The 16th of Teacher’s Kit Designed specifically for There are four Sections in this Kit: THE 2008 Inside you will find five different types STUDENT NEWSPAPER of information that will help you teachers and students at Years − Section 1: An overview of investigate the exhibition from different and of the 2008 Biennale of Sydney The Student Newspaper is available at 9-12 (Stages 5-6) Secondary viewpoints: School levels, the content of this − Section 2: The 2008 Biennale of all 2008 Biennale of Sydney exhibition Sydney theme: Revolutions – Forms venues and as an online PDF at − Artworks kit can also be adapted for use That Turn www.bos2008.com/page/schools.html − Quotes by Years K-6 Primary teachers − Section 3: Exploring the six themes The 2008 Biennale of Sydney Student − Interviews to suit their students’ learning within Revolutions – Forms That Turn Newspaper has been designed for − Writer Quotes level and Tertiary Lecturers and − Section 4: ’ quotes, keyword list, specifically for students in − Definitions selected references and glossary Years 9 –12. It focuses on the themes of Students should think about how this students. the 2008 Biennale of Sydney and on information relates to the six themes of selected artists’ practice. These themes The Teachers’ Kit has been the Biennale, as well as to their own art are: developed alongside the 2008 making practice. Biennale Student Newspaper − Turning around and upside down − Change as an education resource to − Re-enactment and return prepare for an exhibition − Revolutions visit, as well as pre and post − Speeding up and slowing down visit programs to enhance − Mirroring and reversing understanding and engagement with the 2008 Biennale of Sydney. Developed to address the content of the Stage 4-6 New South Visual Arts Syllabus, this Teachers’ Kit will also be of value to other teachers and students from and beyond.

The 16th Biennale of Sydney Teacher’s Kit  COVER IMAGE: Sam Durant Photograph: Pat Armstrong Ask Us What We Want, 2008 (installation view) electric sign with vinyl text 243.84 x 345.19 cm Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, ; with support of the Farrell Family Foundation Photograph: Jenni Carter Written by Dougal Phillips, Public Copyright © 2008 The Biennale of Sydney Ltd. Copyright of all Credits The 16th Biennale of Sydney images is held by the individual artists. Program and Education Manager, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or 2008 Teacher’s Kit has been transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, Biennale of Sydney including photocopy, recording or any other information storage produced by the Biennale of or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Sydney in collaboration with Resource Consultants the of New South Justine McLisky, Learning Coordinator – School and Family Programs, Museum Wales and the Museum of of Contemporary Art. Tristan Sharp, Senior Coordinator of Education Programs, Art Gallery of Victoria Collings, Coordinator of K-6 School and Family Programs, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Contributors Marina Grasso Nisa Mackie Julie Spatt

Design Trigger triggerdesign.com.au

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS FOUNDING PARTNER SINCE 1973 MAJOR VENUE PARTNERS

The Biennale of Sydney is supported by the The Biennale of Sydney is assisted by the The Biennale of Sydney is assisted by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government through the Australia NSW Government through Arts NSW. Australian, state and territory governments. Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

MAJOR PARTNERS EDUCATION PARTNER ACCOMMODATION PARTNER NEWSPAPER PARTNER Overview What is a Biennale? group of worked together to produce a international survey of ‘Biennale’ is an Italian word that means This section includes contemporary art. an event that occurs every two years. It There are now approximately 100 introductory information has come to mean a festival, held once biennales occurring around the world in on Biennales generally, the every two years, that showcases places such as Berlin, , , contemporary visual art. A biennale is Biennale of Sydney and, in São Paulo, (United Arab usually held in a city or town for particular, the 2008 Biennale of Emirates) and . approximately two to three months. Different biennales have adopted Sydney, Revolutions – Forms That Biennales are usually funded through a different curatorial models: Turn. mix of public (government) and private (individual) support with art works not − some biennales are independent available for sale. organisations and invite different The Biennale of Sydney is one of the curators for each exhibition; oldest and most significant biennales in − some biennales are organised by art the world. The first biennale, La museums who may involve their own Biennale di Venezia, was held in , curators and may even acquire works in 1895. The second biennale in the for their museum collection; world was the São Paulo Bienal founded − some biennales are organised with in 1951. The Biennale of Sydney, first artists representing countries; presented at the − some biennales invite a number of on the occasion of its opening in 1973 is curators onto a panel to advise on the third. artists and co-curate or they invite The 2008 Biennale is the 16th edition. different curators to curate different A different Artistic Director (also known aspects of the biennale. in the as a ) is chosen Some events are unique, such as: for each Biennale of Sydney. They are selected by a committee about two years − which occurs every five before the next Biennale opens. As part years in ; of the research process they usually − the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale which spend about a year travelling occurs every three years in a small internationally and around Australia, rural village in Japan; meeting artists and doing research for − , the European Biennial for their exhibition. Each Biennale has a Contemporary Art, which is a moving different theme, apart from the 2000 exhibition that collaborates with Biennale of Sydney, for which a different cities in Europe.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT 1. WHAT IS A BIENNALE?

1 Terence Dick, Interviews Brian Jungen. This article B Jean Tinguely Photograph: Pat Armstrong originally appeared in Issue 89/Spring 2006 of Bascule no. 1: Sisyphus (see-saw no. 1: Sisyphus) 1965 C Magazine www.cmagazine.com syntheic polymer paint on metal, electric motor, rubber belt 101.8 x 152 x 83.5 cm [irreg] Courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney When thinking about biennales, International Biennale links − consider the following questions: http://2nd.moscowbiennale.ru/en/ − ASIA-PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF − SAO PAULO BIENNIAL Questions & − Who founded the biennale and why? CONTEMPORARY ART www.bienalsaopaulo.org.br Activities − Who curated the biennale? www.qag.qld.gov.au/apt/ − − Is there a theme or general idea − AUCKLAND TRIENNIAL www.shanghaibiennale.co behind the biennale? www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/ − SHARJAH INTERNATIONAL − Where are the artists from? exhibitions/0703turbulence.asp BIENNIAL − How many works presented have − BERLIN BIENNIAL FOR www.sharjahbiennial.com been made especially for the CONTEMPORARY ART − BIENNALE biennale? www.berlinbiennale.de/eng/index. www.singaporebiennale.org − What are the venues for the biennale? php?sid=index − TAIPEI BIENNALE − Are there any venues that are not − BIACS 2 INTERNATIONAL www.taipeibiennial.org usual art venues? BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY − − What is the relationship between the ART www.labiennale.org biennale and the city that hosts it? www.fundacionbiacs.com − WHITNEY BIENNALE − Who funds the biennale and why? − BUSAN BIENNALE www.whitneybiennial.com & www. − Who visits the biennale and why? http://busanbiennale.org/2006/eng/ whitney.org/www/2006biennial/ − What is the relationship between 2006index.php index.php biennales and tourism? − CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL − ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT − What is cultural tourism? How do www.cmoa.org/international/splash. INTERNATIONAL BIENNALES – biennales encourage cultural htm ASIA ART ARCHIVE tourism? − DOCUMENTA 12 www.aaa.org.hk/onlineprojects/bitri/ www.documenta12.de/english/news. en/index.asp html − www.gwangju-biennale.org − ISTANBUL BIENNALE www.iksv.org/bienal/english/ − LIVERPOOL BIENNALE www.biennial.com − LYON BIENNALE www.biennale-de-lyon.org

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Biennales around the world  The 2008 Biennale of Sydney: The exhibition venues for the 2008 − Art Gallery of New South Wales For the first time, the Biennale of Sydney Revolutions – Forms That Turn Biennale are: − Museum of Contemporary Art has an online venue, with new artist 18 June to 7 September 2008. − Cockatoo Island projects, videos, texts and links. − Pier 2/3 − Artspace Go to www.bos2008.com/revolutionsonline − Sydney Opera House to visit the online venue. − The Royal Botanic Gardens.

Year Title Artistic Director Artists Countries 1973 The Biennale of Sydney Anthony Wintherbotham (Australia) 37 artists The theme was links between 15 countries and Australia 1976 Recent International Forms in Art Thomas McCullough (Australia) 80 Artists 10 Countries

1979 European Dialogue (Australia) Nick Waterlow (Australia) 131 Artists 19 Countries

1982 Vision in Disbelief William Wright (Australia) 209 Artists 17 Countries

1984 Private Symbol: Social Metaphor Leon Paroissien (Australia) 66 Artists 20 Countries

1986 Origins Originality + Beyond Nick Waterlow (Australia) 23 Artists 21 Countries

1988 From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art Nick Waterlow (Australia) 127 Artists 15 Countries c. 1940–1988 1990 The Readymade Boomerang René Block (Germany) 148 Artists 28 Countries

1992-93 The Boundary Rider Anthony Bond (Australia) 126 Artists 33 Countries

1996 Jurassic Technologies Revenant Lynne Cooke (USA) 48 artists 24 Countries

1998 Every Day Jonathan Watkins (UK) 101 Artists 28 Countries

2000 2000 Nick Waterlow, Chair of International Selection Committee. 48 Artists 23 Countries Selection Committee: Fumio Nanjo, Louise Neri, Hetti Perkins, Sir Nicholas Serota, Robert Storr, Harald Szeemann 2002 (The world may be) Fantastic Richard Grayson (Australia) 56 Artists 23 Countries

2004 On Reason and Emotion Isabel Carlos (Portugal) 51 Artists/ 32 Countries collaborations 2006 Zones of Contact Charles Merewether (Australia) 85 Artists/ 44 Countries collaborations 2008 Revolutions – Forms That Turn Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (Italy) More than 180 artists/ 45 Countries collaborations

