The invention of space is a destiny;
it should not be on demand: it is a spontaneous act.
— Gianni Pettena

I came to know the work of Italian “anarchitect” Gianni Pettena while flipping through one of those Apartamento magazines stacked by my messy bookcase. I was drawn to his ideas around architecture, space, inhabiting and nature; often unconventional, radical, ironic.

One idea in particular stayed with me and eventually made it’s way to shape the direction of this exhibition: architecture as a door, a window, a wall; creating a staged division between humans and nature. On one hand, the inhabited space; on the other, nature framed as the outsider, distant, intrusive.

Traditionally, we use a door viewer to look outward; to watch, stare or even spy on a possible intruder. Here, that relationship is reversed. Elsewhere explores this relationship through a collection of landscapes by three photographers: Jason Styles, Kian Barclay and Jacob Cummings. These artists respond to the following curatorial devices: a closed door, a door viewer ( view finder ) and language; the word “elsewhere” framing a conceptual gaze.

There is something ironic about this viewing exercise, especially as we wait within the thin corridor that characterises Schmick Contemporary. What is usually distant suddenly feels close. The exhibition examines this shift in space, orientation, chance and proximity.

The landscape remains still within the aperture,
close enough to see, yet always elsewhere.

- Alo Ruiz