AC4CA- Australian Centre for Concrete Art

The AC4CA was initiated in 2001 out of a perceived need by a group of artists living and practicing in the Fremantle area to create a distinction between themselves and others who had in the past decade mimicked their work. The plan was to make an emphatic statement that could not be replicated. Eventually location and scale became the determining tactics in deciding the appearance of this intervention. These artists - Trevor Richards, Alex Spremberg, Andrew Leslie, Jurek Wybraniec and Helen Smith were supported by Chris Hill, a librarian and archivist, Rauno Jarvinen, an art student and myself. The conversation quickly transcended the need for distinction and embraced the notion of making art that would, in the tradition of Concrete Art, engage anyone who took the time to notice it. The group agreed to make a large artwork on a wall that became available in the busiest part of Fremantle as a way to begin this project.

For the initial wall-work, AC4CA Project 1, Jurek Wybraniec painted two seemingly identical rectangles of pink onto the existing blue wall. Wybraniec's artwork for the past decade has dealt with a re-assessment of the relationship between Pop and Minimalism and has a distinctly modernist sentiment. This new work on a large wall was very similar to paintings he has produced on a more conventional medium - cheap and mass-produced stretched canvas. In these paintings he limits himself to a two-colour combination of pink, yellow or blue.

These 'doppelganger' works are always made in pairs of identical images - a large rectangular patch of one colour on the ground of another. Thus the wall work was in keeping within his system and aesthetic. Indeed each of the following AC4CA projects saw the artist make a massively enlarged version of their usual imagery. There has been no affectation to any notion of a different audience for these 'public works'. Wybraniec's wall work was in situ for about 3 months when it was replaced by a more complex painting by Trevor Richards.

Richards' work was a series of circles within squares (see Richards’ print) limited to a system determined by the use of his signature BYOG (a specific blue, yellow, orange and green). Richards has limited himself to these four colours for most of the last decade producing a significant body of installations, paintings and sculptural works all determined by this discipline of a highly reduced set of colours. Richards' Project 2 while using the same wall as Wybraniec's first piece was far more blatant and drew much attention. Those who did notice the wall had a delightful experience watching the reflections of the painting appear and disappear in passing traffic. Pure, unmediated colour does have its own language. One that can affect all around it and so it was for Richards' work. Gradually people did start to embrace this art work that had no meaning other than itself, and after a couple of months even the local Mayor, who has a small business adjacent to the wall, came to love its presence. Unfortunately its owner as part of the development of the property destroyed the wall. The print in the portfolio closely resembles the proportion of the wall work that Richards made for the AC4CA.

The Dutch artist Jan van der Ploeg who shows regularly in Australia and New Zealand made the next wall. His neo-minimalist works articulate a kind of biomorphic and somewhat ‘groovy’ aesthetic. The image he chose to make for Fremantle was, like Wybraniec and Richards', an enlargement of what he produces for gallery exhibitions. However the massive scale and public location of van der Ploeg's work gave it a strength and presence obviously not available in the genteel setting of an art gallery. His print is a direct simulation of the wall in Cantonment Street, Fremantle.

Wybraniec made another work south of Fremantle next to the beach, where he appropriated a disused water-tank over which he painted his signature colour pink with a grid of blue dots. The tank attracted immediate attention with letters as to its identity and meaning flying backwards and forwards through the local papers. It was also consistently graffitied with political statements about a controversial marina development. Wybraniec played with layering of these texts by repainting either the pink or the blue leaving the marks of the graffiti visible as part of a new image. Again the tank was destroyed. Wybraniec’s print replicates the original design for the tank.

Like Wybraniec’s tank, Helen Smith's huge outdoor work gives a new possibility to the way in which her work can be perceived. Located perpendicular to the Perth/Fremantle railway line this work is virtually only viewable from a passing train. The 6.5 x 27 metre work consists of a dark green field with lighter green ovals arranged in a grid. As the viewer moves past the image the ovals seem to compress into circular dots before disappearing as the train speeds past the wall. Again her print is a direct copy of the wall.

The next wall to be made, by John Nixon, appears as a giant orange dot on a white background. It can easily be reversed to be seen as a white plane masking a central circular hole through which an orange ground can be seen. This tactic of visual reversal has been a persistent part of Nixon's work since his earliest ‘cross paintings’ of the seventies. Even though the work sits in shadow the very sharp and clear Perth light has a luminosity that makes the work seem to float off the surrounding brick walls. Likewise the print works at the simple level of ground reversal but it is also redolent with allusions to the history of constructivist and concrete art.

The Swiss artist Daniel Gottin’s recent piece for a wall in Pakenham Street has continued the emphasis on bright colours and a simple pattern. The elongated wall supports a work that has been generated by its context in a way that articulates the space around it through proportion and design. The work is almost a landscape through its colour and horizontal layout. The clear colour works to lift the space around it making its presence extend well beyond itself. His print is a schema for the wall piece.

Despite the aggressiveness of their visual intervention the projects so far have proven popular with many of the Fremantle locals. Recently the Council commissioned the AC4CA to design the re-painting of a seven-storied, Brutalist- style municipal car park built in the seventies and in dire need of a revamp. The exceptionally bright colours used for this makeover shocked the staid and conservative conservationist and heritage clique in Fremantle.

This project brought debate about the presence of the AC4CA and its activities in this small community and raised the profile of the group. The ‘car park’ has quickly become an icon of Fremantle and has been celebrated across Australia for its innovation. Alex Spremberg’s print gives an indication of the simple design that was generated to deal with this massive structure.

The AC4CA’s wall projects are an ongoing contribution to the community in an attempt to bring some joy and pleasure into the everyday fabric of Fremantle. The project will continue with Australian and international artists as long as it continues to meet this simple goal.

Julian Goddard
May, 2003