4 March - 8 May 2016 Education Kit

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

Education 1 NEW Series

ACCA’s annual NEW series was established in 2003 to create opportunities for contemporary Australian artists to present newly commissioned work in an ambitious curatorial context, and to encourage new art practices, tendencies and ideas in a public context.

The premise of NEW is to commission new works and to enable professional development opportunities for artists by providing them with curatorial expertise and financial assistance to help realise their plans in the demanding spaces of ACCA. The exhibition title does not insist that the artists themselves are ‘new’, although there is a general tendency for the participants to be considered as ‘emerging’.

There is no theme for NEW. It is not expected that the artists need to have common purpose or ideas linking their projects. Whilst a characteristic of the NEW series is the involvement of guest curators whose role it is to propose new tendencies and areas of focus around current art ideas and developments, the emphasis is on individual projects which are variously engaging and captivating, and for these projects to have scope enough that the ideas of the artist can come to the front of any and all discussions.

Education 2 Jacobus Capone Catherine or Kate Julian Day Gabriella Hirst Mason Kimber Tanya Lee Liam O’Brien Anna Varendorff with Haima Marriott

Education 3 NEW16 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 4 NEW16 Floorplan

Jacobus Capone

Gabriella Hirst

Julian Day Tanya Lee

Mason Kimber Anna Varendorff with Haima Marriott Catherine or Kate

Liam O’Brien

Education 5 Curatorial rationale Guest Curator

NEW16 brings together eight newly commissioned Annika Kristensen is Curator at ACCA. Prior to projects from ten emerging artists around Australia. ACCA Kristensen was the Exhibition and Project Despite there being no over-arching theme – aside Coordinator for the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014) from an emphasis on new art by new artists – the and the inaugural Nick Waterlow OAM Curatorial projects in this exhibition display a common interest Fellow for the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012). in navigation and negotiation: exploring thresholds Kristensen has also held positions at Frieze Art Fair, in the relationships between the artists’ and their Artangel, and Film and Video Umbrella, London; work; each other; the visiting public; surrounding and The West Australian Newspaper, Perth. architecture; and the broader environment. Kristensen was a participant in the 2013 Gertrude Contemporary and Art & Australia Emerging Writers Several NEW16 artists bring an informed interest Program and the recipient of an Asialink Arts in another discipline to their art practice. Julian Residency in 2014. Day previously trained as a composer; Catherine or Kate formalised their interest in humour with improvisation, comedy writing and movement classes in Chicago; and Anna Varendorff’s interest in proximity extends from her sculptural practice to her work as a jeweller.

Using visual language as a form of storytelling, the artists in NEW16 borrow from these interests as well as genres including comedy, horror, romance and mystery to create a unique series of works that are at once playful and poetic, futile and profound. The result is a very human exhibition – prompting us to reflect upon our own relationships, both with one another and our surrounds.

Education 6 Catherine or Kate

Founded in Brisbane examines their relationship with each other, as this Live and work in Brisbane relationship does not fit into the categories of friend, sister, lover or business partner. This relationship, My door is always open, unless it’s closed 2016 like any other, has difficulties and imbalances, with ceiling fan, time frame, wheelie good desk moments of disconnection, competition and support. Courtesy the artists My door is always open, unless it’s closed is set up like a studio space; a place you would go to draft Catherine or Kate is a collaborative double act artistic ideas – ideas that may never come to fruition. comprising Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft. In this studio there is an old desk with a large wheel The duo defines their artworks in terms of winning attached that can be ridden like a bicycle, adding a and losing, and play out the division of labour in an participatory element to the work. The bicycle desk artistic practice that employs video, performance, is a portable platform for performance, but could also photography and sculpture. be an escape mechanism. CorK may want to escape from their relations with one another, or perhaps Their collaboration is named ‘Catherine or Kate’, their conflicted desires both to fit in, and push away or CorK for short, however they persistently from, the institutional setting in which the work is disagree with each other, with hints of uncertainty shown (Kristensen, 2016). The walls of the studio (Hopper, 2016). Their close partnership has carried are painted taupe, an ordinary ceiling fan rotates itself for eight years, creating art that is honest endlessly, and a frame is nailed to the wall but in its expression of negotiation, disagreement hanging on an angle, referencing the wonkiness and consensus. CorK challenge notions of artistic of ACCA’s architecture. collaboration and highlight the inherent tensions and competitive nature of working together. This My door is always open, unless it’s closed is built relationship becomes the fuel to their practice on recent performances in which the pair openly as they stage a fencing duel or survey service discussed doubts about the continuity of their attendants about which of the artists they consider collaborative relationship. These performances have the most physically attractive. all played with the shifting sense of comfort that comes from working with another and also with CorK’s NEW16 work is called My door is always the delays that take place in the public presentation open, unless it’s closed, and involves sculpture, of personal, emotive material. image and text (written and performed). Their work

Education 7 Catherine or Kate, My door is always open, unless it’s closed 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artists. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 8 Liam O’Brien

