Through a collection of installations and drawings, Throw Genre presents a reflexive exploration of the creative process. This process encompasses both the artist’s journey that yields the final work and the spectator’s interrogation and interpretation of the exhibition. Drawing his inspiration from a variety of sources, including cinema, music, theatre, and painting, Michael A. Robinson investigates the multiple materializations inherent to the creation of all works of art.

With neither predetermined themes or boundaries, Michael A. Robinson’s research is as unbridled as the fruits of his labour are unpredictable- they are in a perpetual state of flux right up until that fateful night when the curtain is, at last, raised. Like the actor who uncovers more facets of his character with each rehearsal, Robinson’s work is refined by the well-practiced passing of time.

Throw Genre evokes a mise-en-abîme of the work of an artist; it touches upon what all artists must submit themselves to for any given exhibition. Opening Night, an installation inspired by the eponymous film by John Cassavetes, alludes to the doubts and vulnerability that haunt the creative process, as tripods and lecterns are subjected to the spotlight in place of the artist. The soundtrack of the piece, remixed without dialogue or music from the Cassavetes film— the story of an actress who, following the death of one of her young admirers, struggles to play her role— serves to reinforce the precarious nature of creative interpretation.

In When there are no paintings to see, paintings see you, artistic materials are displayed as functions of their structural properties: easels and drafting tables are pulled through the looking-glass to become sculptures. A series of Letraset drawings— pictorial manifestations of the artist’s expressive and conceptual exploration— complete the exhibition. Throw Genre brings the artistic process to the fore, thereby inviting spectators to analyse their own performances and revisit their interpretations.

Throw Genre is the fruitful culmination of Michael A. Robinson’s three years in the ateliers of the Darling Foundry.