Wednesday 20 June 2012

Considering an artist in residence

I thought I'd step away from wandering around galleries for a moment and have a brief look at what some artists are achieving outside an exhibition space. 
Imagine inviting an artist into your home, school or office, solely to create something unique and relevant. Not necessarily a partnership or a painting project-by-committee, rather one which creates an opportunity: for the artist, to work and learn (and live and eat) and for the 'patron', to engage with someone, possibly outside of their groove, who might take a different approach to life and add another dimension. Each might influence the other which may then be reflected in the outcome.
Wendy Murray private commission 2006
acrylic & enamel paint on wallpaper
 
Private patronage has many benefits for artist and patron alike. Life is meant to be interesting and should be filled with ideas and concepts that take us outside of the daily grind. Creative projects offer this opportunity.
We did it a while ago - in our family home. I met an artist whose work I particularly liked and which I thought could sit well in our home. Wendy Murray came to our home for 3 days, as our artist in residence, to draw and paint and spray-paint on prepared wallpaper, to create a large, site-specific wall piece. Her fee, materials, meals and beverages were covered and in return, we received what I still consider a beautiful artwork unique to our home. It was a particularly memorable experience for our kids and their friends - all of whom still speak with great pride about their involvement (minimal, thank goodness) in the resulting piece. A modest project yes, but with a long and very happy ending. Imagine the breadth of influences from a larger, more ambitious projects.
Sydney Grammar Prep in Edgecliff has a great residency program - the Master Artists Program. A generous anonymous donor bequeathed the funds to the School, for the purpose of bringing writers, poets, musicians, composers and visual artists into the classroom. The expectation is that the artists interact with the boys across all ages (to 12 years old) in the classroom, showcase their skills and develop a project in which everyone can participate either as individuals or as a group. This is not the standard residency program but one which crosses over into instruction and education in an informal way.
Alexander Seton Cats 2008
resin, 23x18x11cm ea
image courtesy the artist and
Sullivan & Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney
Art teacher Janna Tess seeks out artists whose modus operandi can be translated into a classroom situation and, importantly, artists who are happy to talk to lots of kids. The artistic skill set must be balanced with those of communication. The boys have been well nurtured in the art department by such luminaries as John WolseleyDel Kathryn Barton, a group of women from Walpiri (Central desert), Alexander Seton and Darren McDonald
Alex Seton commented that instructing and organising the kids was a "new experience; it was intense and challenging but thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding." His art practice is fairly industrial, so it was pretty unrealistic to expect him to teach the kids how to carve Carrara marble. His approach was to create a project which was rooted in the elements and interests of his practice but was wholly achievable by groups of young boys, over a couple of weeks. They made huge inflatable creatures from recycled plastic bags. Janna's recollection of the project is one of pure joy, seeing these large fantastical creatures, puffed into life with a generator, float and waft across playground. 
The idea is not necessarily to meet the particular needs of the curriculum but to enliven it. It is to stimulate creativity in the classroom and introduce contemporary practices to young minds. For the teachers, they find it equally as stimulating and refreshing, keeping their teaching methods fresh and new. 
Darren McDonald Wielding the willow 2010
oil on canvas

