Apertivo

The 3rd Year Sculpture Miniatures Show. 

Everyone is Welcome! 

Return to Sender Exhibition Review by Dominika Monicka

The ‘Return to Sender’ Exhibition is an exhibition currently being shown at the University of Queensland Art Museum. According to Dr. Campbell Gray, the director of the UQ Art Museum, the university museum differs from other Art Museums because it offers opportunities for young emerging artists and does not have any hidden agendas unlike the mainstream art galleries in Brisbane. Thus, the university museum focuses their exhibitions targeting not only the young student population, but also has the ability to engage ambassadors and donors. The current exhibition ‘Return to Sender’ does this by educating the student population and challenging their views as well as involving the older population by triggering recent local histories.

Although the artworks were highly historical and political due to the curator’s verbal presentation and monotone voice this was neither evident nor stimulating in the tour of the space. UQ’s associate director presented the tour with the assumption that all of the audience was familiar with Queensland’s historical background. Unfortunately this was not the case due to Queensland College of Art’s international student population. This exhibition began to decline in interest rapidly due to topics that weren’t clearly explained or familiar to everyone present. For example Fiona MacDonald’s work from Rockhampton was described by the curator to be based on the history of members of the indigenous people and immigrants. This had no significance to an audience who was not familiar with the violent histories. Later throughout the tour a student had briefly explained the brutalities the indigenous people had faced, which consequently sparked more interest.

Overall, the experience of visiting a different University Art Museum had its own excitement factor for art students who have only been exposed to the local Art Museums and Exhibitions. What would have improved the experience of the exhibition would have been a more excited approach to educating the audience about the artists’ stories and the historical events behind the artworks. Also engaging the students by quizzing them about what they know of specific events to gage what the audience already knows. 

The Churchie Art Prize Exhibition Review By Dominika Monicka

The Churchie Art Prize Exhibition consisted of artists such as: Heath Franco, Sam Cranstoun, Agenevieve Kemarr Loy, Ray Harris, Svenja Kratz, and Marion Glass. The Churchie Art Prize Exhibit is a prestigious art competition that aims to expose emerging artists and provide a stimulating art exhibit for students as well as the public. This Exhibit consists of all forms of artwork such as painting, drawing, sculpture, video, photography, etc.

One outstanding work in this exhibition would be the work my Ray Harrison called ‘let me go’. Harrison captures the slow decline of a relationship through a time-lapse video where a girl is placed on the floor in a sleeping position with a form of a human made of dough. The video begins showing her in a soft and comfortable place, but as time goes on she starts to struggle with her position and eventually is trying to tear herself out of the situation. ­­­This particular piece speaks as a metaphor to its audience and targets people of all ages and sexual orientation. It provides a visual chapter of a relationship whether it is sexual or plutonic. Harrison aims to ‘explore psychological space of unsatisfied symbiosis, the need for oneness lingering in hearts and psyches unremittingly’ (Ray Harris, 2012).

On the other hand, one work that I found to be particularly desperate for attention was surprisingly the main attraction in the exhibition, Heath Franco’s winning art work ‘Fun House’. The work was curated at the very front of the gallery and was annoyingly being projected across the entire space. The projected sound coming from the video made the experience nearly unbearable and thus did not resemble your ‘traditional’ and peaceful gallery space experience. Along side Franco’s video interfered with the viewing experience of other more discrete and traditional pieces in the gallery. It was as though none of the pieces really stood a chance in what had started to become a psychiatric episode.  

Overall, the Churchie Art Prize Exhibit provided a wide variety of media as well as conceptually diverse ideas. It showed over 40 Australian Artists and was effectively displayed by the curator in seemingly small space. Although the experience as a whole was stressful due to the winning work’s interfering nature, the exhibition provided the viewer with many other viewing opportunities. 

Hans New Media Review

The National New Media Art Award GOMA

The National New Media Art Award is a biennial event, and the most noteworthy new media award in the country. There is a substantial first prize of $75,000, is acquisitive and showcases the work of Australian Artists whose work is encompass “New Media. The New Media Art Award is in conjunction with the $25,000 Queensland New Media Scholarship for an emerging Queensland based artist, who is working in the field of new media, to develop their practice through ways like further study or travel. The National New Media Art Award showcased the works of artists such as George Poonkhin Khut (Award Winner) with an interactive Ipad Application “Distillery: Waveforming”, which consisted of several Ipads that viewers could interact with according to their heartbeat, creating movement on the screen that is amusing for the user.

Another Great instillation was a collaboration between Petra Gemeinboeck and Rob Saunders, who created the robotic instillation “Zwischenraume”, which at first glance I thought was a wall with holes punched through it and nothing more, but if you sit on the floor and stare through the holes, you will notice there are robots hidden behind the wall, moving about and occasionally peeking back at you through the holes they have made and acknowledging you. They seemed to demonstrate thoughts and know what they were doing, a very thought provoking piece showing the creative and clever capabilities of the Robots.