Born in Gold Coast City Lives and works in Brisbane At Arm’s Length is presented at ACCA as a single- channel video. The work can be considered in three At Arm’s Length 2015–16 different sections under the descriptions: people high definition single-channel video installation without phones, people with phones, and phones Edition of 5 without people. O’Brien uses variety of characters Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney in the video, often sitting around, scrolling through social media and messaging on their iPhone in isolation. The video utilises elements of screen- With particular interest in the construction of space, such as pop-up windows or scenes that individuality and the ambiguities of personal appear to vertically scroll independently of the freedom, Liam O’Brien utilises personal experience, action. This layering and experimentation extends intuition and theoretical texts to produce video to the use of sound, distributed over speakers in and performance works that explore the human ACCA’s foyer and bathrooms. O’Brien uses phone condition under advanced capitalism. notifications as non-diegetic sound (sounds which are independent of his on-screen narratives) to coax O’Brien’s practice surrounds an ongoing the audience into checking their own mobile devices investigation into networks of connectivity, they are constantly tethered to. interpersonal transactions and our constant engagement with technology, resulting in O’Brien’s research into this subject stems from anaemic experiences (Barikin, 2016). As part of books and articles that he has recently read on our this investigation his work in NEW16 called At complex relationships with technology. Alongside Arm’s Length explores the less meaningful and this media, his research has included sci-fi films dissatisfying interactions that our engagement from the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Spike Jones, with technology causes. He suggests that our TV shows, and similar ideas in the music of Father engagement with technology ‘reduces our John Misty, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Kurt Vile, experiences to merely sight, hearing, and touch via and Parquet Courts. As leisure collapses into work, text, still image, moving image, and sound’ (O’Brien, and our attention lapses between the virtual and the 2016). O’Brien argues that we lose significant and actual, O’Brien’s work poses the question ‘Where is embodied experiences of time and space, in turn, the ‘social’ in social media?’ (Barikin, 2016). losing our solitude, concentration, imagination, self- reflexivity, and productivity.

Education 9 Liam O’Brien, At Arm’s Length 2015-16. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 10 Anna Varendorff with Haima Mariott

Lives and works in Melbourne the gallery casts shadows from the sculptures onto the walls, transforming the large forms to flat linear here there are infinite arrangements 2016 markings in two dimension. brass, wood composite, electronics 108 x 212 cm 311 - 7902 Hz Varendorff’s objects ask for participation and 205 x 197 cm 130 - 5919 Hz manipulation, including other dimensions such 188 x 182 cm 146 - 5274 Hz as sound and light (Besten, 2016). Upon touch, 168 x 168 cm 155 - 2637 Hz the objects offer a resonant sound coming from 162 x 132 cm 207 - 932 Hz speakers mounted in at the base of the structures, 264 x 122 cm 27 - 392 Hz and a small vibration is felt. This sound responds to 233 x 102 cm 30 - 207 Hz the different ways the audience physically engages Courtesy of the artists with the object - percussive if touched briefly, more sustained if the touch is longer in duration. The sound offers a physiological experience to the Anna Varendorff has exhibited extensively, and audience, as they participate with the artist in the often collaboratively, to produce works that offer organisation and the experience of the work. The interaction through play and experiment. Her sound, and comprehension alongside touching the practice is a combination of hand-fabricated object objects allows for play, experience and authorial and orchestrated space, directed by the subjective potentials to the people who interact with the work. experience of a body interacting with object. here there are infinite arrangements references Varendorff’s work here there are infinite Varendorff’s background and work as a jeweler arrangements for NEW16, created with support intentionally and symbolically (Besten, 2016). The from Haima Marriott, consists of seven free-standing gold coloured brass alludes to jewellery, her eye brass sculptures, of heights varying from waist to for detail leads to a carefully refined work, and her around two meters. The sculptures have bases, with intention for people to interact with the work is recessed wheels, and can be moved or re-arranged similar to a person wearing a piece of jewellery. here freely by the audience throughout the gallery. The there are infinite arrangements appeals to people effect of this movement allows the physical space of all ages, and those who are differently abled, as of the gallery to be re-arranged by the audience there are many perceptual and physiological layers endlessly. The coloured gels and theatre lighting in by which the work can be experienced.

Education 11 Anna Varendorff with Haima Mariott, here there are infinite arrangements 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 12 Tanya Lee

Born in Perth and uncomfortable. The everyday routines being Lives and works in Perth performed between neighbours include brushing hair, eating breakfast, and cleaning teeth. Despite Curtilage 2016 the awkward nature of these gestures, the multi-channel video recipients passively comply as they are cleaned, Courtesy the artist brushed and fed. Lee’s videos depict a mundane suburban landscape that she continuously addresses in her practice. Tanya Lee is a Perth based artist working across sculpture, performance and drawing. Her practice By creating interactions across boundaries, Lee draws on everyday tasks to create humorous highlights the intimacy we may not realise we have and often futile narratives that subvert the rules, with others, such as neighbours, and the distance protocols and politics of suburbia. that prevents this relationship from human contact (Shah, 2016). We share connections, boarders and Lee’s work for NEW16 examines the shared borders leak details of our lives to our neighbours, but still between neighbours as a space for political tensions. remain distant from one another. The video works, called Curtilage, are presented on three TV screens and offer glimpses of neighbours over fence lines and through windows. These encounters allow for a strange sort of intimacy to develop between people who, despite being close in proximity, are sometimes socially and emotionally more distant than the physicality of these spaces would imply.

