Sometimes, things turn to nothing much.

You compose yourself well.

Paint your face for the party.

You, yourself go forwards, and backwards, downwards.

never really in motion, and never quite still.

Sedimentations, foldings and recoilings that compose you - Dismantle you, now and then.

You become full, overflowing. Disorganized

your face slowly softens.

An array of colour; runs down your coat, collects at your feet.

Some things used to be something else.

After the party; hats, paper cups and lost property have to be gathered up.

You do it with a smile.

transformations are romantic, 

like a glacial reformation, an entire landscape has shifted before you.

Happy Birthday

Wellington-based artists Lauren Redican and Annsuli Marais each gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (hons) from Massey University and have been collaborating since early 2011. A certain formalism is present in the artists’ approach to making: displaying a finely-tuned awareness of composition, colour, and materials, their work regularly blurs the line between found and manmade objects and images. Text is often incorporated – abstracted narratives, statements, and affirmations – that draw out a kind of everyday poeticism inherent in the work. The pair recently held their first solo exhibition, CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING at Enjoy Public Art Gallery (2012), which was accompanied by a small publication.

Lauren Redican and Annsuli Marais
9 September–7 October 2012
Happy Birthday (diptych)  2012
Video
Duration: 6:45mins, looped 
Courtesy of the artists