CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Jay Kochel

The ambitious machine drawings of Canberra based Jay Kochel seek to articulate the imperceptible by inverting notions of solidity and immateriality. Inspired by Japanese concepts of meditation and perception, Kochel creates ‘air studies’ that extract, map and translate both the physical world and our sensory experience of it.

Working through a process of technical reinterpretation, air-filled sculptural skins replicating solid forms are transformed into flattened mesh models via a process of 3 dimensional scanning and digital pen plotting. The results are a breathtaking series of complex, ethereal studies in line and space.

The mechanical drawing is a plotter (modified vinyl cutter), using a white pigment marker to draw the mesh of 3D scanned objects. These objects were mylar balloons that Jay made during a residency at the Kyoto Arts Centre exploring ideas of impermanence and air as a material for creating form. The objects were around 1-2 metres and printed slightly less than actual size. The 3D scanner he has is portable and attaches to an iPad. The 3D data is then edited and manipulated into a 2D mesh, or net, that provides a drawing path for the plotter.

'For Jay Kochel, air and nothingness are, paradoxically, the pillars of his practice. Working across several complex stages with impressive technical prowess, the Canberra artist creates machine drawings that quarry the haptics of immateriality, and the pliability of perception. Kochel’s series ‘Meanwhile’ continues a process he began many years ago in Japan while on a residency at the Kyoto Arts Centre. A small handheld 3D scanner creates digital models of inflated sculptural forms, handmade from brown paper, gold mylar or any membrane taped together to make a rudimentary balloon. The digital scans are rendered into flat meshes that are then worked on to produce drawings with a plotter and scribe to engrave aluminium. These ethereal engravings on brushed aluminium and enamel engage with the trope of air as a separator, and a void to fill. Kochel terms the works 'air studies', or 'reading air', alluding to the Japanese phrase 'to read air' – similar to reading between the lines of a social situation. Temporality and spatiality cease to exist in the ghostly engraved marks, which profile invisible forces like strange celestial nets. Embryonic forms twist and turn in space, incarnating before our eyes. There is the sense, here, of possibility, plasticity, and promise.'
Excerpt from essay by Elli Walsh, 2023

Based in Canberra, Jay Kochel completed his Doctorate in Philosophy (Visual Art) at the Australian National University, School of Art, in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded an Arts ACT Project Funding Grant and an Asialink Residency to the Kyoto Art Center, Japan. At the time his research has focused on scent and methods of representing the unseen. This research was part of a Vice Chancellor’s Visiting Artist Fellowship at the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Research School of Chemistry. Kochel has a multidisciplinary approach to his art practice and research methodology.

Kochel has won several awards including joint winner of the M16 Artspace Drawing Prize (2016); recipient of the Neil Roberts Award (2008) and the Anthony Forge Prize for Anthropology (2004). Prior to completing an undergraduate degree in sculpture and interactive media he studied a combined Bachelor of Anthropology and Law in 1996. Kochel’s doctoral studies focused on the relationship between fetish, magic and contemporary art. The majority of his fieldwork was conducted at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford and the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, where he researched the artefactual history of fetishism. Jay Kochel was the winner of the 2017 FLG Exploration Award for Emerging Artists.

All images remain copyright of the artist. If you intend on sharing these images on social media, please make sure to credit the artist, Jay Kochel, and FLG.
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Gonzo 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
122cm x 122cm , framed
On exhibition at the Pleysier Perkins Art Space
$6,000 AUD

Squiggle (Mister) 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
122cm x 122cm , framed
Sold
Sold

Rocket 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
122cm x 122cm , unframed
On exhibition at the Pleysier Perkins Art Space
$5,500 AUD

Piggy (Miss) 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
100cm x 100cm , framed
$4,500 AUD

Kermit 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
100cm x 100cm , framed
$4,500 AUD

Oscar 2023
engravings on enamel and brushed aluminium composite panel
60cm x 60cm , framed
$2,200 AUD

Bop 2022
engraving on aluminium and acrylic paint
50cm x 50cm , framed
Sold
Sold

Kip 2022
engraving on aluminium and acrylic paint
50cm x 50cm , framed
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Sold

Lobe 2022
engraving on aluminium and acrylic paint
50cm x 50cm , framed
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Sold

Trip 2022
engraving on aluminium and acrylic paint
50cm x 50cm , framed
$2,100 AUD

Laze 2021
Acrylic and pen on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
On exhibition at the Pleysier Perkins Art Space
$1,800 AUD

Lilt 2021
Acrylic and pen on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
On exhibition at the Pleysier Perkins Art Space
$1,800 AUD

Loaf 2021
Acrylic and pen on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
On exhibition at the Pleysier Perkins Art Space
$1,800 AUD

Loll 2021
Acrylic and pen on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
$1,800 AUD

Betty 2019
pen and acrylic on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
Sold
Sold

George 2019
pen and acrylic on marine ply
50cm x 50cm
$1,800 AUD

Scooter 2023
Electroformed copper over Bio-Photopolymer resin
21cm x 15cm x 8cm In Artist Studio
$4,000 AUD

Animal 2023
Electroformed copper over Bio-Photopolymer resin
12cm x 10cm x 19.5 cm In Artist Studio
$4,000 AUD

Rowlf 2023
Electroformed copper over Bio-Photopolymer resin
12cm x 12cm x 16cm In Artist Studio
$4,000 AUD