Lee’s documentation of real life neighbours performing intimate gestures upon one another, articulate these tensions through extreme and absurd actions. Using elongated tools to stretch from private space across public boundaries and back into private space, the participants in Curtilage perform intimate gestures that are both comical

Education 13 Tanya Lee, Curtilage 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 14 Mason Kimber

Born in Perth Mason Kimber is a Sydney based artist using After completing a studio residency at the British Lives and works in Sydney painting, fresco and wall-based installation to School in Rome, Kimber was inspired by the dense address the relationship between architectural layers of history, painting and architecture that are Window 2016 memory and painterly abstraction. He believes that visible in the city, as well as the various styles of oil on canvas built spaces, whether they are real or imagined, have spatial illusion found in Pompeian fresco painting 92 x 117 cm the potential to hold certain memories. (Habitus, 2015). His paintings map some of his own histories, with classical busts from his residency, Museum 2016 Kimber’s five new paintings inNEW16 , called architectural elements from a childhood home, and oil on canvas Window, Museum, Previous Gestures, Fresco 14 cinematic memories from past works” (Spurr, 2016). 92 x 117 cm and Fresco 15 explore the threshold between the real space of architecture and the imagined space Kimber’s paintings are fragmentary, like ruins. The Previous Gestures 2016 of art. The paintings are hung on a large wall mural, surfaces of these paintings hold the ruins of past oil on canvas using the architectural space of the gallery at ACCA ideas, as well as the suggestion of future ones. 92 x 117cm as a support or extension of the paintings, bringing Opaque shapes collide with pastel oil paint, and the into focus the border that can exist between both frescoes struggle between paint and the texture of Fresco 14 2016 painting and constructed space. sand and plaster. Through chemical reaction, the watercolour, flash, sand & lime plaster on pigments are secured into the plaster forever. marine plywood Three of Kimber’s series of paintings are oil on 53 x 62 cm (framed) canvas, with the remainder lime plaster, sand and pigments on plywood using traditional fresco Fresco 15 2016 techniques. Painting into the plaster before it dries, watercolour, flash, sand & lime plaster on he only has about eight hours, making Fresco is one marine plywood of the most difficult mediums to work with. The 53 x 62cm (framed) paintings draw the viewer to study the detail, with geometries extending beyond the frame and onto Courtesy the artist and Galerie pompom, Sydney the gallery wall, embracing a quality of unfinished possibilities (Spurr, 2016). Kimber’s large wall mural directly responds and continues some of the geometric forms and angularity of ACCA’s external architecture.

Education 15 Mason Kimber, Window, Museum, Previous Gestures, Fresco 14, Fresco 15 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Galerie pompom Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 16 Jacobus Capone

Born in Perth act of rejoice and unburdening. Two large screens Lives and works in Perth consume one of ACCA’s galleries, interlacing and synchronising footage from ‘six months of weekly, Volta 2015 hour-long sessions during which Capone filmed his two-channel video installation, 58 minutes father’s struggle to re-learn the piano accordion’ Courtesy the artist (Weston, 2016). Capone uses the camera to closely frame his subject, capturing the movement of fingers struggling with arthritis and forgotten notes, Jacobus Capone is a Perth based artist working as well as expressions of concentration, frustration, within durational performance, installation, painting and pleasure in acute detail. and video. His work has an emotional and humanistic sensitivity, centering on the desire and constant effort Capone describes Volta as a ritualistic process; to integrate all action into the wholeness of one lived a father and son coming together to share an experience. experience and explore without words each other’s being and pasts (Stephens, 2016). From the opening Working with his father, Capone undertook an melody – Che sera sera, whatever will be will be – especially personal project for NEW16 that reflects Capone releases the negative grasp the past had upon the psychological absence in each other’s on the present in an hour-long video that offers lives between the years of 1998-2006, caused insight into experience and aftermath of severe, by his father’s severe depression. He recounts debilitating depression. Through time, Capone’s childhood memories of his father fluently playing father relearns the accordion, and in turn, they repair the piano accordion, and embraces the melancholic their relationship with hope for new melodies and and nostalgic tones evoked by such an instrument. memories to master (Weston, 2016). The result is Volta, a diptych of videos tenderly documents his father attempting to re-learn the song, Che sarà, and an instrument he hasn’t held or played since 1998, the year he was diagnosed.

