Art Collector

#86 OCT – DEC 2018 ISSN 1440-8902 Print Post approved PP235387/00100 RRP AUD $19.95 (incl. GST) NZ $25.50 (incl. GST) ART COLLECTOR

86 THE GLOBAL ISSUE + NATSIAA PICKS + ELISABETH CUMMINGS + JOHN STEZAKER + MORE

9 772209 731009 > DAWN NG

SULLIVAN+STRUMPF / SYDNEY 24 NOVEMBER – 22 DECEMBER 2018 SYDNEY BALL

SULLIVAN+STRUMPF / SYDNEY 27 OCTOBER –17 NOVEMBER 2018 JAMES GEURTS SEISMIC FIELD

21 NOV - 21 DEC 2018

WWW.GAGPROJECTS.COM | [email protected] | 39 RUNDLE ST, KENT TOWN, ADELAIDE | +61 8 8362 6354

Image: James Geurts, Prime Meridian: International Date Line, 2018, neon light

Darryn George Hikoi

31 October - 24 November 2018

Opening Preview: Tuesday 30 October, 5-7pm

GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY 26 LORNE ST / CNR KITCHENER ST & WELLESLEY ST AUCKLAND NZ PO BOX 5461 T: +64 9 303 4290 WWW.GOWLANGSFORDGALLERY.COM JACQUI STOCKDALE GHOST HOOVANAH

21 NOVEMBER – 9 DECEMBER

OLSENGALLERY.COM Jacqui Stockdale Duel of the Mount # 1 (detail) C Type Print 2018 JAKE WALKER 31 OCTOBER - 24 NOVEMBER 2018

gallery9.com.au 9 Darley St, Darlinghurst GALLERY 9 Sydney +61 2 9380 9909 [email protected] NGANAMPA NGURA KURUNTJARA THE PLACE OF OUR SPIRIT

31 OCTOBER – 18 NOVEMBER

OLSENGALLERY.COM Yaritji Young Tjala Tjukurpa (detail) acrylic on linen 198 x 152 cm Tjala Arts 2018 CONTENTS THE GLOBAL ISSUE

ON THE COVER: Paul Yore, Happy Are Ye Poor, 2017. Mixed media appliqué; found materials, iron-on printed fabric transfers, wool, beads, sequins buttons, 230 x 207cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: DEVON ACKERMANN.

UPFRONT

29 52 NEWS & EVENTS BEHIND THE SCENES News and views on the art world. How does international success effect an Australian artist’s market back home? 34 IN THE WORKS 59 Visual Arts 101 with critic Edward Colless. SURVEY What makes a collection memorable? 38 EXHIBITION 62 Everything you need to know about the CULTURAL CAPITAL 9th Asia Pacific Triennial. Carrie Miller and Andrew Frost discuss some of the reasons people collect art. 44 ART FAIRS 70 The forthcoming art fairs on our calendars. ON THE COUCH We speak to the curators, directors and 47 gallerists at the coalface of the global stage. AGENDA What happens to an artist when a gallery closes? 76 Ingrid Periz asks. NOT TO BE MISSED The must-see exhibitions this quarter. 48 LIFECYCLE OF A COLLECTOR 88 Ideas for the collector who has already filled the IF I COULD HAVE… house (and the beach house) with art. Curator Kate Britton presents the artwork on her wish list.

9 ART COLLECTOR ARTISTS COLLECTING #86 OCT-DEC 2018

90 176 WHAT NOW? ART CENTRE: Our writers speak to three established THE INNOVATORS Editor-In-Chief Susan Borham artists about their recent work. Tjungu Palya Art Centre may be small, but its

influence is profound. Publisher 96 Beatrice Spence WHAT NEXT? 182 Editor We introduce the work of three DEALER: IMAGINE WHAT artists for your radar. Camilla Wagstaff YOU DESIRE 106 Hobart-based dealer Michael Bugelli on Assistant Editor combining the old and the new. Kirsty Sier CRITIC’S CHOICE The artists who have recently captured 188 Art Director curator Francis McWhannell’s attention. COLLECTOR: Louise Summerton 114 THE ART MACHINE Senior Designer We roam through the five-level warehouse of Justine Scott NATSIAA PICK OF THE CROP Peter Wilson and James Emmet – complete Our wrap on some of the standout works from with its rotating moveable art racks. Interns this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Annie Tonkin, Rose Leake, Islander Art Awards. 196 Zoe Zheng PREVIEWS 124 Associate Editors Three notable commercial gallery exhibitions Dr Alan Cholodenko GLOBAL WARMING across Australia and New Zealand this quarter. Local artists setting the world stage on fire. Dr Edward Colless 204 Michael Hutak 138 John Young ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS BEING TIMELESS Dr Rex Butler Recent exhibitions reviewed by our writers in Professor James Choo Sasha Grishin discusses how Elisabeth 30 words or less. Cummings has made her mark on Australian Editorial Inquiries painting forever. 208 Camilla Wagstaff

148 OFF THE WALL Subscription Inquiries MONSTERS IN MASKS Tai Mitsuji explains why Daniel Buren’s recent + 61 2 9363 4324 exhibition at Carriageworks blew him away. John Hurrell on the eerie photo-collages of artcollector.net.au/subscribe John Stezaker. Advertising Inquiries 156 + 61 2 9363 4324

THE TOOLS OF CHANGE Produced & Published by Jane O’Sullivan explores how and why Kawita Art Edited Pty Ltd Vatanajyankur turns her body into a machine. ABN 48 614 849 197 PO Box 1452, 162 Double Bay NSW 1360 THE INFINITE SKY Phone+ 61 2 9363 4324 Lucinda Bennett delves into the bold, visceral paintings of André Hemer Directors Susan Borham 168 Beatrice Spence PERFECT STRANGENESS Dawn Ng’s reflective practice touches a chord in us all, Micheal Do writes.

Reproduction in whole or in part is not permitted without the written authorisation of the publisher. In the reproduction of artworks all reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders where appropriate.

