The Moody Blues, Strange Times: Rebecca Baumann's Automated Monochrome at IMA@Ksubi

Rebecca Baumann: Automated Monochrome

5 February - 18 March, IMA@Ksubi

 

The Pomodoro Technique, developed in the late 1980's by Francesco Cirillo, is a productivity method based on time management. As friends of this writer will attest it has been a topic of impassioned discussion at certain dinner parties[ref]Admittedly this is not the only productivity technique known to have invoked cult- or pyramid scheme-like fanaticism in its users, this writer included[/ref] as the Technique has seen a marked increase in this writer's output [ref]And being part of this very posts writing[/ref]. Named for the Italian word for tomato, or more specifically the kitschy plastic kitchen timers design in the tomato's image, the Technique is basically a commitment to working in uninterrupted blocks of twenty-five minutes.


Pomodoro Kitchen Timer, Wikipedia Commons, 2008

In the extensive manual produced to support the concept Cirillo promotes a lofi approach - the equipment suggested for it use is a mechanical timer, a pencil and a piece of paper. Despite this, some, if not most of the Techniques users (including this writer) employ software installed on their computers or mobile phones. Despite the introduction of the digital, these apps are almost exclusively what J. David Bolter would call 'remediations', each featuring satisfyingly mechanical sound effects of ticking and ringing. These digital simulations of hidden gears and bells are worth attention - what is the appeal of the sounds of analogue clocks, watches and timers?

The Perth-based artist Rebecca Baumann has installed Automated Monochrome(2011), a large installation of 96 modified flip-clocks in IMA's satellite space in Ksubi Store in Fortitude Valley. Distinct from her work Automated Colour Field(also 2011), which features bright colours from across the spectrum, this work sees the devices flip through paper in rich tones of blue, and was created for last year’s Primavera exhibition.

Rebecca Baumann, Automated Monochrome, 2011

The aforementioned manual for the Pomodoro Technique is considered, accessible and idiosyncratic, meshing technical instruction, philosophical inquiry and personal anecdotes. Cirillo's project is founded in an understanding of time as the passing of events, and the less concrete idea of becoming. He sees the former as a cause of much discomfort:

Of these two aspects, it is becoming that generates anxiety – it is, by nature, elusive, indefinite, infinite: time passes, slips away, moves toward the future. If we try to measure ourselves against the passage of time, we feel inadequate, oppressed, enslaved, defeated, more and more with every second that goes by.[ref]Cirillo, Francesco. "The Pomodoro Technique" 2006: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/resources/ThePomodoroTechnique_v1-3.pdf[/ref]

If Cirillo's Pomodoro Technique is a method to combat these feelings, Baumann's work is most certainly its equal. While the Pomodoro Technique is designed to promote practical and attentive effort,Automated Monochrome is instinctively calming. It contributes a more casually relaxed line of inquiry to Baumann's compelling and often celebration-based body of work. The artist spent her time in residency in 2010 in Berlin focusing on the relationships between colour and emotion. The work's genesis in the home of the immense Weltzeituhr at Alexanderplatz and Dieter Binninger's unique Berlin Clock may not be a coincidence.

The plastic kitchen timer, as an object, has strange properties - a mechanical object in a natural, organic guise. Automated Monochrome is analogous: it is likely some viewers will read it as a landscape, specifically the constantly shifting blue tones of the ocean.

While unlikely to be the artist's intention, there is an interesting element to staging a work, in which the passing of time is marked by changing colours, above a fashion retail outlet. Socially-conscious critics and economically-conscious supporters have noted the fashion industry's uncanny skill in employing 'planned obsolescence' in its market model - while fashion writers announce a 'new black' for each season, Automated Monochrome announces an untold number of 'new blues' with each mechanical flip[ref]The work is also a sizable backdrop for the well-dressed and easily-photographed - Facebook users might recognise it following this afternoon's opening in the background of profile pictures of Brisbane attendees.[/ref].

Simultaneously painting, kinetic sculpture and sound event, Baumann's work at IMA@Ksubi is equally charming and exciting. Opening with an artist talk on the 5th of February, the exhibit continues until the 18th of March.