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT The Biennale of Sydney TIMELINE 1973–2008  − Read through the Biennale of Sydney words or less, explain the overarching education and tourism as well as table above. Choose one Biennale of ideas that connect the works. environmental aspects for Sydney Sydney that interests you. Visit the and the rest of the country. Suggest Questions & website for this Biennale, download − Locate two newspaper reviews by art the benefits the may result for the Activities the Media Releases and Curatorial critics about the Biennale of Sydney diverse countries participating in the Statements and compare them with 2008. Summarise the key arguments Biennale of Sydney. reviews you find on the web. Outline made by each critic. Do you agree how the biennale was received by the with these critics points of view? − In a small group, imagine you are critics of the time. Discuss the role of the critic and what about to open an Art Gallery. What may or may not influence the will you show there - local artists’ − Compare two past Biennale of Sydney positions they present about the works, contemporary artworks, themes. What type of art might be Biennale of Sydney. , performance works, included in each? Investigate if these something else?. What sort of area or Biennale themes reflect the social − Examine the catalogue for one place would you situate it in - a busy issues of their time or the art world Biennale of Sydney closely (or the street, a quiet park, near other issues of their time? website if they don’t have a galleries, in a special sort of building, catalogue). What was the theme and in a heritage building? Write a brief − Imagine you have been invited to main curatorial concept of this for an architect or sponsor for your curate the 2010 Biennale of Sydney. Biennale? Discuss the degree to new institution. Use the Structural and Cultural which you think the Biennale Frames to nominate your choice of at achieved its stated aims. Consider the − Discuss and list the jobs available at least five artists from anywhere in the artists presented, the venues utilised your gallery. What sort of audiences world. Write a 200 word brief that and the programs and resources would you market to –- students, outlines the concept and/or themes made available. families, artists, academics, local for the Biennale you believe would be community, national or international important to curate. As Artistic − Discuss the importance of the visitors? Write an advertisement or Director of the 2010 Biennale of Biennale as a vehicle for showing art media release about 100 words long, Sydney, present your exhibition from different countries to audiences directed to your audience, advertising concept to the class using in Australia. Identify some of the the opening of your gallery , PowerPoint. Be sure to select a range effects of a Biennale being scheduled describing the purpose of the of artists’ practices such as every two years within Sydney, or gallery and the exhibition you are performance, photography, sculpture, within your city or town. Discuss the having there. digital media, or . Using 200 implications for the economy, culture,

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT The Biennale of Sydney  − Investigate and discuss the particular − Compare and contrast the differences branding of the 2008 Biennale of in planning and organisation Questions & Sydney. List all locations and forms of between a Biennale that is presented media where you have seen it. Assess in a diversity of sites and spaces, to Activities how successful or visible it is. Design an exhibition curated for a single- (continued) a logo that you might use to ‘brand’ venue museum context (such as the your museum or gallery. Asia-Pacific Triennial). What are the differences in experience for − Locate a heritage-protected site in audiences and artists who visit these your local area. Write a short events? Do you think the audiences paragraph about why this site is who visit and the artists who important and why it would be good participate would differ? Why? to use as a venue for contemporary art. Design an art work as a site- − The Biennale of Sydney is organised specific installation. Your artwork by a team of full-time and volunteer might be inspired by an aspect of the staff. Research a volunteer program heritage environment, part of the either at your school or in the local site’s history or its current use (or community. Interview a volunteer disuse). Take into consideration any about their experiences. Why did the conservation or public safety person choose to volunteer? Who do measures that might affect your they assist? How often do they design. You could use the 2008 volunteer? What do they do in their Biennale’s Cockatoo Island site role? What do you think are the as a case study to explore or test benefits of a volunteer for an your ideas. institution? What do you think the volunteer gains from the process? − Discuss and compare the different effects of an indoor venue versus an outdoor site for the display of art. Which venue in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney, did you prefer and why? What benefits can each type of venue offer audiences?

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT The Biennale of Sydney  Overview The curatorial theme differently. This project explores the relationship and distance between Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev has chosen This section includes ‘revolutionary art’ and ‘art for the to curate the 2008 Biennale of Sydney revolution’, the space between form, on information about the 2008 according to the theme Revolutions – the one hand, and the role of art in Biennale of Sydney’s curatorial Forms That Turn. society on the other. Many works in this The concept Revolutions – Forms That theme, and excerpts from an year’s exhibition are participatory, Turn celebrates and explores the interview with 2008 Artistic encouraging people to step inside art dynamics of revolving, rotating, and discover new ways of looking and Director Carolyn Christov- mirroring, repeating, reversing, turning thinking about life today. Movement is a Bakargiev in which she upside down or inside out and changing strong feature – works turn, spin, go in perspectives in both in art and life. discusses her thoughts on reverse, mirror, make noise and even Through installations, performances, biennales, on the process of blow up. films, texts, an evolving online venue, The 2008 Biennale of Sydney curating and on the meaning of conversations and other events, exhibition creates a platform where we Revolutions – Forms That Turn explores ‘contemporary’ art. can appreciate creativity as the forms that express our desire for change. expression of cultural changes: of The theme Revolutions – Forms That revolutions in thought and society. Turn suggests the impulse to revolt, a desire for change, and seeing the world

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT 2. THE BIENNALE THEME: REVOLUTIONS – FORMS THAT TURN 1. What made you choose the theme revolutions per minute, or to the European mind as an upside-down Revolutions - Forms That Turn? revolutions of planets around a sun. So continent, the Terra Australis – in Latin there is this contradiction between the and Greek philosophy this notion of the The first reason is that I am interested daily usage of the word, which means a ‘antipodes’ is important – so I thought it in the impulse to revolt and in the way sudden and abrupt change (a was an interesting context to think about the word ‘revolution’ – which had ‘revolutionary’ artwork would be an this concept of an upside-down world. extremely positive connotations until artwork that changes your perception of This is also how a lot of artists think: if the 1970s – suddenly was eradicated what art is or could be) and the older you change perspectives from the from the language of postmodernist etymological meaning of the word. dominant perspective you open up culture because of its associations with Because I believe that the baby has been possibilities for imagination and also for the negative aspects of modernity, i.e. thrown out with the bathwater, and I freedom. violence, the institutionalisation of believe that we are in a state of cultural revolution into state dictatorships etc. depression and social conservatism all 2. Is there any connection to the current Because I am interested in cultural around the world, I think that there’s a situation in the art, in Sydney, Australia, amnesia as well as in etymology, I found space for re-engaging with the notion of the Region? this loss of usage of the word revolution by looking at its etymology interesting. Today it is used only by I think that there are many interesting rather than its current meaning. A going corporations and global industry, so the artists in Australia that for a number of backwards to go forwards, re- internet is ‘revolutionary’; Nike shoes reasons are actually thinking about these spatialising, re-topologising the word: a are ‘revolutionary’; the latest Blackberry same issues. For example, Shaun more cyclical, ecological view of is ‘revolutionary’ and so on. It is also Gladwell in his video works refers to revolution. In terms of aesthetics, it is used to ‘market’ the Left i.e. Che skateboard or moving in a kind of dance interesting to play a game in the history Guevara t-shirts. It is a word that through the video, but also thinks about of modern art, and look at works that migrated from the radical left to very the way video itself works, and the are formally connected with change: conservative areas. In one sense that was embedded meanings within video. change of form, colour, movement, and why I chose it. Australians often think in two ways – look at the history of that, which moves The second reason is that the word someone in will never say “I’m from Futurism through Kinetic art in the means the opposite of its etymology: sorry, it’s my winter and your summer”, 1950s and 1960s to experimental film ‘revolution’ comes from re and volvere; but an Australian will often say “I’m and the loop in contemporary practices. volvere means to turn, so you turn once sorry, it’s my summer and your winter”. Finally, the third reason is that and then you turn again and you are in So Australians are taught since they are Australia, although it is probably the the same place you started. Its meaning very young that they have to translate oldest continent in the world, was is actually a lot closer to LP records, to into an inverted view, which is always imagined or ‘projected’ in the

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Excerpts from an interview with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev 10 something interesting as it creates a always had – which is con-temporaneo: more crucial, as it is a space of resistance double mind, in a way. If you think of ‘with my time’. I believe that everything to that marketisation of art that we are Indigenous philosophy and Aboriginal that exists in the world is with, and of, experiencing. ways of thinking about history and my time, whether it is an old 1950s I think that the strength of the geography and memory and songs and Bakelite telephone, or an artwork made Biennale system is that there is an storytelling, a cyclical view where things two years ago or today. As such, this alternation between different are repeated is very important to that exhibition will contain works from the perspectives on curatorial practice and culture, so I’m interested in the ways in past as well as from today, ranging from different perspectives on the role of art which indigenous philosophies may Luigi Russolo’s sound machines from in society, so it’s a good thing if it differs interact with Western philosophies to the early twentieth century to the work greatly. produce a way of thinking about of emerging artists of today. contemporary Australia. 6. Do you require artists to submit new 5. What is your understanding of works, or do you select from old works 3. How do you select participating ‘biennale’? What is the importance of that fit the theme? artists? having a biennale? Both. But I would never use the word Magic and listening. I would not use the The importance of having a biennale is ‘require’. That’s like the word ‘select’. I word ‘select’ – I don’t believe in the related to cultural exchange and don’t require anything from anyone. authority behind selecting. I invite dialogue. One brings culture from all There are no rules, because I hate artists through my own reactions as well around the world to a location and one rules. I believe in rebellion and as listening to other artists, other foregrounds the culture of that location breaking rules so that we can find new curators; young people; old people. The to the rest of the world. So it is a space spaces of mental and personal elders are very important to me, as is of exchange of ideas, thoughts, political freedom. listening to my eleven-year-old utopias, aesthetic positions and so on. daughter, who is one of my best I feel that biennales have traditionally Questions to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev assistants. had a great importance as they have Artistic Director, 2008 Biennale of nurtured and furthered an Sydney, C-Arts Magazine, 30 Jan 2008. 4. The biennale showcases internationalism which was very radical. contemporary works. What is your Today, in an age when art fairs are understanding for ‘contemporary’? growing all over the world and the market has taken over a large segment My current understanding of of the public’s attention towards art, I ‘contemporary’ is the same think the space of biennales is even understanding of ‘contemporary’ I have