ISSN 1440-8902

10 ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH VINCENT NAMATJIRA Luke Willis Thompson Turner Prize 2018 HOPKINSON MOSSMAN Level 1 19 Putiki Street Tate Britain Arch Hill Auckland 26 Sep 2018 — 06 Jan 2019

HOPKINSON MOSSMAN Ruth Buchanan Level 2 22 Garrett Street Te Aro Walters Prize 2018 Wellington Auckland Art Gallery ¥ 18 Aug 2018 — 20 Jan 2019

Nick Austin Dane Mitchell Ruth Buchanan Fiona Connor New Zealand Pavilion Bill Culbert Oscar Enberg 58th International Nicola Farquhar Milli Jannides Art Exhibition Nicholas Mangan Dane Mitchell Tahi Moore La Biennale di Venezia Emma McIntyre Oliver Perkins 11 May 2019 — Peter Robinson Renee So 24 Nov 2019 Shannon Te Ao Luke Willis Thompson

hopkinsonmossman.com Denis O’Connor | Echo’s Tree 26 October - 24 November 2018

Two Rooms 16 Putiki St Newton, Auckland, New Zealand | 64(9) 360 5900 | [email protected] | tworooms.co.nz Denis O’Connor, Echo’s Tree, 2018, china clay on slate-capped tree stump. Photo: Haru Sameshima CONTRIBUTORS

Lucinda Bennett is the 2017 curatorial in- Briony Downes has worked in the arts for more Francis McWhannell has contributed to a va- tern at Dunedin Public Art Gallery prior to than 20 years as a writer, actor and art theory riety of arts and culture magazines and web- which she was a curator at The University tutor, among other things. sites including Art News New Zealand, HOME of Auckland’s Window project space. She is and Runway Conversations. He is based in New based in Aotearoa. Gina Fairley is the current the visual arts editor Zealand and co-curated Project 18 as part of for ArtsHub Australia. this year’s Auckland Art Fair. Kate Britton’s current curatorial concerns centre around queer theory and practice, and Dr Andrew Frost is an art critic, broadcaster Joanna Mendelssohn is an art historian spe- the dialogue between writing, text and con- and lecturer. cialising in Australian art. temporary art. She is a Sydney-based writer and curator. Professor Sasha Grishin has published 17 books Carrie Miller is a freelance writer based in and more than 1,000 articles. He is an emeritus Wollongong. Dr Rex Butler’s research interests include of the school of literature, languages and linguis- Australian art and art criticism, post-war tics at the Australian National University. Tai Mitsuji holds a masters in art history from American art and critical theory. He is an art the University of Oxford. He has contributed historian and professor at Monash University Leonhard Hilzensauer is a photographer based to publications including Art and Australia, in Melbourne. in Vienna. Art Monthly Australasia, Art Guide Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald. Based in Laura Couttie is an independent writer, ed- Jesse Hunniford is a Tasmania-based photogra- Sydney, he also works as a curator. itor, curator and arts administrator based in pher and videographer. Melbourne. Andrew Nicholls is an artist, writer and cura- John Hurrell is the editor of EyeContact and is tor based in Western Australia. Edward Colless lectures in critical and theo- a New Zealand-based writer, artist and curator. retical studies at the Victorian College of the Jane O’Sullivan has written for publications Arts, University of Melbourne. He is also the Victoria Hynes has been a columnist for the including the Australian Financial Review, editor of Art + Australia. Sydney Morning Herald and written for numer- Artnet, Art Guide and Ocula. She is a former ous Australian and international art magazines. editor of Art Collector. Dr Ashley Crawford is the author of a num- Based in Sydney, she is currently contributing ber of books on Australian art, including editor at Asian Art News magazine. Ingrid Periz writes about contemporary art Transformations: The Work of Sonia Payes from her home outside Princeton, New Jersey. and Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley. Paris Lettau is currently a sessional tutor in art history at the University of Melbourne. Tan Walter is a photographer and creative di- Ineke Dane is interested in overlaps between rector based in Singapore. architecture, politics, society and the envi- Jane Llewellyn, a former editor of Art Collector, ronment, and a progression towards seam- is based in Adelaide. Coen Young is a Sydney-based artist. lessness between art and life. She is a curator currently based in Brisbane where she works Jacquie Manning is a photographer based in with the international studio Urban Art Sydney. Projects. Louise Martin-Chew is a freelance arts writer. Micheal Do recently curated Soft Core, a travelling exhibition for Casula Powerhouse Helen McKenzie conducts international art Arts Centre and Not Niwe, Not Nieuw, Not tours for Art Collector subscribers and readers CORRECTION: In issue 85 of Art Collector, we stated Neu for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian and works out of Sydney as an art adviser and that Anthea Polson Art was in Brisbane. In fact, Anthea Art in Sydney. freelance writer. Polson Art is in Main Beach.

14 Starkwhite is pleased to announce Fiona Pardington is represented in Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts 29 September — 10 December 2018 with 5 works from the series The Pressure of Sunlight Falling this project has been supported by Creative New Zealand

Image: Fiona Pardington Portrait of a life cast of Kakaley (painted), Solomon Islands, 2010 with thanks Musée de l’Homme (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle), Paris

STARKWHITE | 510 Karangahape Road. Auckland. New Zealand | [email protected] | starkwhite.co.nz GRAHAM LANG | INNERTIDES 14 NOVEMBER - 9 DECEMBER 2018

DESPARD GALLERY LEVEL 1 • 15 CASTRAY ESPLANADE HOBART • TASMANIA • 7000 P: 03 6223 8266 E: [email protected] www.despard-gallery.com.au Force of Nature, 2018, oil on board, 122 x 91.5 cm MICHEILA PETERSFIELD | A World of My Own 17 OCTOBER - 11 NOVEMBER 2018

DESPARD GALLERY LEVEL 1 • 15 CASTRAY ESPLANADE HOBART • TASMANIA • 7000 P: 03 6223 8266 E: [email protected] www.despard-gallery.com.au Birds, 2018, digital print on archival paper, 120 x 80 cm, edition of 5 GRAHAM FLETCHER Dark Paradise