image courtesy the artist and 
Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
In this Program the artists are paid a fee and, should they be from out of town and around for a duration (say 2 weeks), they can stay in nearby accommodation. At the end of the residency, an artwork by the artist is bought for the School's permanent collection.  Whoever set this program in motion for the School had great foresight into its potential benefits and influences, for boys, teachers and artists alike. 
Along similar lines, with public funds, is the artists in public schools initiative, set up as a joint venture between 
the state governments and the Australia Council. The process and the outcome though seem to be less fluid and fairly curriculum/ policy driven, which is to be expected I guess.
As I blog, Alex Seton is enroute to another residency, this time in upstate NY. Art Omi International Artist Residency selects up to 30 artists from world wide to "gather in rural NY state to experiment, collaborate and share ideas" for 3 weeks in July. 
Art Omi began as the vision of a major art enthusiast and philanthropist, Francis Greenburger, as a way to find meaningful connections with artists internationally; to circumvent the frustrations of international politics and develop a positive international discussion based on cultural perspectives. Lofty ideals but a great point to start with and test drive. It is cross-artforms, with artists working alongside other invited writers, musicians and dancers. Art Omi is also realistic in its approach, aiming to assist serious artists find a solid professional way forward: that what they are doing is not and should not be perceived as hobbyist or extraneous, rather as meaningful and significant contributions to a broader international community. Creative opportunities are balanced with critical appraisals from the Critic-in-Residence and introduction to professionals and experts in the field (gallerists, other artists, critics). This is good old-fashioned art patronage at its best - generous, long term, ambitious and engaged. 
Such patronage is also thriving in Malaysia. Architect Hijjas Kasturi and his Australian-born wife Angela have developed and manage 2 artist residency programs, one on a large estate just outside of KL, the other in Penang. Their first venture and main estate Rimbun Dahan began about 18 years ago and was born of a desire to establish positive cultural exchanges between Malaysia and Australia. It was about the time of Keating and Mahathir contretemps and we all remember that famous jibe: relations were strained. The program at Rimbun Dahan is well resourced and organised: artists are invited for a 12 month stay with accommodation, a stipend and travel support. A solo exhibition is scheduled for the end of the residency period, in the Underground Gallery (onsite) and a couple of works are purchased for the Kasturi personal collection. Currently Jonathon Nichols is in residence and from what I've heard, is having a fabulous (and productive) time.
I heard about Rimbun Dahan from Thornton Walker, a Melbourne- based painter who lived there about 16 years ago. He has also recently just returned from a residency at Hotel Penaga in Penang, the Kasturi's 2nd residency venture. It is designed around a more informal and flexible program, offering a 6 week stay, but retaining the same sense of generosity and support as Rimbun Dahan. 
Thornton Walker surrounded by his work, in the studio at Hotel Penaga

Thorton Walker Georgetown V 2012
watercolour, ink & acrylic on paper, 76x56cm
image courtesy of the artist
On this recent trip to Penang, Thornton went with no preconceived notions or expectations of outcomes. I wanted to be completely open to new influences and subject matter during my time at Penaga as the artist in residence; to absorb the rich culture in Penang and respond to it as best I could, in the studio. After exploring the town for a week, what stayed with me were the old faded photographs of faces I saw on temple and clan house walls. They resonated for me as a window into the past, a nostalgic glimpse of a rich culture. I decided to do my best to recreate this feeling in paint. I took snap-shots of these photographs, often out of focus and partly obscured with reflections on their glass frames, and then set about interpreting them in watercolor, ink, acrylic and oil paint. Thornton Walker, 2012, on Hotel Penaga website
Thorton Walker Georgetown IV 2012
watercolour, ink & acrylic on paper, 76x56cm
image courtesy of the artist


Watercolour blots and softens the past. The portraits become romantic and intriguing, suggestive of alluring foreign lands and times, rather than records of particular individuals. The over-layed details of the ficus plant and bunch of lychees, so common in Penang, haul the works back into the present. The calligraphy is pure chinese, beautiful in its graphic feel but, in this context, absurd and out of place - lychees in heavy syrup! These portraits lure us in, though with tongue-in-cheek, toying with our own desire for the exotic.
And, beyond remaining just new work within a respected artist's career, these works add to the tolerance and understanding of another culture - from both sides of the fence. 
Now all that is required is a residency in an equally enchanting location for well-meaning bloggers. 
I am taking a short break from blogging over the next couple of weeks. But you, dear reader, need not pause in your pursuit of meaningful art: there is so much going on. Check these out ....
The 18th Biennale of Sydney All our relations opens next week and looks bigger, brighter and better than before. In tandem is SafARI, presenting emerging artists during the Biennale.
The Commercial opens, a new gallery venture for Amanda Rowell; Ken Unsworth is at William Wright Artists' Projects and Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: In-Habit: Project Another Country open at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
Go forth and enjoy.

