Specifications
Room for Love is made of a torn page from a Loveswept novel announcement invitation, acrylic paint of wood (tête-à-tête chair and plinths), pigmented wax on timber (floorpan demarcations), Loveswept edition, ink and lead pencil on paper (paperback novels). Components hand built by Gail Hastings in 1990. In 2000, work intermitted. In 2005, components re-made based on Hastings’ detailed construction drawings.
The work comprises six components
with an overall measurement of 80 x 300 x 300 cm.
Bibliography
Barnes Carolyn,
‘Dis-location’,
in Robert Owen (ed.),
Dis-location,
exhibition catalogue,
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
Melbourne
1990,
p.6.
Engberg Juliana,
‘Love Tokens’,
Lovers,
exhibition catalogue,
Heidi Museum of Modern Art,
Melbourne
1995.
McKenzie Robyn,
‘The Local Group: Store 5 1989–1993’,
Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects / Store 5 / 1st Floor,
exhibition catalogue,
Monash University Museum of Art,
Melbourne
2005,
pp.38–47.
McNamara Andrew,
‘Making space for the invisible architecture of the social’,
Sculptural Situations: Gail Hastings,
exhibition catalogue,
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art,
Perth
2008.
Excerpt
The effect is like walking into an abstract painting, except to say that one may also encounter text, specifically devised furniture or intricate floor plans that actively shape the space of the work. Hastings regards her works as ‘sculptural situation’ rather than as paintings or installations, or even sculptures. Rather than adhering to a pre-existing location, Hastings seeks to craft space — in particular, she seeks to craft an instersubjective space, a social space of conversation and communication. This is at once a remarkably fraught, ambitious and fascinating enterprise. It is also one reason why the experience of Hastings’ evocative situations is like confronting something vaguely familiar, yet weirdly opaque.
Hastings thinks of our intersubjective space as a kind of invisible architecture comprised of both intersecting and dissecting personal and public-social trajectories.
McNamara Andrew,
‘Making space for the invisible architecture of the social’,
Sculptural Situations: Gail Hastings,
exhibition catalogue,
Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
no.2.07,
2007.
Excerpt
Hastings seeks to craft space — in particular, she seeks to craft an inter-subjective space, a social space of conversation and communication. This is at once a remarkably fraught, ambitious and fascinating enterprise. It is also one reason why the experience of Hastings’s evocative situations is like confronting something vaguely familiar, yet weirdly opaque.
HoldingsGail Hastings’ studio
Room for Love is available for acquisition. Please enquire about viewing the artwork.
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