Thursday, August 30, 2012

Post solo

Here are the installation images from my solo show at Gallerysmith back in March this year.  The work was the culmination of research completed as part of my Master of Fine Arts degree.  In many ways the Mellorado exhibition gave me some closure on some aspects of my practice and this has now paved the way for new, I would say riskier work.  I think the biggest shift has come in my desire to work more in installation, the arrangement of the works within the space, inviting an element of audience interaction and the ability to connect with the works from different vantage points.  

Its been a little challenging working out in which direction to go since Mellorado.  I've been allowing myself to sample and experiment widely, to do some small projects and develop starting points for new work. In practical terms its meant going back to exploring collage with paper and cloth, a new series of self portraits and  a return to zine making.  At the moment I'm working on getting together some exhibition proposals, I would really love to exhibit more in Sydney  and look at interstate exhibition spaces - Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne are on the radar! 

Currently I have some work in the Feminage show at Cross Art Projects and will be in another group exhibition at the Manly Quarantine Station on 16 September - will post more on this soon.

All images by Armelle Habib Photography

Mellorado - installation view 








Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Archives & Art

The archive has become an important aspect of my art practice, with a specific focus on personal and family archives.  As an artist I am particularly interested in the archive as a charged historical and political space to explore untold or previously undocumented histories and to make connections between the personal, cultural, historical and political. As part of my masters thesis I began to explore the concept of an archive of objects and I plan to continue this research by looking at the idea of the artist run museum. The concepts of rehearsal and re-staging are also closely linked to the archive.  

Sven Spieker was recently hosted by the University of Sydney to give his lecture titled 'Un-Knowing, Getting Lost, Linking Points in Space: The New Archival Practice'. Spieker is Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, and Affiliate Professor of Art and History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His talk explores why artists are interested in archives with a focus on recent contemporary art’s engagement with the archive, and specifically on how artists and archives inform discussions around recent (media) revolutions and progressive politics more generally.

I didn't make it to the lecture which was on last Friday but I was happy to find his full talk on the Getty Research Institute website, given in November 2011 as part of the Pacific Standard Time Symposium.  You can view the full symposium talks which are in 3 parts. Talks also from artists George Herms, Mario Garcia Torres, and Suzanne Lacy. Each part goes for about an hour but its worth taking the time to see/hear these talks if the archive in art is of interest.



Part 1 of 3 


Part 2 of 3 


Part 3 of 3


Feminage: The Logic of Feminist Collage

Sepiasiren, suite of 16 collage works



I'm pleased to announce that my work has been included in the group exhibition Feminage: The logic of feminist collage at Cross Art Projects, Kings Cross. I am showing a series of 16 collage works titled 'Sepiasiren' named after the Eros Goldstripe publication of the same name from 1974 aimed at 'the man with exotic tastes'. 

Artists include:
Karla Dickens, Elizabeth Gower, Emily Hunt, Mehwish Iqbal, Deborah Kelly, Fiona MacDonald, Paula do Prado, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, Sally Smart, Tai Snaith, Nancy Spero, Jemima Wyman

Keep Saturday 1st September free for the Feminage Roundtable at 3pm. The roundtable will be chaired by Catriona Moore with Deborah Kelly, Virginia Fraser and Jaqueline Millner.

Please visit the cross art projects website for more info 
http://www.crossart.com.au/