18 October - 11 November 2018

Untitled (Mother, Child and Animal Figurine), 2018, oil on linen, 122 x 122cm (detail) MYHTL7OV[V!2HSSHU4HJ3LVK 18 SEP -13 OCT2018 SALOME TANUVASA

ALEXANDER McKENZIE seen across water

15 November - 9 December 2018

more than many sparrows, 2018, oil on linen, 197 x 350 cm (detail) NARELLE AU- LISA ROET TIO SALLY BOURKE PAUL SLOAN TIM NADINE CHRISTENSEN STERLING JUSTINE VARGA SERA JAMES DARLING & LESLEY WATERS AMY JOY WATSON PAUL YORE FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY NARELLE AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPA- CHRISTENSEN JAMES DARLING & LESLEY TROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JAN- FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GAR- ET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACK- IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPA- INNON FIONA MCMONAGLE NANA OHNESORGE TROL] LUCAS GRO- GAN ILDIKO KOVACS TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL JANET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER SLOAN TIM STERLING JUSTINE VARGA WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MCMONAGLE SERA WATERS AMY JOY NANA OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS WATSON PAUL YORE RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM NARELLE AUTIO SALLY STERLING JUSTINE VAR- GA SERA WATERS AMY BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY TENSEN JAMES DARLING BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- TENSEN JAMES DARLING & LESLEY FORWOOD & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GAR- JAMES DODD TONY GAR- IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH GROGAN ILDIKO KO- VACS JANET LAURENCE [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC- GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS MONAGLE NANA OHNE- SORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS JANET LAURENCE RICH- RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM STER- ARD LEWER WILLIAM LING JUSTINE VARGA SERA WATERS AMY JOY WAT- MACKINNON FIONA MC- SON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY BOURKE MONAGLE NANA OHNE- NADINE CHRISTENSEN JAMES DARLING & LESLEY SORGE TRENT PARKE FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM KOVACS JANET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM STERLING JUSTINE VAR- MACKINNON FIONA MC- MONAGLE NANA OHNE- GA SERA WATERS AMY SORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET JOY WATSON PAUL YORE PAUL SLOAN TIM STER- LING JUSTINE VARGA SERA NARELLE AUTIO SALLY WATERS AMY JOY WAT- SON PAUL YORE NARELLE BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE CHRISTENSEN TENSEN JAMES DARLING JAMES DARLING & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD & LESLEY FORWOOD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] JAMES DODD TONY GAR- LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JANET LAURENCE IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC- [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS MONAGLE NANA OHNE- SORGE TRENT PARKE GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM JANET LAURENCE RICH- STERLING JUSTINE VAR- GA SERA WATERS AMY ARD LEWER WILLIAM JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY MACKINNON FIONA MC- BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- TENSEN JAMES DARLING MONAGLE NANA OHNE- & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY SORGE TRENT PARKE GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA LUCAS GROGAN IL- DIKO KOVACS JANET ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM LAURENCE RICH- ARD LEWER WILLIAM STERLING JUSTINE VAR- MACKINNON FIONA MCMONAGLE NANA GA SERA WATERS AMY OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICH- JOY WATSON PAUL YORE ARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM NARELLE AUTIO SALLY STERLING JUSTINE VARGA SERA WATERS BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- AMY JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE TENSEN JAMES DARLING & AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE CHRISTENSEN LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID JAMES DARLING & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JANET DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC- BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] MONAGLE NANA OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LUCAS GROGAN

DECADE CELEBRATING TEN YEARS 20 NOVEMBER - 12 DECEMBER

T 08 8331 8000 E [email protected] W hugomichellgallery.com CEARA METLIKOVEC MAYA

FOX JENSEN OCT / NOV 2018

FIONA LOWRY The ties that bind

18 October - 11 November 2018

Sometimes your a stranger to me, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 260 cm Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Wattle and Scrub, 2018, oil on linen, 183 x 245cm

NICHOLAS HARDING NEW PAINTINGS 17 NOVEMBER - 8 DECEMBER

SOPHIEGANNONGALLERY.COM.AU JAMES DRINKWATER Looking For Urchins and Louis Ferrari

Arriving in the East End, 2018, Oil on canvas, 240 x 180cm x 240 canvas, on Oil 2018, End, East the in Arriving 11 Oct – 3 Nov

12 – 14 Meagher Street nandahobbs.com Chippendale \ NSW \ 2008 [email protected] NOVEMBER – DECEMBER

Christopher Pease, Target 3, 2018, (detail), oil on canvas, 155x290cm

170-174 ABBOTSFORD ST, NORTH MELBOURNE +61 3 9329 1860 WWW.GALLERYSMITH.COM.AU GALLERYSMITH_ GALLERYSMITH UPFRONT | NEWS + EVENTS

THE OLD AND THE NEW What’s in store for this year’s iteration of the annual TARNANTHI festival.

WORDS: JANE LLEWELLYN

Installation view of TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2017. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE. PHOTO: SAUL STEED.

TARNANTHI, the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA)’s guage of Kuninjku, so we’re able to share his journey through annual festival celebrating Indigenous contemporary art, his country in his words,” says artistic director Nici Cumpston. will this year focus on master bark painter John Mawurnd- The exhibition celebrates Mawurndjul’s 40-year ca- jul through the major touring exhibition, I am the old and the reer as an artist and in particular his mastery of rarrk new. Tarnanthi alternates between an expansive city-wide (cross-hatching) and his depiction of Djang (sacred sites). festival one year, followed by a focus exhibition the next, as On display are a large number of his bark paintings along well as the annual art fair at Tandanya. with a series of etchings, his hollow log coffins and a suite I am the Old and New, which presents stories central to Kun- of mimih – the tall, skinny, mischievous spirits that live injku culture, was co-curated by the AGSA, Sydney’s Museum in the rocky country. “Just to see the fineness of the rar- of Contemporary Art (MCA), Mawurndjul and Maningrida rk in the paintings and the way he creates the shimmery Arts & Culture, and is the culmination of three years of work. powerful effect is quite phenomenal. It’s also incredible “It’s a really amazing project because we’ve been led by the to see so many paintings at once, it’s really powerful,” artists and we’re working with Mawurndjul in his first lan- says Cumpston.

