Cover image courtesy of Perimeter Editions.
Mass, plane, line, sphere, and cylinder—all of these abstractionist tropes make repeated appearance in Moved Objects, a new book of work by Georgia Hutchinson and Arini Byng which has been published by Perimeter Editions. These recognizable geometric volumes are carefully placed to point a finger out of the land of sculpture and back towards painting, all the while directing our gaze through the medium of photography.
Stylishly shot collections of pedestrian materials are set to colored puppet theatre-like environments of carefully selected backdrops. A piece if aluminum foil hangs impossibly suspended above what may once have been a solid brass see-saw, or rests casually on the top corner of an upright plane of plywood. Medium density recycled foam sits about listlessly in dumb chunks. Jaggedly fractured halves of a shaft of frosted glass lay hugging a hollow, crumpled volume of translucent black cellophane. A brightly painted crimson dowel leans in from outside the frame, mysteriously held from elsewhere as it touches down, becoming a ray of color that draws the eye through the composition.
The book appears to be the product of a very distinct and exacting vision. Hutchinson and Byng share an innate ability to design restricted environments in a way that highlights similarities and differences between objects that we may often take as mundane or unimportant. The shallow spaces are activated by a keen ability to compose relationships between the forms; amplifying a very sincere understanding of how textures, finishes, and colors relate and compliment one another.
Although Moved Objects is likely edited down to a number of images that fit together and are curated from a greater number of less successful attempts, my only regret in reading this book is that there is not more of it. I could look through at least two or three times this volume of work and never get tired of the images Byng and Hutchinson have put together. In the end, this is of course just a testament to the cunning these images encapsulate, leaving one selfishly wanting for more.
Reviewed by Matthew Hassell