Volta is an Italian term referring to the moment in which a dramatic turn is made in argument or emotion (Weston, 2016). Capone’s process of collaboratively making Volta with his father is an

Education 17 Jacobus Capone, Volta 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 18 Gabriella Hirst

Born in Sydney In the videos Hirst perseveres as the overpowering Lives and works in Berlin wind threatens to push over the easel, while the watercolour paint is washed off the canvas as fast Force Majeure 2015–16 as new paint in reapplied. The action is repeated watercolour paintings and digital video in various locations in different storms. The ‘failed’ installation storm paintings, mostly blank and torn, are exhibited Sound: Tom Hogan alongside the films, each with the title of the storm, Editing: Robert Hambling time and location in which it was painted. Courtesy the artist Hirst also negotiates a tension between hope and hopelessness while physically battling the storms Gabriella Hirst is a cross-disciplinary artist, whose in the videos. With her failed romantic attempts of works responds to fragility of memory and personal painting a storm, she explores the impractical and narrative, exploring myth-making and archival absurd nature of being an artist. Hirst studied the impulses. Her practice is grounded in drawing and weather and chased storms across Europe; often painting, but she frequently adopts sculptural and arriving at the destination to discover the storm had video media to create immersive and audience- passed. Force Majeure is the result of Hirst’s ‘battle reactive artworks. with failure and hand-me-down romantic ideas of being an artist’ (Stephens, 2016). Hirst’s work Force Majeure for NEW16 has been inspired in part by Russian romantic painter Ivan Gathering inspiration from the biographies of Aivazovsky who, in the 1880s, painted over 6000 historical figures, especially from the 18th and 19th paintings, mostly of stormy seas, and largely from century, Hirst’s work plays with narrative, saying memory. Her installation of video and painting in ‘the more identities taken on, perhaps the more we NEW16 documents her attempts to paint a storm learn about ourselves’ (Orav, 2016). Her work has whilst in the middle of that storm. Hirst travelled to shifted to becoming more ephemeral, transient and locations with dramatic landscapes, including the intangible, acknowledging the role of art in extending island of Rugen, a location also captured by German rather than reflecting reality. romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. She rented a cabin in Rugen in the middle of winter and waited for the miserable weather to arrive.

Education 19 Gabriella Hirst, Force Majeure 2015-16. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 20 Julian Day

Born in Melbourne of ACCA. Day uses blank paper to symbolise the Lives and works in Sydney starting point for artistic creativity – whether that is visual, sonic or textual. Fascinated with the tension White Noise 2015–16 between sound and space, Day has concealed paper, speakers, amplifiers speakers that project subsonic sounds towards the variable dimensions paper behind the draped sheets (Stephens, 2016). Courtesy the artist Periodically, the paper begins to move, at first subtly trembling, then rising in intensity to a crescendo of agitated shaking, before shuddering to a stop Julian Day is an artist, composer, writer and (Jaspers, 2016). Like a giant unfilled drum, the sound broadcaster creating simple yet evocative works causes the paper to rumble and vibrate, echoing, encompassing installation, video, sound, text and extending and literally shaking the foundations of the performance. Much of his work is site-specific and gallery architecture. collaborative; using dispersed homogeneous sound to explore the acoustic, architectural and relational Day’s work uses the gallery as an instrument, properties of such varied spaces as railway sheds, amplifying ACCA’s non-geometric character as a marketplaces, laneways, parks and galleries. container for ideas full of potential (Jaspers, 2016). Day is interested in how sound adds another Day’s recent sculptural works have involved dimension to a gallery space, and can affect the sound through destabilising traditional musical audience in an unseen way (Stephens, 2016). Using instruments or using neutral materials such as the white space in the gallery as a starting point, paper and speakers. His works explore ‘the White Noise talks back to the audience through relationship between the viewer and their immediate sound and space. Through flipping the idea that art architecture, between agency and constraint, is about positive objects, White Noise investigates stability and turbulence’ (Day, 2015). Day has also the untapped negative space in the room and the investigated forms of community building using intensity of the air. sound through performative and collaborative works.

Day’s work for NEW16 is called White Noise. It features six giant rolls of white paper that gently flow and unfold down from the six-metre high walls

Education 21 Julian Day, White Noise 2016. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Education 22 Curriculum links

VCE ART O’Brien was inspired by movies, TV shows and Unit 3: Area of Study 1 Unit 1: Area of Study 1 lyrics with similar ideas to him. Using song or film Interpreting art Art and meaning as a starting point, create a series of small artworks that reflect your response to an idea that interests Draw on aspects of the Analytical Frameworks After visiting NEW16 select two artists and their you; use a variety of techniques, materials and to compare the works of Gabriella Hirst and a artworks. Research their personal interests and processes. Document your experimentations with romantic painter that has inspired her work, such experiences; analyse, interpret and compare their annotations in your folio. as Caspar David Friedrich or Ivan Aivazovsky. How artworks through the application of the Formal and have their representations of dramatic landscapes, the Personal Frameworks. and Romantic notions of ‘the sublime’, been Unit 2: Area of Study 1 communicated through style and visual elements? Art and culture How has the work been linked to people and places Unit 1: Area of Study 2 of important to Hirst? How have historical events Art making and personal meaning Mason Kimber began exploring fresco techniques shaped her ideas? What materials and media have after completing a residency in Rome. The culture of been applied in the presentation of the work? Volta by Jacobus Capone is an especially personal ancient Rome has a long history, and Kimber likens project that reflects upon his father’s severe his paintings to ancient ruins. Using the Cultural and depression, the breakdown and rebuilding of their Formal Frameworks, analyse the aesthetic qualities, relationship. Discuss the physical aspects and the materials and techniques used in Kimber’s fresco presentation of Volta containing symbolic meaning paintings and discuss their associations with cultures and use of metaphor. and histories.

