Black Intentions

This exhibition has been developed by Cohn to coincide with the simultaneous display of the travelling retrospective from the National Gallery of Australia. Of the exhibition the artist has said Black Intentions is essentially a work about personal identity and value, building on a set of generating ideas. As suggested by the title, this work investigates the notion of blackness, in a literal sense referring to Melbourne Black, and also in an emotional sense, in terms of the wicked, the sinister and the erotic, shadows and beauty. The work also has elements of the minimalist constraint, production/reproduction, a game, for example circles as quoits and finally, a closing of the circle (in relationship to the accompanying survey exhibition).

Black Intentions is an installation of nine elements relating to the circle. Each circle is essentially composed of jewellery that relates to a specific part of the body, for example the head, neck, waist, wrist and so on. The work exploits the repetition of production elements to create an enhanced presence that reinforces and highlights the individual ideas of the elemental pieces, offering a repetition of elements that can be considered and contemplated. The exhibition has been developed around a grid armature of raw metallic elements (for example aluminium extrusion billets) that organises the space and allows individual presentations of the circles with reference to a game of quoits. Susan Cohn has created an installation that is walked through in order to experience the work rather than walked around.