New Knowledge (2006), baltic birch, piano hinges, chalkboard paint

An array of pointy, planar sculptures draws visitors into the big, bright room. Composed of triangles and rectangles cut from birch plywood, dipped in blackboard paint, and joined with piano hinges, the works stimulate an odd sense of companionability. The muman scale (the largest components are between 1.2 and 1.8 metres in height or length) and the casual way they're installed invite interaction. There's a sense of standing shoulder to shoulder with these odd and elegant shapes.

Individually and collectively titled New Knowledge, they were produced by Victoria-based artist Lucy Pullen. She is also exhibiting a small but eclectic range of photographs, drawings and mineature figurative sculptures, along with familiar objects (such as an electric guitar) dressed in reflective fabric with conspicous zippers. All are on view at the Republic Gallery. Located on the third floor of an old building at 732 Richards Street, up two flights of steep and narrow stairs, Republic is in the process of revealing an ambitious program of smart art aross a range of media.

Pullen's hinges sculptures and architectural drawings are the result of a six-week residency she undetook in Los Angeles last summer. In a recent conversation with the Straignt, she spoke of her work as a direct response to the studio building in which she was then living and working. She also aluded to the contingent nature of her art: the six freestanding works here comprise two variations each of three different combinations of components -what Pullen calles "unique multiples". Folded up, each sculpture resembles a large, unpened emveloe. In this form, the works can lean against the wall, like paintings. The dip into blackboard paint expands the painting idea, bringing together evocations of school (leaerning, pedagogy, theory) and the history of abstraction. The unfolding of the works, Pullen explains, is a form of "new knowledge".

The many ways in whih the conjoined triangular and rectangular forms can be configured -up, down, in, out, with acute or obtuse angles -suggest an improvised architecture mated with a flock of origami birds. Extended wings and pointy legs consort with notions of lean-tos, tents, and tepees. This sculpture reffs on the rigours of 1960s minimalism and serialsm, with added notes on modular construction and the built environment.Like many of her contemporaries, Pullen messes with materials, forms and the ways in which we percieve and process art. Flipping between the second and third dimension and wrapped in reflective material, her works seem to sccupy an uncertain or precarious space.

production still (16 x 20 transmount photograph)