Sunday 10 June 2012

Musings on a colonial past

The temperature has dropped so I thought I might as well make the most of it and head south. I set off with friend and overcoat and escaped to Canberra. Our mission was to tackle  Von Guerard: Nature Revealed and unDisclosed, the 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia; lunch with my parents and a visit to David Sequeira's gallery space in Civic (downtown Canberra), in a single day.
Visiting the von Guerard exhibition was about stepping outside of a contemporary mindset and entering a completely different one - from the 19thC. It was really engaging. After we got back, I read David Hansen's review in the latest Art & Australia in which he talks about the  curatorial rationale as one in which the historical appraisals of von Guerard are revisited - the history of its history is reviewed. This time von Guerard is presented for a 21st C audience: "re-presented for an age of global warming, of the National Geographic Channel, of Aboriginal reconciliation, even ... of extreme sports." (David Hansen, review of von Guerard Nature Revealed, Art & Australia, vol 4, 2012 pp 674 - 675) www.artandaustralia.com.au 
And yes, it feels like that: the selection of works, the layout, the emphases of particular periods in his life and works all add up to furthering our understanding of who he was and what drove him. 
Von Guerard is presented as an adventurous nature lover, with a respect for local indigenous people and a deep commitment to his craft, career and the natural world. He was a 19thC greenie - intent on recording the world in its vastness, its variety and in its detail. For me, it is this side of the person and his work that is worth understanding. Whilst his works may be old-fashioned in appearance, they are thoroughly current in what they reveal of his intention. 
The detail in his work is unrelenting, though it remains more Romantic than Realist. The paintings are detailed and rich but it is his sketchbooks and lithographs which are truly revealing and which, for me, are the gems in the exhibition. Unadorned, without the distractions of colour or noble themes, the sketches reveal the keenness of his eye, the steadiness of his hand and the commitment to his vision. 
Von Guerard was intrepid to say the least. He came to Australia from Europe to seek his fortune in the gold rush and stayed 30 odd years. His journeys took him far and wide, in no doubt difficult conditions and circumstances but with the single purpose to record the plant life and landscape before him. With sketchbooks, brushes, inks and paints, possibly at times an easel, he ventured into new terrain to sketch/ paint extraordinary sceneswww.nga.gov.au/VonGuerard
Eugene von GUÉRARD Ferntree or Dobson's Gully, Dandenong Ranges 1858
pen and ink and wash 37.9 x 54.8 cm (image and sheet)
NGV, Melbourne Felton Bequest, 1960 647-5 
Von Guerard's depictions are informed by both a European and colonial Australian sensibility. What was really interesting then, was to wander from 19thC colonial Australian landscapes into unDisclosed the 2nd NationaIndigenous Art Triennial. One minute standing in the middle of a colonial past; the next, stepping forward out of the past, looking back and re-thinking it. Colonial references continue, but that history is represented and retold from a completely difference perspective.
Michael Cook Broken dreams #2 2010
inkjet print on archival paper, ed 8
124x100cm
image courtesy of the artist and
Dianne Tanzer Gallery & Projects, Melbourne
Michael Cook's two beautifully poetic photographic series, Broken Dreams and Undiscovered, make obvious references to the period (& slightly earlier) to which von Guerard belonged. Here is a retelling of colonial stories through the eyes of Aboriginal people. The photographic narratives feature only Aboriginal people, who have now become the sole protagonists. Therein lies Cook's approach - an alternative to a colonial dialogue, as one which is wholly owned by Indigenous Australia.  www.michaelcook.net.au  Also in the latest Art & Australia, an essay on Michael Cook by Maurice O'Riordan, pp572 - 575.
