B.

Monochromes is new work by French based ex-Christchurch artist Julia Morison. It is a work in a thousand parts. Ten materials are used in Monochromes - a hundred panels executed in each of the media including: glass, gold, silver, mercuric oxide, blood, pearl, excrement, in each set of a hundred are all slightly different in size. Therefore, no two panels clay, ash, and lead. The individual panels in each set of a hundred are all slightly different in size. Therefore, no two panels in the same material are the same size; any panel the same size will be of a different material. In this way, Monochromes becomes a project of repetition and difference.

Monochromes draws on a complex vocabulary of materials and their symbolism. Morison has derived this vocabulary from sources such as alchemy - the transformation of base elements into

Precious materials - and the mystical Jewish Kabbalah Morison assigns a meaning to the media she uses that relates to the concepts for creation and salvation.

Morison's works invite us to question the ways in which hierarchies are organised and the ways in which cultural values are constructed. In using the Kabbalah and alchemy as systems with which to organise and construct her works, Morison offers a metaphor for other systems, for other ways we might organise the world. A special feature of this body of work is that it is to be installed differently at each venue in which it is exhibited. To this end Julia Morison has designed an installation plan especially for the Annex. Her intention is that in the Annex, the floor space and the length of the building are utilised creating a play between sculpture, installation and painting.

('Monochromes', Bulletin, No.100, February/March 1996, p.3)

This exhibition was held at the McDougall Art Annex in the Arts Centre.