Alex Selenitsch Catalogue

Alex Selenitsch

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Contents

5 Alex SelenitSch: life/text

Linda short

74 List of Works

79 Biography

85 seLected BiBLiography

91 image credits and permissions

93 acknoWLedgements

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alex selenitsch is best known as a concrete poet, yet his

practice traverses a range of disciplines, from architecture to

artist’s books, printmaking, collage and sculpture. in most of

his projects he moves seamlessly between several of these

mediums, blurring the distinctions between them.

the habits and methods of different kinds of making, and the

poetic possibilities that accompany them, have interested

selenitsch from the very start of his career. While today artists

are often classified as ‘interdisciplinary’ or ‘multimedia’, when

selenitsch graduated as an architect in 1969 his tendency

to combine architecture with poetry and art was considered

unconventional. since then, in a manner akin to the recalcitrant

magpie he describes in his poem ‘13 ways of looking at a

magpie’, he has keenly plucked and repurposed materials and

processes from the compendium that he has come to call his

‘family of arts’.2 from this constant crisscrossing of manual and

perceptual activity comes a highly distinctive practice that defies

easy categorisation.

selenitsch’s work as a whole is indebted to the playful study of

meaning and form found in concrete poetry, an experimental

genre fusing word and image that emerged in australia in

the mid-1960s. it is not surprising that he was drawn to this

art movement, as it captures his interests in language, print,

pattern, data and space. selenitsch tirelessly explores what

words can say and be. he engages widely with the breadth of

print technology developed over the past five decades—as adept

with the now-defunct production of Letraset, letterpress and

typewriters as with the latest word-processing programs. his

more recent sculptural assemblages and architectural schemes,

though visually and materially different, also make reference to a

conceptual ordering in keeping with his typographic works.

2. alex selenitsch in interview with anne kirker, by email correspondence, melbourne, 31 october 2013, published as ‘seven Questions for alex selenitsch’, http://www.grahamegalleries.com.au/index.php/alex-selenitsch-seven-questions-for-alex-selenitsch.

The magpie whirls through the falling alphabet, a vowel among the mass of consonants1

1. alex selenitsch, ‘13 ways of looking at a magpie’, 1998, after Wallace stevens.

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selenitsch’s concrete poems first came

to public prominence as the result of two

friendships that also mark the beginning

of his long connection to heide. the

first of these was with Barrett reid,

an influential literary figure who was

part of the artistic community nurtured

by heide founders John and sunday

reed in the 1940s, and who lived in the

Victorian farmhouse now referred to

as heide i during the evolution of the

museum from 1981 until 1995. While

resident there Barrett continued the

reeds’ tradition of fellowship to artists

and writers and championed selenitsch’s

early experimental poems. as editor

of the journal Overland, Barrett was

active in commissioning and publishing

selenitsch’s work for the covers of several

issues. he also invited him to produce

two outdoor sculptures which are now on

permanent display in the heide sculpture

park: tree of knowledge, 1989, and the

letter S: S for Sunday (BR) / S for Sweeney (AS), c.1987, the

latter’s title affectionately acknowledging two generations of

occupants and friends at heide.

the other key friendship was with sweeney reed, a poet,

artist and gallerist who was also the adopted son of John

and sunday. sweeney’s strines gallery in melbourne was the

venue for selenitsch’s debut exhibition of concrete poetry

in 1969, the first showing in australia of this new style of

writing and printing. the invitation card for the exhibition was

distributed with an accompanying text by Barrett, introducing

the unusual spatialisation of words in selenitsch’s screenprints

and constructions:

tree of knowledge 1989 wood, iron, terracotta, synthetic polymer paint 214 x 122 x 11 cm heide museum of modern art Bequest of Barrett reid 2000

Page 8: oasis 1979 cover design for Overland, no. 91, 1983 heide museum of modern art archive

Page 9: 7 versions of the Southern cross 1986 cover design for Overland, no. 102, 1986 heide museum of modern art archive

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we waste time asking is it a poem is it a design is it

typography at play … here are words and spaces in

meaningful relationships verbal and spatial … a true poet

and tender ironist has made some space where words

and their echoes dance precisely.

a number of these important early works have been brought

together for Life/teXt, the first exhibition to survey the

development of selenitsch’s career over five decades.

fittingly, the exhibition is set in the gallery spaces of heide ii,

constructed in the 1960s as a residence for John and sunday,

and also for sweeney, who lived in the attached purpose-built

studio apartment well before the building opened to the public

as an art museum in 1981.3 heide ii’s celebrated modernist

design is especially conducive to selenitsch’s philosophy of

interconnectedness: the de stjil-inspired floorplan of distinct

yet open-ended spaces provides division while simultaneously

allowing fluidity and dialogue. in turn, selenitsch’s pared-back

aesthetic accentuates the building’s refined austerity and rigid

geometry, while several of his works hold a direct link to its

rich history.

the following thematic groupings,

conceived by selenitsch, underpin the

conceptual framework of the exhibition,

and suggest ways of navigating the

extensive network of relationships

throughout his oeuvre. these unfold

more or less in sequence following

the chronology of selenitsch’s practice.

however, just like the systems of inquiry

he employs, there are knowing and

unintentional deviations from the rule.

3. John and sunday occupied their award-winning home from 1967 until 1980. sweeney lived there intermittently until his death in 1979.

the letter S: S for Sunday (BR) / S for Sweeney (AS) c.1987 stainless steel 23 x 58.5 x 19.9 cm heide museum of modern art Bequest of Barrett reid 2000

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WHITE NOISE: in which wholeness is thought of as a totality that is an absence, with the white page as beginning and end.

selenitsch’s formative work, though

shaped by the international style of

poetry he discovered as an architecture

student, was also fostered by his close

involvement with local artists who

were testing the boundaries of art. he

emerged in the company of like-minded

poets congregating at sweeney reed’s

strines gallery in the 1960s and early

1970s, alongside painters including mike

Brown and trevor Vickers, who were

experimenting with the latest idioms.

minimalism and conceptual art were

in ascendancy in melbourne at this time, giving rise to a new

understanding of the language of art, and the idea that letters,

words and other linguistic signs and tools could be used as a

creative medium with their own material qualities.

minimalism’s preoccupation with a single colour, shape or

material is perhaps most evident in selenitsch’s long-term

series of works based on the word ‘monotone’—a persistent

preoccupation the artist describes as a ‘fixed obsession’.4 the

first work picturing this word, monoton eeeeeee, now in the

heide collection, surfaced in 1968, its title a witty take on ideas

of monotony and minimalist repetition and seriality. made using

standard, off-the-shelf house-paint, masonite and commercially

cut black acrylic letters, it typifies the spare elegance of

selenitsch’s evolving style. from the beginning the word itself

promised a limitless scope of linguistic play: ‘it didn’t take me

long to see its alternating consonants and vowels, its curved

letters and staccato “t”, its multiple symmetries and the word’s

associations with singleness, unity, boredom, concentration,

emptiness, potential, purity and the Void’, he later wrote.5

4. conversation with the author, 16 march 2015.

monoton eeeeeee 1969 plastic letters on enamel on composition board 71.5 x 60 x 4 cm heide museum of modern art gift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

5. alex selenitsch in nicholas Zurbrugg (ed.), Visual Poetics: concrete Poetry and its contexts, exh. cat., museum of contemporary art, Brisbane, 1989, p. 15.

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in the suite of ‘monotone’ constructions that followed, we

see selenitsch’s developing tendency to work with sets and

variations, and the start of a series which continues today. to

date he has made over forty groups of monotones, including one

to accompany every new project within his oeuvre. although

deriving from the same letters, each group generates a distinct

variation on the theme. serial poems like the screenprinted

cards 8 monotones, 1970, and 7 more monotones, 1972, use

typographic arrangements to explore visual, spatial and phonetic

properties, while in the timber models archi-monotones, c.1995,

selenitsch exchanges the letters for wooden blocks to create

three-dimensional forms.

as this series conveys, many colourful ideas can arise from a

single word used to describe a flat, uniform sound or state.

along similar lines selenitsch views white as ‘potential and

wholeness’,6 a kind of tabula rasa. in numerous works he finds

ways of giving the blank page or plain surface a semantic value

to stimulate the colours of the imagination. such is the case

in 6 instructions, 1972, a composition of six square cards, one

for each of the five senses plus an unnamed ‘sixth sense’. the

single words silkscreened onto each card instruct the viewer to

see, taste, hear and smell respectively. text is notably absent

from the last card in the suite, however, so that, in selenitsch’s

words, ‘the “instruction” to engage with it must be imagined’.

imagination is important, too, in 8 spaces with a colour

reference, 1971, but here colour is the signifying element. this

work comprises eight square white cards, each with a central

collaged white dot—a reference to the classic ‘white on white’

of minimalist painting. a ninth card is differentiated by its field

of vivid ultramarine blue which brings the white dot into view,

kindling, as selenitsch has written, ‘a spatial suggestion …

incidentally suggesting “sky”, or “water” or anything blue with

spatial depth’. this intense blue tint also appears in prints and

constructions from around this time, and is informed by the

famous monochromatic paintings of the french painter yves

klein, whose theorems describe pure colour as a manifestation

of the immaterial.

6. Unless otherwise stated all quotes taken from unpublished artist statements, heide museum of modern art archive, melbourne.

