It was surprising to find more simple humanity in Dani Marti’s show, Black Sun, at the Fremantle Arts Centre (until March 28). Marti is best known for a kind of super macrame, featuring knotted ropes and cables made from coloured nylon and polyester. Through colour and form, these pieces can generate a wider range of responses than might seem possible at first.
Seeing a large body of work allows a deeper understanding of Marti’s preoccupations. The standout pieces are aluminium frames encrusted with costume jewellery, beads and trinkets. These panels have an astounding density, inviting us to keep looking ever more closely at a mass of cheap, decorative frippery transformed into an imposing work of art. One becomes conscious of the hours of labour behind every set of beads, and the delight that even the simplest item might bring to its owner.
Marti also makes strange, unsettling videos, such as one with a blind man named Bob, who simply needed to touch someone and experience an intimacy that most people take for granted. It’s rare for an artist to combine vast, looming sculptural installations with such minimal videos, but this exhibition gives the impression that everything is tightly knotted together.