Arryn Snowball, One two one two, installation view, 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne.

Nicholas Thompson presents works by Arryn Snowball.

The title of this show, One two one two, sounds like a meaningless statement, such as what a stage technician might say when testing the microphone. However it is one of the most basic rhythms possible: the repetition of the division between one thing and a second thing.

Rhythm as pattern and variation emerges in the visual shapes of the paintings, like the Os that repeat across the canvas in the title painting, at the beginning of One and at the end of Two, visually enacting this basic rhythm. This double action is central to concrete poetry as well, where the form and visuality of the script is as significant to the poem as the meaning of the words themselves.

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