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8 monotones 1970 8 screenprints on card, screenprinted paper envelope 59 of open edition each screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; envelope 25.5 x 25.5 cm installation dimensions variable heide museum of modern art Barrett reid archive

Opposite: 4 monotone ladders 2011 laser print collages 4 of 6 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cm courtesy of the artist

6 instructions 1972 6 screenprints on card, card box with lid and screenprinted paper cover edition 27 of 30 each screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; box 25.5 x 25.5 x 1.3 cm (closed) installation dimensions variable heide museum of modern art Barrett reid archive

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8 spaces with a colour reference 1971 8 screenprints on card, card box with lid and screenprinted paper cover 30 of open edition each screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; box 25.5 x 25.5 x 1.3 cm (closed) installation dimensions variable heide museum of modern art Barrett reid archive

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the use of language to articulate space and time is a recurring

focus that selenitsch explores across a range of media. this is

closely linked to his investigation of wholeness as both ‘totality’

and ‘absence’, expressed and measured in projects as wide-

ranging as installations invoking the relation of objects and their

external contexts, to basic forms like the elementary symbol o.

freed from the word monotone, o appears in multiple guises

both on and off the page, interchangeably representing a letter, a

vowel, a number, a circle, a ring, a void or, as selenitsch puts it,

‘a worm hole to three contexts: i.e. writing (speaking), thinking,

drawing’. By way of further explanation he observes:

o = exclamation (!), the start of a phrase which is heartfelt,

also a letter of the alphabet, a vowel that is scattered

through speaking and writing. it is LangUage.

o = zero, which is nothing, absence, loss, but also

perfection, and in numbers, the step to a higher power. it is

metaphysics.

o = a circle (or elipse, depending on the typeface)

which is geometry, a spatial figure, made by a compass,

measurable. it is mathematics.

pink square, black O 2013 perspex, polypropylene, plywood, found timber, screws 50.5 x 64 x 20 cm courtesy of the artist

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the question of a unitary whole is extended in many of

selenitsch’s installations, which began in the 1970s as an

expansion of his card sets and constructions. the first of these

was inspired by and named after the audio signal known as

white noise, and was exhibited in 1973 at pinacotheca, a gallery

then championing melbourne’s abstract and conceptual artists.

a sound created using the entire spectrum of frequencies

audible to the human ear, white noise is so-called for its analogy

with white light, which contains all colours yet is perceived

as colourless. for selenitsch it is equivalent to ‘a sound like

hissing, or a waterfall, or wind in trees’. in white noise, 1973,

the soothing ‘hiss’ of the sonic waves is present as the letter s,

repeated across a range of different mediums in monochromatic

black and white. an especially ingenious component is a card

incised with the letter s which when held up to the light, as the

artist instructs, reveals a mesmerising pattern transmitted by

light as it passes through the cut-out letter, creating a spinning,

radial form. as so often in selenitsch’s work, it is a simple

reminder that all in nature is connected through time and space.

white noise 1973 installation view, pinacotheca, melbourne, 1973

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Language as a sensory field is likewise conveyed in the

subsequent installation how angels are seen by us (the five

senses), 1981. five altered utilitarian objects—a light fitting,

brush, incense stick, armagnac bottle and tuning fork—engage

the five senses while also suggesting the shapes of the five

vowels: a e i o U. as selenitsch has related, vowels are

‘scattered through speaking and writing’ just like the senses,

but here he pairs this observation with a much less obvious

conjunction: the visitation of angels. he writes: ‘the presence

of angels is often described by their after-effect on our senses:

a blinding light, a passing touch, a fragrance, a burning smell,

a ringing sound … each of the five parts is therefore a letter,

a proper and useful tool, and an image of the effect of the

ethereal’. a quality of otherworldliness is also imparted in the

artist’s book, PAtiliRRiKiRli, 2002, a tactile flurry of white

pillow feathers set into one page of an open volume of print. as

John Jenkins has noted, ‘text becomes texture, and a book [is]

given wings. Just as sentences absorb the reader, the feathers

beguile with their sensual appeal’.7

Water’s edge, 1974, is an early precursor

to selenitsch’s continuing activity of

altering pre-existing books. here he

uses a blank printer’s dummy to record a

narrative, through evidence of an action

rather than pictures and writing. Wanting

to keep the beauty of the empty pages

intact, he soaked the edges in salt water,

brought to his home in a bucket at his

behest by a friend returning from the

south coast of Victoria. an aerial photograph of the coastline was

added as the book’s only image, and the title and artist’s name

were embossed into the cover as its only print. selenitsch distils

the expressive potential of a journey into an astoundingly simple

and unexpected gesture. furthermore, he draws attention to the

book as a totality in itself, even without text. the watermarked

edges subtly define the object’s shape in space and its

intersection with the physical world.

7. John Jenkins, ‘open and closed: Bookworks’, imprint: the Journal of contemporary Australian Printmaking, vol. 41, no. 2, 2006, p. 41.

water’s edge 1974 artist’s book altered printer’s dummy book edition of 2 22 x 14.5 x 2.2 cm (closed) heide museum of modern art Barrett reid archive

Opposite: how angels are seen by us (the five senses) 1981 5 altered found objects: light fitting, brush, incense stick, armagnac bottle, tuning fork installation dimensions variable courtesy of the artist

PAtiliRRiKiRli 2002 found book, white pillow feathers 12 x 36.6 x 27.4 cm deakin University art collection, melbourne purchased 2012

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Pages 20–21: installation view, alex selenitsch: Life/teXt, heide museum of modern art, 2015

Page 22: POetRee 2001 pencil on paper 29.7 x 21 cm courtesy of the artist

Page 23: alex selenitsch with sweeney reed at heide, c.1969

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LADDERS: in which a received, discovered, found, or stolen image, format or pattern is exploited.

selenitsch observes poetry within the commonplace. the ladder,

a humble working tool, is one of many prosaic objects given

new potential in his poems, books and sculptures. the motif

has its origins in his first published concrete poem, up/dn, 1966,

printed in the progressive poetry poster/journal Broadsheet.

inspired by looking at the staircase notations of an architectural

plan, selenitsch transformed the abbreviated words ‘up’ and

‘dn’ into a rhythmic pattern of Letraset letters, which through

their arrangement convey the spatial effects of the object to

which they refer. it is only through careful, slow attention that

the flipped mirror symmetry between the letter pairs becomes

apparent and the play of signs and signifying systems fully

registers: ‘up’ is ‘dn’ and vice versa depending on the orientation

of the page.

in a similar vein, ladders emerge as a

‘discovered’ visual format in selenitsch’s

works of the 1980s. he eagerly seeks out

patterns in the everyday, using them as

‘assisted readymades’ in poems just like

his reworking of found materials in his

altered books and sculptures. the basic

shape of ladders—two vertical bars joined

by horizontals—suggest to selenitsch a

serial arrangement of letters and words.

But in addition to using the object’s visual

shape, he also explores it as a poetic

touchstone loaded with meaning. aside

from literally representing movement

between one place and another, the

ladder lends itself to transformations

as a symbolic bridge between what we

know and what we aspire towards. for instance in fechner’s

ladder, 1988, selenitsch refers to the ladder as a scale of

perception. the letter h is repeated in a vertical arrangement

fechner’s ladder 1988 transfer letters, coloured pencil and correction fluid on paper 29.7 x 21 cm courtesy of the artist

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that is flanked by the letter a, the entire pattern describing

an emphatic ‘a-ha’, a ‘light-bulb’ moment. Just as fechner’s

philosophical law of measuring sensation can be understood in

relation to the ascending structure of a ladder, selenitsch also

links the observable world and the meaning we perceive in our

experience of the world through this simple form.

the letter h, with its formal geometry and reflectional

symmetry, is also significant to selenitsch’s recurrent study

of the word horiZon in a series commenced as a tribute to

the concrete poems based on this word by sweeney reed.

extending what he views as an unfinished project of sweeney’s,

due to his untimely death in 1979, selenitsch has produced a

typically diverse set of responses. starting as Letraset texts

and handmade drawings that visually evoke his observation that

‘scanning a horizon and reading a line of text, or even a longish

word, might be similar’, in recent sculptural objects such as

horizontal entasis, 2013, he imagines navigating the horizon from

above instead of at ground level.

Z-hORiZOn (floating) 2001–13 blue chinagraph pencil on paper 42 x 59 cm courtesy of the artist

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often selenitsch’s works have such an external starting point,

arising out of a lively mix of interest and happenstance. When

discussing his influences he always stresses the importance

of interaction and incidental comment and likes to think of

his concepts as being ‘discovered’ rather than invented.8

he explains that he has learnt to ‘keep asking questions’,9 and

from this position maintains an ‘open-ended preparedness to

notice’, as writer greg missingham aptly noted.10

the very nature of enquiry is the premise for a major cycle

of work based on the letter y. as selenitsch has pointed out,

‘y sounds like why?’, thus ‘y is the question’. in his emblematic

tree of knowledge series, he finds a parallel between the y’s

branching form and the bifurcating structure of a tree. the notion

first came to him while ‘fooling around’ with an oversupply of

the unpopular Letraset letter y, the process quickly activated into

a symmetrical pattern mimicking a tree’s hierarchical network,

whereby the letters join and diminish in size from central trunk

to tentacle offshoots. the design was first realised as a graphic

poem published in Overland in 1986, then transposed onto the

surface of a mirror in tree of knowledge in a frame of reference,

1987, and constructed in wood for an

outdoor sculpture, tree of knowledge,

1989, made to a human scale.

trees hold a special significance in

selenitsch’s vocabulary of forms, for him

symbolising networks of inquiry and

questioning. this is keenly felt in the

diagrammatic drawing POetRee, 2001, in

which he pictures a tree in words which

forms a ‘mind-map’ of all the different

facets of his practice. as we might come

to expect, ‘language’ and ‘poetry’ are

the life force sustaining his creativity at

the roots and trunk, with each extending

branch describing an offshoot of artistic

inquiry, for instance ‘objects > models >

8. conversation with the author, 4 June 2015.


