Tony Scott was born in Australia and has lived in Beijing since 2005. He has had wide professional experience in China and throughout the Asia Pacific region since 1994. selected solo exhibitions 2007 Temple Geometrics, Studio Rouge, Shanghai. 2006 Ten Years On, Fringe Club, Hong Kong. 2005 Journey, Maroondah Gallery, Melbourne; New Travels, Span Gallery, Melbourne; Shadowlands, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing. 2003 10 Years, Kato Gallery, Tokyo. 2002 Landfall, Australian High Commission, Singapore. selected group exhibitions 2009 Trading Meaning, (China Art Projects) DAC Space, Beijing; Luminous Dark, King on William Gallery, Sydney. 2008 C.A.P. Launch, Two Lines Space, Beijing; Luminous Dark, Bleibtreu Gallery, Berlin; Process-Journey, Red Gate Beijing, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, Capital Place, Hong Kong. 2005 Altitude, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia; Wandering, Kunstlerhause, Vienna, Austria; Global Fusion, Vienna/Melbourne. 2004 Beijing Art Fair and Melbourne Art Fair, represented by Red Gate Gallery. 2003 Drawing Dust, Melbourne/Hong Kong/Beijing. awards include the Australia-China Council, Arts Victoria and DFAT through the Australian Embassy, Beijing. commissions include major private commissions for the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Beijing, Crown Hotels, Melbourne, National Bank Collection in Australia and London, Standard Chartered Bank, Tokyo and the Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong. collections works are held in important private and government collections including Australian Embassy, Beijing, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Victorian Arts Centre Collection and Artbank, Australia.

Statement
I want the presentation of seemingly benign objects to be discomfiting. I am required, as are most of us, to place blind faith in medicine when I must consult physicians. My stoic model stands proxy for us in this portentous composition and expresses the vulnerability, frustration and humiliation we can feel in the hands of the medical profession. Nevertheless, we courageously endure the procedure with as much human dignity as we can muster. And I line up the elements of this composition meticulously. I refuse to give up control.

Is Tony Scott Out of Control?

Tony Scotts body of work is daunting to categorise. He has a tremendous command of so many media and is seemingly fearless in his employment of them. When we look beyond the striking visual variety and the confident execution, we can see the common thread of the notion of control. This is not the personal and psychological control we would speak of Freudian terms with a distasteful exploration of infantile stages but rather a more existentialist concept of control that involves questions of self-determination and external realities. In his prolific artist production, Scott asks himself (and therefore the viewer) how much control we have over ourselves and our environment.

We can view much of Scotts work as artistic explorations of harsh realities. Although he confronts them with his confident, meticulous style, he demonstrates immense courage by revealing his vulnerability. The Health Plan and Headache Series include found acupuncture models employed in traditional Chinese medicine. The timeworn wooden statues stand stoic, prone and nearly naked, their bodies riddled with the tiny pinholes that indicate the puncture and pressure points. These found objects alone can inspire pathos, but Scott underscores this emotion by attaching sinister-looking metal clamps to them. The cables lead to various clunky, unidentified machines adorned with dials and gauges. They surround the lonely figure ominously and remind us of Dr. Frankensteins laboratory equipment. Is it being measured? Diagnosed? Tortured? We are not sure, but the presentation is discomfiting. While Scott asks us to empathise with the wooden patient he can neither read the copious Chinese labels on the acupuncture model nor decipher the gauges on the many electric meters to which it is attached. He, like most of us, is required to place his blind faith in medicine when he must consult physicians. Scotts stoic model stands proxy for him and us in this portentous composition and expresses the vulnerability, frustration and humiliation we can feel in the hands of the medical profession. Nevertheless, the model standscourageously enduring the procedure with as much human dignity as he can muster. And Scott lines up the elements of his composition meticulously. He refuses to give up control.

With similar conviction, Scott reorders geometric rigour in his Beijing Geometrics, Transparent Pages and ObserveCInstruct series. The Beijing Geometrics consist of 16 wooden squares that he assembles, in this instance into one large square C at other times into different multiples of smaller squares. He paints, stains and lacquers the wood to form geometric patternsexperiments in the resolution of the horizontal and vertical. We are immediately reminded of Piet Mondrians seemingly endless compositions that explore this same resolution, but Mondrian was more interested in employing primary colours to subvert notions of depth and spatial hierarchy. The sculptural quality of Scotts works tell us that he is not concerned with the former, and the texturing and palette choices tell us he not concerned with the latter. When we view the entire set of paintings, we begin to see that Scott is testing both the limits of geometry and his control over it. While the assembled wooden squares provide a rigid, grid-like under-order, the linear elements Scott adds gently subvert this rigour. He maintains straight lines, but jolts the parallels and perpendiculars. The result of this careful organizing and re organizing is a series of controlled, abstract compositions with intense visual interest. Scott takes a template of unimaginative order and imposes his own order on top of it, effectively revealing geometry to be not science but myth. The power of creation and the ability to reorder our reality can render accepted hierarchies meaningless.
Tally Beck
Beijing June 2008

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