Narelle Autio Deidre Brollo Maria Fernanda Cardoso Julia Ciccarone Shaun Gladwell Helga Groves Jess MacNeil Todd McMillan Harry Nankin Bill Viola Wukun Wanambi curated by Meryl Ryan Where there is water… This exhibition not only there is Lake Macquarie embraces notions of our location City Art Gallery. but, through Meryl Ryan’s thoughtful text and selection As we are nestled on the foreshore of a works by contemporary of this country’s largest coastal artists, takes the theme further saltwater lake, overlooking as a metaphor or narrative to an active marina, it is impossible describe aspects of survival, not to consider water an ongoing human emotion, and the state theme in our programming. of the environment. The changing weather reflected in the lake’s surface each day, Congratulations to all those visitors’ delight in the splendour of involved, in particular Ryan the site, the yachts sailing by, and and the artists for such the deep sense of its Aboriginal mesmerising work. Our sincere significance, always remind thanks also to the gallerists for us of where we are. their invaluable support, and the private collectors for generously making their artworks available to the exhibition. I am sure you will all enjoy the exhibition, as much as, if not more than, you enjoy the site. Debbie Abraham Gallery Director Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery 3.30am Friday 17 January 1986 We have been at sea almost a week But mean-spirited dark The pre-dawn watch on ocean As they coast alongside, invisible Large bodies of water, as we’ve The fickle ocean surface, with its Once below the surface everything Indian Ocean near Chagos now – with only the vast waterscape clouds rolled in with the voyages always delivered in one against the night, their scale and all come to learn, are storehouses restless nature, can distract us changes. The mesmeric sounds, Archipelago in sight and us bobbing along like morning and it’s been raining way or another. On deck that night, proximity eventually becomes more of myth, symbol and metaphor; mere mortals from deeper dangers ambiguous imagery and edgeless flotsam. Disappearing could be so and squalling up until now; it brought the soundlessness of of a comfort than a concern. home to enchantments both and revelations. From confined space shape an otherworldly easy. Nobody would notice. Up until the elements playing with us post-storm recovery and glittering, A yacht is a vulnerable interloper sinister and transcendental, vessels we regard the sea with region, a primordial place beyond yesterday, the trip has been a dream rather than taking us forward. slippery surfaces. On others, here. The company of these or a mixture of both. At the respect, hoping for its tolerance, memory but not unlike our original run: 15–20 knot winds, broad reach It’s cool and wet and the current it might bring the pale remote gargantuan escorts feels like legendary Siren call, for instance, and our safe passage. Always the gestational home. It’s a completely all the way with clear skies has positioned Syrius a lot further lights of shipping lane traffic or support and protection against the enraptured mariners have same yet always changing, it has immersive, all-sensory and and hardly a change of sail. north than expected, and off our unexpected nocturnal travelling lurking malevolent leviathans of surrendered to the fatal embrace no memory of us ever having been transformative engagement. course for Peros Banhos... companions. Whales often joined the deep that the imagination can of Neptune’s realm. And many there. It can swallow us in a shape- Every inch of your skin is being me, flanking the hull with little so readily conjure. other creatures looking for sport shifting translucent envelope and touched. You can hear your heart more to herald their arrival than – Charybdis, Hydra, the mighty bear no trace of our ingress. beat and your breath feels solid. the sound of their extraordinary Kraken – have made messy end of And you can scale a rocky cliff breathing; a rhythmical whoosh- countless hapless adventurers. without fear of falling. In this and-shower chorus of natural dream-like place, in-the-moment fountains in the open sea. reverie comes with strict rules to survive by. It’s a world Bill Viola once described as the space between heaven and earth, where you might expect to find angels. