Artist and lecturer at CQU Mackay Ashley Holmes is displaying his interactive, multimedia art works at the Artspace ‘Pacific Edge’ Contemporary Art From Coastal Queensland exhibition which opened last Friday, as part of the Regional Arts Australia, National Conference.

On Wednesday, Ashley spoke to art enthusiasts on his life and its influence on his works throughout his career.

The artist commentary gave the audience a clearer understanding of how the art evolved into the form it takes today.

Ashley started his career as an artist and film maker in the late 70s and after working in a commercial setting for 2 decades, decided to retrain as an academic. In 1998 he began part-time post graduate research studies in visual art, finally gaining a PhD in 2005.

Ashley welcomed the digital revolution that progressed through the 90s with open arms, concerned that photography in its traditional form had a tendency to be wasteful, polluting and expensive.

After delving into the then new world of internet art, Ashley sharpened his skills in digital interactivity. Work from this period of Ashley’s life is represented in permanent online archives such as C-Theory Multimedia and Java Museum.

Frustrated by the lack of real interaction with people apparent in working with the internet and with the barrier that the orthodox mouse-cursor interface sets up when exhibiting in public spaces, Ashley began looking for ways to bring a more social aspect back into his work, leading partly to his current work on display at Artspace. In 2005 he received a grant from CQU’s Regional Centre of the Arts (RCotA) fund to develop his exhibition ideas.

Ashley discovered that software for severely handicapped people (based on the principal of detecting movement to control a mouse) was a great way to provide an interface for the viewer and art. It also presented an opportunity to bring several new dimensions to the scripting and structure of his work.

Effects of smoke and distortion are created when the viewer moves in certain ways. Hot Spots embedded in the artwork enable the viewer to dig deeper into the layers of content. Once activated, these ‘hot spots’ take the viewer into another dimension of the work, enabling the viewer to create their own path through the narratives of the art piece.

All of Ashley’s art works have an organic base, profiling the beauty of nature while offering some questions on how natural states are disturbed and changed by man.

The exhibition continues until October 22. The Pacific Edge Conference commences on Friday and concludes on Sunday.

For further details, please contact Ashley Holmes on 0438 807 421 or email a.holmes@cqu.edu.au.

Photo: Ashley Holmes exhibits his interactive art work at Mackay Artspace this week as part of the Pacific Edge, Regional Arts Australia National Conference.