Liam O’Brien’s interests, experiences and ideas Investigate examples of artists working surrounding technology are reflected throughAt collaboratively, like Catherine or Kate. Using the Arm’s Length. He investigates the way in which our Cultural Framework, compare the social, political and relationships, identities and interpersonal subjectivity cultural contexts in which these artists have worked are increasingly influenced by our interaction with in. How has Catherine or Kate’s relationship shaped digital and screen technologies. Discuss this idea their artistic intentions? How does the physical and how it is reflected in his work. placement of their work affect their interpretation?

Education 23 VCE STUDIO ARTS

Unit 1: Area of Study 3 Unit 3: Area of Study 3 Interpretation of art ideas and use of materials Professional art practices and styles and techniques Liam O’Brien has used footage from social media Compare and contrast two of the artworks in sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Tinder in NEW16 that have negotiated a threshold or his work for NEW16. Discuss as a class the ethical tension of some kind. Consider artistic influences, considerations that may arise when using these interpretation of subject matter, media and sites and information. techniques.

Tanya Lee has investigated suburbia and relationships between neighbours in her work Curtilage. Research other artists from different times that have also explored aspects of the suburbs, such as Howard Arkley, John Brack and Robert Rooney. How have these artists present their ideas? Discuss their approach to this theme.

Unit 2: Area of Study 1 Design exploration

Liam O’Brien has explored the idea of time using technology for At Arm’s Length. There are cues that pull the audience out of the narrative, like the cropping, and the layered montage of screens upon screens, in an attempt to distance the audience from being immersed in the vignettes. Explore the idea of time in your own work using digital media and manipulation. Tanya Lee, Curtilage 2016

Education 24 Unit 4: Area of Study 3 Art industry contexts

CASE STUDY: NEW16 with Annika Kristensen, Guest Curator.

Curatorial considerations

Annika separates her curatorial considerations for NEW16 into conceptual and logistical. When discussing her conceptual considerations, she identifies sensitivities when working with commissioned projects:

NEW16 is an exhibition of new commissions, so there are always anxieties and vulnerabilities that go alongside that. Each of the artists had to conceive a new idea in a certain time frame, which poses conceptual and logistical problems. Some of those problems include trying to resolve an idea by a deadline, getting materials sourced by a deadline, being reasonably flexible with working to Curator Annika Kristensen in front of Mason Kimber’s mural during install for NEW16. deadlines with ideas. Some of the artists have actively tried to embrace the idea of failure, and that failure might be not having a good idea, and not being able to resolve an idea once you have started it. When you get so far through starting an idea, you hit a point in an idea of no return and have to embrace it as you can’t turn back and start again. A couple of the works actively engage the pressure of having to conceive an idea. Catherine or Kate’s work, for instance, is set up like a studio space, like a kind of place you would go to draft an artistic idea, but that idea may not come. Julian Day’s white paper refers to the classic blank page, like the starting point for an idea. Gabriella’s osculation between hope and hopelessness can be extrapolated to be read as a struggle of an artist who is situating their self within an art historical cannon, but also acknowledging the futility of pursuing that line of work.

Annika also highlights some of the NEW16 commissions that were logistically challenging:

Julian’s work has been challenging. Julian had done a work like this before, but not to this scale. It meant a lot of testing, and his work is quite complicated

NEW16 install. Education 25 in terms of the physics of sound. While he is a composer and sound artist, we’ve had to seek external advice about how the sound is going to react in the space at ACCA, and make sure it is going to affect the material in the way Julian wants it to. His work has involved many people in the making and there has been a lot of consulting with this work to a tight deadline. The materials such as paper, amps and speakers needed to be ordered from Sydney.