Danie Mellor's approach is similar. His works speak of dual histories. His large scale drawings retain a glimpse into another older world and, a bit like von Guerard, I see in his work a similar level of conviction to his natural world and his cultural history. He uses old fashioned techniques to create his works: composition of landscape, bordered by a continuous wreath of lush flora and fauna decorations, all held within elaborate gilt frames. But his intention is edgier. He uses limited colour. The works are basically blue and white, ala porcelain (think willow pattern blue and white) and animated by brightly coloured animals, birds and Indigenous people which sparingly inhabit the landscape, scenes of the FNQ tropical rainforest of his youth. And the not-so-usual smattering of crystals and glitter decorate and highlight the outer edges of the works, seducing us with their twinkle under gallery lights. 
Danie Mellor Paradise generations 2012
pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal
and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
97.5 x 148.0 cm
image courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid 
But unDisclosed is no means an exhibition of the study of a colonial past and its travesties. The discourse broadens with the work (again photography, hand-coloured digital prints on canvas) of Nici Cumpston. Elegant yet very disturbing, these large scale photographs evoke a real sense of loss for irrevocable damage done to her Country - our shared environment. 
Vernon Ah Kee's installation, Tall man, a 3 part video channel, text, and portrait, in which he quietly rages over the deep injustices of the Palm Island tragedy is compelling. A full series of portraits is featured in the rehang of the Australian art collection at AGNSWwww.milanigallery.com.au 
Some other artists included are Fiona Foley, Sally Gabori, Bob Burruwal and Lena Yarinkura, Julie Gough and Jonathon JonesThis exhibition is a fresh, energetic, biting and moving overview of the diversity of concepts and practices in contemporary Indigenous art. This is only the 2nd Triennial but it is already well established and respected. The National Gallery offers an opportunity Indigenous curators and students to access its facilities and contribute to the development of the exhibition. www.nga.gov.au/unDisclosed
Back in Sydney-town, I find that Danie Mellor has a show in 2 parts, Paradise Garden at Michael Reid Fine Art in Elizabeth Bay and at Manly Regional Gallery & Museum (adj to the Wharf at Manly). So I (all of us) get to look and think about his work some more. At Michael Reid until 30 June. www.michaelreid.com.au
I rarely head north in search of decent art but  Manly Regional Gallery is an exception. This small public gallery is a museum, community gallery and exhibition space at the beach and as the current exhibitions show, offers great opportunity for engagement with some great work. Danie Mellor is in the access space, alongside Arthur Boyd and his father, potter Merric Boyd; a small but cohesive permanent collection of contemporary ceramics and of course, the beach museum. Old cozzies and brollies, memorabilia and paraphernalia from our long standing love affair with the beach are on display. If you're not up to the surf, then venture to the harbourside and enjoy a wander through this museum/ gallery. Entry is free. www.manly.nsw.gov.au/attractions/art-gallery-museum
Back to our Canberra adventure, we finished our day at David Sequeira's space Everything Nothing Projects. His very apt descriptor is Small Space Big VisionsHe was keen to take us on a tour around his immaculate teeny tiny 'white cube' which is dedicated solely to geometric abstraction. Colour is at its heart and sings in this space: just see Melinda Harper's works, including paintings, tapestries and paper collages, which are currently on show. Sequeira's list of artists is impressive, ambitious and exciting - eg John Nixon, Eugene Carchesio and the late NY based Australian John Vickery, see more on the website or find David on Facebook. A small space can achieve big things by offering to artists an alternative approach. There is nothing else like it in Canberra. Put it on your list when next in town www.everythingnothingprojects.com
View of gallery Everything Nothing Projects
featuring the work of Melinda Harper
And lunch at the Gallery with Mum and Dad and my comrade-in-art was delicious. Mission south was well accomplished.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Making connections, part II