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Excerpts from an interview with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev 11 − Role-play an interview between an between the online image, your included in the 2008 Biennale of artist and a reporter about the 2008 and the artwork itself. Sydney Free Guide. Biennale of Sydney. Choose the Questions & questions each of them asks of the − List the different senses you use to − Research curatorial statements from Activities other. Discuss how these questions experience the world. Create a past Biennale of Sydney exhibitions. reflect each of their roles, interests drawing that describes visually your Compare the various ideas and and perspectives in the art world. experience of one sense. List the approaches. Have some approaches works in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney been repeated across different − Using a dictionary and the glossary in which utilise more than one sense Biennales? Debate in class whether this Teachers’ Kit, define the (for example, Sharmila Samant’s you consider re-exploring an idea a following words: revolution, forms, installation engages audiences’ valid approach or that a Biennale utopia, invert, cultural amnesia, senses of hearing, sight and sense should try to present original or fresh radical, internationalism, of smell). ideas for an audience to contemplate.. marketisation, antipodes, dictatorships, conservatism. − Curate your own biennale. As a whole − From the list of international class or in small groups, decide on a biennales in this Teacher’s Kit locate − Imagine you are one of the artists in theme for the exhibition. Talk about all the Biennales that will be the Biennale of Sydney 2008. Give a what interests you, which artists presented in 2008. Compare the five minute artist talk to your class in inspire you, or a recent, important curatorial statement from Revolutions front the artwork explaining why you event that happened in your – Forms That Turn with these other made the work and what the work community. Collect images about the Biennales. What are the similarities communicates. event, and make artworks inspired by and differences? the theme. Gather your artworks − Visit the 2008 Biennale of Sydney together and arrange them for − Using this Teacher’s Kit and the Free website: www.bos2008.com. Find an display. Include indoor and outdoor Guide, read about the work of three image of one of the artworks in the areas. Make labels for your artworks, artists in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney exhibition, draw the work, and write include the student’s name, title of who are presented at different down the title and name of the artist. the artwork and the year. Give the venues. Think about why each Visit the exhibition, locate the exhibition artwork has been displayed at each artwork and compare your drawing a title. venue and discuss how the work of the art work to the ‘real’ art work. relates to that site. Discuss with a friend the difference − Read Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s you discovered about the artwork Curatorial Statement which is

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THE BIENNALE THEME: REVOLUTIONS – FORMS THAT TURN 12 − Imagine you have been engaged as a Art Gallery of New South Wales, with graphic designer for the 2008 a non-museum space such as Pier 2/3 Questions & Biennale. Design an A4 page spread or Cockatoo Island. List the positive for an artist of your choice that and negative aspects of each venue; Activities includes a 300 word essay, a 100 word for example staffing levels, the quality (continued) biography and at least two images. of the facilities, the existence of climate control, possibilities of types − Choose an artwork in the 2008 of artworks, etc., including the Biennale of Sydney exhibition that decision for particular venues to explores the theme of ‘revolution’. display performance-based works. Explain the reasons for your choice Consider materials used in works and outline the way the artist is inside buildings compared with a interpreting the theme, either work displayed outside - what are conceptually or through their some conservation issues concerning material practice. each work?

− Artworks in the 2008 Biennale of − Think about the art work presented at Sydney involve suitcases, gas tanks, Cockatoo Island. Why these particular bicycles, building materials, sails, artworks were presented in this bubbles, nails and a telephone. Make location? Is this an art venue? What a list of some other unusual materials influence does this venue have on involved in the exhibition. Discuss how you look at and think about the why artists would use non-traditional artwork? art materials that they may have found. In what way does using these − Identify the critical narratives or materials present a challenge to an stories being communicated that are audiences perception of what an art inherent in the work of two artists work is or can be? represented at the Biennale of Sydney 2008. − Compare and contrast two 2008 Biennale of Sydney venues; a museum institution such as the Museum of Contemporary Art or the

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THE BIENNALE THEME: REVOLUTIONS – FORMS THAT TURN 13 Overview 4. Revolutions What happened to the idea of Within the overarching revolution? Has it lost its political theme of the 2008 Biennale relevance today or should we rescue it from consumer culture and restore it to of Sydney: Revolutions – Forms its original meaning. What is that That Turn, there are six original meaning? themes which appear in the 5. Speeding up and slowing down artworks, both historical and We live today in a very fast world – contemporary. Many of the how are artists working with that speed works in the exhibition directly or working against it, to slow the world address these themes, which down? are as follows: 6. Mirroring and reversing What is the effect of reversing 1. Turning around and upside down something or producing a mirror How do art works explore the concept image of an object, a text, or an idea? of turning objects, images and ideas around and upside down? An exploration of these themes within the context of the 2008 Biennale of 2. Change Sydney Revolutions – Forms That Turn This theme considers art works that exhibition reveals the many and varied ask questions about change – Is change ways in which artists now and in the always for the best? Why should we past have understood the possibilities have change and how can we make of ‘revolution’. change?

3. Re-enactment and return What can we learn by looking back at past moments or ideas from history, and by seeing them again and thinking about what they mean in a contemporary context?

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT 3. Exploring the themes of REVOLUTIONS – FORMS THAT TURN

Vernon Ah Kee What Is An Aborigine, 2008 installation of 12 Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Photograph: Ben Symons The turning around and In thinking about the concept of upside down of objects has a ‘turning around’ we might look at the work of Bruce Nauman (b. 1941, USA). potent ability to quickly alter Nauman is an artist who has studied our perspective and open up mathematics, music and philosophy and new modes of seeing. Doing who has, over the last 40 years, asked this, creates new questions questions about how we experience the world. He investigates the process and and possibilities regarding the meaning of artmaking through nature of our world. Consider sculpture, performance, film, video, for example Marcel Duchamp’s photography, drawing and installation. Bicycle Wheel (1913) (Art Gallery Nauman’s piece The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths (1967) of New South Wales). By (AGNSW) uses the hypnotic effects of turning this everyday object neon and the turning spiral. Originally on its head, Duchamp forces positioned in his own studio window next to a shop, Nauman used an the viewer to think about its established and effective method of new orientation and renders communication (advertising) to trigger the normally useful object questions of higher consciousness (the completely useless. And yet, the ‘mystic truths’ of the title) as opposed to selling a product. The method of wheel can still turn, so has a communication was recycled and renewed potential as a moving revolutionised, and the question of the sculpture, different from but role of the artist in society was literally related to its original use. turned in on itself.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Turning around and upside down 15

Bruce Nauman The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths (Window or wall sign), 1967 edition 1/3

fluorescent tubes 149.9 x2-3 139.7 x 5.1 cm; backing board 165 x 165 cm

Collection National Gallery of Australia, ; Purchased 1978

2-2 2-1 Another work in the Biennale which has function and the new role the objects The Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica installations of fractured and been inspired by differing points of view perform. Crux is a mobile of Australian (1937–1980, Brazil) is known as one of overlapping images and sounds. His or changing perspectives is animals created from hard suitcases. the most experimental artists of the work challenges the traditionally passive Brian Jungen’s Crux (as seen from those Jungen references the experience of 1960s. He was interested breaking down relationship between the cinematic who sleep on the surface of the earth under travel, long journeys, and feelings of the boundaries between artwork and image and the spectator. Viewers the night sky), 2008 (Cockatoo Island). frustration and liberation resulting from viewer in favour of participation and become participants in a playful, Jungen (b. 1970, ) is a member of lost baggage incidents with airlines. The pleasure, creating interactive artworks to enveloping sensorial experience. the Doig River Reserve of the Dane-zaa experience of sleeping underneath the wear, enter into and inhabit. These were First Nation. Jungen’s artworks often unfamiliar constellations of the amongst the first examples of manipulate familiar consumer goods southern hemisphere, and Jungen’s , a medium commonly with reference to sports culture and subsequent research into the mythology used by artists round the world today. other forms or spectatorship. and symbolism of these star systems for Oiticica’s CC5 Hendrix War, 1973 (MCA), Jungen creates which often the , led the artist collaboration with Brazilian filmmaker, reference natural or traditional images to combine the lost identity of Neville d’Almeida (b. 1941, Brazil), is one by modifying and combining existing unclaimed baggage with the lost of his “quasi-cinemas” – almost cinemas objects. The viewer moves back and identities of the Cockatoo Island site. – experiments in film, sound and slide forth between the original identity and projections. These are room-sized

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Turning around and upside down 16

Brian Jungen Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida Crux (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the earth Quasi-cinemas / CC5 Hendrix War, 1973 under the night sky), 2008 slide projection and audio installation with hammocks mixed media dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver Collection Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Minas Gerais, Brazil With the assistance of The Canada Council for Photograph: Jenni Carter Photograph: Jenni Carter Practice / Structural Frame Cultural Frame the found object suitcases to represent How have artists in the 2008 Biennale of Research the Tropicália movement, parts of the animal’s bodies. How has he Sydney changed the way objects, images identify what the movement was achieved a sense of lightness and Questions & or texts are displayed? What sort of new reacting against, and identify three key movement through the use of simple Activities meanings or experiences do these figures in its development. industrial materials? changes in perspective or perception create for the viewer? Postmodern Frame Cultural Frame Oiticica likes to break down boundaries Resarch how the constellations feature Structural Frame between the audience and art by directly in the myths and knowledge of What other forms outside of art does the immersing the viewer in the artistic traditional cultures, including shape of the spiral in Bruce Nauman’s experience. No two viewers will Indigineous Australian and First Nations artwork The true artist helps the world by experience the same work. Describe the cultures in Canada. What links might revealing mystic truths remind you of? artist’s intention and what effect this has Jungen be making between these two Where else would you expect to see a for the viewer. Observe the audience in cultures? sign like this? How do you interpret the the gallery space and describe their title of Nauman’s work: Is he being reaction to the work.

2-1 ironic, serious, or insightful? Do you think that using words and statements is Conceptual Framework, Postmodern Frame a powerful way to convey a message? Oiticica’s installations provide a sensory (Think about the way Nauman experience. Does this enable the viewer constructed his work using neon). Come to change their perceptions by being up with your own equivalent involved in the art? How does this philosophical statement. experience differ from the traditionally Practice approach to viewing art? How successful How does Oiticica’s multi-sensory art is this as a strategy? 2-2 installation from the 1960s compare to Practice our contemporary digital technologies Consider Brian Jungen’s practice. How and ‘virtual worlds’? Compare and does Brian Jungen’s mobile refer to contrast two artists who work in older sculptural practices, such as the contemporary 4D media with Oiticica’s work of Alexander Calder, seen in the practice. MCA? Describe how Jungen has used the existing shape, colour and form of

2-3

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Turning around and upside down 17 Whenever an artist makes Sharmila Samant’s (b. 1967, ) work an artwork they change the in the Biennale (MCA) directly addresses the negative effects of change in world. What initially began farming in India. Her work engages as an observation or an idea with problems caused by globalisation takes form and evolves into by raising money to help the farmers in something new. This change need. Samant has created a work that deals with the local and the global, in can be influenced by the way relation to a specific agricultural crisis in we conceptually conceive or India. perceive an object, idea or A key element of her work is collaboration with the farmers in the experience or it could be a affected region. Against the Grain is a physical change in shape, field of handcrafted cobras woven from scale, colour and form. grain and bamboo, made in collaboration with the Devguniya, an A number of art works in the Indigenous community from Bolangir, Biennale ask questions about and representing the destructive impact change – Is change always for of multinational companies on the farmers of this region in India (in the best? Why should we have particular in relation to genetically change and how can we make modified seeds). In Sounds of the change? Silenced, a soundscape has been created using seed-storage barrels collected from across India and refashioned into resonance chambers for the songs sung by women in the fields. The final element of the work, Gilt, will take place at the conclusion of the exhibition. The rice sculptures of cobras from the work will be auctioned, with proceeds returning to afflicted communities.

