Keith Mason

Perfect Machine

1 - 12 October 2025

Opening Night

Friday 3 October | 6 - 8 pm

G4

Artist Statement

Perfect Machine draws from the mechanics of magnetic tape recording to examine how we capture and reproduce ephemeral phenomena. 

Just as tape recording makes sound visible as magnetic patterns on oxide, the work makes magnetic fields visible. The process reveals the inherent instability of analog systems. Particles shift unpredictably, arrangements degrade, and the magnetic hold weakens over time. 

An invisible process that captures and reproduces reality, yet creates its own form of artifice. The work questions whether these processes of magnetic capture and reproduction offer authentic access to the phenomena they record, or whether they inevitably transform what they seek to preserve. Revealing the material basis of what we often consider purely sonic phenomena.

Artist Bio

Keith Mason is an Australian sound artist working in sculpture, performance, and video installations. His practice investigates the paradoxical relationship between authenticity and simulation in contemporary culture, exploring how we construct and validate ‘natural’ experiences through artificial means.

He has exhibited at galleries and public art spaces across Australia. Recent major works include “TerraForms” (2023) at Good Grief Studios, Hobart, and “Dry Signal” (2020) at Wide Open Road Art, Castlemaine, both incorporating sculpture, sound performance, and video elements. Earlier works such as “Bell” (2018) and the “Speaker’s Corner” series (2016-2017) were presented at venues including Testing Grounds Public Art Space, Melbourne, and 107 Projects, Sydney.

His multimedia installations examine manufactured attempts at authenticity, questioning cultural assumptions about what constitutes ‘real’ or ‘natural.’ Drawing from their background in music, Mason creates acoustic environments where technological simulations of natural phenomena generate uncanny spaces that are neither purely artificial nor truly organic. These works probe human desire for authentic experience in an increasingly mediated world.

Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au

Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map

How to get here
Tram: Route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens

Melway Ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets

Bus: 504 (Reid Street)