Impermanent durations: On painting and time

Impermanent durations: On painting and time is an experimental exhibition by three artists who are also academic specialists in contemporary painting: Professor Beth Harland, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University, UK; Professor David Thomas, School of Art, RMIT University, Melbourne; and Ian Woo, Programme Leader, MA Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts.

The exhibition explores the pictorial and spatial qualities of painting. A site-specific installation and works in a range of media show how colour, matter, installation, painting and photography affect our interpretation of time and impermanence. Evoking time’s paces—still, slow, fast—the exhibition raises questions such as ‘How can time and space be pictorialised?’ ‘How do the size, shape and colour of forms influence the speed of looking?’ and ‘What is “slow time”?’

Research and discussions developed through the exhibition will be published in a special issue of the Journal of contemporary painting, a peer-reviewed publication focusing on expanded notions and current debates in contemporary painting.