Preparation and presentation of artworks

ACCA has a small crew of core people that install the exhibitions each season. Their expertise includes carpentry, audiovisual media, and handling of fragile materials and artworks. Alongside the core crew, the Exhibitions Manager regularly calls upon people of other expertise depending on the requirements for each exhibition. When managing the NEW16 install, Annika discusses working with the crew: NEW16 install. The members of ACCA’s crew are incredible versatile, but there are those I ask to do certain things. Beau, for example, has a very strong background projection this big on this wall, but I’m worried about peoples shadows as an art handler and is amazing at things that involve careful detail, which is interrupting the throw of the projector”, he does all of these calculations why I have him painting Mason Kimber’s mural, as it is quite meticulous in for me. Our builder then works off those plans, so the AV consultant terms of marking up the space. I will also have Beau handling Julian’s paper, will make up measurements for me, and will tell me what size to build as it is a sensitive and fragile task. Simone, Denae and Tom are strong at AV, the screens, and then the builder follows their direction. For Julian’s and Simone is a rigger, so she has been able to rig Catherine or Kate’s fan, work we have been seeking advice from people who run an AV sound which is something the rest of the crew couldn’t do. Pat has a carpentry setup business usually doing stadium or music events, who have been background, so he has been amazing in building speaker boxes for Julian’s working on the physics of sound for that project. work. Simone and Tom also have strong lighting experience, so they are great when it comes to that. I try to share the crew around depending on Alongside consulting, Annika also needs to consider lighting and the the job that needs to be done. conservation of artworks in the exhibition for the entire season:

Installing an exhibition of new commissions and contemporary artworks can be Anna Varendorff was really interested in the play of shadow and light complex. Annika discusses the specific installation requirements forNEW16 : and how they interact with the brass of her sculptures, and how the shadows cast on the wall and change your reading of the work. We I work quite closely with a colleague I worked with at the Biennale of have hired theatre lights for that particular work, as the effect Anna Sydney who is an AV technician. If I say for instance, “I want to do a wanted wasn’t something we could produce using the general washes

Education 26 and spotlights that we have at ACCA. As well as using theatre lights that have considered. Anna’s frames look like a framing device in the way that a are stronger and more direct for that work, we are also using coloured gels gallery itself is a framing device, as well as the architecture and doorways that will play off the work and create a certain mood. The paper in Julian’s within it, so there are lots of intentional nods to the exhibition space. work is fragile and marks very easily, and because sound is constantly hitting it, the paper is in movement the entire time. Due to this, there will be an invigilator in the space all the time, and is something that all staff are to be aware of. We have spare paper and equipment in case something happens to the work. The rest of the exhibition is quite hearty and self-sufficient. Catherine or Kate’s work has a participatory element, and they would like to be able to interact with the work, so that is something to keep an eye on. Overall the exhibition is quite robust.

Characteristics of ACCA’s exhibition spaces

ACCA is a contemporary art space based on the European model of the Kunsthalle, meaning a non-collecting institution whose gallery spaces and program changes with each exhibition season. None of the walls in ACCA’s galleries are square, which has been part of the conversation between Annika and the artists in NEW16:

Some of the artists have actively embraced ACCA’s spaces. The angles in Mason Kimber’s mural are directly referencing the architecture of ACCA. He wanted to use the back wall as an extension of his paintings, so as well as a physical support for his paintings it also becomes an extension of them. He has worked with the way perspective changes in that room depending on where you stand, so the angle on the right hand side is directly referencing some of the angles on the outside of the building. Julian Day’s work has involved an ongoing conversation about whether we blend into the architecture or work against the architecture. He wanted his work to appear as though the walls were unfurling, and the white paper is a reference to the neutrality of a white cube archetypal gallery space. But, of course while ACCA has some of that institutional ‘white cubeness’, it is not literally square in any shape or form. Due to this skewedness, Catherine or Kate have made a frame that is on an angle which is referencing the wonkiness of ACCA’s architecture as well, so the spaces are definitely something we NEW16 install.

Education 27 Promotion and marketing of NEW16

NEW is an annual exhibition that employs a Guest Curator to work with the artists to produce newly commissioned projects. There is always anticipation and excitement surrounding the NEW series in the art and broader communities, and for this reason, the curator and featured artists remain embargoed until approximately six weeks before the exhibition opens. The promotion and marketing around NEW16 is crucial to engage new and existing audiences, and to spark discussions surrounding the artists and curator.

ACCA’s Publicist and Online Communications Manager play an important role in ensuring NEW16 is marketed and promoted successfully. The Curator and Designer select a hero image for the exhibition, and agree on the overall design for print and online media.

In the month leading up to the opening of NEW16, the Online Communications Manager releases snippets of information and images Newspaper article written by Andrew Stephens for NEW16 across ACCA’s E-bulletin contact lists and social media platforms. The first release of information online includes the hero image for the exhibition. The Online Communications Manager works with others in the creative team to decide on a social media strategy. For NEW16, they released various images in the month leading up to the exhibition, and during the week of install, shared images of the artists, Curator and crew installing the works.