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2-1 Sharmila Samant Against the Grain, 2008 2-2 BT cotton, camphor, 1000 paddy craft objects (snakes) individually placed on metal stands 2-3 dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Bose Pacia Gallery, New York Photograph: Jenni Carter The work of Nedko Solakov (b. 1957, in black and white for the entire The art practice of theweathergroup_U Bulgaria) asks questions about change in duration of the exhibition. One paints (Cockatoo Island) is focused on engaging a more literal way. Solakov’s conceptual the walls white while the other paints change in a more direct way. installations are radical, witty and ironic. them black, round and round in an theweathergroup_U is an artistic collective One of Nedko Solakov’s life-long endless loop. The work is a way of interested in pursuing experimental methods projects is A Life (Black & White), which is looking again at whether futility in of audio-visual media production, presented in the lobby of the Art Gallery human life is necessarily a negative environmental mapping and other of New South Wales. This work is an thing – whether everything we do technologies. Their work explores weather as artistic project which Solakov has been always has to have a progressive a metaphor for the way contemporary society repeating over and over since 1999 and outcome: a change of some sort. understands change, and how traditional presumably will continue to do so Solakov’s work challenges us to re- knowledge about the weather and the land forever. In this work, two painters consider the concept of change for found in Indigenous Australian cultures can repaint the walls of the exhibition space change’s sake. challenge and overturn mainstream and modern ways of thinking. Their work aims to use digital storytelling methods to bring this knowledge and experience into the space of the , to look at themes of ecology, climate, geography, communications and collaboration. Through their work we can consider how communities are adapting to rapidly changing environments and climate conditions. Members of group come from a range of backgrounds, including artists and people working in the media and at universities.

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Nedko Solakov Past editions: Courtesy collections of Peter Kogler, ; Susan theweathergroup_U A Life (Black & White), 1998 and Lewis Manilow, Chicago; Hauser & Wirth, St. Gallen; Museum fur theweathergroup_U, 2008 edition 5/5 and 1 artist’s proof Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. events, video, maps, diagrams, writings, images black-and-white paint; 2 workers/painters constantly repainting This edition: Collection of the artist. Photograph: theweathergroup_U the walls of the exhibition space in black-and-white for the entire Courtesy Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin/Zurich duration of the exhibition, day after day (following each other) Photograph: Jenni Carter dimensions variable Postmodern Frame, Cultural Frame Practice Practice The snakes in Sharmila Samant’s Compare the community-based Consider how the theweathergroup_U installation are handcrafted cobras practice of Sharmila Samant with uses the space of an art exhibition to Questions & woven from grain husks and bamboo. Australian artists who also work with engage with the theme of change in a Activities What is the significance of the recycled or engage with local communities. direct way. How do they communicate and craft elements, and the collaborative their ideas to the audience? nature of this work in a contemporary Postmodern Frame context? What do the snakes symbolise? How do you respond to Solakov’s work Conceptual Framework A Life (Black & White)? How does this Consider the name of theweathergroup_ Cultural Frame, Conceptual Framework work relate to the development of a U collective. How might weather be Sharmila Samant’s work deals with new economic system in a post- seen as something that is a metaphor issues of globalisation and trade by Communist country like Bulgaria? for change? Research other artist who looking at the demise of farming have made work about the weather – communities in India. Discuss this Structural Frame what themes did they explore by looking approach with reference to changes in How has Solakov used the associations at the weather? farming techniques in recent times. we have with the colours black and white to produce meaning in this Cultural Frame Cultural Frame work? Write a review of this art work in Research some traditional knowledge Research the current situation of Indian relation to associations of duality: for about the land and weather, such as that cotton farmers. Do you think that example, life/death, day/night, yin/ found in Indigenous Australian cultures. change and the demise of the traditional yang. How do these associations work Look specifically at how Indigenous role of these farming communities is with the theme of change/renewal? understandings of climate, geography, inevitable? How can these cultures be communications and collaboration protected and made sustainable? Analyse Practice differ from European knowledge or how successful Sharmila Samant’s Solakov is a Conceptual artist. He plays understanding. Research other examples installation is in raising these questions. with ideas using humour and of traditional or indigenous knowledge philosophical questions. What other in these areas from around the world. Practice artists do you know who work in the Using objects from nature (sticks, same way, or are considered grasses, rocks, etc.) with bright coloured Conceptual artists? cotton thread create your own creatures to display as a group in a place in school where lots of people will see them.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Change 20 When we re-enact we enact (b. 1967, Australia) is of the again, we perform again, we Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Koko Berrin, Yidindji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples. For the Biennale, go through an experience or Ah Kee exhibits 12 paintings that re-create an activity a second time, and older images while also creating a new we return to something that meaning to those images. What Is An Aborigine happened in the past. A re- (2008), his painting series shown on Cockatoo Island, is related to a collection of photographs enactment of any sort always of Aboriginal people living on missions and sees a return to a place that government stations. These photographs were we once were, but in the state taken between 1921 and 1957 by Norman Tindale, who wanted to make a sort of we are in now. Re-enactment ‘scientific’ record of Aboriginal people. His thrusts the fragments of our photographs are like mug shots, with the past into our present, to re-form subjects posed front and side on, identified by experiences otherwise left to a number. Ah Kee’s great-grandfather was one of the men photographed. memory. These large-scale charcoal and pastel paintings recreate the fixed gaze of the photographed person and have both positive and negative undertones. On one hand, Ah Kee’s emphasise the humanity of his subjects, focusing on their eyes and giving the viewer a sense of empathy with the individual. On the other hand, by representing his family in this same format, there is an implication that Aboriginal people today are still caught in repressive conditions like those experienced in the first half of the twentieth century. This is the sort of complicated meaning that Ah Kee seeks to produce. His works re-enact the Tindale images but return the gaze with a new sort of presence. Looking at the oversized portraits with their large eyes at the viewer’s eye level, the viewer experiences a sense of discomfort as the confrontational act of the stare, of facing an accuser, of exercising a right of reply, is strongly felt.

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Vernon Ah Kee What Is An Aborigine, 2008 installation of 12 paintings Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane Photograph: Ben Symons The work of Sam Durant (b, 1961, USA) Michael Rakowitz (b.1973, USA) works explores language, conflict and the with communities to create forms of public sphere. For the 2008 Biennale, ‘social sculpture’ that address social Durant has created a series of large problems through personal encounters illuminated signs containing de- and stories which bring art together with contextualised quotes from placards practical, everyday concerns. Past works used during protest demonstrations. have taken shape in urban spaces and Statements including ‘200 YEARS OF explored public environments, such as WHITE LIES’, ‘THIS IS FREEDOM?’ and paraSITE, an ongoing project in which ‘ASK US WHAT WE WANT’ are drawn the artist custom builds inflatable both from the Aboriginal civil rights shelters for homeless people, utilising movement in Australia and from African the vents of a building’s heating, American and Native American civil ventilation or air-conditioning system. rights movements in the . For the Biennale, Michael Rakowitz These signs are presented as a site- has engaged with contemporary specific installation, displayed in the Indigenous life in Australia to create foyer and on the façade of the Museum new associations with the history of of Contemporary Art. The MCA is a visionary architecture and its failures, heritage building situated in the middle and with the collapse of historical ideas of one of the busiest tourist areas in of revolution. In collaboration with a Australia: Circular Quay. Like street number of individuals and groups, signs or advertising billboards, Durant’s Rakowitz has constructed a full-scale signs are visible from afar, especially contemporary version of avant-garde when they are illuminated at night. Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin’s for Like Bruce Nauman, Durant Monument to the Third International appropriates the format and techniques (1919). Tatlin’s tower, which was to have of advertising to make his text stand out. been made of spirals, was never built; By overlapping this past American today, it is a symbol of revolutionary and history with the current Australian visionary thought. Rakowitz’s Tatlin context, Durant makes a poignant tower represents a rebirth of collective comment on conditions within hope, as it recycles discarded materials contemporary Australia. He also explores from old houses, soon to be demolished, the politics of memory, by looking at the owned by the Aboriginal Housing way in which we remember moments of Company in Redfern, Sydney. protest, both as individuals and as The tower was first installed in the a society. Redfern Community Centre before being relocated to the entrance of the Art Gallery of New South Wales for the Opening Week of the 2008 Biennale. THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Re-enactment and Return 22

Sam Durant Sam Durant Sam Durant Michael Rakowitz 200 Years of White Lies, 2008 End White Supremacy, 2008 Ask Us What We Want, 2008 White man got no dreaming, 2008 electric sign with vinyl text electric sign with vinyl text electric sign with vinyl text mixed media 243.84 x 339.09 cm 243.84 x 345.19 cm 243.84 x 345.19 cm 465 (height) x 336 (diameter) cm Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; with support of Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; with support of Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; with support of Courtesy the artist and Lombard-Freid Projects, New York the Farrell Family Foundation the Farrell Family Foundation the Farrell Family Foundation Project supported by the Dena Foundation Photograph: Jenni Carter Photograph: Jenni Carter Subjective / Structural / Cultural Frame then make a sign as a response to one record how the public, or your Vernon Ah Kee, Michael Rakowitz and of these problems. classmates, respond to this work. Sam Durant use different media to Questions & express socially-engaged messages. Practice Conceptual Framework Activities Explain, with reference to the Develop a project about . What is the relationship between the Structural, Subjective and Cultural Walk around Sydney, or your local Durant works on the exterior of the Frames, which work, in your opinion, area, and explore the different kinds of MCA/Artspace and the local most effectively expresses the artist’s public art you can find. Make large environment and audience? intentions. scale photocopies of landmark Brainstorm or mind-map three other buildings, and draw banners with public spaces in Sydney Durant could Structural Frame humorous or serious statements and position his work in. Why would you Explain the importance of the images on the front of the buildings. put the work in these alternative materials Rakowitz uses in his work. Display your plans in your classroom. places/spaces? Who could the Focus on the relationship between potential audiences be? materials used and the form of the Cultural Frame work. What are some other ways people Practice, Cultural Frame have protested in the past? Research Research other artists who use text to Conceptual Framework in small groups some ‘protest’ songs make political statements, for instance Vernon Ah Kee uses portraiture, which from history, political movies or art American artist Jenny Holzer or traditionally focuses on the individual, projects that have drawn attention to Vernon Ah Kee (in his text works). to explore community issues. Discuss problems in society (you might want Compare their practice to Durant’s the relationship between individual to ask your parents). Present your works in the 2008 Biennale. How do and collective experience. How does research to your class. the artists’ and/or the artworks’ exhibiting a series of portraits cultural context impact on the words communicate Ah Kee’s world view? Postmodern Frame, Conceptual Framework selected? Make a series of small works, or sketches in your VAPD, Practice Write a short analysis of the effect drawing on the practice of these Discuss as a class what you think are produced when Sam Durant takes artists. some key problems or issues in today’s political statements out of their society. Make a list of the five most original context and places them in a Practice important issues. In small groups, more modern/contemporary context Investigate the design and form of brainstorm word lists for each issue, in the public sphere. Observe and towers. Document their variations and