29 UPFRONTUPFRONT | NEWS | AGENDA + EVENTS

“It’s a really amazing project because we’ve been led by the artists and we’re working with Mawurndjul in his first language of Kuninjku, so we’re able to share his journey through his country in his words.” NICI CUMPSTON

Installation view of John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MCA, SYDNEY. PHOTO: JESSICA MAURER

Created especially to accompany the exhibition is a website, johnmawurndjul. com. Here visitors can learn Kuninjku and travel through country visiting significant sites. “It’s fantastic you can travel through country and go to all of the different sites and hear how to pronounce their names. In some cases, there is footage of Mawurndjul talking about a place or talking about a particular painting that relates to it,” explains Cumpston. In addition to the major exhibition at AGSA is the art fair at Tandanya, held on the opening weekend. With 46 Art Centres participating, the fair allows collectors and art enthusiasts the opportunity to purchase artworks directly from the artists, with work available from $50 to $5,000.

JOHN MAWURNDJUL: I AM THE OLD AND THE NEW SHOWS AT TARNANTHI, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA FROM 26 OCTOBER 2018 TO 28 JANUARY 2019. TARNANTHI ART FAIR IS HELD AT THE TANDANYA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL Installation view of TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, CULTURAL INSTITUTE FROM 26–28 Adelaide, 2017. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE. PHOTO: SAUL STEED. OCTOBER 2018.

30 WILLIAM KENTRIDGE (detail), 2016 charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemuhle paper 53.2 x 78.2 cm 2016 charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemuhle (detail), Untitled (Drawing from Wozzeck 8) Wozzeck from Untitled (Drawing Right Into Her Arms

drawings • sculpture • woodcuts • kinetic model theatre installation

Opening Reception for the Artist Saturday October 6 KARYN TAYLOR

SANDERSON.CO.NZ Todd Fuller Convicts and Queens: a passionate history of Australia

5 TO 22 DECEMBER, 2018

409b George Street Todd Fuller, 1872, 2018, digital video, 10:00 mins, edition of 8 MAY Waterloo NSW 2017 Cinematographer: Emma Conroy www.mayspace.com.au Producer: Tyler Hawkins [email protected] Actors: Ian Roberts, Brandy Martignago SPACE t.+61 2 9318 1122 Composition: Paul Smith UPFRONT | IN THE WORKS

IN THE WORKS Visual arts 101: lessons in influential artworks and their significance.

WORDS: EDWARD COLLESS

BACK IN THE PREHISTORY of the World Wide Web, in a 1969 device’s insect-like limbs. The drawings were in fact intimate interview in Playboy, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan and specific portraits of the gallery visitors who, entering the prophesied that electronic media – which he called an exten- room, encountered the sensory organs of a planetary-scaled sion of the human central nervous system – could soon create a nervous system. It may have had a rudimentary brain, but this “universality of consciousness”, and that one should “expect to bio-cybernetic artist (SymbioticA called it “semi-living”) was see the coming decades transform the planet into an art form”. evidently observant. We have certainly witnessed daunting vectors of terraforming Was it also sentient? Did it have any consciousness of its servi- since McLuhan’s prophecy; although whether climate change, tude as a ghost in the shell, of its imprisonment as an entertain- the geopolitics of globalisation, and the platform capitalism of ment to the gallery visitors? Was the art it produced merely like the Web 2.0 could be called art forms might be arguable. But the gestures of a Ouija board in which we playfully entertain a in 2002, with no less oracular insight, the international bio-art voice from the “other side”, or like a Rorschach blot in which we syndicate SymbioticA (among other feats, known for growing therapeutically confess to our unconscious wishes? Perhaps those Stelarc’s grafted third ear) produced, or activated, an experi- marks were the scribbling of an interred Dalek-like neuronal or- mental work of art that invoked the darker 21st-century glob- ganism gone mad. Or, more threatening and promising, the early al dimension of information technology. In a small crypt-like steps of an AI’s infantile stage when learning to communicate with basement room at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image the world: messages in the arcane language of an altogether exotic in Melbourne, two articulated robotic arms – driven by elec- creature, signalling the incarnation of a new species. trical and hydraulic musculature that theatrically clicked and It’s appropriate to revisit this extraordinary work of art today huffed – nervously stretched and contracted across a clinical with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shel- slab to draw abstract doodles on a large sheet of paper. These ley’s Frankenstein. The aesthetic as well as ethical quandaries of enigmatic sketches looked as if they could have been done in Shelley’s Promethean gothic hero are vividly resurrected in this Kandinsky’s studio; or, alternatively, by a child in kindergarten. work, as is the pathos of his vivisected and re-animated crea- Guiding these squiggles was something very strange, and still ture. (The brain of the work, for instance, had to be terminated today quite disturbing to consider. Sensors recorded the pres- after the exhibition, by turning off the life-support mechanism ence and movement of human traffic in the room, the signals that fed it.) But perhaps the most beguiling visionary aspect of of which were transmitted by internet to a neuro-engineering SymbioticA’s work is embedded in its strange title: MEART. laboratory in Atlanta in the USA, where they were fired into a That monstrous hybrid of “meat”, and “art” also contains “me”. vat containing a cultured biomass of nerve cells. Behaving like a Could this not be a premonition of the tentacular cyborgian brain, this organ then reacted to the electrical stimuli, sending sprawl of social media with its ubiquitous sensory organs track- its own electrical impulses in real time response back to the ing every human movement, and paying us off in the global cur- room in Melbourne, where these triggered movements in the rency of the selfie?

34 UPFRONT | IN THE WORKS

Guy Ben-Ary, Phil Gamblen, Oron Catts, Steve Potter and Douglas Bakkum, MEART, 2002. Installation view. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS. PHOTO: PHIL GAMBLEN.

2017, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 137 x 140 cm

Kumpukura Patju Presley, Patju Presley,

PATJU PRESLEY www.vivienandersongallery.com in association with Spinifex Arts Project 28 November – 16 December 2018 EXHIBITION THE 9TH ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART 38 Since its first iteration 25 years ago, the Asia Pacific Triennial has attracted more than 3 million visitors. Here’s what you need to know about the hotly anticipated forthcoming exhibition.