10. greg missingham, ‘double, double toil and trouble’, Artichoke, no. 18, 2007, p. 124.

tree of knowledge in a frame of reference 1987 sandblasted mirror, found painted timber frame 58.5 x 46 x 3 cm heide museum of modern art Bequest of Barrett reid 2000

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systems’. trees are also important to selenitsch as the provider

of his signature materials: timber is the source of composite

board, cardboard, card and paper, which in turn become the

physical embodiments of his ideas.

that selenitsch can condense such complex meaning into

an intimate form like the letter y is testament to his feeling

for language and formal invention. his single-letter works

are curious, tantalising propositions, thwarting conventional

expectations of a poem’s content. notably, he drew his

inspiration for this innovation from his first encounter with

concrete poetry, which came through a chance discovery of the

W poem by german dadaist kurt schwitters in László moholy-

nagy’s book Vision in Motion.11 selenitsch responded instantly

to seeing poetry arise from such simple materials manipulated

to maximum effect.

all letters of the alphabet receive similar analysis in the related

Letraset poems philosophia botanica, 1988. this time selenitsch

takes his cue from historical systems of botanical classification.

clusters of single-letter typography from a to Z have been

imaginatively arranged in patterns determined by the form of

each letter to pictorially suggest new linguistic species. the

poems take on further meaning when viewed in tandem with

his parallel project philosophia botanica/index, 1988–90, a list of

nouns describing assorted groups of people systemised by an

alphabetical index—for instance, a is for army, b is for bureau,

c is for congress and so on. selenitsch substitutes the traditional

phonetic alphabet for a classification of social groups in which

people are often ranked by hierarchical structures akin to the

systems of division inherent in plants and trees.

11. this he found at sunday reed’s eastend Booksellers in melbourne, which stocked recent publications of visual and concrete poetry from London.

Pages 29 and 30: life/text door 1988 hardwoods on painted timber door 200 x 80 x 10 cm heide museum of modern art gift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

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LIFE/TEXT: in which the grammar of texts, objects, furniture, and 2D and 3D spaces is the subject or main inquiry.

procedure and metaphor run parallel in selenitsch’s series life/

text, from which the title of this exhibition derives. the series

originated in a statement made by the well-known australian

poet chris Wallace-crabbe in an essay on autobiography:

‘now let us return to the swing door which has Life on one

side and teXt on the other’.12 selenitsch instinctively counted

the number of straight strokes in the captilised words in this

sentence and he found that in both instances they added to ten:

the image of words made out of

matches, where a new word is made

by re-arranging the matches, came to

mind; this plus the further idea that

matches are to be struck, lit-up and

producing heat and light, made me see

that Life indeed is struck, lit-up and

burnt out through the production of a

teXt.

life/text matches, 1986, is the result

of selenitsch’s interest in the unusual

pairing of these two words, as distinct

from the more common ‘matching’ of life

and art in aesthetic argument. When an

opportunity arose to make a large-scale

commission for what is now regarded

as a landmark survey of Visual poetry held at heide in 1989,13

selenitsch transformed Wallace-crabbe’s metaphoric ‘swing

door’ into a concrete object that sits somewhere between art

and architecture. the life/text door, 1988, is a poetic recycling

of a found wooden door inset with assembled timber pieces

that spell out Life on one side and teXt on the other. When

originally installed, viewers could open and close the door. in its

current static configuration it requires imaginative rather than

12. chris Wallace-crabbe, ‘Wangaratta, not carthage: Writing a self’, the Age Monthly Review, dec/Jan 1986/87, p. 10.

life/text matches 1986 matches on card on foamcore board 26 x 22 x 0.75 cm heide museum of modern art gift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

13. Words on Walls: A Survey of contemporary Visual Poetry, heide park and art gallery, melbourne, and ivan dougherty gallery, sydney, 1989. the exhibition was curated by Barrett reid and alex selenitsch.

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physical participation. selenitsch instead implies a theoretical

‘to-and-fro’ between the interaction of experience and language

to map out the swing of the door and symbolically set the work

in motion.

Language as a spatial medium, as workable as wood and

with material properties commensurate with building and

architecture, is also the focus of selenitsch’s interdisciplinary

series 1 to 9, 1980–87. first developed as a collection of prints

and objects for display in a gallery context, the entire project

was later published as the artist’s book 1 to 9: texts, poems and

buildings, a work that selenitsch dedicates to ‘William Blake,

William morris, marcel duchamp and percy grainger’, all of

whom are renowned for a revolutionary questioning of art forms

and their context.14

as suggested by its title, 1 to 9 uses as its ‘grammar’ a

numerical sequence from one to nine, whereby the digits

provide a grid-like structure that reads outwards from the

number one in the centre to nine at the four corners, as shown

in the screenprint 1 to 9 as grid, 1987. selenitsch applies this

pictorial formula to produce a range of works in various media,

from the paper collage 1 to 9: odds and evens, 1987, to the

schematic cross-stitch, Plan: the institute of thresholds, 1987.

While all of the objects share the same underlying structure,

each has an identity of its own which is comprised within the

concept of the whole. as well as pushing the limits of what is

possible within this framework—the ‘arena in which the action

takes place’, to borrow selenitsch’s words—he also is open to

what exceeds the limits of the idea:

for an idea to be an idea, it must be capable of being

expressed or embodied in different matter, at different

scales etc. and yet i also note that the material itself can

be the idea, so that the idea might change when shifted to

a new materiality.15

14. alex selenitsch, ‘introduction’, 1 to 9: texts, poems and buildings, 1987, self-published artist’s book, heide museum of modern art, melbourne.

15. alex selenitsch in interview with anne kirker.

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selenitsch’s solution in 1 to 9 is characteristic of his overall

approach, which has been to invent ‘a spatial spectrum in which

to work’. he uses ‘spatiality’ as the common element developed

across and between a plurality of disciplines, and ‘difference in

materiality’ as the distinguishing creative factor that generates

new meaning.16 the strategy calls to mind duchamp’s notion

of art as ‘a game between all people of all periods’, but when

playing by selenitsch’s rules, genres are negotiated along

similar lines as the exchange of ideas. there are no traditional

hierarchies in selenitsch’s ‘family of arts’.


1 to 9: odds and evens 1987 paper collage on pasteboard 30.4 x 20.4 cm heide museum of modern art Bequest of Barrett reid 2000

Plan: the institute of thresholds 1987 cotton thread on linen 39 x 39 cm heide museum of modern art Bequest of Barrett reid 2000

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Pages 34–35: archi-monotones c.1995 oregon timber blocks on plywood 10 parts, each 30 x 30 x 4.5 cm installation dimensions variable courtesy of the artist


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RESTORED MESSY LIFE: in which the imperfect, provisional, approximate, mistaken and the messy are retrieved from, or given equal value to, the perfect, permanent, precise, correct and tidy.

order and disorder both find a place in selenitsch’s practice.

equal parts logic and intuition, he describes his methodology as

‘disorganisation in a systematic manner’.17 the traffic between

such opposites as perfection and imperfection, procedure and

improvisation reveals itself in numerous examples in the

Life/teXt exhibition, but is nowhere more apparent than in

the installation iMPROViSAtiOnS: blocks and sticks, 2009–10.

these modestly-scaled low-relief and sculptural constructions

arranged from rough and imperfect pieces of wood, foreground

many of selenitsch’s artistic tendencies, not least the recycling

habits of a self-confessed gleaner.

17. conversation with the author, 18 december 2014.

iMPROViSAtiOnS: blocks and sticks 2009–10 found timber assemblages, flush panel door on handmade timber trestle legs, found books installation dimensions variable courtesy of the artist

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a lecturer in the faculty of architecture, Building and planning

at the University of melbourne since 1992, selenitsch has

found its departmental workshop a continual source of

creative sustenance, a place where he uncovers tantalising

leftover materials, off-cuts and refuse. While some would

deem the ordinary timbers and masonite that he retrieves as

unworkable scraps, for him they are rich with potential. the

allure of commonplace materials is another constant in his

work and more often than not his manner of working in three

dimensions is low-tech and straight forward. at the same time,

his processes are always governed by carefully thought-out sets

of rules. each assemblage in his arrangements of ‘blocks and

sticks’, for instance, was subjected to guidelines derived in part

from the inherent properties of the timber at hand and the scale

and reach of his body:

1. all timber pieces = off-cuts from the one workshop (from teaching programs);

2. all pieces as found, with no further machining;

3. pieces added incrementally;

4. surface to surface with glue: no interlocking;

5. size of finished work from held in one hand to held in two hands;

6. all of the above to be ignored as necessary to achieve (7.):

7. pieces added until a balance of movement and stasis is achieved.

With characteristic deviance, rules six and seven override the

preceding instructions, emphasising chance and formal balance

as the key objective. the selection of iMPROViSAtiOnS: blocks

and sticks chosen for Life/teXt belong to a larger body of

work that selenitsch first exhibited as a room-sized installation,

with rows of assemblages presented en-masse on the gallery

walls and set on workbench-style tables, themselves ‘assisted

readymades’ composed from domestic doors and hand-built,

wooden trestle legs. on these supports selenitsch also placed

open reference books about art movements central to this kind

of making, reiterating his belief that ideas exist as part of a

history of thought, or a ‘chain of other’s thinking’.18

18. conversation with the author, 18 december 2014. the books chronicled art movements ranging from russian and english constructivism to german and swiss concrete poetry.

