The intersecting orbits curated by Tim Marvin

Tim Marvin is an emerging curator, artist, and aspiring art historian based on Darug land. He is interested in critical and Marxist theories of global art, contemporary painting, and histories of the image. He has a Bachelor of Art Theory (Honours) from UNSW Art & Design, and currently holds positions at Smith & Singer and Artspace, Sydney. Previous curatorial and artistic projects have included Poetics of the Line, 2019, Kudos Gallery, and (dis)assembling care, 2020, curated by Nicole Beck and Amelia Lazberger, Airspace, and several interventions, Waiting Room Project, 2019, Sydney.

This conversation took place in February 2022 on the occasion of Circling the Sun, featuring Holly Anderson, Trent Crawford, András Cséfalvay, Kalanjay Dhir, Alex Gawronski, Vande Grey, David Haines, Joyce Hinterding, Emma Hamilton, Greg Stanford, David Suyasa, and NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, curated by Tim Marvin.

Interview by Brian Obiri-Asare, Co-Director, Firstdraft, 2022–23.

Brian Obiri-Asare: The sun forms the metaphoric wellspring for your curated exhibition Circling the Sun. Could you tell us a little bit about your curatorial intentions behind grounding this exhibition in the sun’s metaphoric richness?

Tim Marvin: The sun's pervasive presence allows it to be the subject, whether direct or not, for a lot of artistic practices and creative investigations. The curatorial premise sought to focus on several, interrelated politics, affects, and histories that stem from the sun. The first theme was the practice of sun-gazing, a practice that was/is an antiquated form of alternative medicine famously practiced by painter J. M. W. Turner, but also a practice linked to modern spirituality and speculative science. The work of Holly Anderson, Vande Grey, and David Suyasa touch upon this through their respective works in the show. 

Another core theme was the Sun's relation to nuclear power and catastrophe, something expressed namely in Trent Crawford's reproduced images of the Trinity nuclear test site. Placed next to a semi-live feed of the Sun courtesy of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory and a video work by Slovakian artist András Cséfalvay playing as a rambling/ruminating Isaac Newtown, this was to probe how modern scientific enquiry has found its extremes in nuclear weaponry and how such shares similar thermodynamic processes created by the sun. This direct scientific approach is continued in the work of Joyce Hinterding and David Haines, and I think finds a neat resolve with Kalanjay Dhir's solar reflector mimicking the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope that combines a DIY science and GUI aesthetics with Hindu solar worship. 

The last core theme was its connection to oil extraction and consumption, echoing Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani's Deleuzian description of oil as the "corpse of the Sun" and its hegemonic bind over Earth that only intensifies capitalism. The linear economic and cultural correlation between the Sun and the Earth to Negarestani is a dead-end for a more radical ecology that should be attuned to the even grander contingencies of the cosmic. To me, Alex Gawronski's work Sick Mood at Sunset... obliquely touches upon this – along with all the other works in the show when understood in their entirety. A work described by Gawronski as trying to create a contemporary artwork by using the least contemporary aesthetics and materials possible, the installation imitates the wood panelling of an old boy's club. Almost conspiratorial by trying to construct such a thing, the artwork engages with the cultish machinations of capitalism that we associate with these secret off-limit rooms where big business deals are made. 

Another closer to artistic practices is the Sun's relation to photographic approaches, mainly expressed in Emma Hamilton’s cyanotype sundial, Greg Stanford’s expanded photographic practice, and David Suyasa’s imagery.

Foreground to background: Kalanjay Dhir, Mirror Test #4 (Mini-Aruna), 2021, 6mm glass, one-way solar reflective gold mirror f ilm from Shenzhen, mild steel, wood, casters, deity key ring, woven IEC to C14 rack extension cables, monitor and single channel video 70 × 160 × 50 cm, 12 minutes 22 seconds; Alex Gawronski, Sick Mood at Sunset (etc.), 2018, Ply, timber, stain, wall-mounted lamps, amplifier, mini-CD player, speakers and wiring Installed dimensions variable; installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artists.

“The curatorial premise sought to focus on several, interrelated politics, affects, and histories that stem from the sun.”

Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, installation view, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer.

BOA: Circling the Sun weaves together diverse artistic mediums. Are you able to elaborate on the different mediums contained within the exhibition and how such diversity compliments the its premise?

TM: I think this diversity is a natural and materially embedded result of the many ways in which artists can respond to the sun, and furthermore how the curatorial premise sought to display such.

