MARTI TIES VIEWERS IN KNOTS

This artist paints with rope. His sculptural works sit on the wall just like a painting, and they appeal to painting in their aesthetic language. A large orange piece built on a sheet of mesh resembles a work by Jackson Pollock. The sinuous cables pass in and out of the picture plane, emerge from behind, entertain one another’s shadows and then dive beneath another layer. This intertwining action pulses with a serpentine thrill, as of writhing scaly bodies, colourful but also sinister. a clever essay by Anthony Gardner relates the rope image to sadomasochism, which puts another twist into the complex.

Robert Nelson

The Age, Friday, May 20.

Exhibition link, ‘There is nothing at the end of the rainbow’ 2005