Elvon Young & Davor Popadich (SQUARE2)
Follow the speed of light
The text accompanying Elvon Young & Davor Popadich’s video work Grass is always greener on the other side (2006) is a great stream-of-consciousness trippy rant, punctuated by transitions, shifts in pace and evocative conjunctions of sensations and observations. In the video the movement and constant unfolding of the colour flares elicits the feeling of speeding through a city in a car at night in the rain. Except that your field of vision keeps morphing into a kaleidoscopic pattern, with a constantly changing axis, which throws you even more off-kilter. Is the title a stoner reference, or does it play with romantic notions of the best experience being just outside of your sphere, beyond your grasp? It is possible to become mesmerised by these morphing images, taken to a state of reverie where lost loves or drunken states of bliss can be remembered, touched or tasted.
Young and Popadich are practicing architects and Young lectures in Spatial Design at a tertiary level. They have been working together on video works for four years, including three works produced in collaboration with artist Mladen Bizumic. Grass is always greener on the other side was commissioned for the New Zealand Institute of Architects ‘Provocative Materials’ exhibition at Objectspace, Auckland, 2005, which begs the question whether the work, and in particular the title, might relate to the respective freedoms and challenges of architectural and visual art practice?
Heather Galbraith
Elvon Young artist bio:
Born 1975, Auckland
Lives and works in Auckland
Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) / Bachelor of Architectural Studies / Bachelor of Commerce, University of Auckland
Currently Senior Lecturer in Spatial Design at Auckland University of Technology and Design Principal at Vanillaspace/Young Young Architects Associates.
Davor Popadich artist bio:
Born 1977
Lives and works in Auckland
Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) / Bachelor of Architectural Studies, University of Auckland
Associate at Architects Patterson
Collaborative exhibition history:
Selected exhibitions include: ‘Transcapes Artificial Nature 1, Digitally Mediated Environments’, UTS Gallery, Sydney (2006); ‘Time Trials: 120mins’, St Paul St Gallery, Auckland (2006);
‘Models for Living: 1905-2005’, Auckland Museum, Auckland (2005); ‘Try Hard / Sugar’, St Paul St Gallery, Auckland, (2005); ‘Provocative Materials’, Objectspace, Auckland (2005); ‘Paper House’, Objectspace, Auckland & Fifty2 Gallery, Wellington (2004).
Group Exhibitions including works produced in collaboration with Mladen Bizumic: ‘Recent Acquisitions’, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, (2005); ‘Playground’, Art Play-Architecture & Design Centre, Moscow, (2005); ‘Aipotu: Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland (2004) ‘Fiji Biennale Pavilions’, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2003) ‘Tauranga Guggenheim Exhibition’, Artspace, Auckland, (2002).
Image credits:
Elvon Young & Davor Popadich
Stills from Grass is always greener on the other side 2006
DVD
Courtesy of the artists