Taking a position: visuality and sensation in the work of Andrew Leslie

Traces of minimalism-conceptualism's redefinition of the work of art as analytical proposition converge in Andrew Leslie's recent works, which are best described as hybrid painting-objects. Each is comprised of a bundle of narrow, factory-made lengths of aluminium. Only when installed as a rectangle of closely spaced, vertical units on the (gallery) wall do they become a 'painting', highlighting the interconnected role of architecture and conventions of media as agents of artistic definition. The back of each set of lengths is painted with a single, yellow word on a blue ground. The slightly v-shaped, front face of each length is left plain. An observant viewer, however, will notice that some painting has taken place since Leslie isn't concerned to mask the thin edges of the aluminium units to keep them free of paint. The ragged marks left by the painting process signal that each work is a pictorial object not a readymade, much as Daniel Buren---an artist of significance for Leslie---consistently painted the outer bands of the striped fabric he used in his extended cycle of works exploring how the readymade had affected the possibilities for painting.