The Publicist organises articles and interviews for newspapers, such as The Age. Alongside print and online publicity, the Publicist arranges interviews with some of the artists and the Curator for radio stations, such as Triple R, and other mainstream and specialist print and electronic media.

acca_melbourne Instagram posts during the week leading to NEW16 opening night

Education 28 SECONDARY 7-10

VISUAL ARTS

Explore and Express Ideas shadows that the sculptures create on the gallery as comedy, to explore their intrinsic and extrinsic walls. Experiment with line, shape and manipulation worlds? Discuss one of their works in detail. Anna Varendorff has a background in jewellery through Photoshop by laying your photographs and making. Analyse her use of materials in NEW16, and adjusting opacities. What do paintings tell us about the past? Compare their relationship to her jewellery practice. Find some Mason Kimber’s fresco and oil on canvas paintings examples of her jewellery and discuss their style and Present and Perform in NEW16. How has his use of materials enhanced their connection to her sculptural art practice. the meaning and viewer’s understanding of his Discuss the many viewpoints Liam O’Brien intention? Mason Kimber’s paintings are highly textual. Select, presents to the audience in At Arm’s Length, and test and experiment mixing different materials with the visual conventions utilised in his work, such as Catherine or Kate’s work is supposed to be activated paint to explore texture. Mix impasto or glue, as well composition and sound. How does the way the work by the audience sitting down and riding the desk. as organic matter such as sawdust and dirt. Create a has been displayed enhance meaning? How does it Research other artists from a variety of different texture sheet from these experiments in your folio. affect the audience? times and cultures who also invite the audience to participate in their work. Visual Arts Practices Explore the sounds of a various classroom objects, like Julian Day has with paper for White Noise. When completing his fresco paintings, Mason Discuss how music elements, such as sound, Kimber only had a few hours to complete work crescendo and silence would make visitors feel in before the plaster set. Complete a series of ACCA’s gallery. Research Day’s other works that paintings or drawings to a theme with a short time incorporate audience, sound and performance. limit (2-5 minutes). Afterwards try creating the same theme with a longer time limit. Compare, discuss Respond and Interpret and evaluate the differences in your work to the class. What is sound? Julian Day has explored sound as energy in his work White Noise. What are the Anna Varendorff has manipulated and experimented physical and psychological aspects to sound, and with combinations of various materials and how has Day investigated these in his artwork? technologies to create different sensory effects. Use Research some of Catherine or Kate’s works prior a digital camera or iPhone to capture images of the to NEW16. How have they incorporated genre, such

Education 29 PRIMARY F-6

VISUAL ARTS

Explore and Express Ideas of the area you live through drawings and photographs. Use these to develop an artwork. Fresco painting can be traced back to 2000 BC and has a long history in Greek and Roman art. Research Present and Perform and map the history of frescoes through different times and places. Highlight some famous frescoes Discuss how Anna Varendorff’s work has been from different times, where they are located, and presented at ACCA, and analyse how it appears investigate the conservation methods used to in two and three dimensions. Discuss how this preserve these works. changes or enhances her work, and her use of visual elements such as line and colour. Mason Kimber believes that buildings store memories and explores abstract environments in Respond and interpret his paintings. What does abstract mean? Discuss Mason Kimber, Fresco 14 2016 as a group and research other historical and Discuss your favourite work in NEW16, and describe contemporary artists who have explored abstraction. why you like the work using visual conventions. Discuss the ideas and materials and techniques Visual Arts Practices used to create the artwork.

In Tanya Lee’s work the characters perform acts, like brushing hair, on their neighbours using elongated tools. The characters have little control over these tools. Limit your control over art making, and create a series of observational drawings of classroom objects using your opposite hand or by closing your eyes.

Through her art practice, Lee explores the places she grew up through performance and video. Document the natural and man made characteristics Mason Kimber, Fresco 15 2016

Education 30 References http://unprojects.org.au/magazine/issues/issue-6-2/what-s-in-a-name- catherine-or-kate-or-catherine-sagin-or-fiona-mail/

Andrew Stephens, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 2016: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/54664/1/Kate_Woodcroft_Thesis.pdf http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/father-and-son-once-divided- http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/melbourne- by-depression-come-together-in-video-artwork-at-acca-20160219- festival-review-art-as-a-verb-20141021-118x5u.html gmxmwt.html http://www.ima.org.au/event/jeremy-hynes-award-catherine-or-kate/

Habitus Living, March 2015: Liam O’Brien http://www.habitusliving.com/community/artist-qa-mason-kimber http://www.liamobrien.com.au/

NEW16 Catalogue, ACCA, 2015: http://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/goma-q-liam-obrien/ Amelia Barikin, Liesbeth Den Besten, Chelsea Hopper, Anneke http://www.artcollector.net.au/LiamOBrienSurrogates Jaspers, Annika Kristensen, Kristin Orav, Sami Shah, Samantha Spurr http://cultgc.com/2015/10/19/brisbane-artist-series-liam-obrien/ and Gemma Weston http://safari.org.au/2014/liam-obrien-qld/ http://sydneycontemporary.com.au/liam-obrien-whistling-in-the- References dark-2013/ http://www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au/schools/artwork.jsp

Andrew Stephens, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 2016: http://www.dlux.org.au/cms/dTour/liam-o-brien.html http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/father-and-son-once-divided- https://www.allens.com.au/art/journal/pdfs/issue1.pdf by-depression-come-together-in-video-artwork-at-acca-20160219- http://lucidamagazine.com/?p=679 gmxmwt.html http://www.artandfoundation.com/projects/contemporary-art-award/ liam-obrien