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in much the same spirit, selenitsch takes apart the building

blocks of letters, words, lines and spaces which resolve in a

page of typography and reconstitutes them in texts, collages

and altered books. ‘Line as element’ is important to these

investigations, as seen in (green) sheet assembly, 2008, and

(grey) sheet assembly, 2008, a pair of large collages simply

composed from unmarked sheets of coloured paper held

together by long intersecting strips of gummed brown paper.

here the lines of tape function not only as the hinges binding

the composition but also the image, which in turn refers to the

traditional lineal format of printed text. arranged in crisscrossing

patterns, the lines extend in all directions so that they stimulate

the eye in a manner completely antithetical to the accustomed,

measured movement of reading and writing in straight lines—

evoking something much closer to the constellation of hidden

connections and interpretations of language that selenitsch

strives to portray.

Likewise, punctuation marks and mathematical symbols

emphasising the linear are reassigned in the set of digital

poems lines on MAtteR, 2011. Language is figured as three-

dimensional in these strongly architectonic works which exploit

the new possibilities of layout and sequence offered by the

computer. across six pages of a4 paper selenitsch interweaves

the word ‘matter’ with underlines, em dashes, en dashes,

hyphens, subtraction and equals signs and so on, to form

tightly-packed blocks of text that take on the quality of a scaffold.

to return to the Life/teXt metaphor, the letters and signs

function both as units of language and as the objects from which

the structure is formed, inviting speculation upon the way words

operate within the fabric of life rather than merely describing it.

Pages 42–43: (grey) sheet assembly 2008 gummed brown paper tape on paper collage 133 x 84 cm (irreg.) courtesy of the artist

(green) sheet assembly 2008 gummed brown paper tape on paper collage 130 x 101 cm (irreg.) courtesy of the artist

Pages 44–49: lines on MAtteR 2011 laser prints open edition 6 of 7 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cm courtesy of the artist

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43

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46

47

48

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selenitsch relishes these kinds of semantic games in the same

way that he challenges the limitations and defining features

of someone else’s text in found books and their unbound

pages. the latter approach is taken in singles, 2000, a work

consisting of a set of altered loose-leaf pages. it belongs to

an ‘office-inspired’ series that repurposes outmoded writing

aids such as coloured typewriter paper and bottles of Liquid

paper in corresponding colours. treating the published page

as a sketched-in visual field, selenitsch assigns three of the

four pastel colours of correction fluid to systematic patterns

that respond to different material properties of the printed

text. for instance, on one page the lines of text are painted

green except for single-letter words which are left exposed and

flanked by dashes of pink and blue to highlight the preceding

or subsequent words. the resulting rhythmic, abstract

compositions in these diagrammatic ‘paintings’ highlight the

generic components of print on a page but also, as selenitsch

explains, ‘present a unique case in that no other page will

ever contain exactly those lines, exactly those letters in those

positions or exactly those words’.19

Liquid paper is one of the materials selenitsch has adopted in

recent years that are associated with text-based communication

rather than visual art. describing its appeal, he has written:

‘a material synonymous with correction and removal by

camouflage, it attempts to recover the colour and texture of the

singles 2000 correction fluid on found book pages, laser prints, folio 7 book pages, each 25.2 x 16.2 cm; 2 laser prints, each 29.7 x 21.0 cm; folio 31 x 23 x 2 cm (closed) national gallery of australia, canberra gordon darling australia pacific print fund 2013

19. alex selenitsch, title page, singles, 2000, national gallery of australia, canberra.

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original surface before it was marked. at its intended best, it

disappears on the page. But of course it has its own properties

and it too can sing and dance’. after an office clean-out at the

University of melbourne brought him a surplus of this now

largely redundant stationery item, he immediately saw in it rich

scope for exploration.

selenitsch’s ambiguous act of covering objects with correction

fluid emerges in the PAStel Office, 2001–3, an ensemble of

desktop stationery including a pencil, a rubber, two books and,

with a hint of irony, a bottle of Liquid paper. the impact is not

just a disguising of generic qualities but a heightened awareness

of the peculiarities of form brought about by the thick texture

of the coated surfaces. selenitsch bestows further meaning by

assigning each item its own colour of fluid, making a set of the

group through colour relationships rather than categories of use.

in a related work, O, 2004, the cover of the academic art journal

October is painted all over with white Liquid paper except for

the central typeset ‘o’. in this work, too, the impasto texture and

sheer whiteness of the covering fluid intensifies a sense of the

book as matter.

the PAStel Office 2001–3 correction fluid on found objects 5 parts, installation dimensions variable courtesy of the artist

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selenitsch also gleaned a surplus of discarded coloured paper

from the office reject pile and in time these gave rise to a group

of handmade artist’s books, including the set four 4-colour

books, 2008–15. each of these four books is conceived as a

‘colour narrative’ of interleaving coloured paper, introduced and

concluded by white end-papers and black covers. the pages are

modestly assembled from a3 sheets of blue, pink, yellow and

green which have been halved by a single handmade alteration

that once again favours approximation as much as precision.

in two books, the pages are cut exactly in half on a vertical,

horizontal and diagonal axis; in the other two, the pages are

divided unevenly, torn by hand or incised into a sine wave.

in all books, distinct combinations of colour and geometric

arrangements are discovered with the turn of each page. as well

as displaying strongly graphic qualities, these objects remain

firmly connected to the experience of reading, in that the flow of

data is left to right and the pages reveal, as selenitsch observes,

‘colour as text, colour from paper’.20

a film recording of these and other examples of his unique and

editioned artist’s books has been made especially by selenitsch

for display in Life/teXt. in this digital video his hands enter the

camera’s frame, at the centre of which books are propped up

on noticeboard push-pins and leafed through one at a time. the

do-it-yourself methodology at work chimes with the humble

fabrication that shows up in varied productions, while his subtle

movements hint at the relation between action and object,

another enduring theme. moreover, they serve as a reminder

that reading is absorbed through the body as much as the mind.

20. alex selenitsch in the Book of 3 times, melbourne codex australia incorporated, melbourne, 2013, p. 12.

Pages 54–55: O 2004 correction fluid on found october magazine 1 x 18 x 23 cm courtesy of the artist

Pages 56–57: four 4-colour books 2008–2015 2015 (still) digital video duration: 8.57 mins courtesy of the artist

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58

the house of a Missing family 1:50 Plan Study (Rug) 2005 aquarelle crayon and pencil on paper 172 x 58.5 cm courtesy of the artist

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SOMEONE: in which identity is pursued as a creative and speculative task.

autobiography comes to the fore in selenitsch’s recent work,

incorporating the personal within works that emerge from his

professional experience in architecture, building and planning.

recent architectural propositions involve what he refers to as

‘poetic occupations and concepts’,21 which bring the outside

influences that inform self-knowledge into a thoughtful critical

dialogue with his own recollections. selenitsch’s memory bank,

with all its layers, ambiguities and uncertainties, stretches

back to his arrival in australia as a child from germany with

his displaced family shortly after World War ii. a profoundly

defining chapter in selenitsch’s life, this heritage necessarily

generates questions about history; how and by whom are its

boundaries determined?

the idea of remembrance underpins the house of a Missing

family, 2005–7, and is expressed through an interweaving of

personal reflection, pattern-making and

architectural strata. to varying degrees

these schematic drawings and hand-

built models subject the architecture of

selenitsch’s childhood home to the kinds

of re-use and alteration typical of his

treatment of found objects and materials.

designs are arrived at in relation to his

memories of time and place, as the

architecture they record is not actual, but

rather draws on his intuitive visualisations

of the house he grew up in based on

the unspoken and anecdotal narratives

of his parents. his recollection that,

‘my father never spoke of his past or

his family. my mother often did but

through anecdotes and details’, forms

the springboard for his prototype in wood

of a house divided into two sections by


the house of a Missing family 1:100 Study Model 2005 found timber offcuts on laminated timber base 15 x 13 x 73 cm courtesy of the artist

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a central corridor: one side devised from a uniform sequence

of sparsely furnished external zones representing paternal

space; the other comprising different sized rooms with jumbled-

up building components to signify the locus of the maternal.

representing what selenitsch calls ‘two conditions of the past’,

this disjunctive floorplan suggests a historical context for his

identity yet its subjective character discourages a fixed reading

of history.

selenitsch grew up at home speaking english as a third

language after russian and german, the native tongues of his

mother and father. to them he attributes his infatuation with

words and meaning: ‘their interest in language continues in

me’, he says.22 the cardboard prototype innisfail staples (sugar/

flour/salt: english/Russian/German), 2008, recalls in miniature

a dwelling sustained by the interplay of these three languages.

this time selenitsch reimagines the architecture of his childhood

home as a domestic vessel for storing salt, flour and sugar, as

indicated by the printed labels ‘saLZ’, ‘myka’ and ‘sUgar’

which are adhered to the object’s sliding roof-cum-lid. the

conjunction brings to mind a lively sprinkling of words, and their

attendant sounds and syncopations, mixing in the selenitsch

family home. given our need to communicate is just as essential

to human survival as these staple cooking ingredients, it is also

a brilliant parody for cultural integration in general.

‘psycho-architecture’ shifts to ‘psycho-geography’ in the various

drawings, maps and sculptural objects that belong to the related

project ideal city, 2007–11. here selenitsch draws on the past

to look to the future by devising, or at least prefiguring, a new

utopian antipodean city. among the extensive summaries he

has written about this cycle of work is the following manifesto

which summarises its sentiment:

the ideal city is a fusion of military control, rational

organisation and faith and hope for the future—these are

the founding qualities of oZ since the first fleet; and were

repeated for the fleets of displaced persons who arrived

here after WW2.

22. alex selenitsch, ‘artist’s statement’, in Barrett reid (ed.), Words on Walls: A Survey of contemporary Visual Poetry, exh. cat., heide park and art gallery, melbourne, 1989, p. 16.