WORDS: LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW

39 EXHIBITION

THE QUEENSLAND ART Gallery of Modern Art’s signature exhibition, The Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), is back this year in its ninth iteration with a glorious clash of ma- “Among the many voices are displacement terials and media in its presentation of new work from stories, personal and universal narratives, a multiplicity of cultures. This year’s newcomers include the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Autonomous Re- work about the sea and the islands, and gion of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, and Laos – with a depth of focus on artists from Bangladesh and the movement of people.” ZARA STANHOPE the Pacific. There is also the greatest representation of First Nation artists yet seen in a Triennial, including Australia’s Jona- than Jones and New Zealand’s Lisa Reihana. Amidst this cacophony of aesthetics (81 artists from 30 countries), the narratives of women emerge most strongly, with their stories of innovating tradition, matriarchal cultures, the impact of digital media on spirituality, the agency of the body and the vulnerability of the natural environment. Also evident are ideas about utopias and dystopias, alternative concepts of wealth, and shifting ideas of labour, with materials and techniques that are new and exotic and ancient. It is the ability of APT9 to weave the personal and political into vibrant cultural forms that curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific Art Zara Stanhope sees as key, together with an increasingly urgent environmental commentary. “Among the many voices are displacement stories, personal and universal narratives, work about the sea and the islands, and the movement of people,” she says. “There is a softness too, which offers a way to engage.” One of the most astonishing works in this APT is Ai- sha Khalid’s monumental Water has never feared the fire (2018), titled from the words of 13th-century Persian poet Rumi. Born in 1972 in Lahore, Pakistan, Khalid is best known for her traditional miniature painting style, which she has taken into social and political commentary, and has garnered a strong international collector following. The work she is creating for the exhibition reflects the recent direction of her practice into large-scale tap- estries using thousands of gold and silver-plated pins. Made on three hanging structures measuring more than five metres high, its design is based on the quadrilater- al garden layout of the Charbagh (four gardens in Urdu). Curator Tarun Nagesh describes its unique qualities: “It shimmers and appears from a distance like fabric. When you get closer you get a sense of something quite rigid, strong and sharp.” Lahore is noted for the vitality of its artists, and Khalid’s work offers a commentary on the role of textiles and techniques associated with growing up in Pakistan.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: Monira Al Qadiri, Alien Technology, 2014, detail. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY OF MODERN ART, BRISBANE. RIGHT: Elizabeth Watsi Saman, preparing Tsinsu, Women’s Wealth workshop, Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, 2017, Chabai, Autonomous Region of Bougainville. COURTESY: WOMEN’S WEALTH, CHABAI. PHOTO: RUTH MCDOUGALL.

40 41 EXHIBITION

The old ways are also subject matter for Monira Al Qa- The APT’s impact on drawing new work from the diri, who was born in Dakar in 1983 and lives and works region is evidenced by two women’s projects involving in Berlin. Yet her interests take the old into the new, with weaving from the Marshall Islands – JAKI-ED PROJECT the current oil mining industry juxtaposed with the ear- – and Women’s Wealth from the Autonomous Region of lier pearl-diving that dominated the Gulf. A four-sided Bougainville (which also involves artists from the Sol- video installation called Diver (2018) takes these ideas omon Islands and Australia). Curator Ruth McDougall into an immersive presence. Conjuring the atmosphere is proud that both projects have an ability to convey of a huge aquarium, a group of synchronised swimmers “the richness of those cultural practices and a better un- wear diachronic suits that mimic both the aesthetic of oil derstanding of that place. Some operate with shell and film and the surface of pearls. Their movements echo the woven valuables that articulate a different economy, a repetitive movements of divers while the soundtrack is a relationship economy that continues.” For her, these contemporary remix of traditional Kuwaiti diving songs. artworks from the Pacific engage audiences in different A sculpture called Alien Technology, also rendered in ways of understanding and being in the world, a sensi- diachronic colours, draws on the industrial forms of the bility that has laid at the heart of every APT. mining industry yet appears strangely organic. Curator Ellie Buttrose said that Al Qadiri’s work highlights that THE 9TH ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART “wealth is generated from this hidden aesthetic. Mass in- SHOWS AT THE QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY | GALLERY OF dustrial forms are given a beautiful surface.” MODERN ART FROM 24 NOVEMBER 2018 TO 28 APRIL 2019.

Aisha Khalid, Water has never feared the fire, 2018, detail. Fabric, gold-plated and steel pins, triptych: 492.75 x 167.65cm; 492.75 x 83.8cm; 492.75 x 83.8cm. Commissioned for APT9. The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY OF MODERN ART, BRISBANE.

42 Wattle and Box, Spring Creek, 2018, oil on board, 86 x 91 cm (detail) Sunrise, 2018, oil paint and graphite on plywood, 90 x 60 cm (detail) AJ TAYLOR ILDIKO KOVACS Impromptu New Ground

20 September - 14 October 2018 UPFRONT | ART FAIRS

FAIREST OF THEM ALL The international art fairs you should have on your radar this quarter.

WORDS: HELEN MCKENZIE

Installation view of Take Ninagawa gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach, 2017. COURTESY: ART BASEL, MIAMI

