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Lot Essay
"The artist makes works that move out into the world. When the work is relinquished, it should speak for itself. As its audience, you are on your own. You look at what the artist presents, you don't need a book. Your eye provides the evidence. If needs be, fight to understand it." (Artist's statement cited in D Edwards, Material as Landscape - Rosalie Gascoigne, Sydney, 1998, p. 8)
Both the material and aesthetic conception of Gascoigne's unique sculptural assemblages has always been sourced from the Australian landscape. However, an equally powerful influence on her work, and one which is particularly evident in the series of works to which 'Prescribed Text' belongs, is her strong love of language and literature. Thus works such as 'Prescribed Text' become sites upon which both the conflict and inter-dependency between visual and verbal texts are played out to spectacular effect.
'Prescribed Text' is an important, relatively early textual work, that both chronologically and artistically is situated between two of the most significant works in Gascoigne's oeuvre. 'Scrub Country' 1981 was the first major work by the artist that utilised what was to become her signature material of soft-drink crate wood. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1982, Gascoigne later recalled fearing repercussions from the soft drinks factory from which she had obtained her material, as posters of 'Scrub Country' were prominently displayed along the canals of Venice. The other major work which 'Prescribed Text' anticipates is 'Monaro' 1989, an immense work that is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth. Although 'Prescribed Text' and 'Monaro' are related both aesthetically and through their deployment of the gold and black signage that Gascoigne once referred to as "sun and shadow", 'Prescribed Text' is less fragmented, centering on the deconstruction of text rather than reflecting the peaceful Monaro landscape around Canberra.
While Gascoigne was always adamant that a sense of innate artistry, as opposed to theoretic awareness was the dominant force in her work, it was by no means a naive eye that constructed these works. While her works are not overtly referential, her knowledge of art history is certainly a discernible element. It has been noted that "Repetition, serial production and the use of the grid, characteristic of much modernist art of the 1960s, are central to her oeuvre." (Edwards, op.cit., p. 12)
Weathered drink crate wood was the material that Gascoigne utilised most extensively in her work. Retrieved from rubbish dumps or the discards yard at factories, some of the yellow and black Schweppes crates similar to those used in this work were even sourced from as far afield as Tasmania. These crates were then sliced up and re-created within grid formations, transmuting their utilitarian origins to become akin to the crossword puzzles of which Gascoigne was inordinately fond. Unlike a crossword puzzle however, the paradox of 'Prescribed Text' is that while the text is supplied, meaning remains elusive. Luring the viewer into a considered response to her work was always of paramount importance to Gascoigne. In 'Prescribed Text' it is this paradox and playful manipulation of both material and meaning that evokes the fascination that ultimately leads the viewer to a deeper engagement with the work.
Both the material and aesthetic conception of Gascoigne's unique sculptural assemblages has always been sourced from the Australian landscape. However, an equally powerful influence on her work, and one which is particularly evident in the series of works to which 'Prescribed Text' belongs, is her strong love of language and literature. Thus works such as 'Prescribed Text' become sites upon which both the conflict and inter-dependency between visual and verbal texts are played out to spectacular effect.
'Prescribed Text' is an important, relatively early textual work, that both chronologically and artistically is situated between two of the most significant works in Gascoigne's oeuvre. 'Scrub Country' 1981 was the first major work by the artist that utilised what was to become her signature material of soft-drink crate wood. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1982, Gascoigne later recalled fearing repercussions from the soft drinks factory from which she had obtained her material, as posters of 'Scrub Country' were prominently displayed along the canals of Venice. The other major work which 'Prescribed Text' anticipates is 'Monaro' 1989, an immense work that is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth. Although 'Prescribed Text' and 'Monaro' are related both aesthetically and through their deployment of the gold and black signage that Gascoigne once referred to as "sun and shadow", 'Prescribed Text' is less fragmented, centering on the deconstruction of text rather than reflecting the peaceful Monaro landscape around Canberra.
While Gascoigne was always adamant that a sense of innate artistry, as opposed to theoretic awareness was the dominant force in her work, it was by no means a naive eye that constructed these works. While her works are not overtly referential, her knowledge of art history is certainly a discernible element. It has been noted that "Repetition, serial production and the use of the grid, characteristic of much modernist art of the 1960s, are central to her oeuvre." (Edwards, op.cit., p. 12)
Weathered drink crate wood was the material that Gascoigne utilised most extensively in her work. Retrieved from rubbish dumps or the discards yard at factories, some of the yellow and black Schweppes crates similar to those used in this work were even sourced from as far afield as Tasmania. These crates were then sliced up and re-created within grid formations, transmuting their utilitarian origins to become akin to the crossword puzzles of which Gascoigne was inordinately fond. Unlike a crossword puzzle however, the paradox of 'Prescribed Text' is that while the text is supplied, meaning remains elusive. Luring the viewer into a considered response to her work was always of paramount importance to Gascoigne. In 'Prescribed Text' it is this paradox and playful manipulation of both material and meaning that evokes the fascination that ultimately leads the viewer to a deeper engagement with the work.