REVIEW : “Marlene Sarroff (Australia) makes installations, paintings and sculptures. By rejecting an objective truth and global cultural narratives, Sarroff tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical and believes in the idea of function following form in a work. Her work urges us to renegotiate installation art as being part of a reactive or - at times - autistic medium, commenting on oppressing themes in our contemporary society. By applying abstraction , she uses references and ideas that are so integrated into the process of the composition of the work, that they may escape those that do not take the time to explore how and why these images haunt you, like a good film, long after you have seen them. Her work doesn’t reference recognisable form. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multi-faceted. With a subtle minimalistic approach, she creates work in which a fascination with the clarity of content and an uncompromising attitude towards conceptual and minimal art can be found. The work is aloof and systematic and a cool and neutral imagery is used.
Her works are a drawn reflection upon the art of installation art itself: thoroughly self referential, yet no less aesthetically pleasing, and therefore deeply inscribed in the history of modernism - made present most palpably in the artist’s exploration of some of the most hallowed of modernist paradigms. Through a radically singular approach that is nevertheless inscribed in the contemporary debate, she creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles. Her works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often they are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. With a conceptual approach, she creates with daily, recognisable elements, an unprecedented situation in which the viewer is confronted with the conditioning of his own perception and has to reconsider his biased position. Her practice provides a useful set of allegorical tools for manoeuvring with a pseudo-minimalist approach in the world of installation art: these meticulously planned works resound and resonate with images culled from the fantastical realm of imagination. Marlene Sarroff currently lives and works in Sydney”