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Re-enactment and Return 23 uses, using photography and drawing. work. How does he do this and is Discuss how a tower be sculptural or he successful? architectural? Examine closely Questions & Postmodern Frame / Practice Activities Rakowitz’s White man got no dreaming. Consider its materials, the process to How does Rakowitz draw new themes out of the recreation of an iconic (continued) make it and its purpose. Form a group building from the history of and design a tower that you would like modernist architecture? How is the to make and that would be situated in original vision of Tatlin’s tower your community or environment. Use changed by being appropriated into any materials and process such as the Redfern context? What does moving parts or a radio transmitter or Rakowitz achieve by using public a garden. environments for his art, as opposed to housing his work in a gallery or Structural Frame / Practice museum? Why do we tear old houses down? What happens to the materials that they are made of once they are torn down? Take some recycled materials which are not being used and recreate an iconic building in Sydney or from somewhere in the world. Present to the class why you chose this building and the materials used to re-create it.

Structural Frame / Cultural Frame Rakowitz’s work comments on social issues, and for the Biennale he collobarated with an urban Indigenous community. What is he trying to say? And how is he expressing his opinion/ comment through his art? The idea of rebuilding ‘hope’ is part of Rakowitz’s

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Re-enactment and Return 24 At various times and with different levels of intensity we all experience the urge to revolt, to object, to make a stand or to speak out, either against the way things are or in support of something new. Artists have always used their art as a way to communicate thoughts and feelings in response to the recognition that things are not as they should be. Art can often express things that we may not be able to say in other ways, or help us to experience the world in ways that worlds alone cannot describe. The concept of ‘revolution’ is central to the artworks exhibited Tracy Moffatt (b. 1969, Australia) is one Sydney, Tracey Moffatt presents presumed disastrous after-effects of in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney of Australia’s leading contemporary REVOLUTION, (2008) (MCA), a new revolutions. Excerpts from well-known – however, the ways in which artists. Working since the late 1980s as video work made using Moffatt and blockbuster films arejuxtaposed with this concept has been explored an experimental filmmaker and a Hillberg’s signature cut-and-paste clips from B-movies in a dynamic, by the artists are many producer of music videos, she has editing technique, a visual collage or humorous and highly crafted created photography, film and video bricolage, close to the practice of a DJ composition accompanied by a rhythmic and varied. works that are concerned with power sampling pre-existing music. The work and melodramatic soundtrack. Moffatt’s relations, hysteria, the media and forms is a study of the stereotypes associated freedom and defiant impulse to revolt is of escape from stereotyped with revolution in historical and subtly present in the illegal activity she subjectivities. Past filmicmontages contemporary movies. It explores performs as a provocation – brashly produced in collaboration with editor constructions of those stereotypes, both appropriating fragments from movies Gary Hillberg (b. 1982, Australia) include by showing the glory and drama of the without clearing copyright. It is as if she Lip (1999), Artist (2000), Love (2003) and depiction of revolutions on the wide- were saying: So what if I do this? What Doomed (2007). For the 2008 Biennale of screen and also by portraying the will you do to me?

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Tracy Moffatt and Gary Hillberg REVOLUTION, 2008 video, film montage, 14 mins Courtesy the artists and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Dan Perjovschi (b. 1961, Romania) and Emory Douglas (b. 1943, USA) has over of the era. His art and activism played his wife Lia Perjovschi (b. 1961, his life been directly engaged with the an important part alongside the Party’s Romania) have been making art, role of visual art in a revolutionary other radical activities, debating issues including performances, paintings, cause. Douglas was the appointed critical to African-American communities sculptures, drawings, photographs, Minister of Culture for the Black fighting against injustice. For the videos, installations and Panther Party in Oakland from 1967 Biennale, historian and archivist for the since 1986. They grew up under a until its demise in the early 1980s. The Black Panther Party, Bill (Billy X) Jennings, dictatorship that ended in 1989 with the Black Panther Party was an African- has lent a selection of posters, newspapers Romanian revolution. Dan Perjovschi American organisation established to and films documenting this time, which draws directly on walls, floors and promote civil rights and self-defence. are exhibited on Cockatoo Island. windows in art exhibitions. Expressed Founded in Oakland by Huey P. Newton through an essential and basic form of and Bobby Seale in October 1966, the drawing that lies somewhere between a organisation fought for the protection comic book cartoon and a graffiti style of African-American neighbourhoods of quick line sketching, Perjovschi’s from police brutality, for the interests humour addresses serious issues – world of African-American rights and justice. politics, social life, the cultural scene, the The Party’s ten-point program called relations between local contexts and for ‘Land, Bread, Housing, Education, globalisation, as well as his own personal Clothing, Justice and Peace’. Many of concerns. In his notebooks, he has the programs initiated by the Black created an set of drawings that he selects Panther Party continue today, such as from and repeats form exhibition to its school breakfast programs. Douglas exhibition, adding new ones as he trained as a commercial artist during encounters new contexts. After his the time he spent in prison. When he exhibitions end, his drawings are erased was released he became the official or painted over. Unpretentious, they ‘artist’ of the Panthers, his revolutionary represent one of the most radical designs featured in the Party’s posters expressions of personal freedom in and newspapers, which were distributed today’s world, where art itself has widely through its networks and pasted become a commodity to a degree never on buildings, walls and windows across seen before. For the Biennale, Perjovschi the United States. Douglas’s distinctive has drawn in chalk on the façade of the and powerful illustrations in marker, ink, Art Gallery of New South Wales as well gouache and graphite made him one of as in black marker on a glass wall. His the most influential and radical artists drawings suggest the breaking of taboos – such as the rule that it is not proper to scribble on walls generally – let alone at a museum.

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Dan Perjovschi Emory Douglas The Sydney Drawing, 2008 newspapers from ‘The Black Panther’, 1969–73 chalk and marker drawing dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Lombard-Freid Projects, New York Structural Frame Moffatt’s work uses collage, bricolage, Structural Frame / Practice Dan Perjovschi, Emory Douglas and stereotypes, and appropriation. Describe Dan Perjovschi draws on the walls, floor Tracey Moffatt all use art to respond to how these techniques give new meaning and windows, only to have it erased once Questions & social and cultural environments. to previously existing images and the exhibition is over. Is this kind of Activities Discuss the signs and symbols used by footage when combined in a new ‘ephemeral’ art effective or not? Give these artists to parody, undermine or artwork or context. How does this reasons for your answers. Dan Perjovschi contest mainstream society. technique challenge conventional film- breaks the rules and conventions by making techniques and questions of writing on these walls and windows. Is Practice authorship? Why would an artist be his work truly revolutionary? How Make a layered collage using old interested in breaking rules? Are there effective is it in reaching his aims? magazines or newspapers. Cut out a certain things we do / want to do only person and place them in a collaged Cultural Frame / Structural Frame because we’re not allowed? landscape where you don’t think they Research the history of the Black Panther belong. Add clothes, objects, other Practice Party. With this history in mind, explain figures or trees to make the image look Give an example of three other the relationship between Emory even more out of place. Australian artists who utilise Douglas’s illustrations and posters appropriation in their practice and and the Black Panther Party’s aims Structural Frame explain how and why they do so. and belief systems. Research wars or revolutionary actions Compare their practice to Moffatt’s in a in Australia. Locate some visual imagery, Practice short essay. and come up with three to five key Working in a group, produce a words or short sentences about these Practice newspaper which deals with problems events. Compile the images and words Using a black marker and several large you and the group identify in today’s you have collected into a poster sheets of paper (a wall if possible) make society. Write opinion pieces, craft advertising the war or revolution. some quick drawings in the same way headlines and illustrate your newspaper Dan Perjovschi does, commenting on so as to communicate your message in a Postmodern Frame contemporary society. powerful way. How will your newspaper View or download two recent music have an impact on the reader? videos. How do the videos support and Subjective Frame repeat images, power hierarchies and Dan Perjovschi lived through a Structural Frame / Postmodern Frame stereotypes that are common in the dictatorship (research the Romanian Identify and explain the history of three media, or do they work against these Revolution of 1989).Think about why different visual references Emory conventions? Identify and compare how and how his art is a form of revolution, Douglas has used to create his work. the videos do this. both for himself and for art practice Outline how his use of intertextual in general. reference underpins the ideas he is Postmodern Frame trying to convey.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Revolution 27 Nowadays, the world seems Escape Carnival, (2008) by TV Moore (b. marathon efforts of ultra-runners and by installation, made for the Dog-Leg to be turning more and more 1974, Australia), displayed in the Dog- the figure of a homeless man he Tunnel, which uses its dramatic location Leg Tunnel on Cockatoo Island, depicts glimpsed in Los Angeles, Escape Carnival to explore the psychological space of the quickly, at a dizzying pace, a man endlessly running. The sound of uses the temporal nature of both sound individual, at once within and estranged which makes it hard to keep his breath is mixed with music in the and video to consider ideas of the from society, and progressing only up. We are living in an age sound installation which fills the tunnel. duration of a journey, asking us: where through his own propulsion. of digital revolution and life Moore works with film, video and is the beginning and where is the end? theatrical forms. Inspired by the Moore’s work is a site-specific moves at an accelerated pace. The ultimate question might be: How can artists make works of art - which might require slowness, care, and reflective thought - within such a sped-up world?