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many historical allusions combine in the principal component of

this series, –iDeAl–citY–, 2008–11, an elaborate wall map in

twelve parts as vibrant and detailed as a medieval mappa mundi.

such is the profusion of colour and pattern in this work that from

a distance it could be mistaken as a purely abstract drawing. the

composition, however, is anchored by a central octagonal shape

that is partly inspired by the plan for the cowra prisoner of War

camp built in australia during World War ii and subsequently

used as a migrant hostel where selenitsch stayed with his

mother for a short time in 1949. the camp’s distinctive layout

followed a twelve-sided polygon which in turn reminded him of

Vincenzo scammozzi’s famous italian renaissance scheme of a

city with this shape at its core.

While taking inspiration from these and other sources,

selenitsch’s design for an ideal city is pure invention, a set of

abstract relations, colours, shapes and textures, conceived

as a speculative and imaginative civic space. superimposed

over this colourful arrangement are stencilled words, a written

schema denoting sub-zones within the whole map area. they

list architectural landmarks associated with the order of society

such as ‘bank’, ‘hospital’, ‘factory’, in equal measure with those

sustaining the cultural growth of humankind, i.e. ‘temple’,

‘archive’, ‘academy’. an independent statement written by

selenitsch provides an apt description of the principles guiding

his composition, which comes from ‘combining the geometry

of natural flocking patterns, with the philosophical ideal of a

balance between liberty and responsibility’.23

the system selenitsch employs is characteristic of his classic

noting of elegant underlying geometries in the world around

him, and it is hard not to compare the subtle grid delineated

by the abutting edges of the drawings to the folds that gather

in a map over time. markers of individual journeys bound by

an overall arrangement of materially equal limits, they signify

a process of discovery that is analogous to selenitsch’s self-

organising procedural systems and the patterns in them,

in that the permutations of parts amount to a continually

evolving whole.

23. Unpublished artist statement, 8 september 2015.

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as this work serves to highlight,

selenitsch’s process is symbiotic:

‘thought’ cannot be separated from

‘imagination’, or to summarise it another

way, the ‘philosophy’ of an idea cannot

be separated from the ‘poetry’. though

his deceptively simple works are typically

felt and scaled for the human body, his

concepts always operate on an ambitious

scale, functioning as a stimulus that,

as he describes, ‘shifts the imagination

to much larger spaces’.24 to achieve

their potential his works rely on the

viewer’s participation and willingness

to spend time with them, thinking

as selenitsch does ‘in all the inter-

connecting directions’.25


25. alex selenitsch in nicholas Zurbrugg (ed.), Visual Poetics: concrete Poetry and its contexts, p. 15.

Opposite: –iDeAl–citY– 2008–11 aquarelle crayon and pencil on paper 12 sheets, each 56 x 75.5 cm; overall 224 x 226.5 cm courtesy of the artist

Pages 64–65: innisfail staples (sugar/flour/salt: english/Russian/German) 2008 corrugated cardboard model, laser printed labels 16 x 30 x 32 cm courtesy of the artist

Pages 66–67: four innisfail temples: temple of continuity/Uluru; temple of Origins/Melbourne; temple of Perception/canberra; temple of creation/( ) c.1992/2000 4 timber models in found suitcase suitcase 13.5 x 31.5 x 23 cm (closed) installation dimensions variable courtesy of the artist


Pages 70–71: plus plus plus #1 2000/2015 plus plus plus #2 2000/2015 stacked timber, painted timber sticks 2 parts: 40 x 40 x 180 cm; 82 x 40 x 167 cm courtesy of the artist

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James rafferty and alex selenitsch filming artist’s books for Life/teXt, melbourne school of design, University of melbourne, 2015

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List Of WOrks

the catalogue is arranged chronologically then alphabetically by title.

Works on paper are specified at sheet size. all works courtesy of the

artist unless otherwise stated.

Alex selenitsch

up/dn 1966published in the Broadsheet 3: Where Are All the flowers Going? 1968relief print on lithographic paperedition 62 of 75063.5 x 50.5 cmheide museum of modern artgift of michael dugan 1995

balloons 1969high sierras/tumbleweed 1969jass band/slapstick 1969lifeline/electric wire 1969lumber/elephant walk 1969slide 1969stoneface/slip 1969screenprints on acetate, timber framesartist’s proofs7 parts, each 21.5 x 20 x 2 cm heide museum of modern artgifts of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

beads and roses 1969screenprint on card edition 1 of 1076 x 50 cm

daisy-train 1969screenprint on cardedition 11 of 1537.6 x 50.4 cmheide museum of modern artBequest of Barrett reid 2000

monoton eeeeeee 1969plastic letters on enamel on composition board71.5 x 60 x 4 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

mudlark 1969starling 1969windgull 1969screenprintseditions 4 of 16each 50.5 x 37.5 cmheide museum of modern artgifts of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

not tone 1969plastic letters on enamel on composition board71.5 x 60 x 4 cmprivate collection, melbourne

o monotone 1969plastic letters on enamel on composition board71.5 x 60 x 4 cmcollection of allan Willingham

one tone 1969plastic letters on enamel on composition board71.5 x 60 x 4 cmprivate collection, Victoria

rain gold 1969screenprint on cardartist’s proof50.5 x 38 cm

8 monotones 19708 screenprints on card, screenprinted paper envelope 59 of open editioneach screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; envelope 25.5 x 25.5 cminstallation dimensions variableheide museum of modern artBarrett reid archive

8 spaces with a colour reference 19718 screenprints on card, card box with lid and screenprinted paper cover 30 of open editioneach screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; box 25.5 x 25.5 x 1.3 cm (closed) installation dimensions variableheide museum of modern artBarrett reid archive

O circle zero 1971vinyl reinforcement ring on synthetic polymer paint on canvas stretcher by trevor Vickers31 x 31 x 7.5 cm

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6 instructions 19726 screenprints on card, card box with lid and screenprinted paper cover edition 27 of 30each screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; box 25.5 x 25.5 x 1.3 cm (closed)installation dimensions variableheide museum of modern artBarrett reid archive

7 more monotones 19727 screenprints on card, screenprinted paper envelope 41 of open editioneach screenprint 25.4 x 25.4 cm; paper envelope 25.5 x 25.5 cm installation dimensions variableheide museum of modern artBarrett reid archive

white noise 1973photocopies of transfer letters on card, cut paper stencils, stencilled paint on cotton, card box with lid and printed paper coverinstallation dimensions variablenational gallery of australia, canberra transferred from the national gallery of australia research Library, 1997

bubble 1974cover design for Overland, no. 57, 1974heide museum of modern art archive

water’s edge 1974artist’s bookaltered printer’s dummy bookedition of 222 x 14.5 x 2.2 cm (closed)heide museum of modern artBarrett reid archive

sphinx c.1980cut and laminated composition board25 x 25 x 4.4 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

theatre #1 c.1980cut and laminated composition board53.5 x 53.5 x 5 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

theatre #3 c.1980cut and laminated composition board41 x 60 x 2.5 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

how angels are seen by us (the five senses) 19815 altered found objects: light fitting, brush, incense stick, armagnac bottle, tuning forkinstallation dimensions variable

self portrait (Moh) 1983paper collage on dye transfer print29.7 x 21 cm

8 monotones with diagrams c.1985paper offset plates edition of 25 of 8 parts, each 38 x 25 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

my left hand/my right hand c.1985photocopy of fibre-tipped pen on paper29.7 x 21 cm

paper cut corner c.1985paper collage on card22 x 18 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

sator/rotas c.1985brush and ink on handmade paper edition 1 of 762.2 x 45.6 cm national gallery of australia, canberra gordon darling australasian print fund 2005

suite of stars c.1985paper offset platesedition of 2 5 of 9 parts, each 38 x 25 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

life/text matches 1986matches on card on foamcore board26 x 22 x 0.75 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

1 to 9 as grid 1987screenprint on paper23.2 x 18 cm (irreg.)

1 to 9: odds and evens 1987paper collage on pasteboard30.4 x 20.4 cmheide museum of modern artBequest of Barrett reid 2000

1 to 9: texts, words, buildings and colour 1987artist’s book coloured ink lithographs, hand-cut coloured paper, coloured card, printed detail paper slipcover edition 74 of 9130 x 21 x 0.8 cm (closed)heide museum of modern art

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Barrett reid archivelife/text sliding movements 1987ink on detail paper19 x 23 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

Plan: the institute of thresholds 1987cotton thread on linen39 x 39 cmheide museum of modern artBequest of Barrett reid 2000

tree of knowledge in a frame of reference 1987sandblasted mirror, found painted timber frame58.5 x 46 x 3 cmheide museum of modern artBequest of Barrett reid 2000

fechner’s ladder 1988transfer letters, coloured pencil and correction fluid on paper29.7 x 21 cm

life/text door 1988hardwoods on painted timber door200 x 80 x 10 cmheide museum of modern artgift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

philosophia botanica 1988transfer letters, paper collage, correction fluid and coloured pencils on card26 parts, each 20 x 15 cm (irreg.)installation dimensions variable

rainbow snake 1988–89vinyl on cardboard51.5 x 75.5 cmheide museum of modern artBequest of Barrett reid 2000

philosophia botanica index 1988–90laser print of typewritten and handwritten index29.7 x 21 cm