“The sun’s pervasive presence allows it to be the subject, whether direct or not, for a lot of artistic practices and creative investigations.”

David Suyasa, Gaze: San Francisco, 2020, three C-Type photographic prints 17.8 × 12.7 cm each (installed dimensions variable); Holly Anderson, Eleven, 2021, oil on panel composition board 26 × 20 cm; and Blips, 2018 oil on canvas 60.9 × 76.2 cm; NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO Sun Feed: Singly Ionized Helium (He II) Channel (3/1/22 – 7/1/22), 2010 – ongoing, single channel video, 53 minutes; installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artists.

BOA: Your curatorial practice draws heavily on critical art theory. What specific theories lie at the heart of ‘Circling the Sun’ and how have they influenced its practical conception?

SM: Reza Negerastani played a large role in the theoretical construction of the show, along with Ray Brassier and of course George Bataille.

Vande Grey, Einsoph Compass on the Life Raft of Anomaly, 2019-2022 oil, acrylic, pencil, marker pen and touch on felt, silk, linen and wool. Stretched wool and plywood base. 110 cm × 160 cm, installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artist.

“I like how critically curated shows use artworks like a set of elements, where in their entirety they provide a non-pedagogical tool for the curator to apprehend, dig-up, and investigate something and ultimately a lens through which the viewer might see the world. ”

BOA: You provide the viewer with plenty to dig through. How do you balance conceptual rigour with the need to not impinge on the viewers capacity to appreciate and understand?

TM: I think this is achieved through visual means and how artworks are physically distributed across the space. This allows me to create a sort of visual and thematic flow between artworks. Another strategy I like is to disperse different artworks by the same artist within the space, so they aren't merely plotted down in their own little area, this allows for the works to be more visually and thematically intertwined.

Joyce Hinterding, Carbon Copy Reactor #1, 2015 electrostatic carbon on rag paper 120 × 86 cm, installation view (detail), Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artist.

Vande Grey, The Radiance that Falls to the Floor, 2020-2022 oil, pencil and marker pen on linen, fabric, felt and velvet. Stretched wool and plywood base. 204.5 × 190 cm × 170 cm; David Haines, Transmission to the Sun, 2016 edition of 3 +1AP twelve ultrachrome pigment print on Canson Rag Photgraphique 50 × 35cm each (installed dimensions variable); installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artists.

BOA: I’m curious as to how your artistic practice influences your curatorial practice? Are the two practices complementary, and what do you hope to achieve with each?

TM: I see my curatorial and artistic practice as two regrettably separate processes. Of course, ideas, theories, and influences cross-over, but I approach this for the sake of keeping a ‘professional’ separation between them. I try to involve myself creatively in them however, mainly through curatorial devices I create that expand upon the themes explored in the show and the potentially more overbearing curation of works physically in the space. I like how critically curated shows use artworks like a set of elements, where in their entirety they provide a non-pedagogical tool for the curator to apprehend, dig-up, and investigate something and ultimately a lens through which the viewer might see the world.  

Where my curatorial interests are broader, my artistic practice is mainly based in painting and conceptual art. With a Marxist framework, my artwork is interested in contemporary imagery, art histories of painting, global politics, and economic relationships between objects and agents. I try to balance my output of curatorial and artistic work, as I value each deeply.

“I like is to disperse different artworks by the same artist within the space, so they aren’t merely plotted down in their own little area, this allows for the works to be more visually and thematically intertwined.”

Tim Marvin, Curatorial provocations:: 4chan sun meme, Kuwait oil well Google image, J. M. W Turner, Sunset c.1845, Watercolour on paper, 24 × 31.5 cm, Three inkjet prints on A4 paper and blue tape dimensions variable; installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artist.

BOA: What’s next for you, curatorially and artistically?

TM: As an emerging curator it is always hard to say, however I have a curatorial project in the works called After Common Era (ACE) that is indebted to the theories and work of Elizabeth Povinelli. Whatever comes of it, who knows.

Alex Gawronski, Sick Mood at Sunset (etc.), 2018, Ply, timber, stain, wall-mounted lamps, amplifier, mini-CD player, speakers and wiring, installed dimensions variable; David Suyasa, Path, 2020-2021, UV digital print on opal acrylic in handmade lightbox, Edition of 3 + 1 A/P, 62.5 × 44 × 15 cm; Greg Stanford, Sequence of Ash II, 2020, Canson platine photo paper, 99 × 124 cm; installation view, Circling the Sun, 2022, curated by Tim Marvin, Firstdraft, Sydney. Photo: Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artists.

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