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10/11 12 13 14 15 3.30am Tuesday 8 September 1987 Spectacular approach to Grande It’s six days since we left the After a prolonged period of time Out there, water is in charge. On a documentary not long ago Given the opportunity, I head to Indian Ocean, off the Comoros Comore last night with the Seychelles and I’ve taken over on unstable ground, first sight In here, on land, water is in service. I heard Australian marine scientist the ocean’s edge to find pause deepening claret-red glow to watch (after a two-hour kip) while of land is always complicated. It’s a commodity we knowingly Ove Hoegh-Gulderg call the ocean between the islands of professional starboard and the moon rising low we hove to outside Moroni Harbour Along with the much anticipated abuse. Despite the industrialised ‘the heart and lungs of the earth’. and personal life and obligation; and full in the cloudless dim blue …the sea is empty-of-life quiet, the promise of unrationed fresh world’s most ambitious and For our oceans’ sake, I’d like to possessively connected to the water, to port – the ragged terrain of the boat rocking generously from side water, legroom and new cultural destructive interventions, however, think most people agree with him. yet resisting the undertow’s call to island in distant view, ethereal with to side, creaking like a ghost ship. experiences, comes a real sense water’s contradictory character One legacy of my early nautical greater intimacy. The beach is the changing lights. With the aid of the brilliant moon of loss. Of course, there are the makes it difficult to tame. Salt or journeys is a persistent longing a liminal zone, mediating between and a small kerosene lantern, obvious adjustments to broader fresh, it is both surface and depth, to revisit the sensation of the possible and the impossible, I write to ward off sleep… societal interaction – the mechanics formless and strong, healer and coalescing with the larger more between surefootedness and the of public mooring, negotiations killer. It can be contained yet, mystical shape of things. And I can vast unknown. The changing for temporary visas and the deprived of movement, it becomes only come close to this near wild pace and colours, the syncopated Meryl Ryan sometime-politics of gaining access toxic. The great eloquence of water; in the heavy rain, on the rhythms of fizz, hiss and crash, Curator to facilities. But surrendering the this duality has understandably beach, and by the larger rivers. make it as much a site of sonic and uniquely humbling, uncluttered, supplied poetry, philosophy visual exhilaration as of solace. survival-driven freedom of life at and psychoanalysis with a For me, when I’m near water, sea is a real personal wrench. wide vocabulary of imagery and I am home. water-related analogies to describe aspects of the human condition. Artists and works Narelle Autio Deidre Brollo Maria Fernanda Cardoso Julia Ciccarone Shaun Gladwell Helga Groves Jess MacNeil Born 1969 Adelaide, SA Born 1974 Newcastle, NSW Born 1963 Bogota, Columbia Born 1967 , Vic Born 1972 , NSW Born 1961 Ayr, Queensland Born 1977 Nova Scotia, Canada Lives in Adelaide, SA Lives in Newcastle, NSW Arrived in , 1998 Lives in Melbourne, Vic Lives in London, UK Lives in Melbourne, Vic Lives between London, UK, Lives in Sydney, NSW and Sydney, Australia In 2001 and again in 2005, Narelle Autio Deidre Brollo’s practice is focused primarily Julia Ciccarone’s accomplished Shaun Gladwell critically and poetically Helga Groves partners the haptic and visual was selected by Australian Art Collector on artists’ books and installation. Her work Maria Fernanda Cardoso shot to fame in explore narratives and themes that are deeply links personal experience with contemporary in provocative works that address natural Jess MacNeil works at the points of Magazine as one of the 50 most collectable is a consideration of memory as it relates 1995, with the premiere of Cardoso Flea considered. Not long after graduating from culture and historical references through disasters, environmental change and our intersection between , installation, Australian artists. Her extraordinary to place and materiality, exploring the ways Circus at the San Francisco Exploratorium. VCA in 1988, she lived in Italy for 12 months performance, video, painting, photography commodity culture. Since graduating from video and photography, often taking as her work has won her several national and in which memory clings to some places and In 2003, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, as the recipient of the Verdaccio Studio and sculpture. His works engage these Sydney College of the Arts in 1988, she subject matter the dynamics of the human/ international accolades, including World abandons others, and investigating the role Sydney, she mounted the extensive solo show residency. Since 1998, she has lectured at the concerns through forms of urban expression has completed her Master of Visual Arts environment relationship. Water figures Press Awards, an American Picture of of memory in the viewing of art. She holds Zoomorphia, and in 2004 she represented Western Institute of Technology and Monash such as skateboarding, hip-hop, BMX bike (2000) and shown extensively throughout in several of her bodies of work. MacNeil the Year Award and a Walkley Award. In a BAVA from University of Newcastle, NSW; Colombia at the . Her work University, Melbourne. Her work has riding, and extreme sports (including Australia, and internationally. In 1999, has exhibited widely, both in Australia 2002 she became the first Australian to a PhD from Sydney College of the Arts; and has been exhibited in over 25 countries, in been selected for exhibitions at public inverted surfing at Bondi). He completed her work