Jacob’s ladder #2 1989typewriter text on paper29.7 x 21 cm

tWO WAY 1989fibre-tipped pen, collage and coloured pencil on card18 x 13 cm

SWORDS 1990transfer letters, photocopy collage, coloured pencil and correction fluid on paper29.7 x 21 cm

the Room of the lADDeRS 1991paper collage and correction fluid on dye transfer print29.7 x 21 cm

four innisfail temples: temple of continuity/Uluru; temple of Origins/Melbourne; temple of Perception/canberra; temple of creation/( ) c.1992/20004 timber models in found suitcasesuitcase 13.5 x 31.5 x 23 cm (closed) installation dimensions variable

five quintets 1994screenprint and duco tape on painted composition board18 of 30 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cminstallation dimensions variable

n Versions of the Southern cross 1994drilled blank sketchbookedition 7 of 1012.5 x 9.5 x 1 cm (closed)national gallery of australia, canberragordon darling australasian print fund 2005

the Southern cross in Dante 1994drilled found book18 x 12 x 2 cm (closed)national gallery of australia, canberra gordon darling australasian print fund 2005

archi-monotones c.1995oregon timber blocks on plywood10 parts, each 30 x 30 x 4.5 cm installation dimensions variable

poetry antenna c.1995timber printing blocks, bamboo, oregon34.5 x 31.5 x 5.5 cm

augenblick 1998artist’s bookpaper photocopies, card, hand-stitched cotton binding, letterpress on card slipcoverartist’s proof a of a e i o u21 x 21 x 0.3 cm (closed)

horizontal corrections p168 1998found printed card collage, found book page24 x 33.5 cm (irreg.)

equals 1999artist’s bookpaper photocopies, card, hand-stitched cotton binding, letterpress on card slipcoverartist’s proof u of a e i o u21 x 21 x 0.3 cm (closed)

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pixel 1999artist’s bookpaper photocopies, card, hand-stitched cotton binding, letterpress on card slipcoverartist’s proof u of a e i o u21 x 21 x 0.3 cm (closed)

singles 2000correction fluid on found book pages, laser prints, folio7 book pages, each 25.2 x 16.2 cm; 2 laser prints, each 29.7 x 21 cm; folio 31 x 23 x 2 cm (closed)national gallery of australia, canberra gordon darling australia pacific print fund 2013

S and 2000–5artist’s bookpaper photocopies, card, hand-stitched cotton binding, rubber stamp on card slipcoverartist’s proof i of a e i o u21 x 21 x 0.3 cm (closed)

plus plus plus #1 2000/2015plus plus plus #2 2000/2015stacked timber, painted timber sticks2 parts: 40 x 40 x 180 cm; 82 x 40 x 167 cm

the PAStel Office 2001–3correction fluid on found objects5 parts, installation dimensions variable

Z-hORiZOn (floating) 2001–13blue chinagraph pencil on paper42 x 59 cm

PAtiliRRiKiRli 2002artist’s bookfound book, white pillow feathers12 x 36.6 x 27.4 cmdeakin University art collection, melbourne purchased 2012

O 2004correction fluid on found October magazine1 x 18 x 23 cm

walkabout hORiZOn 2004–8vinyl letters on found painted mdf block21.5 x 27.5 x 4.5 cm

the house of a Missing family 1:50 Plan Study (Rug) 2005aquarelle crayon and pencil on paper172 x 58.5 cm

the house of a Missing family 1:100 Study Model 2005found timber offcuts on laminated timber base15 x 13 x 73 cm

window book 2007artist’s bookhand-cut and folded coloured paper15 x 10.5 x 0.5 cm (closed, standing)

My house in Vienna as a side table 2007–8prototype; archival corrugated cardboard, oregon, mirror130 x 83 x 31 cm

(green) sheet assembly 2008gummed brown paper tape on paper collage130 x 101 cm (irreg.)

innisfail staples (sugar/flour/salt: english/Russian/German) 2008corrugated cardboard model, laser printed labels16 x 30 x 32 cm

rothko morely vowels x 7 2008laser prints open edition8 of 9 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cm

–iDeAl–citY– 2008–11aquarelle crayon and pencil on paper12 sheets, each 56 x 75.5 cm; overall 224 x 226.5 cm

four 4-colour books 2008–15artist’s bookspaper photocopies, hand-cut and torn coloured paper, hand-stitched cotton binding, hand-cut, torn and folded card coverseditions 18 of 32 each 21 x 21 x 0.5 cm (closed)

delta blocks 2009artist’s book paper photocopies, card, hand-stitched cotton binding, hand-cut, incised and folded card slipcoveredition g of a–Z15 x 15 x 0.3 cm (closed)

iMPROViSAtiOnS: blocks and sticks 2009–10found timber assemblages, flush panel door on handmade timber trestle legs, found booksinstallation dimensions variable

city of reflections 2009–11laser-cut plywood, acrylic mirror, engraved acrylic sheet, screws61 x 61 x 4 cm (irreg.)private collection, melbourne

pseudo-spiral 2010found timbers on cedar prism49 x 28 x 28 cm

4 monotone ladders 2011laser print collages4 of 6 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cm

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appropriate measures for an ideal city: StAnDARD with SPOntAnAeitY, ORthODOxY with intUitiOn, cOnVentiOn with ReVelAtiOn, SPOntAneitY with cOnVentiOn, intUitiOn with StAnDARD, ReVelAtiOn with ORthODOxY 2011vinyl letters on found elm timber sticks6 parts, each 146 x 3 x 2 cm installation dimensions variable

city of blue, yellow, red, green 2011oil pastel and pencil on laser-cut plywood4 parts, each 43 x 43 cm (irreg.) installation dimensions variable

lines on MAtteR 2011laser printsopen edition6 of 7 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cm

plywood folder 2011adhesive cloth tape on plywood30 x 90 cm

trip 2012painted chair, kdhW, pine, screws, bamboo skewers114 x 184 x 68 cm

horizontal entasis 2013laser-cut plywood on plywood30 x 97 x 1.75 cm

pink square, black O 2013perspex, polypropylene, plywood, found timber, screws

50.5 x 64 x 20 cm1 to 9: texts, words, buildings and colour 1987 2015digital videoduration: 5.12 mins

7 books of concrete and abstract poems 1998–2009 2015digital videoduration: 21.54 mins

four 4-colour books 2008–2015 2015digital videoduration: 8.57 mins

Video production by James rafferty, melbourne school of design, University of melbourne

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BiOGrAPHY

Born in regensburg, germany, in 1946, alex selenitsch

arrived in australia in 1949 with his parents as a Un-assisted

displaced person. the family settled in geelong in 1952 where

selenitsch went on to study architecture at the gordon institute

of technology from 1964–66. he completed his architecture

studies at the University of melbourne in 1967–68 then worked

as an architect and urban designer in australia and the United

kingdom. diversifying his activities to include art and poetry he

went into private practice in the late 1980s.

selenitsch held his first solo exhibition of concrete poetry at

sweeney reed’s strines gallery in melbourne in 1969 and

since then has exhibited regularly, in melbourne and Brisbane

predominantly. across a career spanning five decades he has

engaged with a broad spectrum of artistic disciplines, from

artist books, printmaking, collage and sculpture. a respected

commentator, he has also written extensively on literature,

visual arts and architecture and has published works in australia,

new Zealand and the United states. in 2000 he was awarded a

gordon darling fellowship to research and author the publication

Australian Artists Books for the national gallery of australia,

published in 2008.

prior to his current appointment as a senior lecturer in

architecture at the University of melbourne, selenitsch

taught architectural design, theory and history at deakin

University, melbourne, and rmit University, melbourne,

where he undertook a master of architecture in 2001. in 2008

he completed a phd by creative work and dissertation at the

University of melbourne, entitled ‘sets, series, and suites:

composing the multiple artwork’.

selenitsch lives in melbourne and is represented by grahame

galleries + editions, Brisbane.

80

indiVidUaL and coLLaBoratiVe eXhiBitions

2014 fragrance permeates the garments: books, constructions

& drawings, Wunderlich gallery, University of melbourne,

melbourne

2013 AGORA: shields, maps & transparencies, place gallery,

melbourne

hORiZOn, grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane

2012 flotsamandjetsam, place gallery, melbourne

travel Drawings, Wunderlich gallery, University of melbourne,

melbourne

2011 ideal city, place gallery, melbourne

2010 iMPROViSAtiOnS: blocks and sticks, place gallery, melbourne

Out of the Box—94 Variations, craft Victoria, melbourne

2008 line corrections, place gallery, melbourne

how Are things at home?, geelong gallery, Victoria

2007 Gold Mountain, grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane

2006 Open & closed, icon museum of art, deakin University,

melbourne

identikits: maps and models, Watson place gallery, melbourne

2004 Models and Drawings, Watson place gallery, melbourne

Shreds, cuts & tears, Brushmarks (sheets and books), grahame

galleries + editions, Brisbane

2001 Bits in Pieces: the half-life of data, csiro discovery centre,

canberra

1997 the hanuman Shelf, window exhibition, craft Victoria,

melbourne

1995 Dante Down Under: the purgatorio suite, craft Victoria,

melbourne

the Ocular labyrinth, with Werner hammerstingl and alex

rizkalla, arts Victoria, melbourne

1994 n Versions of the Southern cross, gallery rhumbarallas,

melbourne

1987 1 to 9, artists space gallery, melbourne

1973 pinacotheca, melbourne

1970 pinacotheca, melbourne

1969 strines gallery, melbourne

81

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015 Small Publishers, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney

Centre for the Artist Book, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery,

Queensland

Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas, State Library of Victoria,

Melbourne

What is Print? What is Culture?, National Gallery of Australia,

Canberra

2014 CON*TRA*PUN*TAL, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney

Concrete Poetry Now!, City Library, Melbourne

2013–14 Born to Concrete: Visual Poetry from the Collections of Heide

Museum of Modern Art and The University of Queensland, The

University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, and State

Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Unbound and Bound, Macquarie University Art Gallery and Library