Even though this was an exhibition of all completely “New Media” I was absolutely amazed with the interest and beauty a lot of It brought me, it was exciting exploring the different pieces by the artist’s to see how they had used “New Media” to create their interesting and interactive pieces, including the Simple instillation “Polarised” by Leah Heiss, with a group of glass balls filled with a small amount of magnetic liquid in each of the balls, that had you standing in awe as a magnet moved beneath and the liquid would move and wave about softly, it really gave me another perspective on the mediums of work you expect to see in a gallery.

Hans Churchie Review

The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition

The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition is a competition, to promote and enhance recognition of emerging artists. The Churchie is not restricted by category or medium. This year 41 artists out of around 320 entrants made it into the exhibition, so  we were able to see many interesting works by artists such as Heath Franco (The Churchie prize winner) with his cheeky “Your Door”entry, Sam Cranstoun’s Drawing “Coronation”, Agenvive Kemarr Loy with a mesmerizing tradition aboriginal painting of a bush flower, Agatha Gothe-Snape (all judges highly commended) with her print “Headliners”, and Anastasia Booth “Marion Glass1906” sculpture, Sean Crossely “Templace” painting, and Dominic Reidy small “Plan for a neon victory” piece .

The Churchie (as stated above) aims to expose, and promote the emerging artists to enhance their recognition in the public (and commercial) field, and offers a generous prize to the winner. Because the exhibit is not restricted by category or medium we were able to see a great array of different pieces displayed, the work “Marion Glass 1906” by Anastasia Booth, Brisbane based artist, who works predominately in sculpture and instillations, really had me thinking, I found that when I came to Anastasia’s piece I had me wondering “what is it” the work was made with glass, leather and wood, even though I was standing there wondering what the piece was possibly used for (looking like a sort of fetish instrument), I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the piece, the beauty of the glass orbs, and in contrast with the leather straps and wooden stance of the piece kept me “wanting” to know what it is and glancing in its direction.

On the other hand we also had a sculpture by Dominic Reidy, a recent graduate in 2011 and also a local Brisbane artist, “Plan for a neon victory” is quirky and simple, having a go at, and questioning masculinity with its obviously small size of the whole piece, and the main wooden element in the piece is clearly a phallic symbol.

Even though there where a lot of tradition art pieces, the Churchie seemed to be very dominated with a lot of Media pieces, a lot of video instillations. It was great to see the diversity and a good mix of traditional and “New Media” in the exhibition, but it very much got to a point where a lot of the works seemed to be fighting for attention, with the small gallery space all the works were packed into and the length of some of the videos, it made it easier to miss some, or part of the works. I remember there were three pieces displayed closely next to each other and at points I was trying to watch all three screens so as not to miss anything or because another screen was flashing in my field of vision. There was a lot of noise happening in the winner’s work, Heath Franco, that could be heard across the other side of the gallery making that piece clashing in my mind when viewing and pondering other artists works, with his crazy characters welcoming people into the gallery and after walking away having it follow you around the gallery.

There were many other great pieces, and it showed that The Churchie had a great plethora of works to choose from and display in the gallery. They brought together a great range of styles and themes which gave a very interesting exhibition.

Hey Check this out.

While seriously considering my compare and contrast review... errr....like a good student that i am *cough*, came across some of Stephen Shaheens work and thought it was worth sharing.

 Its great concept of using old media in a new way.... i love it

check out some more photos here: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/stephen-shaheen-headlight

Return to Sender

The Return to Sender exhibition was held at The University of Queensland Art Museum, located on The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus. This exhibition of contemporary art showcased photo media pieces that were created in response to the political and cultural environment of the Joh-Bjelke Petersen era during the late 1970s and early 1980s (Return to Sender 2012). Return to Sender displayed the following artists who were originally based in Queensland: Barbara Campbell, Jeff Gibson, John Gillies (with The Sydney Front), Ross Harley, Rosemary Laing, Lindy Lee, Fiona MacDonald, Tracey Moffat, Robyn Stacey, Mark Titmarsh and Gary Warner. A key point of interest established by The University of Queensland Art Museum curator Michele Helmrich was that although each of the abovementioned artists departed from Queensland during the Joh-Bjelke Petersen era, they continued to focus on ideas that were circulating in Australian art during this period (Return to Sender 2012). The artworks that will be discussed throughout this review are as follows: Something More # 9 (1989) by Tracey Moffatt, Universally Respected No. 4 (1993) by Fiona MacDonald, and Ice (1989) by Robyn Stacey.