Habitus Living, March 2015: http://www.habitusliving.com/community/artist-qa-mason-kimber Tanya Lee

NEW16 Catalogue, ACCA, 2015: http://www.fac.org.au/events/294/tanya-lee-personal-space Amelia Barikin, Liesbeth Den Besten, Chelsea Hopper, Anneke http://rtrfm.com.au/story/tanya-lees-parody-of-disclosure/ Jaspers, Annika Kristensen, Kristin Orav, Sami Shah, Samantha Spurr http://johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au/exhibitions/archive/2010.cfm and Gemma Weston http://www.tanyalee-art.com/publications-texts/ https://www.situate.org.au/person/tanya-lee/ Further Reading Anna Varendorff

Catherine or Kate http://annavarendorff.com/ http://thedesignfiles.net/2014/11/anna-varendorff/

http://catherineorkate.com/ http://a-ch.com.au/exhibition/anna-varendorff-sort-of-free-objects/ https://vimeo.com/catherineorkate http://www.c3artspace.com.au/anna-varendorff/

Education 31 http://busprojects.org.au/2015/01/05/anna-varendorff-benjamin- jacobus-capone-at.html portas/ http://www.colosoul.com.au/vashti/art/artist-in-spotlight-jacobus- http://www.elletea.co/artist-profiles/anna-varendorff/ capone/ http://www.piecesofeight.com.au/blogs/journal/56195843-anna- http://unprojects.org.au/magazine/issues/issue-5-1/jacobus- varendorff-comparative-gestures capone-nine-prayers-for-palomar/ http://tcbartinc.org.au/bouba/ http://mcontemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Engage_ http://craftcubed.org.au/2015/events/anna-varendorff-and-meredith- Catalog.pdf turnbull-at-craft-window-space/ http://foodchainperth.com/lightlockers/jacobus-capone/ http://thethousands.com.au/brisbane/calendar/anna-varendorff-sort- of-free-objects Gabrielia Hirst

Mason Kimber http://www.gabriellahirst.com/Gabriella-Hirst https://vimeo.com/78291359 http://masonkimber.com/ http://www.zku-berlin.org/residencies/88/ http://www.galeriepompom.com/galerie-pompom--mason-kimber. html Julian Day http://www.habitusliving.com/community/artist-qa-mason-kimber http://www.emerge-art.com.au/exhibitions/brand/mason_kimber http://www.julianday.com/ http://news.curtin.edu.au/cite/alumni-profiles/talented-painter-mason- http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/day-julian kimber/ http://www.ayo.com.au/content/julian-day/gjxxu6 http://artguide.com.au/articles-page/show/mason-kimber https://exhaustmusic.wordpress.com/collaborating-composers/ https://www.facebook.com/MasonKimberArt/ julian-day/ http://www.buro247.com.au/culture-lifestyle/arts/when-in-rome- https://vimeo.com/42121205 mason-kimber-s-fresco-perspective.html http://runway.org.au/category/contributor/julian-day/ https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/june- http://www.realtimearts.net/feature/In_Profile/11756 mostrameet-the-artists-mason-kimber/ http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/interview-with-julian-day- http://theartlife.com.au/2015/oltre-la-vista/ shortlisted-artist-the-aesthetica-art-prize-2015/ http://www.pqau.com.au/2015/scm-super-critical-mass/ Jacobus Capone http://safari.org.au/2012/studio-visit-julian-day/ http://ocradst.org/soundartcurating/julian-day/ http://www.jacobuscapone.com/ https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/psycho-geography-and- https://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/6560764/endurance- opium-fuelled-architects-julian-day-launches-panthers-and-the- artist-nails-it/ museum-of-fire/ https://vimeo.com/user10016731 http://www.dominikmerschgallery.com/artist/julian-day-dmg- http://www.fluxfactory.org/fluxers/jacobus-capone/ award-2014/ http://sensibleperth.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/dark-learning-by-

Education 32 Visiting ACCA

ACCA’s FREE education programs are available for Primary, Secondary and Tertiary groups between 10am - 4pm from Monday to Friday.

Maximum 25 students per group for THINK and MAKE programs.

Bookings are required for both guided and self-guided School and Tertiary groups.

10am - 5pm Tuesday – Friday 12pm – 5pm Weekends & Public Holidays (except Good Friday & Christmas Day) Monday by appointment

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Education resource written and compiled by Eliza Devlin, Schools Education Manager, ACCA, March 2015.

TERMS OF USE Australian Centre for This Education Resource has been produced by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Contemporary Art to provide information and classroom support material for 111 Sturt Street Southbank school visits to the exhibition NEW16. The reproduction and communication of this VIC 3006 Australia resource is permitted for educational purposes only. Tel +61 3 9697 9999 Fax +61 3 9686 8830 www.accaonline.org.au #accamelbourne

Education 33