was selected for the Asia Pacific and internationally. Her work was selected win the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack was visiting artist at the National Art School institutions as prestigious as the Centre institutions such as Heide Museum of Associate Research at Goldsmiths College, Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland for Primavera 2008 at the Museum of Award for the series Coastal Dwellers and a in 2007. Brollo’s work has been selected Georges Pompidou, Paris and MoMA, New Modern Art and National Maritime Museum. London, in 2001 and has since undertaken Art Gallery, Brisbane. More recently, she was Contemporary Art, Sydney, and in 2009 large selection of the work was showcased for solo and group exhibitions in Australia, York; and collected by many significant Ciccarone also co-wrote and produced the international residencies and commissions the recipient of a 2010 Australia Council for was presented at the Metropolitan in various gallery and festival contexts Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France and others including the Tate Gallery, London; short film, 67, directed by Kasimir Burgess, in Europe, North and South America, the Arts, Helsinki Studio; 2008 Arts Victoria Museum of Photography and the Museum worldwide. Autio has produced several bodies ; and most recently, acquired in Museum of Modern Art, Bogota; and the which was selected for the 2007 Melbourne and the Asia Pacific Region. Since 2005, International Touring grant, as well as 2002 of Contemporary Art, San Diego. MacNeil of work around the subject of the water and the 2011 Manly Library Artist’s Book Award. NGA, Canberra. Cardoso uses unusual media International Film Festival. Gladwell’s work has been selected for Moira Dyring Studio, Cité International was awarded the Anne & Gordon Samstag confesses a great love of the sea as a subject. to engender nature/culture narratives. Water significant international exhibitions des Arts, Paris, and 1997 Moet & Chandon Scholarship, the Fauvette Louriero Memorial The watch room 2011 (Untitled) 2008 is a recurring reference in several bodies of including Biennales in Sydney, Taipei, Australian Arts Fellowship, France. Artists Travel Scholarship, and an Australia From The Place in Between 2007 archival pigment prints, photopolymer oil on board work, including Rain Walls (2006–08), Venice, Sao Paulo and Busan. In 2009 he Council Grant in 2006, and completed a Siren I–VI intaglio, embossing, thread, wax, glass, 13 x 22.8cm Heavy rain #2 2009 Woven Water (1994), and the Water series represented Australia at the Venice Biennale Graduate Affiliate Program at the Slade pigment prints wood, felt, duratrans, found objects hand-knitted fishing line and lead sinkers (1985), which she regards as seminal This mortal coil 2007 and travelled to Afghanistan as the official School, London in 2008. In 2009 she won editions of 10 room installation 300 x 300 x 220cm 270 x 600cm (approx), 89 strands to her oeuvre. oil on linen Australian War Artist. the Primavera Veolia Acquisitive Award. each 84 x 65cm courtesy the artist 152 x 198cm courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Rain Wall III (rectangle) 2008 Pacific Undertow Sequence (Bondi) 2010 The Wall 2009 courtesy the artist Brisbane, and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne nylon rods on wall courtesy the artist single-channel High Definition High Definition digital video and Stills Gallery, Sydney 306 x 540 x 60cm and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne digital video, 16:9 edition of 8, duration 7 minutes colour, stereo sound Woven water (fragment 1) 1994 The expedition 2007 The Swimmers 2009 duration 11 minutes 21 seconds preserved starfish and aluminium wire oil on linen High Definition digital video videography: Josh Raymond dimensions variable 91 x 198cm unlimited edition, duration 4 minutes private collection, Melbourne Guide to Recent Architecture: commissioned by Kaldor Public Art Projects Woven water (fragment 2) 1994 Fountains 2007 for MOVE: Video Art in School preserved starfish and aluminium wire Untitled 4 2007 digital video, 4:3, stereo sound dimensions variable oil on board courtesy the artist duration 6 minutes 13 x 27cm and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney courtesy the artist videography: Gotaro Uematsu, private collection, Melbourne and Arc One Gallery, Melbourne Michael Schiavello Untitled 8 2007 sound: Kazumichi Grime oil on board courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz 20 x 30cm Gallery Melbourne and Sydney private collection, Melbourne Untitled 17 2007 oil on board 20 x 30cm private collection, Melbourne untitled 18 2007 oil on board 13 x 27cm private collection, Melbourne Untitled 19 2007 oil on board 13 x 23cm private collection, Melbourne Todd McMillan Harry Nankin Bill Viola Wukun Wanambi Born 1979 Sydney, NSW Born 1953 Melbourne, Vic Born 1951 New York, USA Born 1962 NE Arnhem Land, NT Lives in Sydney, NSW Lives in Melbourne, Vic Lives in California, USA Dhuwa moiety, Marrakulu, Dhurili clan, Gurka’wuy