Being in Wladyslaw Strzeminski’s 1926 Architectural Composition 1, in WALLBANGER, group show at Space Ideation projects, 2026

While the show’s title ‘Wallbanger’ may suggest rich mixed drinks or the disorienting effects they have on some people, I like to also think of it as drawing attention to the physical world we inhabit when in Space Ideation projects, among the closest parts of which are its walls.

That’s because I have long been experimenting with how artworks can incorporate or embed themselves in the physical world we inhabit rather than standing alone pretending that the physical world is of no consequence to them, as is the long held convention in Western art.

I began those experiments on impulse 35 years ago, and later came to realise that it is one way art can participate in the broad environmental movement, by using an artwork’s medium or form to massage the message that the physical environment matters. I realised that when place openly participates in an artwork and is not just represented there, the artwork can act as a model for valuing place in its own right. In valuing place, it stands against the dominant values of modern Western culture that regard the physical world as primarily there for exploitation and conversion into cash.

So I titled Being in Wladyslaw Strzeminski’s 1926 Architectural Composition 1 because I see in all of Strzeminski’s Architectural Composition paintings an invitation to take the paintings one step further—to literally separate the two shapes that he defined with paint. (See images of some of his Architectural Compositions here.)

After being literally separated, the enigmatic black shape of Architectural Composition 1 sits in WALLBANGER as black painted and waxed ply, while the white shape merges with the familiar gallery architecture, enabling us to imagine that while we are in Space Ideation projects we are also in an expanded Strzeminski painting.