Part II 
Here is my segue from Not the way home to a couple of exhibitions at The Rocks. Bear with me ..... it is more a reminder than a straightforward connection. 
Fowlers Gap the site of exhibition/ residency/project Not the way home, is a scientific research base of UNSW which has been shared with artists for many years. Here, artists engage with geologists, anthropologists, ornithologists, agriculturists, astronomists and engineers who are all there to engage with an extraordinary landscape. Fowlers Gap features prominently as a resource and venue for experimental research for NIEA at COFA UNSWDon't be turned off by the acronyms - NIEA is the National Institute for Experimental Arts at COFA College of Fine ArtsNIEA is a research facility which promotes innovative theory and practice-based research through cross-disciplinary collaboration and close partnerships with .... Australian and international universities, industry and community groups. The environment and sustainability are key areas addressed by NIEA in various ways via creative experiment and thinking: urban development, renewable energy,sustainable materials, climate, arid zones, land and water, ecology.
NIEA is worth getting your head around because it is an extraordinary research facility, and indicative of the level of creative research coming out of COFA. As COFA heads towards its fully refurbished campus in Paddington (2013) with galleries, design and media studios, NIEA will become increasingly visible. 
The 2 NIEA research groups which are more closely associated with Fowlers Gap are Imaging the Land International Research Initiative (ILIRI) which facilitates, investigates and promotes contemporary dialogue relating to imaging the land;and Environmental Research Initiative for Art (ERIA), with Allan Giddy at the helm, which conceives and realises site-specific public art that accommodates 'eco-logical' practices in ways that regenerate physical environments. As an aside, Giddy is currently working on the exhibition, Desert Equinox - taking a group of local and international artists to Broken Hill and Fowlers Gap, to create solar powered, site specific installations to co-incide with the 2012 spring equinox. Locals are invited to assist the artists, with the installation of the works. Hopefully more on it later this year. http://www.brokenhillartexchange.com/desert-equinox.php
This is what is going on at COFA - I think it is really exciting. Check all of it out at http://www.niea.unsw.edu.au/
Now, hold that thought and move back east, some 1100kms, to The Rocks, in downtown Sydney. Down a side street, above a cafe that looks pretty good, you'll come across 3 artists, all of whom are studying at various levels with NIEA at COFA. It is part of The Rocks Pop Up 2012: a series of exhibitions in temporary spaces, to co-incide with Vivid
As does Fowlers Gap afford opportunities for cross disciplinary activities, sharing of ideas and seeking creative solutions in a very concrete way to some very non-creative problems, so too does NIEA.
Exhibiting now are 3 artist students who offer works which are new, experimental and deliberately unresolved. Andrew Newman draws on scientific studies to create a series of diagrams and texts on chalkboards, which hope to map out the neurological pathways which lead to love. Josephine Skinner uses romantic quotes/ sayings/ poetry in digital format, together with a slowed, repetitive passionate kiss from the movie Love Story (Redford and Macgraw), to create quite an intense dialogue of the desparation of love. I didn't get the video works by Rafaela Pandolfini - there is a series which I should look at in its entirety - but I did love the cornucopia head gear ....
Rafaela Pandolfini Cockatoo headdress 3 Loneliness 2009
still from digital video, image courtesy the artist
The works are youthful, experimental and challenging. There's a lot of theory being blown around here and inevitably the works require a fair bit of explanation, which in itself is not always clear or obvious. Even more frustrating... However on a visual level, the works are intriguing: the use of people, sound, repetition, text, the distortion of things known and familiar. Go with the experimental nature of the work, and see where it takes you. 
More connections but of a different kind, I venture down the road to another Pop Up exhibition, Topographies I. Who should I bump into? Kath Fries (from my blog 14 March) & Thomas C Chung (the knitter from last week's blog). Initiated by Gallery 8 as a pop up satellite space, it is in a shop which is still in fit-out mode, on George St adjacent to the MCA. The artists have taken over, with the blessing of the authorities; sort of like a fully-sanctioned art squat. Landlords on Oxford St take note - this is such a good use of disused space, even if only temporarily. 
Topographies I is another landscape exhibition, though in a less obvious way than that of No way home.  Each exhibiting artist talks to the site, in terms of its history, location and state of renovation or abandonment.  Chung is in his element with knitted hammer, spanner, nail drill: butch, charming and such obviously hopeless tools. Fries' work is more subtle and elusive: gauze wrapped around an open channel in the ceiling, filled with feathers. She alludes to the seagulls which swirl the Bridge at night, catching the lights, feasting on the bogong moths which are drawn to the lights. It is always a remarkable, eerie scene, on a hazy, misty evening in particular.  Check out her blog www.kathfries.blogspot.com
Mark Booth's small pipe sculptures look to an infinite plumbing system, recalling that of the MCA, which recycles water directly from the harbour for its essential air conditioning system.
Mark Booth ARROW.100 series 2011-2012 
U-PVC pipe and acrylic paint
image courtesy the artist and g8