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TV Moore Escape Carnival, 2008 single-channel video installation/sound installation Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney The work of Bari Kumar (b. 1966, India) times, the abstracted image of moving Speed is used rather differently, as a practice. It is a small black and white is also about progression and muscles in the cyclist’s back is touching formal device in the work of Attila photograph in which two glasses filled propulsion. Kumar’s Army of Forgotten as it is overtaken by a motorised Csörgo´´, (b. 1965, Hungary). Csörgo´´ often with water appear to be simply placed on Souls (2005) is a short mournful video rickshaw. Kumar’s film, made with works with light and photography and a table. In this image the water is not depicting rickshaw cyclists in Kumar’s musical inspiration from Transglobal with structures that move. He is level and appears to be artificially altered, birthplace, Nellore. Bound to their Underground, is a homage to the interested in changeable geometrical since it slants in opposite directions in rickshaw cycles all day and night with rickshaw wallah; a sad celebration of the forms and in exploring elements of the two adjacent glasses. However, this nothing but their limited physical end of an era. reality that we might not normally see photograph was not digitally altered to strength, these men formerly provided or think about. By observing ordinary create an illusion but instead was created the primary mode of transportation to phenomena under extraordinary by spinning the table on which the this area. With the progress of urban conditions Csörgo´´ creates experiments, glasses and camera all stood, so that the development came the automated three- often surprising and entertaining, to water was pictured in a centrifugal wheelers, threatening the meagre foreground questions about perception movement. The revolving object is a livelihood of these labourers. Stripped and how we construct our vision of the recurring motif in Csörgo´´’s practice. bare, working in the scorching heat and world. Slanting Water (1995), shown at struggling to keep up with the changing the MCA, is a key early work in Csörgo´´’s

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Bari Kumar Attila Csörgo´´ Army of Forgotten Souls, 2005 Slanting Water, 1995 video loop, colour, sound, 3 mins photograph Courtesy the artist and Bose Pacia Gallery, New York 28 x 40 cm Courtesy the artist; Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana/Berlin Postmodern Frame which individuals are classified by photography. In your classroom, use Research TV Moore’s practice. Create a their profession. objects such as glasses, cups, vases and ninventory of how he uses film, video bowls to make a simple still life Questions & and sound in his work. Define the Cultural Frame arrangement. Use a light source to Activities qualities of postmodern practice that Kumar’s work could be considered a create strong shadows. Use a are evident in his use and approach to metaphor for social change. Outline viewfinder to select smaller sections these elements of his work. other social issues which Kumar’s of the still life, and develop small work potentially addresses. paintings or drawings using Structural Frame tonal colours. All three works by TV Moore, Bari Practice Kumar and Attila Csörgo´´ imply Explore why water moves sideways movement but do not actually embody when it is spun in a circle. Work in movement (unlike kinetic art). Explain pairs to experiment with water to test the ways in which movement is what centrifugal movement is. Spin a represented in each work. Discuss the billy-can over your head to separate implications of implying movement tea from the leaves, or invent another without creating an artwork which similar experiment. Record your moves for the artist and the audience findings and report back to your class. who is viewing the artwork. Practice Cultural Frame Investigate other visual distortions in Research the public transport available nature. Experiment with domestic and in India and compare it to the natural objects, such as a straw placed transport available where you live. in water or an image turned upside Discuss how the options differ and down when reflected in the back of a who uses them in each country. spoon. Draw or photograph your Outline any conclusion you can draw results. about social status in each society through what you have learned. What Practice is a Rickshaw wallah? Investigate their Csörgo´´’s photograph is a result of a role in Indian society, thinking about scientific experiment, but he also the caste system and the manner in draws on the history of still life

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Speeding Up and Slowing Down 30 Throughout history, artists have The work by artist and filmmakerMark traders represent the financial power of been thought of as creating Boulos (b.1975, USA) displayed on the oil companies. In the Nigerian delta, Cockatoo Island, uses two screens facing guerillas wage war against the works that act as a ‘looking each other to depict two sides of a corporations that mine and exploit their glass’, reflecting upon their lives contemporary issue. Boulos works with land with the support of the Nigerian and mirroring the world they documentary film to investigate the government. The film focuses on the live in. Some writers view art as relationship between ideas, ideology and Ijaw people and the war god Egbisu, materiality. In his two-channel video who inspires their struggle against a mirror that continually reflects installation All That is Solid Melts into foreign companies and their movement the history of the world, rather Air, (2008), the corporate colonisation of for independence, protecting them from than a window that opens onto Nigerian oil resources frames a clash of bullets and machetes with charms made another world, removed from cultures and beliefs. of leaves. Boulos shows the belief Two factions indirectly battle over the systems of these two distinct but our own. control of oil. In Chicago, financial connected worlds. As a form of social comment many artists have created art that is opposite or contrary in character or nature in order to challenge and question the social and political norms of society. In other cases, mirroring can be used as a formal device that provokes the viewer to question where they stand in the world and how they look at the world.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Mirroring and Reversing 31

Mark Boulos All That is Solid Melts into Air, 2008 video installation, 2 screens, DVD transfer from HD video, colour, sound, 30 mins Funded by Arts Council England, London, with the support of Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network Photograph: Jenni Carter A prominent conceptual artist since the The work of Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947, saw in Penone’s eyes the reflection of 1960s, Dan Graham (b. 1942, USA) has Italy), at the MCA, also explores the what the artist would have seen had he run a gallery, published articles as reversed gaze. Penone became one of not given up his visual field to the other artworks, explored performance and the key Arte Povera artists in the late person opposite him. A poignant film, and bridged art and architecture in 1960s. Arte Povera is Italian for “poor metaphor of generosity through the his critical practice. In his early films, art”. These artists used everyday reversal of the gaze, in this work Penone Graham experimented with how materials and natural processes in their inverts the common perception that perception and perspective can be artworks, which were often based on artists are privileged people who ‘show played with using film and video. In simple ideas. In the performance work us’ their visions. Images of this artworks made between 1969 and 1974, Rovesciare i propri occhi (to reverse one’s performance are displayed on the gallery the body and the camera become one own eyes) Giuseppe Penone walked the walls as a series of slides, placing the machine, moving and sensing and streets wearing contact lenses made out gallery audience in the place of the seeing. In Helix / Spiral, and the similar of mirror glass, blinding himself. The people “receiving” the artist’s gaze. work Helix / Spiral (Simone Forti), there people he met and who approached him are two cameras filming, one from the ‘outside’ and one from the ‘inside’. In Helix / Spiral, the ‘outside’ viewpoint is that of a performer who moves in a spiral around and towards a second performer standing at the centre of a space. The second performer, the ‘inside’ viewpoint, rolls a camera around his body in a spiral movement with the lens turned outwards. In Graham’s works, our bodies, and our intersecting gazes are constantly being explored from new, sometimes previously unseen angles.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Mirroring and Reversing 32

Dan Graham Giuseppe Penone Helix / Spiral 1973 Rovesciare i propri occhi (To Reverse One’s Eyes), 1970 2 Super 8 films, enlarged to 16mm, colour, transferred to video Slide projection 5:26 mins 7 colour slides Collection: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli- 2.4 x 3.6 cm each Turin; Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris permanent loan Fondazione CRT Progetto Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Practice you have selected? Write an illustrated Postmodern Frame Using aluminium foil and pipe cleaners short story, or draw a cartoon with ‘The gaze’ is a term used in make your own mirror-glasses that stop captions to describe what they see. and theory referring to the relationship Questions & you seeing the world and others in it but between the viewer and the subject, Activities lets others see themselves in the Conceptual Framework often in visual art or cinema. The term reflection. Record the comments that As an audience member, do you expect suggests a position of power by the people make when they see themselves the artist to have a perspective more viewer over the subject. Analyse and in your glasses. valuable than your own? Why? Survey describe how Penone explores or inverts your classmates or members of your the ‘dominant gaze’. What is the effect Practice family to discover what they think, and of this on the gallery audience? Select a partner for this collaborative write up your findings. activit. Ask them to walk somewhere in Conceptual Framework the school or in the room, and come Practice Explain how each artist uses ‘mirroring’ back to describe what they can see. Draw Research Arte Povera artists and their to alter the audience’s perception of the a picture of the view they described. Ask practice. Identify and list some materials world. them to do the same with you. What are these artists utilised in their work. How the differences between the two was this selection of materials Cultural Frame/Structural Frame 23 26 28 29In All That is Solid Melts into Air30 Mark 31 32 representations? challenging for the general public? Why would an artist select only these Boulos presents two opposing cultures. Practice materials to use? What unusual Compare and contrast why the financial In your class, each student secretly picks materials can you find in your home, trader and the guerilla members both another student and draws a picture of backyard or classroom which could be seem to equally attract our attention. what they think that person can see. Put used in a sculpture or mixed-media Take into account both visual and all the pictures up on the wall and see if paintings? cultural stimuli. you can guess whose view each picture belongs to. Practice Conceptual Framework Research other artists who have used Through performance Giuseppe Practice mirrors in their work. Analyse why the Penone’s work entails him becoming a Select two of the following: Teacher, mirror is such a significant object in art part of the artwork itself. Hypothesise police officer, fireman, bus driver, practice. What other materials, aside how it affects the audience and the giraffe, nurse, clown, baby in a pram and from glass, have been used to explore world when artwork and artist are one a dog. Imagine what they could see. qualities of reflection? Plan a series of and the same. Research two other artists What would they experience? What is small drawings, maquettes or multi- who create artwork in this manner. their viewpoint? How is their view media works exploring the effects of different from the other person/animal mirroring.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT Mirroring and Reversing 33 Overview This section contains artists’ quotes, selected references and keywords for each of the artists mentioned in Section 3, organised by theme. It also contains a glossary for the keywords and further resources for researching the 2008 Biennale of Sydney Revolutions – Forms That Turn.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT 4. ARTISTS’ QUOTES, KEYWORD LIST AND SELECTED REFERENCES AND GLOSSARY