PARIS PHOTO ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH Grand Palais Miami Beach Convention Center Public Days: 8–11 November 2018 VIP: 5 December 2018 Vernissage: 6 December 2018 Claire Monneraye – who joined Agence Public days: 6–9 December 2018 France-Muséums in January this year as exhibition manager after many years as a cura- There would be little point heading to New tor with the Australian Centre for Photogra- York to see art while Art Basel Miami Beach phy in Melbourne – says Paris Photo is “most is in swing. 93 of New York’s top galleries will definitely one of the premier photographic be in Miami. Known as the most important fairs in the world. It is also one of the most art fair for the Americas, galleries all over the commercially successful.” The selection of world vie for the chance to show their artists the 250 galleries into the fair is a delicate here. Auckland Gallerist Sarah Hopkinson balance, as organisers wish to present to visi- says the fair has its own character, quite dif- tors “a rare opportunity to revisit the classics ferent from sister fairs Art Basel Hong Kong and discover new works”, notes Monner- and Art Basel: “In Miami, people are drink- aye. “Paris Photo does not happen in a silo. ing pina coladas, wearing brightly coloured During the fair, the city is booming with clothes and bathing suits.” Melbourne’s This alternative propositions by independent or- Is No Fantasy will attend the fair this year ganisers that cater for an audience eager to with a presentation by Vincent Namatjira, see a different offering.” becoming the first Australian gallery to pres- Monneraye makes special mention of Syd- ent a solo at the fair (read more on page 130 ney’s now-closed Stills Gallery, which attend- of this issue). ed Paris Photo over many years, and in her There’s plenty going on around the fair, too. view “no doubt contributed to a better knowl- Geoff Newton of Melbourne’s Neon Parc has edge of Australian contemporary photogra- had four shows at NADA Miami, a fair focusing phy here; [the gallery showed Australian pho- on emerging art held at the same time as Basel. tographers including] Trent Parke, Patrick “It’s a terrific place to perhaps break an emerg- Pound, Pat Brassington, Ricky Maynard and ing, or established artist into a totally new mar- Justine Varga, amongst many others. I have ket,” he says. “Miami is generally very good for fond memories of seeing audiences discover- sales, it is the time of year when New Yorkers Delphine Diallo, Highness - Hybrid I, 2011. ing the amazing work of James Tylor.” COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND FISHEYE GALLERY, PARIS. are travelling south to party and spend money.”

44 UPFRONT | ART FAIRS

FRIEZE LONDON a showcase for the best in contemporary Installation view of Focus, Frieze London, 2017. Regent’s Park art from the UK and Europe’s top galleries. COURTESY: FRIEZE LONDON, UK. PHOTO: MARK BLOWER. VIP: 3 October 2018 Frieze Masters was established in 2011, of- Preview: 4 October 2018 fering visitors the chance to view and purchase museum quality works from the old Public Days: 5–7 October masters. Also on the program this year is Frieze Frieze London is is a must-attend for art Sculpture, featuring work by 25 artists from scholars, connoisseurs, collectors and inter- five continents. There is much to see and a ested general public. What makes Frieze dif- host of talks and events for art enthusiasts. ferent from other art fairs is the combination Auckland collector Sonja Hawkins says of old works and new; ancient and modern. Frieze London “is enormous; a serious art The first Frieze London opened in 2003 as overload, but also fascinating.”

45 / (21$5'%52:1

A POPHORIA 7+( :$< 2) 1(*$7,21

“The only thing I know, is that which I do not”

$QGUHZ%DNHU$UW'HDOHU %URRNHV6WUHHW %RZHQ+LOOV4OG LQIR#DQGUHZEDNHUFRP ZZZDQGUHZEDNHUFRP UPFRONT | AGENDA

MOVING ON With the imminent closure of one of Australia’s oldest premiere galleries, we ask: what happens to an artist when their gallery closes?

WORDS: INGRID PERIZ

OVER THE DECADES that Frank Watters ba Gallery in Brisbane. Fellow Watters paint- in Sydney’s recent National Art-Part One, on and Geoffrey Legge ran Sydney’s Watters er Mostyn Bramley-Moore, represented in view at the National Art School.) Gallery, the gallery established a reputation Queensland by Andrew Baker, is working For artists dependent on gallery represen- for long-term commitments to artists and a on a forthcoming solo show in Paris. Several tation for sales, closures can be extremely reluctance to see art in commercial terms. Watters artists will be showing with a Dar- difficult, particularly given what Liverpool The gallery’s impending closure after 54 years linghurst gallery that, for reasons of loyal- Street Gallery’s Adam Sims called “the chang- will leave its stable of forty-something artists ty to Watters and Legge, will not officially ing ecology of the Australian gallery system”, and artist estates temporarily homeless. confirm its new representation until Wat- where there has been a steep contraction in When I ask Watters what had been done ters Gallery closes in December. Painter Joe the number of galleries since the 2008 GFC. to establish artists elsewhere he was reticent. Frost will now be represented by Liverpool “Most galleries typically have around 20 art- “Sorry that I can’t be very helpful. We de- Street Gallery. ists and 10 shows per year. One show, every liberately gave a long notice of the gallery’s two years. That’s a long time between drinks. intention to close so that our artists would When a gallery closes, there isn’t always an- have time to explore options. Of course, we “Most galleries typically have other one to take up the artists.” are available as a sounding board and can ad- More than one artist compared the relation- vise where possible. I am very much averse around 20 artists and ten shows ship between artist and gallery to a romantic to galleries directing their artists.” per year. One show, every two or familial one. Closures can feel like divorce, The Watters artists to whom I spoke had years. That’s a long time between particularly when the gallery director chooses nothing but praise for the gallery’s approach a new venture. Christine Abrahams Gallery and for the nature of its support which can be drinks. When a gallery closes, closed after 25 years when Guy Abrahams summed up in two words: freedom and trust. there isn’t always another one to decided to study climate change, and Sherman Euan Macleod explained: “You were given Galleries closed when Gene Sherman estab- security to work the way you wanted... the take up the artists.” lished her own philanthropic foundation. work came first. If you didn’t sell anything for ADAM SIMS Sherman offered her artists meetings, full the whole time it didn’t matter.” Ian Howard, documentation, and complete copies of in- joining the gallery with a hand shake contract dividual archives. “Simply a hand stretched in 1971, echoed him. “Watters has been an Sometimes artists understand they have out to see whether they wanted our initial in- incredibly supportive institution, never los- outgrown a gallery relationship. When Stills volvement in planning their next profession- ing faith in their artists. I have never been a Gallery closed in July 2017 after 17 years, al move. Nothing directional of course,” she great seller from my exhibitions. They just Sydney-based photographer and video art- recalls. “All in all, it was an emotional time. believed in me and my work.” ist Merilyn Fairskye told me: “For a while I 21 years of intensive partnering for many of When a gallery closes, its artists’ existing had been thinking it was time for me to move them had led to friendships and deep work- relationships with other galleries can be vital. along. I wasn’t such a good fit with the coming relationships.” Janet Laurence was one Macleod, who shows with Niagara Galleries mercial side of the business, since my artistic of Sherman’s artists, moving to Breenspace, in Melbourne, has long maintained relation- concerns had been getting increasingly dys- which closed in 2013. Now she is happily ships with New Zealand’s Bowen in Welling- topic over the last several years. Stills’ cli- with Sydney dealer Dominik Mersch (as ton, and Christchurch’s PG gallery 192. How- ents wanted something less gloomy on their well as ARC ONE in Melbourne, Hugo Mi- ard, with a career in tertiary art education, walls, and who could blame them?” Although chell Gallery in Adelaide and numerous in- will not be looking for another gallery, but he currently without gallery representation, she ternational galleries). Her take might be sal- does have connections with Charles Nodrum notes that “work gets out and about in dif- utary: “Every gallery is so different. You miss Gallery in Melbourne and the Woolloongab- ferent ways.” (Fairskye’s work was included what you think you should have.” Q

