Robyn Creagh

Shannon Lyons
Simon Pendal

Paper Mountain ARI

6 - 22 October 2017

MOMENTS

OF

PLACE
 An installation artist, an architect and
an urban situationist walk into a bar.

One orders a pint of De Certeau, one

a shot of LvS and the other a glass
of Debord. Each takes a sip. They are
planning an exhibition in a small gallery.
Working in their own traditions they want
to interrogate the nature of place.

Simon Pendal, Vessel (prototype column), 2017,

painted tasmanian oak dowel, 3 x 25mm dowels, 4.0m long.
Photographer: Callum Spurge.
Shannon Lyons, I used to spend so much time alone #3 (detail), 2017,
MDF and wall paint, 74 x 116 x 9mm.

The pint drinker says to the others: “We are the strategists
in this venture. My work will be difficult to find. My
audience will use many tactics in their attempts to
discover what I have done.”

The shot drinker says: “My audience will enter the space
that I will provide and they will know at once whether
they are in it or looking at it. Depending on their individual
histories in space I think that some will read the space
as an ellipse – thinking of the evolution of geometry
and of classicism, and others will focus on my three leaf
clover columns – recalling the columns of Alvar Aalto
and the social democracy they served. I’m not sure that
I am the strategist here. Maybe I’ve assembled a set of
tactical prompts.”

Simon Pendal, Vessel (1:50 process model), 2017, foamcore,

coloured paper, plastic dowel, 320 x 205 x 100mm.
Photographer: Callum Spurge.
Picking up the bottle of Debord and decanting some more of the contents into a
glass, the urban situationist says: “My strategy is to cover the floor with a grid of
white cards. That symbolises the abstract subdivisions that are the base of every
colonial settlement since ancient Greece. Those grids have been so subverted
by individual pursuits of desire that, for example, the once straight north-south
street of the Roman camp that is the origin of Alnwick in Northumberland today
inscribes an S-curve that obscures the view along its length. My tactic is to record
how visitors walking across these cards disturb them. I will look for emergent
patterns caused by the casual disruptions of the cards. I hope that visitors are not
too self-conscious about the art-value of the cards. I hope they walk across them
intent on finding the wall installations or entering the sixteen columns. If they are
too careful they will be strategists trying to make art!”

Robyn Creagh, They are myriad (prototype, detail), 2017,

approx 4400 cardboard postcard blanks, overall dimensions variable.
“Maybe,” mused the installation artist, taking a sip of
De Certeau, “my audience will be on the look out for
the dualities of ‘embodied and distributed’ forms. I will
be happy if when they find one of my small plates on
the walls, that they decide that every small plate in the
gallery was inserted by me. In this way I hope to inveigle
people into a Duchampian realisation about the wonder
of every part of our world.”

“Oh!”, interjected the architect, choking slightly on the

LvS, ”I think they will notice that we have carved this up
between the three nested scales of detail, architectural
space and urban process!”

“But,” said the situationist feeling a warm glow from the

Debord, “surely they will get it that we are dealing with
types AND original twists to type!”
 Robyn Creagh, They are myriad (prototype, detail), 2017,
approx 4400 cardboard postcard blanks,
overall dimensions variable.

They fell silent, looking at each other across their glasses.

After a long silence they said in unison, startling themselves
as they did: “You know, there is a tension between our
presumed personas and what each of us has done. All
the works are installations, all are architectural and all
can be read as commenting on the urban situation.”
Another long silence fell over the group. “Each of us in the
act of making our exhibit has implied an audience for that
exhibit,” said one of them. “And,” said another, “the white
gallery space both creates and limits our audience.” They
all sighed. That old chestnut, they thought. But we have
painted everything white. Except the floor. Which will start
off looking white. “I wonder whether the audience will
notice that we have created a tri-polar investigation into
Einstein’s ‘spacetime’. How each of us has found a way to
reveal a ‘standing-wave’ in that continuum.”
The barista offered them all a coffee. “I couldn’t help but
overhear your discussion,” she said. “I have observed
that drinking De Certeau gives rise to dualities, while
drinking LvS causes triple vision, and Debord braids
people up altogether!”

The installation artist, the architect and the urban

situationist protested together: “We are joined together
through the tensions between these positions! Our
audience will discover their own trails of precedents.
Some will be from far off horizons, some will be from
our shared Perth educations. Some will be entirely
circumstantial to the present locus. They don’t have to
know our histories!”

“Of course,” said the barista tactfully: “As Proust said,

‘spelling out your theoretical position is like keeping the
price tags on the furniture you buy for your home.’ Have
another drink for the road!”

And they did. This left them wondering where they were in
the never ending spiralling of Earth through this universe.

But that is another tale, and involves another bar.

Leon van Schaik AO (LvS)

Melbourne, 04.09.2017

Back cover ideogram

by Leon van Schaik.
Shannon Lyons, I used to spend so much time alone (working drawing), 2017,
pencil on paper, 210 x 297mm.

Dr Robyn Creagh explores the intersection of embodied mobility, built

environment design, and sense of place through applied research and creative
practice. Robyn is a lecturer in the School of Built Environment, Curtin University.

Dr Shannon Lyons attempts to visually unpack the complex relationships that

exist between artistic content and context in her multidisciplinary practice.
Shannon is currently based in Melbourne and is an Educator and Program
Coordinator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Dr Simon Pendal is founder of the architectural design and research-orientated

practice Simon Pendal Architect. He lectures within the Department of
Architecture at Curtin University, and curates a monthly newspaper column in the
West Australian that discusses architecture, landscape and urbanism. Simon’s
practice-based work, mostly small-scale residential commissions, is grounded in
the pursuit of ‘atmosphere’.
Acknowledgements

The exhibitors would like to thank Leon van Schaik

for his time and generosity in the preparation of the
catalogue essay.

Simon Pendal would like to thank Callum Spurge for

his assistance in the production of the exhibited work.

Thank you to the Paper Mountain team.

Paper Mountain is an artist run
initiative co-directed by:
Daniel O’Connor
Jenny Scott
Johnson Doan
The Operations Team:
Belinda Hermawan (Studio Manager)
Catherine Landro (Gallery Manager)
Demelza Rogers (Executive Assistant to the Board)
Jenn Garland (Gallery Project Manager)
Johnson Doan (General Manager)
Kelsey Cross (Front of House Manager)
Krista Tanuwibawa (Communications Manager)
Lucy Leech (Front of House Coordinator)
Mark Robertson (Graphic Designer)
Mark Wahlsten (Graphic Designer)
Matilda Chaney (Marketing Officer)
Melissa Mercer (Marketing Projects Assistant)
Naoto Hara (Photographer)
Ryan Suckling (Media Officer)
Steven James Finch (Community Engagement Officer)
Paper Mountain would like to thank their
magnificent Gallery Attendants:
Belinda Birchall, Ben Yaxley, Brooke Barker,
Brooke Jones, Carolina Arsenii, Claire Taylor,
Claudia Minutillo, Danyon Levi, Devan Job, Felicity
Eustance, Gabby Loo, Hollie Clarkson, Jack
Caddy, Jordanna Armstrong, Karoline Forsberg,
Keely Sheahan, Laura Margaret, Madeline Sarich,
Matthew Perrett, Natalie Blom, Nathan Tang
Nathan Viney, Phoebe Mulcahy, Shannon Fae,
Sharon White, Shauna Goh, Stephanie de biasi,
Stephanie Gilhooley, Teresa Watts
Catalogue design and cover photo
by Mark Robertson.
All images courtesy of the artists,
except where noted.
Paper Mountain is on Noongar land.

Upstairs, 267 William St, Northbridge

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