Nedko Solakov Past editions: Courtesy collections of Peter Kogler, Vienna; Susan A Life (Black & White), 1998 and Lewis Manilow, Chicago; Hauser & Wirth, St. Gallen; Museum fur edition 5/5 and 1 artist’s proof Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. black-and-white paint; 2 workers/painters constantly repainting This edition: Collection of the artist. the walls of the exhibition space in black-and-white for the entire Courtesy Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin/Zurich duration of the exhibition, day after day (following each other) Photograph: Jenni Carter dimensions variable BRUCE NAUMAN HÉLIO OITICICA BRIAN JUNGEN “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then “ […] Oiticica’s works, resisting the labels of Body “I never set out to make a joke or anything… I whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. Art, Conceptual Art, Performance and Happening, just think it’s a good way to get people interested At this point art became more of an activity and stressed the meaning of participation as in the ideas that I’m trying to illustrate in my less of a product.” opposed to its form. Their emphasis on meaning work. If people can look at my work and see the Bruce Nauman emphasized the experiential aspect of viewer humour in it, the seriousness and the material (art:21, Biography: Bruce Nauman, participation.” sensibility in it might also be equally interesting www.pbs.org/art21/artists/nauman/) Simone Osthoff, “Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica: A Legacy of to them.” References Interactivity and Participation for a Telematic Future”, www. Brian Jungen − www.pbs.org/art21/artists/nauman/ leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/osthoff/osthoff.html Culture Shock, Interview by Alexander Varty − Video Data Bank: Bruce Nauman www.straight.com/article/culture-shock?# References www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?NAUMANB Accessed 15 July 2008. − www.whitechapel.org/content513.html Keywords − J.J. Charlesworth, Hélio Oiticica: Colour the World, Art Review, References − spiral May 2007 − www.nativeonline.com/brian.htm − neon − www.artreview.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1474022%3ABlo − advertising gPost%3A2228 Keywords − mystic truth − consumer goods Keywords − spectatorship − sensorial − constellations − experimental − liberation − participation − interactive

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THEME: TURNING AROUND AND UPSIDE DOWN 35 SHARMILA SAMANT NEDKO SOLAKOV theweathergroup_U “Just like the venom of this snake paralyzes the “Capitalism can be funny, much funnier than “At the Biennale of Sydney 2008, nervous system causing death of the victim, so Communism, but Bulgaria is going through an theweathergroup_U is collaborating with are the genetically engineered seeds paralyzing absolutely illogical moment. It’s good to have CDU through one of their members, artist the agrarian economy in India.” democracy, but they are waiting for utopia, which and researcher Bryce Anbins-King, to display Sharmila Samant, Artist Statement provided to Biennale of makes it a schizophrenic situation.” a version of the e-gipsi which is designed to Sydney (2007) Nedko Solakov provide internet access to a local area network Nedko Solakov: interview, by Michael Hodges, Time Out London, anywhere in Australia, and to use this connection References April 2008 − Vidarbha Farmers’ Suicides Inspire Highway Blockade Across to provide live on-line content to the exhibit… India, NAGPUR, Maharashtra, India, October 3, 2007: References In order to operate on Cockatoo island for www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2007/2007-10-03-01.asp − Official website three months over winter, a wind turbine was http://nedkosolakov.net/content/index_eng.html − India warned over GM rice crops, Jyotsna Singh, BBC News, introduced to supplement the power production Delhi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6103700.stm − Interview with Nedko Solakov − www.lindenarts.org/show/2005/0916/samant.html www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/02/nedko_solakov. of the solar panels, and we are currently php experimenting with the use of remote access Keywords software over satellite connection with the − global/local Keywords − globalisation − conceptual installations hope of providing access to computers being − genetically modified − ironic operated at events in Arnhem land to visitors − collaboration − futility to theweathergroup_U exhibition space on the − soundscape island.” theweathergroup_U blog www.theweathergroup.org

References − Official website and blogspot www.theweathergroup.org/

Keywords − change − collective − metaphor − traditional knowledge − ecology − collaboration

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THEME: CHANGE 36 VERNON AH KEE SAM DURANT MICHAEL RAKOWITZ “The art we make is Aboriginal art ... because the “It would […] be a mistake to consider [Durant’s “I’m very interested in a public art that enlists its way we live our lives is an Aboriginal experience. work] a form of nostalgia, for Durant’s desire to audience as vital collaborators in the production Now what happens in the deserts and remote revive the ‘60s – one shared by many artists and of meaning, such as in my recreation of Tatlin’s communities is that the people create art and scholars of his generation – is neither entirely Monument to the Third International from the they try to make their art in a way that correlates melancholic nor entirely celebratory. building materials gathered from The Block to ... [a] romanticised idea, and it’s a white It is a critical effort to recoup a workable in Redfern. The idea is that a group of people construction. That’s why I say the only authentic political legacy.” will always be involved in the making, and a Aboriginal people in this country are the urban David Joselit, Review: Sam Durant: Museum of Contemporary conversation usually accompanies that making.” Aboriginal people, they are the only ones whose Art, Los Angeles, Artforum, 2003. References lives aren’t wholly and solely determined by References − www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2004/12/ white constructs.” − www.blumandpoe.com/samdurant/ parasite-shelte.php − Sam Durant interview with John LeKay, Heyoka Magazine: Vernon Ah Kee, interview by Robert Leonard, Art & Australia, − Michael Rakowitz: Circumventions, www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.3.SCULPT. Winter 2008. www.artaustralia.com/article.asp?issue_ by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (Author), Michael Rakowitz SAM%20DURANT.htm id=182&article_id=120 Accessed 4 August 2008. (Author), Giuliana Carusi Setari (Contributor), Onestar Press, Keywords 2004 References − de-contextualised − Vernon Ah Kee, interview by Bruce McLean, Artlines, Keywords − protest no.2–2007, pp.14–15 − communities − memory http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=163688 − public − site-specific installation − visionary Keywords − failures − re-enact − empathy − gaze − repressive gaze

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THEME: RE-ENACTMENT AND RETURN 37 TRACEY MOFFATT DAN PERJOVSCHI EMORY DOUGLAS “No one person ever inspired me to make “I come, I draw, I leave,” the artist says. “Half of “I was 16 years old, and after having read the art, but art itself has; I’ve been inspired by an the drawings are from previous projects. I keep Black Panther newspaper and most of my older extraordinary film or a novel that stayed with moving them from one wall to another, city to brother’s Black history and literature books that me for days, or weeks, or years, or my whole city, continent by continent. I travel the world he brought home from UCLA, I was convinced life — like the other day, when I needed to drawing it.” that this was my calling. I had heard from my watch David Lean’s 1946 Great Expectations Dan Perjovschi, Artist Statement, April 2007 brother and his college friends that the brothers

again. I’ve always seriously studied the history of References up north in Oakland had a program to deal with photography and film, or just generally picture − www.perjovschi.ro/ the ‘man.’ [...] In general, I wanted to be a Black books, encyclopedias, etc., even before I started − Dan Perjovschi, Mad Cow, Bird Flu, Global Village: The Art of Panther so that I could help my people overcome to exhibit my own photography and short films Dan Perjovschi, Verso, 2007 the oppression they and I were experiencing. In in Sydney in the mid ‘80s.” Keywords particular, I wanted to get back at the San Diego − contexts policeman who had been harassing me since I ArtKrush Interview, July 23, 2008 − graffiti www.artkrush.com/169759 − globalisation was 12.” Accessed 5 August 2008. Emory Douglas References Forbes, Flores Alexander. “Point No. 7: We Want an Immediate − www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/26/Tracey_Moffatt/ End to Police Brutality and the Murder of Black People: Why I − Catherine Summerhayes, Maureen Barron, Tracey Moffatt, Joined the Black Panther Party.” Adam Shoemaker, The Moving Images of Tracey Moffatt, Nelson, Jill, ed. Police Brutality. (New York: W. W. Norton & Charta, 2007. Company, 2000). p. 225

Keywords References − montage − Carson, Clayborne. Foreword. Foner, Philip S., ed. The Black − juxtaposed Panthers Speak Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002 − collage − Art for a Change: Black Panther Artist: Emory Douglas − bricolage − www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2005/02/black-panther- artist-emory-douglas.html

Keywords − Black Panther Party − civil rights − activism

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THEME: REVOLUTION 38 TV MOORE BARI KUMAR ATTILA CSÖRGŐ “The thing that I’m really interested in is things “Dhaka [Bangladesh] is known as the rickshaw “Slanting Water applies an ordinary phenomenon that operate outside of a normal space, different capital of the world. But increasingly life for under extraordinary conditions. A glass filled paradigms, that’s why I’m interested in the rickshaw wallahs - often persecuted by bullying with water standing on a table is a fairly ordinary outsider and things like that, and from the traffic cops - gets harder and harder. They sight. The level of the water (the horizontal) get-go I wanted to do my work in the Dog-Leg ride all day earning less than three dollars in and the vertical form the basis of our system of tunnel (on Cockatoo Island) [as it fit with] the stifling heat and ferocious rain. Pedal-power is co-ordination — what mathematicians describe claustrophobia that existed in the work and in often used to move huge loads in Bangladesh. as x and y. However, while mathematical co- the story of the outsider, the ultra-runner.” There are police officers to pay off, suicidal ordinates can be rotated, our everyday system of www.themonthly.com.au/tm/node/1091 coach drivers to be avoided and some of the co-ordinates is less flexible. InSlanting Water, I Accessed 5 August 2008. world’s most crowded and pot-holed roads to be present the possibility of an alternative system. I

References navigated. The air pollution from the ceaseless placed two glasses on a revolving table next to a − www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/67/TV_Moore/profile/ flow of traffic is so bad that many visitors to the camera. The camera has captured the hydraulics − The Monthly: Biennale of Sydney artists TV Moore and city feel nauseous. But thousands of rickshaws of the “closed system” — slanting water.” Stuart Ringholt in conversation: www.themonthly.com.au/ tm/node/1091 can be seen every day, either carrying up to four Attila Csörgo´´ passengers or transporting huge loads which are www.c3.hu/~acsorgo/angol/ferdeviz_leiras.html Keywords Accessed 4 August 2008. − temporal often twice their bodyweight.” − site-specific Alastair Lawson, “Dhaka’s beleaguered rickshaw wallahs”, BBC References − installation World, 5 October, 2002. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ − www.c3.hu/~acsorgo/ − progressing programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2300179.stm. − Attila Csörgő: Platonic Geometry − propulsion Accessed 30 June 2008. www.galeria-arsenal.pl/arsenal.php?id=399 Keywords References − www.barikumar.com − formal − Holland Cotter, ‘ART IN REVIEW, Bari Kumar’, New York − experiments Times, March 19, 2004. Available at www.nytimes.com − perception − centrifugal Keywords − motif − rickshaw − progress − urban development