Matt Busteed Anthropocene 3 & 4  2011
ripped street posters on board
image courtesy the artist and g8

Matt Busteed has torn posters from local scaffolds and reglued them in layers on board: detritus from a shifting urban landscape. This is the first in a series of Topographic exhibitions from g8 on George. Stay tuned. www.galleryeight.com
Now, though, like the moths, I feel drawn to the lights and need to go back to The Rocks at night, and just revel in the Vivid light show. 
So much to see, so much to take in ....

Making connections, part I

Last week it was hard to find connections. This week, it is all about connections and lots of them. Possibly at times a little tenuous, but connections nonetheless, which run from way out west to here in the east and from remote regions to the Sydney CBD.
I went to The Rocks a few times this week during the day - unlike most Sydney people at the moment. Apologies to Vivid, I am yet to, but am determined to, see the light(s). 
I started at SH Ervin Gallery on Observatory Hill. Run by The National Trust, it is a well resourced and respected public gallery which hosts a range of good exhibitions of Australian art, both historical and contemporary. It is home for the Salon des Refuses (the Archibald 2nds, if you like) and the Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Prize. You'll always find a solidly curated exhibition here - not necessarily cutting edge or experimental, but one with depth and scholarship.
Currently showing is Not the Way Home, curated by Owen Craven aka editor Artist Profile. This exhibition is the result of a project that began 12 months ago, when 13 artists headed way west together, to live and work in a desert landscape. All Sydney (& environs) based, the artists drove 1,100km west of Sydney, past Broken Hill, to Fowlers Gap. It was a 2 week residency during which each artist had an opportunity to forget about the grind of daily life and immerse themselves in their work. Luxury (the only luxury). Artists featuring in Not the Way Home include: Margaret Ackland, Elisabeth Cummings, Merran Esson, Joe Frost, Alan Jones, Jennifer Keeler-Milne, Ross Laurie, Steve Lopes, Euan Macleod, Idris Murphy, Amanda Penrose Hart, Peter Sharp and Guy Warren.  
Late afternoon Fowlers Gap
Not sure who took this photograph but thank you.
Found on www.notthewayhome.tumblr.com
It would be daunting to be cast out into the desert to work, for a limited period in which to come to grips with a difficult environment. No private studio or comfy bed, limited materials and few distractions. Working outside en plein air sounds very romantic, if it weren't for the flies, dust, bugs, uneven rocky ground, wind and sun. There is nothing like an enormous challenge to get the creative juices flowing. Each artist rose to this challenge and produced a body of work which reflected their manied and varied responses to a difficult yet seductive landscape.
Art about landscape is not just about what we stand in and look at, it is also about what we remember - our impressions and emotional responses and the layers of stories of place and inhabitants (people, animals, plants, spirits). Elizabeth Cummings and Idris Murphy do not disappoint - as always their sense of place is based on the feel of a memory; sketching in the landscape is the groundwork for future paintings in the studio. 
Elisabeth Cummings Creek bed Fowlers Gap 2011
oil on canvas 115 x 130cm
image courtesy the artist, King Street Gallery and SH Ervin Gallery


Euan Macleod paints en plein air, quickly and confidently: his bonfire piece masterful with its fiery highlights. Jennifer Keeler-Milne, daunted by the expansive vista, chose to look down at her feet and discovered a wealth of plant life which she studied and drew. Peter Sharp created objects from bits and pieces in the landscape, then drew and painted them - exploring abstracted forms which emerge from the landscape and encourage a different perception. Merran Esson brought the texture of the landscape back with her, as clay impressions to be reworked in the studio as ceramic sculptures. 
The artists here all have good credentials and, from this collective experience, they have produced a body of works which no doubt will inform their respective practices for a long time. 
Euan Macleod Escarpment 2011
acrylic on polyester 124x100cm

image courtesy the artist, Watters Gallery
and SH Ervin Gallery

Jennifer Keeler-Milne work in progress charcoal on paper
from notthewayhome.tumblr.com

image courtesy the artist and Tim Olsen Gallery


































A project like this doesn't get off the ground without funding - this one being funded and organised by Artist Profile magazine and Windsor & Newton art materials. The artists have to get there, stay there, be fed & watered (always assists with the creative flow) and use appropriate materials, suitable for the location. Check out the blog developed to document the project http://open.abc.net.au/openregions/nsw-illawarra-86zZ5nx/posts/not-the-way-home-23uO4rR
It doesn't stop there. Not The Way Home satellite exhibition is on at Stella Downer Fine Art in Danks St www.stelladownerfineart.com.au and Jennifer Keeler-Milne is also currently at Tim Olsen Gallery http://www.timolsengallery.com/ with Lumiere
I have written too much for one blog (it was a wet weekend) - take a break and come back to Part II when you're ready for more.