Exhibition Space, Macquarie University, Sydney

2013 The OnGoing GAGA SAGA, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney

Like Mike Now What??, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts,

Melbourne

2012 Lessons in History Vol. II: Democracy, grahame galleries +

editions, Brisbane

Merchants of War, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney

2011 Born to Concrete: The Heide Collection, Heide Museum of

Modern Art, Melbourne

2010 WOOD+cardboard: Furniture, Objects, Prototypes, Models by

Hamish Hill and Alex Selenitsch

1992—2010, Wunderlich Gallery, University of Melbourne,

Melbourne

Constellations, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, RMIT University,

Melbourne

2009 RECYCLED LIBRARY: Altered Books, Artspace Mackay,

Queensland

Post, Place Gallery, Melbourne

2008 Portraits of Artists, Place Gallery, Melbourne

Visual Word: The Print Imaging Practice Residency Exhibition,

Project Space/Spare Room, RMIT University, Melbourne

A Slip of the Tongue, Nexus Gallery, Nexus Multicultural Arts

Centre, Lion Arts Centre, Adelaide

82

2007–9 <the space in between> book project, Margaret Lawrence

Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, and then

touring to Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria; Umbrella Studio

Contemporary Arts, Townsville, Queensland; Wagga Wagga Art

Gallery, New South Wales

Lessons in History Vol. I, grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane

2007 Designing Now: Fringe Furniture Alumni, Melbourne Exhibition

Centre, Melbourne

2006 Art Bound, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, Melbourne

2005 Bookscapes: Exploring Contemporary Australian Artists’ Books,

Port Jackson Press Print Room, Melbourne

2004 Heresy: The Secret Language of Materials, Craft Victoria,

Melbourne

2003 Create from a Crate, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Melbourne

AXLEnt, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne

2001–5 Script, Mass Gallery, Melbourne, and then touring to Victorian

Regional Galleries, Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney, and

Lismore Regional Gallery, New South Wales

2001 Second Wind, Craft Victoria, Melbourne

2000 Against the Grain, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane

Kangaroo Sculpture Award, ‘Kangaroo’, Kangaroo Ground,

Victoria

1999 Goodbye Kind World, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, RMIT University,

Melbourne

The Garden of the Cool Change, Fringe Festival (Architecture),

North Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne

We Are Australian, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne


Victoria

1998 The Ladder, Maverick Arts Festival, Victoria Vista Hotel,

Melbourne

Mallarmé and Australia, Baillieu Library, University of

Melbourne, Melbourne

1997 AXLE, Dairing Gallery, Melbourne


Victoria

83

1996 Box, Craft Victoria, Melbourne

Models Inc, Artists + Industry Gallery, Melbourne

1994 International Visual Poetry, St Kilda Library, Melbourne

1993 Kangaroo Sculpture Award, ‘Kangaroo’, Kangaroo Ground, Victoria

1992 Fin de Siècle? And the Twenty-First Century: Architectures of

Melbourne, The Melbourne International Festival of Arts, RMIT

University, Melbourne

1990–92 Cross <+> Currents: Bookworks from the Edge of the Pacific,

College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa

Barbara, and then touring to other venues in the USA and New

Zealand

Kangaroo Sculpture Award, ‘Kangaroo’, Kangaroo Ground, Victoria

Alice 125, City Square Plaza, Melbourne

1990 Take a Seat, Blaxland Gallery, Myer Melbourne, Melbourne

Art Angels, Blaxland Gallery, Myer Melbourne, Melbourne

1989 Words on Walls: A Survey of Contemporary Visual Poetry, Heide

Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, and Ivan Dougherty Gallery,

Sydney

1988 Pholiota Project, Walter Burley Griffin: A Review, Monash

University Gallery, Melbourne

1987 Just Wot!?, Artists Space Gallery, Melbourne

1986 New Classicism? Ten Melbourne Architects, Monash University

Gallery, Melbourne, and the Power Institute, University of Sydney,

Sydney

1985 Oxford International Concrete Poetry Archive, Flaxman Gallery,

University College, London

1984 Architecture as Idea, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, Royal Melbourne

Institute of Technology, Melbourne

1983–84 A Place of Contemplation: Architectural Attitudes to Space,

Tasmanian School of Art Gallery, Hobart, and the University

Gallery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne

1981 See/Hear, 27 Niagara Lane Galleries, Melbourne

1972 Pinacotheca, Melbourne

84

coLLections

centre for the artist Book, Brisbane

deakin University art collection, melbourne

Jean Brown papers, getty research institute, Los angeles, ca,

Usa

heide museum of modern art, melbourne

mackay regional council collection, new south Wales

monash University collection, melbourne

national gallery of australia, canberra

national Library of australia, canberra

new york public Library, ny, Usa

oxford international concrete poetry archive, oxford, Uk

power institute, University of sydney, sydney

state Library of Queensland, Brisbane

state Library of Victoria, melbourne

the sackner archive of concrete and Visual poetry, miami, fL,

Usa

Victoria and albert museum, London, Uk

private collections in australia and overseas

commissions

2008 double ladder, place gallery, richmond

2006 seven hORiZOnS, four corners, dendy cinema, portside Wharf,

Brisbane

1990 YARRA/ARRAY ScReen, World trade centre, melbourne

(demolished 2015)

aWards and residencies

2007–8 printmaking summer residency, rmit University, melbourne

2000–1 gordon darling fellowship, prints and drawings, national gallery

of australia, canberra

85

sELECtED BiBLiOGrAPHY

pUBLished concrete poerty

2013 hORiZOn thru & thru, in Australian Poetry Journal, vol. 3, issue 2, p.66.

2011 delta, one poem from lightning, one poem from weeds, in Lehmann,

geoffrey and robert gray (eds), Australian Poetry since 1788, University

of new south Wales press, sydney, pp. 773–74, 768–72.

2007 lightning monotone p3, in Artichoke, no. 18, 2007, p. 125.

2005 Whurlie Groups brown paper series, nine collages, in Mongrel: issue

and Subaud, issue 1, no. 1, pp. 22–31.

2004 lightning monotones, in Jones, patrick (ed.), Words and things: concrete

Poetry, Supersigns, Multiple language, reverie press publications,

daylesford, Victoria, n.p.

1996 filaments, in Southerly, vol. 56, no. 2, Winter, p.200.

1993 4 ladders: parallels, barlines, staves, monotone, in Mixed concrete

Poetry, no. 1, n.p.

1990 Signature, in Going Down Swinging, no. 10–11, p. 157.

1989 2 trees, in Overland, no. 114, p. 67.

4 ladders: tWO WAY, read tread, life/text, adder ladder, in Morgan,

mal (ed.), La mama poetica, melbourne University press, melbourne, p.

60.

1987 zip, in Overland, no. 107, p. 66.

x, cover for Overland, no. 113.

1986 7 versions of the Southern cross, cover for Overland, no. 102.

the tree at my fingertips, cover for Overland, no. 105.

adder ladder, in Overland, no. 105, p.17.

1985 think of a word, monotone, neon, ionesco sequence, up/dn, in tt.o.

(ed.), Off the Record, penguin Books, ringwood, Victoria, pp. 60–61.

1983 oasis, cover for Overland, no. 91.

1982 Visual Structures, in Architect, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 13–15.

1981 14 poems, in tt.o., peter murphy and alex selenitsch (eds), Missing

form: concrete, Visual and experimental Poems, collective effort press,

melbourne, n.p.

1980 balloons, up/dn, pearls and white noise, in Aspect: Art and literature,

vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 12–15.

1977 paper sonnet, cover for Overland, no. 66.

86

1976 8 monotones, in Aspect: Art and literature, vol. 4, autumn, pp.

48–52.

1974 bubble and Webster’s monotone, cover for Overland, no. 57.

1972 typography and Art, in Australian Art forum, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.

23–26.

1970 balloons, in Manic Magazine, no.1, p. 51.

1968 up/dn, in Broadsheet 3: Where are all the flowers going?,

Broadsheet publishers, melbourne.

pUBLished teXts By the artist

——, ‘on/in/out of print’, in Aspect: Art and literature, vol. 5,

no. 4, 1981, pp. 62–65.

——, ‘artist statement’, in A Survey of ethnic Visual Arts in

Australia, Aspect: Art and literature, no. 29–30, autumn 1984,

pp. 80–81.

——, ‘Landscape without Landscape’, in Overland, no. 114,

1989, pp. 84–86.

——, ‘for those who can read only’, in Overland, no. 116, 1989,

pp. 86–88.

——, ‘section fourteen: alex selenitsch’, in Zurbrugg, nicholas

(ed.), Visual Poetics: concrete Poetry and its contexts, exh. cat.,

museum of contemporary art, Brisbane, 1989, p. 15.

——, ‘the innisfail Section: projects, objects, texts’, in van

schaik, Leon (ed.), fin de Siècle? And the twenty-first century:

Architectures of Melbourne, rmit University, melbourne, 1993,

pp. 191–216.

——, ‘sign sign’, in Overland, no. 131, 1993, pp. 88–89.

——, ‘multiple & multiple: richard tipping and alex selenitsch’,

in imprint: the Journal of contemporary Australian Printmaking,

vol. 29, no. 3, spring 1994, pp. 1–2.

——, ‘art/craft/design’, in contemporary craft Review, no. 1,

1996, pp. 56–59.

87

——, ‘imagination’, in macleod, ross (ed.), interior cities, rmit

University publishing, melbourne, 1999, pp. 99–101, 245–47.

——, ‘the Bon à tirer Waltz’, in Butler, roger and anne Virgo (eds),

Place Made: Australian Print Workshop, national gallery of australia,

canberra, 2004, pp. 149–59.

