David Noonan: Only when it’s cloudless
TarraWarra Museum of Art presented a major new exhibition, Only when it’s cloudless, by one of Australia’s most successful contemporary artists, David Noonan.
Haunting, uncanny and enigmatic, Only when it’s cloudless presented predominantly new works including a major new sculptural installation; the artist’s first 16mm film since 2001 with a score by the acclaimed Australian musician Warren Ellis; two major new tapestries; and several new collages on linen.
The exhibition also included significant loans from the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Ballarat, and private collections.
Curated by TarraWarra Director, Victoria Lynn, in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition is conceived as a single installation.
As a collagist, Noonan works with found images—ranging across dance, theatre, sub-cultures,abstract art and everyday scenes—holding themin refined tension. This is an art of juxtaposition, where one world can rub up against another, triggering memories and feelings within the viewer.
Noonan works in black and white, and the shades of grey in-between. The reduced palette furthers the enigmatic nature of his work. It also emphasises the archival quality of the images. As he comments, ‘The purely greyscale palette is a distilled aesthetic that serves to create a tonal continuity between the works.’
Only when it’s cloudless (the title of the major installation in the exhibition) is adapted from Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō. The 14th century Japanese Buddhist monk offers the observation that we should be more mindful of our present moment, and not look at the moon ‘only when it is cloudless’.
TarraWarra Museum of Art was the only venue for this exhibition.
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About David Noonan
Since completing his studies at the Ballarat School of Mines and the Victoria College of the Arts David Noonan has shown at some of the world’s most prestigious art venues, his work has attracted the attention of influential international curators and collectors, and he has also undertaken art residencies in Australia, England, Scotland, French West Indies and the US.
Noonan has had solo exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis. He has also been represented by/shown at commercial galleries including David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; Foxy Productions, New York; Modern Art, London; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.
His artwork has been in Biennials, Biennales and Triennials worldwide and he has shown his work in over 15 countries. Noonan’s work is held in international public collections, including: Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum, New York; Rhode Island School of Design, New York; MOMA, New York; MCA, Chicago; Museum of Art, Dallas; LACMA, Los Angeles; MAMCO, Switzerland; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; NGA, Canberra; AG NSW, Sydney; MCA, Sydney.
