TILT
7 Feb - 23 March 2025
Pivot Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre

ALEX ASCH

I am a US -born Australian artist, living and working on Ngambri / Ngunnawal land.
 
In TILT I continue to explore the Australian landscape creating constructed collages using recycled iconic building materials; form-ply that is used to erect the concrete structures of our cities, galvanised steel used to construct our rural buildings, abandoned road signs found in tips, reclamation yards and rural properties. During my travels across the Southern tablelands, I discovered discarded concrete blocks that lay in illegally dumped piles in empty lots and abandoned industrial sites. These blocks embody a formal language of abstraction. I was drawn to their negative space and wide variety of shapes and sizes. They formed the foundation for Tower block  

After the WW2 many returned servicemen had experience and skills in creating concrete structures like pill boxes and fortification. These skills were utilized in the rebuilding and the expansion of Western cities and the creation of much of the new public/community housing, projects, estates and low-income flats. Many of these were failed experiments that isolated and segregated the most vulnerable in our society in brutalist concrete structures. Nature is challenging our architectural choices. The 2020 Australian fires and the recent Californian fires force us to reimagine how our cities are structured within their surrounding environment and temper our expectation of abundance and consumption.
 

SLEEP SOUNDSCAPE (DJ Olive) for TOWER BLOCK (Alex Asch)

When I was creating Tower block, I was reminded of the album Sleep by DJ Olive AKA Gregor Asch. This series of soundscapes were conceived after the collapse of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, in NY.  At the time DJ Olive was living in Brooklyn NY and was acutely aware of the anxiety blanketing the city. The view from his warehouse window was a startlingly changed Manhattan skyline. He composed Sleep to support his friends and community who were suffering from increased insomnia, a gentle wave of symphonic white noise.

DJ olive graduated with a degree in visual arts from the State University of New York in 1987. He has created numerous installations and has performed his electronic compositions for the past 30 years including:  The Venice Biennale, The Sculpture Center NY, The Whitney Museum of Art, New York Institute of Modern art, The Valley festival Brisbane, The Australian Opera House, National Gallery of Australia and numerous others.