Tracey Moffat’s Something More Series (1989) consisted of nine cibachrome images; six of which were direct positive colour photographs, and three were gelatine silver photographs. Something More # 9 (1989) was the only image from this series featured at the Return to Sender exhibition. This image comprised of a wall with an artificial road painted onto it, juxtaposed with the actual road on the ground. A person’s body is splayed across the visibly rough bitumen surface. It may be assumed that the person is female as she is wearing typically feminine garments; such as high-heeled shoes, stockings and a dress. Her stockings have been ripped, her dress is hiked up, and her shoes have fallen off her feet – altogether depicting a person in a shambles. As the woman is laying face-down it is difficult to determine whether she is dead or merely asleep. Nonetheless, her dishevelled attire and the placement of her body on the road create a sense of distress. The viewer may come to the conclusion that something terrible must have occurred to this woman; or they may interpret that this image is a visualisation of the final chapter of a narrative about someone running away from something for such a long period of time. A thought-provoking aspect of Something More # 9 (1989) is Tracey Moffat’s inclusion of the sign labelled ‘Brisbane 300 miles’, and the elusive black suitcase in the corner next to the woman’s hand. The sign is pointing towards the artificial road; as if to suggest that the woman has been trying to follow a road that doesn’t even exist. The complete Something More Series (1989) displays clearly tableau images which share a common narrative, but in which multiple stories are being expressed (Newton 2002). Tracey Moffatt has deliberately presented her narratives to encourage the viewer to have multiple readings of this series, which are beyond the specific politics of Australian identity (Newton 2002). Gael Newton, the Senior Curator of Australian and International Photography at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, highlighted that the images in the Something More Series (1989) series were, “turned to an agenda in which dress and undress, language and labels are paramount issues in an identity dependent on inserting the unfamiliar dark face in a white scene” (Newton 2002).

Fiona MacDonald’s Universally Respected and Mob (1993) series consisted of fifteen woven sepia photographs. There were several images on display at the Return to Sender exhibition from this collection; however Universally Respected No. 4 (1993) will be the only piece that will be analysed throughout this review. A photograph of George Fairbairn, a pastoralist involved in the Shearers' Strike, emerges from the interwoven images of an Indigenous couple. Both photographs were taken in Clermont circa 1880. The frame was constructed from hand carved local coastal quondong, finished with black Japan. Universally Respected No. 4 (1993) may be an enquiry into the impact of neo-colonialist acts on our shared identity (Heathwood 2010). Fiona MacDonald may have decided to investigate this enquiry due to insight gained from her great-grandmother’s experience as a domestic servant in Mackay where she observed the arrival of South Sea Island people who were indentured to work at the surrounding sugar plantations (Heathwood 2010). It could be argued that Universally Respected and Mob (1993) is an appropriate title for this series as it is an amalgamation of photographic portraits of respected members of the Rockhampton Club, with portraits of non-members (Heathwood 2010). The image of the Indigenous couple in Universally Respected No. 4 (1993) is an example of people who were regarded as non-members of the Rockhampton Club. Tracey Heathwood, Artist and Art Worker, summarised that the Universally Respected and Mob (1993) series provided an opportunity for, “The poor, dispossessed and displaced (to) take their place alongside ‘notables’… injustices and conflicts emerge from the latticework of historic portraits and objects” (Heathwood 2010).

Flame (1989) and Ice (1989) were selected from Robyn Stacey’s Redline 7000 (1989) series to be exhibited at Return to Sender.  Both images are cibachrome photographs on plexiglass. Ice (1989) will be the only piece from this series that will be analysed throughout this review, as it is arguably the most ambiguous out of the two images. Ice (1989) is comprised of a woman’s face positioned in front of a city landscape. The woman’s face is disproportionately larger than the landscape. Another image appears to be layered across background. This layering creates an effect of someone viewing the city from a distance; the sense of longing on the woman’s face suggests that there may be something preventing her from being able to go to the city. Possibly, the symbolic imagery displayed in Ice (1989) was in response to the unjust treatment of people, particularly young adults and university students, who protested during the height of the repressive Joh-Bjelke Petersen government (Kanowski 2012). As Robyn Stacey was one of many young adults who ended up in the Brisbane watch house as a result of protesting, it could be contended that Ice (1989) is a depiction of a person behind prison bars in both a literal and figurative sense (Kanowski 2012). The literal reading of this piece may be directly linked to Robyn Stacey’s life experiences, and the figurative interpretation may be associated with the oppressive attitude towards creative or questioning minds during the Joh-Bjelke Petersen era (Kanowski 2012). Conclusively, The University of Queensland Art Museum curator Michele Helmrich argued that both Flame (1989) and Ice (1989) represent, “a sense of darkness, and anticipation of some dire consequence, of things running out of control, of even maybe a sense of surveillance perhaps” (Kanowski 2012).

References

Heathwood, T 2010, Local Studies: Fiona MacDonald, viewed 18 August 2012, <http://www.artlink.com.au/articles/3421/local-studies-fiona-macdonald/>.

Kanowski, S 2012, viewed 18 August 2012, <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendarts/michele-helmich/4128478>.

Newton, G 2002, Something More series 1989, viewed 18 August 2012, <http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=148563>.

Return to Sender 2012, viewed 18 August 2012,                  <http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/return-to-sender >.