Inner Space: Outer Mind


The ubiquity of the arch is testament to its power and rich symbolism. Architecturally it embodies strength - a perfect balance of fluidity and solidity. Both harmonious and symmetrical. It is not surprising then that the arch or portal has been used as a symbol of protection and sanctuary in both secular and non-secular contexts around the world. As a doorway or passage the arch presents a duality. The semi-circle roof, a symbol of the divine, opens to the heavens, presenting protection and elevation. On either side, acting as a bridge between realms, are two vertical pillars supporting the roof that represent foundation and a connection to the earth. In Greek mythology this duality would be defined as Chronos, the physical world and Kairos, the spiritual world. Passing though can mean entering a higher realm, the possibility of something new, but in order to do so we must also choose to let go of the space we currently inhabit, both physically and mentally.

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend” – Aldous Huxley

Drawn to its complex symbolism and rich historical application, Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander presents a body of neo-spiritual portals that investigate the door between what is known and seen and what could be known that may be unseen. Shrouded in mystery the arch presents both vessel and passage, a bridge between the artists inner space and the outer world. Charged with terrestrial texture and luminescent colour the works are both energetic and serene. The collection is built around ‘movements’ of work that reference past, present and future ideas through distinct sets. Presented as such they demonstrate the interconnectedness of the artist’s enquiries as a unified narrative while also offering insight into our relationship with the arch as an enduring symbol within our culture.


Passage: Inner Space, Outer Mind
Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander
December 3 — December 19
2021

Backwoods Gallery
25 Easey Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

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Photography - Dan Preston / Byron Kehoe

Talismans, Rafts, Mementos
Group Exhibition
Modern Times

November 29 — December 10
2020

Talismans, Rafts, Mementos, showcases the work of the entire community of Modern Times artists – both new and old, emerging and established – with over one hundred and fifty works by fifty seven artists that span painting, photography, ceramics and sculpture.

Throughout 2020 artists used their practice to make sense of what was happening around them. Talismans, Rafts, Mementos celebrates this rich vein of creative output representing both the psychological and physical artefacts that have surfaced during this time.

From deep exploration of isolation, trauma and struggle to gentle musings on just having a slower pace of life and time to explore personal interests, the work in this exhibition reflects the spectrum of individual experience.

Artist Statement:

These new works have developed as a means to reach beyond the limits of my confined space and enter into the sublime. The raft as a vessel, a symbol of survival carries the passenger safely across a body of water, often through uncertainty, to arrive at safer shores. In this way the raft embodies freedom, escape and choice. All are qualities and experiences which have been dramatically compromised during our confinement.

The artworks are rafts of my own making, fashioned out of necessity. They are both doorway and vessel. Sacred portals to a promise of the infinite. They are a memento of my own journey to find space and freedom through these difficult times. Representing a universal desire to transcend, the artwork allows access to spiritual and emotional knowledge, ordinarily earned through intimacy with our community and environment.


— Taj Alexander

Titles in sequence:

CW - 2
Synthetic Polymer & Pigment on Linen, Mounted on Corrugated Iron.
Painted Aluminium Frame
503mm X 384mm X 40mm

CW - 5
Synthetic Polymer & Pigment on Linen, Mounted on Corrugated Iron.
Painted Aluminium Frame
503mm X 384mm X 40mm

CW - 6
Synthetic Polymer & Pigment on Linen, Mounted on Corrugated Iron.Painted Aluminium Frame
384mm X 333mm X 40mm

CW - 1
Synthetic Polymer & Pigment on Linen, Mounted on Corrugated Iron.
Painted Aluminium Frame
384mm X 333mm X 40mm

As a collective, humanity has endured a destabilising experience. The challenges that have arisen from this pandemic have affected the fabric of our culture. Our ability to explore and interact freely with our environment has been compromised. Drawing from his personal experience, Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander has developed an emotionally charged body of work in response to these tumultuous times.

These new works are defined as both physical and conceptual impressions. Represented through highly saturated impasto paintings, the works are a physical manifestation of said challenges negotiated by the artist. The paintings stand as an imprint, a recording from the artists mind transmuted into physical space. 

These imprints have revealed a complex map of the artists mental territories. They embody a sense of overwhelm and emotion through form and colour. The resulting images resemble an abstracted topography that has in-tern allowed for the expression of freedom within a new kind of landscape.

The title Impressions also speaks to the physical act of mark-making where the artist employs a range of unique, custom-made, tools to impress texture into the surface of the painting.


Impressions
Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander
Artist In Focus
September 9 — September 19
2021

Modern Times
311 Smith Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

Sales & Information - Modern Times
Photography - Raphael Recht

Interview
Video Profile

Backwoods Gallery
11 Year Anniversary
Group Exhibition
March 2021

Since Backwoods Gallery opened in the back streets of Collingwood in 2010, they've played an integral role in the development and promotion of the once fledgling Australian street art scene. Now, eleven years on they continue to produce and curate high calibre, engaging exhibitions from some of Australia's top established and emerging contemporary artists.

