs), Materials and Techniques, Paper, (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art), Novel Ideas, (Oakville Gallery, Ontario, Canada) and Make the Common Precious, (Centro Cultural Mapocho, Santiago, Chile). Nicholas Jones is represented by John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne. Jones’ work has been featured in a number of publications including Make the Common Precious (Craftsman House), Book Art (Gestalten), Where They Create (Frame) and Art Made from Books (Chronicle Books).
Jones’ work is represented in many public and private collections in Australia, including the State Library of Victoria, The State Library of Queensland, The University of Melbourne, Artspace Mackay and RMIT University. Nicholas was a recent Creative Fellow at the State Library of Victoria and has worked as Artist in Residence at Melbourne Boys Grammar School, Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Geelong Grammar School and The Woodleigh School. http://www.bibliopath.org/
NICHOLAS JONES: MINING THE ARCHIVE John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne: 29 October - 22 November © John Buckley Gallery, the artist, authors, designer and photographer. Essay: Kent Wilson Photography: Matthew Stanton Design: Anna Briers
114 Bendigo Street Prahran 3181 VIC Australia + 61 3 9428 8554 gallery@johnbuckley.com.au www.johnbuckleygallery.com
JOHN BUCKLEY GALLERY