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT THEME: SPEEDING UP AND SLOWING DOWN 39 MARK BOULOS GIUSEPPE PENONE DAN GRAHAM “The Ijaw tribe and Egbisu Boys, while militant, “[Penone] has said that he regards the role of the “When I was 14, I read Being and Nothingness by are not criminal, and are indeed waging an artist not to invent form but ‘to indicate things Jean-Paul Sartre, and a key section, which Jacques idealistic independence struggle.” that are already there, that are existent.’’’ Lacan took for his mirror stage, is a child’s first Mark Boulos, Artist statement provided to Biennale of Grace Glueck ‘ART REVIEW; Nothing, Not Even a Pen, sense of himself in a primitive way. This involves Sydney, 2007. Between Artist and Paper’, New York Times, February 6, 2004. seeing himself as other people see him, which Available at www.nytimes.com References is an important awareness of intersubjective − http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_the_ References gazes, and I often go back to that concept. When Emancipation_of_the_Niger_Delta − www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/artepovera/default. I had a gallery, I showed Sol LeWitt and other − Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2007: Mark Boulos: www. htm newcontemporaries.org.uk/artist_single.php?aid=1322 − Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Arte Povera (Themes and minimal artists, but as much as I like minimal art, Movements), Phaidon Press, London, 2005. I was more interested in intersubjectivity. In the Keywords − guerillas Keywords modern city, when you look at a shopping arcade − financial traders − reversed gaze you see yourself superimposed on the mirror − video installation − generosity reflection of the thick glass on top of the product, − Arte Povera and there are also mirrors inside as a kind of − invert fragmented apathy. I am interested in the surface of the cities and social interaction inside cities, but my work is often in parks, and I am very much interested in suburbia.” Dan Graham ArtKrush Interview, September 19 2007 http://artkrush.com/142780. Accessed 15 July 2008.

References − Dan Graham, Dan Graham Ediciones Poligrafa S.A. 2001 − Dan Graham (Author) & Alexander Alberro, Two-Way Mirror Power: Selected Writings by Dan Graham on His Art - The MIT Press 1999 − Dan Graham: Rooftop Urban Park Project www.diabeacon.org/exhibs/graham/rooftop/

Keywords − perception − perspective THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT − gaze

THEME: MIRRORING AND REVERSING THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT 40 activism: the involvement in action that centrifugal: moving or directed outward communities: social, religious, ecology: in science, the relationship attempts to bring about social, political, from the center usually as a result of occupational, or other group sharing between organisms and their environmental, or other change. some kind or rotational force. common characteristics or interests and environment. Ecology is also used as a This action is often in support of or perceived or perceiving itself as distinct term for the study of the relationships opposition to one side of a controversial civil rights: rights that are bestowed in some respect from the larger society between human groups and their argument. by nations on those within their within which it exists. physical and social environments. boundaries. In civil law jurisdictions, advertising: the activity of attracting a civil right is a power which can be conceptual installation: conceptual empathy: the identification with or public attention to a product or business, exercised under civil law. installation art refers to artworks where vicarious experiencing of the feelings, as by paid announcements in the print, sculptural materials and other media thoughts, or attitudes of another. broadcast, or electronic media. collaboration: the process of modify the way a particular space is working, one with another in the act experienced to communicate a particular etymology: the study of the sources and Arte Povera: Italian for ‘Poor Art’, Arte of production. It can also refer to the concept(s) or idea(s). Frequently the development of words. Povera was a collective identity for a outcome of the process (product) or ideas themselves take precedence number of young Italian artists, working as a collective noun referring to the over traditional aesthetic and material experimental: to try or test, especially in in the late 1960s and early 1970s, who participants involved in the process. concerns. Installation art is not order to discover or prove something. used any medium they could get hold of necessarily confined to gallery spaces Experimental art usually attempts to for very cheap. collage: a technique of composing and can be any material intervention in a work of art by arranging on a everyday public or private spaces. expand current debates and ideas in Black Panther Party: an African- single surface various materials contemporary art and culture. American organisation established to not normally associated with one consumer goods: finalgoods specifically promote civil rights and social justice for another, as newspaper clippings, parts intended for the mass market. experiments: tests conducted under African-Americans, predominately active of photographs, theater tickets, and controlled conditions that are made in the mid-1960s to 1970s. Originally fragments of an envelope. It is often context: the set of circumstances or to demonstrate a known truth, only accepting African-American considered a key postmodern technique facts that surround a particular event, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or members, the party changed as it grew as it facilitates pluralism, eclecticism, situation or text which usually shaping determine the efficacy of something and eventually became an icon for social contradictions and fragmentation. or informing the readers understanding. previously untried. activism and counterculture in the 1960s. collective: of or characteristic of a cultural amnesia: a collective inability to failures: the non-performance of group of individuals taken together, remember or recall historical events or something due, required, or expected; bricolage: construction (as of a sculpture also can be used as the collective noun cultural phenomena, in particular from a lack of success. or a structure of ideas) achieved by using referring to a group of artists, activists, many decades or centuries past. whatever means comes to hand. thinkers etc.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT GLOSSARY: 2008 Biennale of Sydney 41

2-3

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financial traders: individuals global: relating to the whole world. convey a meaning that is the opposite motif: a recurring subject, theme, in a working in a financial institutions or of the text’s literal meaning. literary, artistic, or musical work. a corporations, or casual individual globalisation: can be described investors or speculators, who buy and as a process of ongoing economic, juxtaposed: to place close together neon: a chemically inert gaseous sell financial instruments traded in the technological, socio-cultural or side by side for the purpose of element occurring in small amounts stock markets, derivatives markets and and political integration of the comparison or contrast. in the earth’s atmosphere, used chiefly commodity markets. world whereby once autonomous in a type of brightly glowing electrical communities are increasingly local: pertaining to a particular place lamp. Often used in signs and formal: in art, this term refers to the unified into an interdependent, or particular places usually within a advertising. properties or characteristics of form, single society. restricted geographical area. i.e. shape, colour, texture, scale, depth, participation: the fact of taking part. delicacy, mass, material. graffiti: markings, as initials, slogans, memory: the mental capacity or faculty or drawings, written, spray-painted, or of retaining and reviving facts, events, perception: the act of apprehending gaze: to look steadily and intently, as sketched on any manner on property. impressions, etc., or of recalling or by means of the senses or of the with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, recognizing previous experiences. mind this may involve immediate or or wonde; to look or see with fixed Guerillas: members of an irregular, intuitive recognition or appreciation, intention. The gaze is a term used in usually indigenous military or metaphor: something used, or regarded as of moral, psychological, or art history and theory referring to the paramilitary unit operating in small as being used, to represent something aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; relationship between the viewer and the bands in occupied territory to harass else. discernment subject, suggesting a position of power by and undermine the enemy, as by the viewer over subject. surprise raids. montage: the technique of combining perspective: the state of one’s ideas, in a single composition pictorial and the relationship between those generosity: readiness in giving invert: to reverse in position, order, elements from various sources, as parts ideas and the facts known about a and sharing, freedom from small- direction, or relationship; to turn of different photographs or fragments particular subject, text, place or event. mindedness. upside down. of printing, either to give the illusion that the elements belonged together Postmodernism: a late 20th century genetically modified: relating to a ironic: The essential feature of irony originally or to allow each element to style and concept in the arts, architecture product or living organism whose is the indirect presentation of a retain its separate identity as a means and criticism. Typical features include genetic material has been altered, contradiction between an action or of adding interest or meaning to the a deliberate mixing of styles and media, self-conscious use of earlier styles and changing one or more of its expression and the context in which composition. characteristics conventions, and the incorporation it occurs. Irony is frequently used to of images relating to the consumerism and mass communication of society.

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT GLOSSARY: 2008 Biennale of Sydney 42 progress: site-specific installations: are designed or local communities. Traditional a movement toward a goal or to a to only exist in the space for which knowledge also encompasses the further or higher stage. they were created; they frequently refer wisdom, knowledge, and teachings of to their surrounding environment to these communities. propulsion: inform the work and enrich the ideas to drive, or cause to move, forward or explored through contextual support. urban development: a process which onward. involves the growth and progress of re-enact: soundscape: an atmosphere or the built and social environments to represent on or as on the stage for a environment created by or with of urbanised municipalities and second or multiple time. sound; usually consisting of various communities. Whilst predominately components which come together as a referring to physical built environment repressive: whole. urban development also changes the the state of enforcing control. socio-economic and cultural dynamic of spectatorship: the process of being an an area. reversal: observer of an event. In the context of the state of turning something opposite the art, spectatorship can refer to how video installation: is a contemporary art or contrary to its intended position ‘subject positions’ are constructed by method that combines video technology texts by way of the relationship between with installation art, the installation1-1 reversed gaze: the spectator and the observed. aspect embodies all elements of the an experience of art where the expected surrounding environment as a vehicle of practice of viewing a work of art is spiral: an ancient form, one that is affecting the audience. turned upside. The viewer “receives” the used as a decorative motif in traditional embodied gaze of the work of art, not cultures, as a cosmic symbol for the visionary: the reverse. As this process does not given to or characterised by natural process of growth or of the employ everyday critical faculties, the idealistic ideas, views, or schemes. eternal movement of nature and the viewer is held a contemplative state. universe. 1-2 rickshaw: a mode of human-powered transport temporal: enduring for a particular where a runner draws a two-wheeled period of time only. cart which seats one or two persons. traditional knowledge: generally refers sensorial: to the long-standing traditions and pertaining to the senses or sensation. practices of certain regional, indigenous,

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THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT GLOSSARY: 2008 Biennale of Sydney 43

1-4 Find out more about the 2008 Biennale of Sydney, including artist information, video interviews, vodcasts, blogs and information about special events at: www.bos2008.com

Visit the Online Venue to see artist projects, videos, texts and links. www.bos2008.com/revolutionsonline

Pick up the Biennale of Sydney Free Guide in venues during the exhibition period.

Have a look at the Biennale of Sydney catalogue, which features drawings from every artist in the exhibition, as well as essays on the themes of the Biennale.

Visit the venue websites:

− Art Gallery of New South Wales www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au − Artspace www.artspace.org.au − Cockatoo Island www.cockatooisland.gov.au − Museum of Contemporary Art www.mca.com.au − Royal Botanic Gardens www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au − Sydney Opera House www.sydneyoperahouse.com

THE 16TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY TEACHER’S KIT WHERE TO FROM HERE? FURTHER 2008 BIENNALE OF SYDNEY RESOURCES 44

Clockwise from top left: Biennale of Sydney Free Guide, Biennale of Sydney catalogue, Online Venue