To celebrate this milestone Backwoods Gallery have invited its represented artists to take part in an epic group exhibition to showcase their impressive catalogue and creative community.

Featured Artwork:

Sculpture (L): ‘The Persistence of Gravity - A’ 2020
900 x 500 x 100mm
Pigment & Synthetic Polymer on Poly-Cotton/ Linen Blend, Mounted on Birch-Ply & Aluminium
Available

Sculpture (R): ‘The Persistence of Gravity - B’ 2020
440 x 400 x 190mm
Pigment & Synthetic Polymer on Poly-Cotton/ Linen Blend, Mounted on Birch-Ply & Aluminium
Available

Painting: ‘Mirkwood’ 2020
1552 x 1029 x48mm
Pigment & Synthetic Polymer on Poly-Cotton/ Linen Blend
American Oak Frame
Available

Position and perspective are the foundation of perception and interpretation. To frame is to draw attention to that which exists inside, or by exclusion call attention to that which exists beyond. Investigating the purpose and language of framing, Deams explores parallels between the frame as aesthetic tool and reframing as cognitive process.

Employing the use of raw pigments and spectrum gradients the paintings hover on the edge of reality pulling the viewer into a world of saturated colour and energised mark making. The resulting paintings demonstrate a further refinement in his unique painting style and abstract language.

Re:Frame
Deams, Solo Exhibition
October 18 — November 03
2019

Backwoods Gallery
25 Easey Street
Collingwood
Victoria 3066
Australia

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Calling attention to the fragility of idealised ‘perfect systems’ in technology, The Limits of Control identifies concerns surrounding our dependence on digital systems and how we, as humans, navigate questions of ultimate control and reliability. This refined new sculptural work from Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander seeks to illuminate the implications of malfunction in the digital-information age through his own complex negotiation with the interrupted image.

Digital systems are now deeply interwoven within our socio-psychological spheres. How we share and contextualise information is governed and interpreted through the limits of technology. The loss of control in this digitally dependent age poses a frustrating yet very real limitation on our ability to negotiate the power we attribute to such systems.

The Limits Of Control attempts to illustrate this fragility by exploring the way in which we have adapted a disrupted digital landscape into our culture as a means to humanise and further crystallise our concerns. The artist presents an arresting dialogue between the interrupted form and abstracted imagery. The resulting objects are seemingly simple yet clearly complex in their composition and physical manifestation.

The Limits Of Control
Deams, Artist In Focus
August 1 — August 11
2019

Modern Times
311 Smith Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

Purchase Enquiries — Modern Times

All works are created using raw pigment and synthetic polymer paint applied to a canvas/ linen blend. The painting is then mounted onto either hard or plywood timber structures. Two sculptures in this collection have the addition of a steel plate and internal counterweights to create the ‘impossibly balanced’ illusion.

Read more about the process here.

Our visual reality is oceanic; information surges against our mind and breaks with overwhelming intensity, concepts swallow us like tides, only to release us again confused & afloat. Swept up in these forces, we struggle to enter into meaningful dialogue and information stimulus is often one sided. Our fleeting impressions are rendered vulnerable to a consumerist agenda, aligning us unwittingly to ‘designer values’ and disempowering our connection with the self.

Abstract painter Deams presents ‘Waves’, a collection of reductive paintings-as-remedy, inspiring a deceleration of experience and a deepening of self-awareness. Central to the work is the release of the light, colour and energy that become bound by waves, both physical and metaphysical. An oscillating relationship between object and observer allows for subjective meaning to arise in the absence of a prescribed narrative. This space of exchange creates an opportunity for an imminent internal experience: a rare moment of reflection on the still surface of a calm sea.

“I want people to be drawn in to a visceral space, guided by a sense of familiarity and enticed by a deeper sense of mystery. We engage in people, objects and environment through holding attention, without attention there is no opportunity to experience true resonance. It is through the experience of resonance that we reveal ourselves within the work; it presents a door to introspection that allows moments of wonder and discovery to occur. In this way, the viewer is creating his or her own meaning. There is a direct exchange of energy between artwork and audience, a relationship is being forged.”

Waves
Deams, Solo Exhibition
September 21 — September 29
2018

Besser Space
15 — 25 Keele Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

Purchase enquiries — Modern Times.

Hyper was a multidisciplinary group exhibition, curated by Kane Alexander. The themes of the exhibition explored vibrant colour, states of bliss, hyper-realness and hyper-feeling. Held at 222 Roslyn Gallery, West Melbourne in September 2018.