47 UPFRONT | LIFECYCLE OF A COLLECTOR

EXPANDED COLLECTING Ready to take your collector journey to the next level? Introducing expanded collecting.

WORDS: TAI MITSUJI

“WHEN YOU TALK about a collector, most people think about someone who buys paintings for their house and buys works for their beach house, and then they are kind of done,” observes Sebastian Goldspink, curator and director of Sydney gallery Alaska Projects. But what happens next? What happens after this collector has filled both their houses? Ac- cording the Goldspink, it is not the end of the story, but the beginning of one – a story that is built upon the idea of “expanded collecting”. Expanded collecting is the practice of supporting artists more broadly, rather than simply purchasing their finished work. It is an idea that ruptures our entrenched notion of art collecting, by taking the relationship between the collector and the creative beyond the transac- yacht, let alone a yachting team – the urge to work. “I’m very conscious of the autonomy of tional. “It’s for those collectors that do stuff dif- be in the boat is understandable. And that is artists to create whatever they want from the ferently,” explains Goldspink. “It’s somewhere exactly what expanded collecting provides: resources and inspirations they choose,” he between philanthropy and collection. It’s not it takes one on the artistic voyage and trans- explains. “As a non-artist I’d be very hesitant just about giving money to a project, it’s about forms them into a mariner. to get involved in any aspect of the creation of being personally involved.” And this notion One of the notable sailors that Goldspink their work”. Bradley’s comments raise an inter- of involvement is absolutely key – a fact that points to is collector Clinton Bradley. “I’d esting issue regarding the tension that exists Goldspink illustrates through analogy. describe my collecting style as very closely between supporting an artist and encroaching Goldspink describes an über-wealthy Amer- focused on an artist’s practice as opposed to on their freedom; a concern that tends not to ican industrialist, who owns a team that regu- specific works or outcomes,” Bradley explains. affect traditional forms of collecting. larly competes in the Sydney to Hobart yacht “I’m equally interested in the process and jour- Expanded collecting is more about support- race. When asked about his ownership, the in- ney of how the work was gestated, as well as ing an artistic vision – rather than usurping dustrialist purportedly explained: “I could buy the actual work itself.” Indeed, Bradley will of- it. Programs such as Art Incubator – founded a baseball team and I would have the best seats ten travel overseas to support the work of the by collectors Teresa and Andre Biet – reflect in the house. But with a yachting team they artists that he collects – most recently attend- these attempts to provide broader profession- need people whose job is essentially just to ing the opening of Agatha Gothe-Snape’s solo al and financial support, and fill the void left run from one side of the boat to the other for exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, by government funding. Art Incubator’s ap- weight, and I can do that. By buying a yachting and participating in a performance by her and proach is many-pronged and includes finan- team, I’m in the boat.” While the analogy feels Anna John. Yet he is quick to qualify his status cial support as well as mentoring, exhibitions alien in its detail – most people cannot buy a as a participant rather than a co-author of the and aid in securing acquisitions and further

48 FROM LEFT: Artist Michiko Tsuda and collector Clinton Bradley participating in Anna John and Agatha Gothe It’s somewhere between philanthropy and collection. It’s not just Snape’s performance BRUSHING AND BREATHING SCORE, 2017. COURTESY: CLINTON BRADLEY. about giving money to a project, it’s about being personally involved.” Installation view of Matt Bromhead’s Art Incubator- supported exhibition Longline, Galerie pompom, Sydney. SEBASTIAN GOLDSPINK COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY. PHOTO: DOCQMENT exposure. “The purchase of a completed art- Exposing new art to new audiences was deserved. “So, in 2012, whilst working for work is not significantly different from com- also the impetus for 3:33 Art Projects – a pro- Bank of America Merrill Lynch, I approached missioning a piece, and I do not believe in gram which looks to redefine the traditional [CEO] Kevin Skelton and convinced the influencing the artists in any way,” explains gallery model by literally bringing art to the bank to remove its own art collection to host Teresa. “I don’t see what Art Incubator does people, and transforming commercial hubs and celebrate individual art exhibitions,” he as supporting the creation of a piece of art – into vibrant galleries. “The aim is to provide recounts. it’s about assisting individuals to develop their artists … with exposure,” explains, its prin- Even in retrospect, this seems like a bold careers.” Art Incubator’s concerns transcend cipal, collector Max Germanos. “I wanted move – yet perhaps that’s what artists need the transactional and go to the heart of why to break down the barriers between the art today: bold moves and strong support. Indeed, supporting art remains critical – as Biet ob- world and the business world.” But, more talking with all of the collectors one sees the serves: “The importance of visual art goes way than that, Germanos’ initiative was prompted importance in taking art beyond a fast trans- beyond its aesthetic appeal – it can play an in- by the unshakable sense that Australian art- action – and the pleasure in not only watching valuable role in shaping society”. ists were not getting the recognition that they the yacht, but also helping to sail it. Q

49 KEN WHISSON 25 SEPTEMBER - 20 OCTOBER, 2018

T +61 3 9429 3666 W www.niagaragalleries.com.au IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA

