The Cool Arrangement

Jo Wilson’s recent works examine the relationship between geometric abstraction, industrial form, material history, and the reconstruction of reclaimed timber. Formed from Baltic Pine dado boards and Kauri Pine weatherboards salvaged from former heritage homes in Daylesford and South Melbourne, the works retain knots, fissures, nail holes, stains, and structural irregularities. Formed through the sands of time. Rather than concealing or correcting these nuances, Wilson integrates them into the compositional logic, making the material and visual instability central to its abstract structure.

Historically associated with formal reduction, geometric abstraction is here reconfigured through materials that retain evidence of labour, weathering, and architectural wear. Drawing on more than three decades of engagement with printmaking, Wilson employs the visual language of platens, moulds, nozzles, and industrial dies as recurring compositional devices. Repeated contours, geometric divisions, and framing structures establish frameworks associated with alignment, pressure, containment, and mechanical precision.

Yet, the geometric order of the works is continually disrupted by the organic nature of the timber itself. Knots interrupt the picture plane, grain patterns drift unpredictably across the surface, and tonal inconsistencies resist the sleekness historically associated with hard-edge abstraction and post-minimal coolness.

Wilson’s use of finely milled timber surfaces and architectural framing devices positions the work within a unique dialogue surrounding postminimal and neo-conceptual abstraction. The layered timber substrates and spatial divisions recall aspects of Peter Halley’s constructed paintings, particularly in their deployment of geometry as both spatial system and organisational logic.

Unlike Halley’s sealed and semiotic surfaces, Wilson’s compositions resist formal closure through the persistent visibility of material irregularity and historic wear. Colour similarly operates structurally rather than illusionistically.

Restrained chromatic interventions, including hand-painted pins and concentrated colour accents, interrupt the flatness of the surface while evoking familiar points of contact associated with everyday objects such as door handles, fixtures, and hooks. These elements function less as devices of pictorial depth than as markers of orientation and tactile recognition.

Questions of objecthood and display are equally central to the works. Their status as wall-based constructions invites comparison with Haim Steinbach’s shelf works and Donald Judd’s wall constructions, in which acts of framing and presentation operate in a system of cool arrangements. Whereas Steinbach’s practice frequently engages systems of commodity circulation and display, Judd’s wall constructions retain the spectre of industrial intervention and design. Wilson’s wall works remain tied to the physical history and residual labour embedded within reclaimed timber. The material is a contradiction to the idea of the cold, ever-expanding plane.

The assembled and modular logic of the works recalls aspects of John Nixon’s provisional abstractions and constructed surfaces, while their emphasis on material presence shares affinities with Kishio Suga and the wider Mono-ha movement, in which materials resist complete formal acceptances and retain a degree of ephemeral. Wilson’s works hover between organic form, design object and fine art.

The vertical sculptural works extend the history of the totem-like object. Their stacked cylindrical forms suggest machine components, architectural fragments, or ritual structures, yet resist fixed categorisation. Precision cut grooves and repeated profiles establish serial rhythms repeatedly complicated by variations in density, grain, and surface irregularity. Across the exhibition, abstraction emerges not as a withdrawal from material reality but as a means of registering the tension between time, geometric order, human systems, and the foreboding temporal conditions embedded within matter itself.

Jeremy Kibel 2026

OF LINE and EDGES

The timber used in these works originates from my photographer’s former heritage homes in Daylesford and South Melbourne. During a photoshoot, he mentioned he was beginning to clear out these materials from his studio, where they had been stored for many years. Next, we were loading my car with his collection of beautiful old Baltic Pine dado boards and Kauri Pine weatherboards from the 1800s. These timbers carry a strong connection to local history. They have been reworked and reimagined into this new series of wall works. I have loved giving them a second life.

Within this body of work, platen, moulds and industrial components serve as primary references for outlines, borders, and contours. A platen is a flat plate used in machinery and printmaking to apply pressure and hold materials. It is often the heaviest and most critical component of a press, ensuring precision. In metal forming, a platen is the component that houses the mould for forging the required shape, the movable and stationary platens are in the dies (custom, sharp-edged tools) located inside an injection moulding machine. The titles of my recent works reference this essential industrial and printmaking component, marking a connection between its industrial function and my background of over 30 years in printmaking.

After careful laminating and preparation, the timber substrates are layered with wood washes, acrylic paint, pigments, and hand-turned pins. The pins introduce a play of colour, mapped through an open enquiry into the geometry found in nozzles and bolt holes within industrial dies. The sweet spot emerges intuitively, as all elements come into balance.

My aim is to allow the timber to breathe and shine, often leaving large, centred open margins. As much as possible, honouring the marks of time. Boundary lines establish a structural silhouette, holding the composition in place.

Linework is central to the totems. Linear elements define each form, with alternating direction and orientations. These works draw on core principles of form, edge, and contour; referencing the profiles found in industrial tooling and machinery. At the same time, the linear rhythm of the woodgrain plays with our perception, reminding us timber is a living material.

I aim to create works that feel positive to experience. Ideally, the viewer is drawn closer and compelled to touch. Wood, by its nature, invites connection: its scent, surface, and subtle vibration create an object that we’re compelled to connect and engage with.

J/W 2026