Hyper
September 5 — September 19, 2018

222 Rosslyn Gallery
222 Rosslyn Street
West Melbourne

Exhibiting Artists:

Derek Swalwell
Lilli Waters
Lance Delary-Simpson
Chris Pennings
Elliott Routledge
Taj ‘Deams’ Alexander
Tom Adair 
Kane Alexander

Pictured Artwork:
‘Night Stroll’ 2018
Acrylic & Pigment on Canvas/ Linen Blend
1040 X 1400mm
(Sold)

Variations draws together ten preeminent emerging artists who work across painting and sculpture. Meditating on textural and gestural
foundations, the exhibition showcases the artists’ beautiful and luminous explorations in paint, drawing and form.

Curated by Monday Week
August 10 — August 18, 2018

Collins Place Gallery
45 Collins Street
East Melbourne

Pictured Artwork:

‘Between Worlds’
Acrylic on Canvas/ Linen Blend
650 X 850mm

‘Looking Out (Looking In)’
Acrylic on Canvas/ Linen Blend
454 X 454mm
Available

‘Parting Ways’
Acrylic on Canvas/ Linen Blend
454 X 454mm
Available

Following on from his hugely successful 2016 exhibition, In The Fold, Deams returns to Backwoods for his second exhibition with the gallery. Transition marks a further progression and sophistication of his distinctive approach to painting and abstraction. This new body of work encapsulates the seemingly chaotic yet clearly directed nature of energy and form in a state of transition.

This transient metamorphosis allows us a momentary glimpse into the future of the artists work whilst simultaneously presenting a deep acknowledgement of the diversity of his past explorations. Confidently employing expressionist techniques, Deams’ distinct brushstrokes and multi-layered process guide the work into exciting new territory. The works evoke a deep sense of change and a fearless approach that has been demonstrated by the ubiquitous evolution in his work.

Transition
Deams, Solo Exhibition
May 19 — June 02, 2017

Backwoods Gallery
25 Easey Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

Ambient landscapes dissolve into studied geological abstractions, revealing waves of movement in the stillness of a mountain. The artist wanders in a dreamlike narrative: through a moonlit panorama, recording the overlapping dimensions of his surroundings. These reductive compositions present both an inquisitive attention and poetic dialogue between the macroscopic form and microscopic structure of each object. Fieldnotes is an insight into the artist’s investigative process and findings, and an invitation to participate in the same manifold enquiry into the nature of things.

“I’m interested in the linguistic and conceptual connection between the micro and macroscopic views of the same object. Can we derive conceptual recognition from a microscopic image just through it’s patterning or from inherent characteristics such as colour and texture? How does this affect our relationship with the macroscopic view of the same object of enquiry?”

Fieldnotes
Deams, Solo Exhibition
March 3 — March 12|
2017

No Vacancy Project Space
The Atrium, Federation Drive
Melbourne

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Returning to his foundations in geometry based imagery; Deams investigates the nature of the interrupted line. This collection of paper works explores dynamic tension created by interrupted paths and narratives.

An immersive mural installation will envelop the audience in Deams’ signature kinetic arrangements. The artist invites the public to witness the creation of this evolving artwork over three days and gain some insight into his intuitive process.

Line, Interrupted
Deams, Solo Exhibition
June 5 — June 30
2015

St Heliers Street Gallery
Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street
Collingwood
VIC 3067

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The first impression is one of seething movement, suspended momentarily in the palpable, containing gravity of each canvas. Storms of texture collide and coalesce. Fields of occluding darkness acquiesce to explosions of positive form. A fragile linear geometry dances through the chaos, tracing the contours of profound inner experience. All this, permeated by a disarming sense of consistency: the quiet confidence of a mind that has enquired deeply into the elemental relationship between person and place, and returned to embody in painted motion the states unveiled in that vast territory.

Each canvas is both a promise and permission, inviting the witness to step through to a direct experience of sacred fearlessness. The volatile relationship between self and place is laid bare, not for analytical scrutiny, but to be viscerally embodied by the observer and experienced as a shared state of human alchemy.

The forces at play in Passing Through are further illuminated in the context of Deams’ previous exhibition, Swoop & Melodie (2011); an attempt to respond to a dynamic worldview with a rigorous geometric structure. Where this geometry has continued in his current work, its role has shifted from the aesthetic, and taken instead the place of the individual mind, navigating the ocean of subjective experience. The exploration of the natural world has grown from a precise symphony to a contained explosion - moving beyond the imposition of conceptual thought.

This is what makes Passing Through such an extraordinary experience – because rather than paintings about a state, these paintings are the state itself. They contain, just for a moment, the torrential energy of the personal wilderness in a form capable of bypassing self-conscious intellect and transmitting the experience of an undeniable awe.

— Essay by Adam Paquette

Passing Through concludes with a live painting and artist talk on the 30th of April, at St Helier’s Street Gallery in Melbourne.

Passing Through
Deams, Solo Exhibition
April 18 — April 30
2014

St Heliers Street Gallery
Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street
Collingwood
VIC 3067

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