——, ‘on Belgium Linen’, in Karl Wiebke: Painting, exh. cat., Liverpool

street gallery, sydney, 2005, p. 9.

——, ‘the Book as paper, Body, copy, conglomerate, Baton, & flow’,

in stuart, James (ed.), the Material Poem: An e-anthology of text-based

Art & inter-media Writing, a non-generic production, sydney, 2007,

http://www.nongeneric.net/index.php?/publications/the-material-poem/.

——, ‘words, words, words’, in Artlink, vol. 27, no. 1, 2007, pp. 50–54.

——, Australian Artists Books, national gallery of australia, canberra,

2008.

——, ‘the house of a missing family’, Architectural Design Research,

vol. 3, no. 1, 2008, pp. 57–78.

——, ‘Book: alteration’, in RecYcleD liBRARY: Altered Books, exh.

cat., artspace mackay, new south Wales, 2010, pp. 9–14.

——, ‘generative objects’, in roudavski, stanislav (ed.), MAP:

investigative Designing as an Approach to Architectural creativity,

melbourne school of design, faculty of architecture, Building and

planning, University of melbourne, melbourne, 2010, pp. 19–40.

——, ‘the halfway house’, in holloway, Barbara and Jennifer

rutherford (eds), halfway house: the Poetics of Australian Spaces,

University of Western australia publishing, perth, 2010, pp. 69–87.

——, ‘Questionnaire, what is design?’, in askland, hedda haugen,

michael J. ostwald and anthony Williams (eds), creativity, Design and

education: theories, Positions and challenges, 2010, pp. 123–25.

——, ‘Wood : cardboard’, in WOOD+cardboard: furniture, Objects,

Prototypes, Models by hamish hill and Alex Selenitsch 1992–2010, exh.

cat, Wunderlich gallery, University of melbourne, melbourne, 2010, n.p.

88

——, ‘arbitrary to non-arbitrary in 13 steps’, in lost for Words, exh.

cat., south australian school of art gallery, University of adelaide,

adelaide, 2012, n.p.

——, ‘as it Was, as it is’, in Born to concrete: Visual Poetry from the

collections of heide Museum of Modern Art and the University of

Queensland, heide museum of modern art, melbourne, and the

University of Queensland art museum, Brisbane, 2013, pp. 13–19.

——, ‘as it Was, as it is’, in Australian Poetry Journal, vol. 3, issue 2,

2013, pp. 55–61.

——, the Book of 3 times / Alex Selenitsch, codex australia

incorporated, melbourne, 2013.

——, ‘as it happened’, in fragrance permeates the garments: books,

constructions & drawings, exh. cat., Wunderlich gallery, University of

melbourne, melbourne, 2014, n.p.

——, ‘the Book book’, in 10 books, 5 makers: Australian books in

Washington Dc, codex australia, melbourne, 2014, pp. 6–11.

——, ‘into art and out again’, in inflection Journal of the Melbourne

School of Design, vol. 1, november 2014, pp. 18–23.

Books

Jones, patrick (ed.), Words and things: concrete Poetry, Supersigns,

Multiple language, reverie press publications, daylesford, Victoria,

2004.

michael, Linda (ed.), the heide collection, heide museum of modern

art, melbourne, 2011.

tt.o., peter murphy and alex selenitsch (eds), Missing form:

concrete, Visual and experimental Poems, collective effort press,

melbourne, 1981.

metcalf, andrew (ed.), thinking Architecture: theory in the Work

of Australian Architects, royal australian institute of architects,

canberra, 1995.

van schaik, Leon (ed.), fin de Siècle? And the twenty-first century:

Architectures of Melbourne, rmit University, melbourne, 1993.

89

eXhiBition cataLogUes

Born to concrete: Visual Poetry from the collections of heide

Museum of Modern Art and the University of Queensland,

heide museum of modern art, melbourne, and the University of

Queensland art museum, Brisbane, 2013.

Burns, karen, ‘home’, in how Are things at home?, geelong

gallery, Victoria, 2008, n.p.

fragrance permeates the garments: books, constructions

& drawings, Wunderlich gallery, University of melbourne,

melbourne, 2014.

holt-damant, kathi, ‘Bits in pieces: the half-life of data’, in

nogrady, Bianca (ed.), Metis 2001: Wasted, csiro, canberra,

2001, pp. 51–55.

kaji-o’grady, sandra, Book Marks and Masks, in Open & closed,

icon museum of art, deakin University, melbourne, 2006, n.p.

reid, Barrett (ed.), Words on Walls: A Survey of contemporary

Visual Poetry, heide park and art gallery, melbourne, 1989.

travel Drawings, Wunderlich gallery, University of melbourne,

melbourne, 2012.

Visual Word: the Print imaging Practice Residency exhibition,

project space/spare room, rmit University, melbourne, 2008.

WOOD+cardboard: furniture, Objects, Prototypes, Models by

hamish hill and Alex Selenitsch 1992–2010, Wunderlich gallery,

University of melbourne, melbourne, 2010.

Zurbrugg, nicholas (ed.), Visual Poetics: concrete Poetry and its

contexts, museum of contemporary art, Brisbane, 1989.

90

articLes and reVieWs

Bertram, nigel, ‘how are things at home?’, Architecture

Australia, Jan/feb 2009. pp. 17–19.

carter, paul, ‘selenitsch’s invisibles’, Art and Australia, vol. 26,

no. 3, autumn 1989, pp. 443–47.

Jenkins, John, ‘open and closed: Bookworks’, imprint: the

Journal of contemporary Australian Printmaking, vol. 41, no. 2,

2006, p. 41.

missingham, greg, ‘double, double toil and trouble’, Artichoke,

no. 18, 2007, pp. 122–25.

nelson, robert, ‘creative chaos emerges from life’s plans’, the

Age, 23 may 2012, p. 13.

noorhuis-fairfax, sarina, ‘alex selenitsch’s the Book of 3 times’,

imprint: the Journal of contemporary Australian Printmaking,

vol. 48, no. 3, 2013, p. 13.

kenny, anusha, ‘Writing with art’, Artlink, vol. 32, no. 3, 2012,

pp. 52–53.

interVieWs and theses

alex selenitsch in interview with anne kirker, by email

correspondence, melbourne, 31 october 2013, published

as ‘seven Questions for alex selenitsch’, http://www.

grahamegalleries.com.au/index.php/alex-selenitsch-seven-

questions-for-alex-selenitsch.

selenitsch, alex, ‘sets, series and suites: composing the

multiple artwork’, phd thesis, University of melbourne,

melbourne, 2008.

91

iMAGE CrEDits AND PErMissiONs

photographs By:

terence Bogue pp. 51, 58, 59, 64–65

John Brash pp. 6, 7

christian capurro pp. 10, 12, 13, 14–15, 18, 19 (top), 20–21, 25,

27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34–35, 36–37, 39, 66–67, 68–69, 70–71

robert colvin pp. 16, 26, 42–43, 62–63

philippa knack pp. 72–73

andrus Lipsys pp. 19 (bottom), 54–55

Unknown pp. 17, 23

photographs sUppLied By:

alex selenitsch pp. 8, 9, 22, 44–49, 50, 56–57

artworks by alex selenitsch are copyright the artist.

published on the occasion of the exhibition

ALEx sELENitsCH: LifE/tExt

curated by Linda short

heide museum of modern art

24 october 2015 – 17 april 2016

design: ramona Lindsay

isBn: 978-1-921330-46-9

© heide museum of modern art, the artist,

author, designer and photographers.

7 templestowe road

Bulleen Victoria 3105

australia

t +61 3 9850 1500

f +61 3 9852 0154

heide.com.au

Supported By

Cover image:

life/text matches 1986 (detail)

matches on card on foamcore board

26 x 22 x 0.75 cm

heide museum of modern art

gift of alex and merron selenitsch 2011

93

Artist’s ACkNOWLEDGEMENts

my thanks go to those who have provided

me with ideas and inspiration, those

who have helped in making the works, to

those who have written about my work,

to those who have been patrons and

audience, to the anthologists, curators

and gallery directors who have chosen,

published and exhibited my work, also

to my colleagues and family for their

bemused engagement and support.

specific thanks on this occasion go to

trevor Vickers, mike Brown, chris Wallace-

crabbe, tt.o., and richard tipping;

to John graham, andris stahls, John

ryrie, hamish hill, ross Berryman, Jas

Johnson, Linus tan and James rafferty;

helen and allan Willingham, roslyn and

owen Beaton, Barrett reid, and sweeney

reed; Jim roberts, Bruce pollard, michele

and trevor fuller, noreen grahame, and

Linda short; greg missingham, peter

downton, petr herel, tony Woods; and

to merron, who is still waiting for my

best work.

special thanks go to the melbourne

school of design, faculty of architecture

Building and planning, University of

melbourne, who, for some decades, have

tolerated my creative work and provided

me with studio and workshop space,

as well as an abundance of leftover and

abandoned materials.

ACkNOWLEDGEMENts

heide museum of modern art and

assistant curator Linda short warmly

thank alex selenitsch for the time and

enthusiasm he has given to this project.

We also extend our appreciation to the

institutional lenders to this exhibition:

deakin University art collection,

melbourne, and the national gallery of

australia, canberra; and to the private

lenders who have lent their valued works.

the assistance of all heide staff is

acknowledged, in particular the following

for their role in preparing the exhibition

and catalogue: ramona Lindsay,

Linda michael, katarina paseta, Jennifer

ross and samantha Vawdrey. sincere

thanks also to former curatorial intern

Josephine Briginshaw for her contribution

to this project’s development, and to

robert Bridgewater, Jordan marani

and simone tops for their work on the

exhibition installation.

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Alex Selenitsch Catalogue

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