2 – 27 October, 2012

20 images in series; silver gelatin prints, unique state, 45 x 35cm, 2012.

Loosely based on a found poem entitled Let Down Reliable by Agnes Dux, Cereal Dust is a collection of black and white photo collages from Melbourne-based artist Benjamin Lichtenstein.

Produced entirely in the darkroom, the works in this exhibition represent an ambitious attempt by the artist to simultaneously bring together various images from his archive onto the imperfect and unforgiving medium of the light-sensitive page. The goal in Lichtenstein’s instance is an harmonious falling down and getting up again.

In this first solo exhibition for the artist, Lichtenstein shares a personal take on commencements and resolutions. In the wheel of fortune of people’s lives, it seems only the luck of the draw will dictate how many black tiles will occupy the spaces on their wheel. But with each disappointing landing on a black tile, comes the feeling that something has come to an end, like we always knew it would. And before the next spin, that feeling can be just right too.

Found scribbled on a piece of paper on the floor of a Berlin train station in 2010:

Let Down Reliable

By the time the snow will have returned to water, he will be away,
In pursuit of the nourishment he’s trained himself to crave,
Finding only the dust of yesterday’s cereal and the pangs of tomorrow’s hunger.
And sure as shade, the water will once again dry. And freeze. And fall.

Agnes Dux