homeland Todd McMillan is a new media artist with a The most celebrated strand of Harry Bill Viola is acknowledged as one of the Lives in Yirrkala, NT particular interest in German Romanticism. Nankin’s oeuvre has been his use of camera- world’s foremost contemporary artists, a His work often features himself as less ‘shadowgrams’ to record ecological pioneer in developing the video art genre. Wukun Wanambi is the eldest son of protagonist in melancholic narratives that phenomena. Using processes that are His video installations are well known for Mithili Wanambi, clan leader and renowned evoke a sense of longing, and sometimes part land art, part performance and part conjuring environments designed to immerse painter, who passed away in 1981. Wukun futility. He was recipient of the 2006 Helen photography, he turns the landscape itself into and captivate the viewer, many featuring only took up painting in 1997, learning the Lempriere Travelling Scholarship, and his a camera. The Wave is a series of artworks imagery of water. Exhibited at major public sacred designs of his father from elders solo exhibitions have been a regular feature produced by the repeated nocturnal immersion museums internationally, his works are who had kept the information in trust for on the former Grantpirrie Gallery program of a photographic ‘raft’ in the sea at Victoria’s held by many of the world’s most significant him. His first painting was a depiction of in the past six years. In that same period, Bushrangers Bay. The recipient of Arts Victoria public collections. Viola graduated with Bamurrungu, a sacred, white-domed rock McMillan’s work has been curated into high and Australia Council grants, Nankin is BFA in Experimental Studies from Syracuse in the middle of Trial Bay. Wukun has won profile exhibitions at major public institutions represented in public collections including University in 1973 and not long after met his prizes for his bark paintings and sculptures such as Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria and State Library life partner and professional collaborator, and was the recipient of the Wandjuk Marika Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery, GOMA and of Victoria. He teaches at RMIT, LaTrobe and Kira Perov, in Melbourne. Viola represented Memorial 3D award at the 2010 Telstra the University of Queensland Art Museum, Deakin Universities in Melbourne, and is USA at the 1995 Venice Biennale, and an NATSIAA. He has been heavily involved in Brisbane; and travelled to exhibitions in UK, currently undertaking a PhD at RMIT. extensive 25-year survey exhibition of a number of major collective projects and USA, Sweden and Austria. his work toured internationally from the is a long-standing member of the Buku- The Wave Cube 1997 Whitney Museum of American Art in 1997. Larrnggay Mulka Centre at Yirrkala in north- after the deluge 2011 glass, sand, marine detritus He is the recipient of numerous awards eastern Arnhem Land. His work can be found overhead projector, projector plinth, 25 x 26 x 25cm and honours, most recently including the in numerous public collections including High Definition video, media player The Second Wave/Fragment 1 1997 prestigious Praemium Imperial 2011. the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; dimensions variable (created by recut in 2002) To date, he holds nine honorary doctorates Art Gallery of NSW and the Museum of Thomas (for mb and mb) 2011 toned gelatin silver fibre paperplein air including from Syracuse University (1995), Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Musee de overhead projector, projector plinth, marine shadowgram edged with cloth tape California Institute of the Arts (2000), and Lyon, France. High Definition video, media player 123 x 495cm Royal College of Art, London (2004). He was Bamurrungu 2010 dimensions variable inducted into the American Academy of The Second Wave/Fragment 2 1997 natural ochres and pigment Arts and Sciences in 2000, and in 2006 was courtesy the artist (created by recut in 2002) on hollow stringy bark log awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and toned gelatin silver fibre paperplein air height 201cm marine shadowgram, 19 x 400cm Letters by the French Government. Bamurrungu 2007 The Last Angel 2002 The Second Wave/Fragment 3 1997 natural ochres and pigment DVD with sound on 50” screen (created by recut in 2002) on hollow stringy bark log edition of 5 toned gelatin silver fibre paperplein air height 199cm marine shadowgram, 101 x 145cm duration 9 minutes 37 seconds private collection, Melbourne Bamurrungu 2006 The Fifth Wave/Fragment 2 1997 natural ochres and pigment (created by recut in 2002) on hollow stringy bark log toned gelatin silver fibre paperplein air height 210cm marine shadowgram, 103 x 239cm courtesy the artist Selected fragments from fiveThe Wave events and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 1996–97 (recut by the artist in 2002) toned gelatin silver fibre paperplein air marine shadowgrams, each 15 x 15cm courtesy the artist and dianne tanzer gallery + projects, Melbourne