Placeless Souvenir by Harley Ives adapts transmutations to video artworks

Harvey Ives showcases three different video artworks as part of his solo exhibition, Placeless Souvenir at Chalk Horse gallery in Sydney, Australia. Under his Immaterial Ornaments collection, the Sydney based visual artist presents three captivating video artworks of still images pulsing and shifting with faint industrial noise, playing in the background on an endless loop. The artworks use vivid, near neon colours mixed with the haunting, dark tones, creating a hypnotic contrast.

The exhibition note, written by psychoanalyst Dr. Andrew Geeves, an admirer and friend of Ives, delves into the emotion and psychology behind the artwork, pondering on the unconscious aspects of experiencing something. “Somewhere in my heart transmutations pique my interest. They are at the centre of my experience of Harley’s work, animated as it is by the dynamic interweaving of alchemy, play, paradox, rebirth, kitsch, transcendence, and irony, with a nod to the transcendent everyday, aberration as beauty, and a gently wry, distinctly Australian brand of humour,” says Geeves, expressing his interpretation of Ives’ art.

Ives’s pieces, named Immaterial Ornament 4, 6 and 7, use contemporary styles mixed with imagery. Consequently, they resemble the floral paintings from the 17th century, while still embodying the unique aesthetics that define the artist’s body of work. Ives elaborates on his work and his journey, “All my single channel video works have been concerned with translating the material and compositional concerns of painting into the moving image. In particular, I have explored how artefacts of moving image processes, both analogue and digital, can be registered and applied in analogous ways to the painterly gesture, especially in the context of traditional painting genres such as the flower still life.” Exploring the polarities in art by juxtaposing calm and disruptive elements, bright and subtle colours, and dramatic and soft imagery, Ives creates visually stimulating and hypnotic paintings that are weirdly chaotic and calm at the same time.

Ives’s art is created through a string of processes of converting digital video onto analogue, experimenting with different editing techniques, layering different types of film, and then converting these to digital videos. Being able to explore the intricacies of his craft by working with his hands, Ives has developed an intimate relationship with his art. By distorting and manipulating analogue videos, Ives creates a narrative that is emotive in a deeply subliminal and personal way.

The ‘Placeless Souvenir’ exhibition will remain on display till 12 March, 2022, at Chalk Horse gallery, Sydney, Australia.