MY COUNTRY

GROUP EXHIBITION BY THE ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA. 10 November - 8 December 2018

Lilly Kemarre Morton, My Country Antarrengeny, 91cm x 61cm

93 James Street New Farm Queensland 4005 M 0400 920 022 T 07 3358 5811 F 07 3358 5813 E [email protected] W www.suzanneoconnell.com MODERN LEXICON Decoding contemporary artspeak for the discerning reader

YOUR GUIDE: ANDREW FROST

CRACKER In a rare instance where a word used in traditional art circles has migrated into contemporary art speak, the seemingly innocuous cracker is a conceptual Trojan horse. Deriving from English slang, cracker is used to describe a fine example of something, or an attractive person, usually a woman. In the art world, it’s now common to hear someone describe a painting as being a real cracker! – meaning simply that the artwork in question is very good. But the word also comes with the im- plicit understanding that the qualities that make this work a cracker are self-evident. Where the values or meaning of a work of contemporary art often requires an explanation, a cracker will in- variably be a painting that unashamedly embraces traditional art values as the artist goes full Marga- ret Olley (i.e., the artist is “one of us” or “one of them” depending on where you stand). While the weight of tradition often adds substance to a work of art, cracker also has another potential meaning: when pulled apart the work …makes a sharp noise and releases a small novelty.

LIKE In an era where the act of simply liking something has become monetised, saying that you like an artwork is both a brave and foolhardy position. Simply, to like is to find agreeable, enjoyable, or satisfactory. While being a mildly positive affirmation or preference, to profess a like is also to wish or want something, as in “I’d like to purchase that work of art”. As to whether you will or won’t follow through on your like is another question, suggesting that, in the art world, the word is often used as meaningless filler or to signify the speaker’s uncertainty. UPFRONT | BEHIND THE SCENES

IS GLOBAL SUCCESS A GOLDEN TICKET? What effect does international success have on the Australian artist’s market back home?

WORDS: JANE O’SULLIVAN

WE LIKE TO THINK that Australian artists no lon- So do some local collectors baulk at these higher ger have to move to London or New York if they prices? The short answer is yes. That’s not to say want to develop an international market for their collectors don’t want artists to succeed overseas – work. The internet has changed all that, and the rise Mersch reveals that it was in fact collectors who of art fairs. It’s true that you don’t have to look far to helped Laurence fund a major climate change proj- find Australian artists in major international exhibi- ect in Paris – but sales of new work can suffer when tions, or who are achieving international sales, but prices rise. Collector support can also wain if an art- it’s not so clear what such success actually means ist moves overseas. for them, especially back home. “It boils down to that question: Do you want to These days, there are any number of efforts to make it internationally or do you want to make it measure artist performance in the international in Australia? I think it’s very hard to achieve both,” market, from pay-to-view reports by companies Mersch says. He agrees that art fairs have become a like Artnet and ArtTactic, to rankings like Kunst- good way to generate “short term” awareness; but kompass in Germany. These metrics track different says that if an artist wants to stay on the radars of things, but a common concern is where artists ex- collectors and curators, they must have a “physical hibit; an artist’s career is considered to depend on presence” in that market. the reputations of the people or organisations they It’s not like that for everyone. Melbourne painter work with. This is a complicated issue, but for now Michael Staniak developed his international ca- it’s enough to foreground that international access reer after a New York curator saw pictures of his and relationships remain critical for Australian artists. work online and invited him into a group exhibi- Some context is important. Oceania and Africa tion. “From that exhibition I had a few more doors combined made up only one per cent of the global open, which lead to representation with my Los An- auction market in 2016, according to TEFAF’s angeles gallery, Steve Turner,” he says. Since then, his nual art market report. This figure doesn’t tell the work has been sold in major day auctions in New whole story, due to the lack of transparency around York and London, and his work has been exhibit- the primary market and private sales, but it does ed in Vienna, Brussels and many art fairs around give an indication of the size of the Australian mar- the world. “Initially, this definitely piqued some ket. One factor is our small population. Another is interest from a few Australian collectors who were our history of under-pricing relative to overseas previously unfamiliar with my work. I still have a markets. couple of great supporters locally, but it is the in- Sydney dealer Dominik Mersch says this price ternational viewership that has been consistently difference can have a significant impact. He works growing,” he says. with a number of artists who exhibit overseas, To begin with, Staniak didn’t do much travel but among them Janet Laurence, Nike Savvas and Tim he does say that is changing. He continues to exhib- Johnson, and also represents international artists it here and is represented by Station in Melbourne. like Clemens Krauss and Elger Esser. He says he He too sets prices globally. “I have hardly seen an has no option but to set the same prices as overseas. Australian artist living here, with little international “It has to be. It’s a global market,” he says. As a hy- exhibiting experience, come close to the prices set pothetical, he adds: “You can’t have collectors buy by international artists, despite a great local exhibi- work in New York for 30 per cent more than in Aus- tion history and notoriety. So, I would say we are a tralia because that would flow. People would buy it worlds apart, by distance and by some other market here for less money and trade it back in the USA.” forces. The quality of work is not the issue.”

Michael Staniak, Oxide painting 025, 2018. Casting compound, iron oxide and acrylic on board, steel frame. 161.2 x 121.2cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

53 heather b. swann i let my body fall into a rhythm

october 11 - 21, 2018

buoy arts center tokyo

november 21 - 25, 2018 ian potter museum of art, university of melbourne

michael bugelli gallery subscribe to mailing list www.michaelbugelligallery.com

Heather B. Swann Butterfly Kiss (detail) 2018, linen, wire, silk, wood, installation dimensions variable john kirsten young coelho

20 NOVEMBER TO 15 DECEMBER

philip bacon galleries 2 ARTHUR STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY, BRISBANE 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY TELEPHONE 07 3358 3555 FAX 07 3254 1412 EMAIL: INFO@ PHILIPBACONGALLERIES .COM.AU Tjulyata Martha McDonald Napaltjarri

Martha with ‘Warlukuritji’ acrylic on linen 152 x 122cm October 5 - 27 2018

www.raftartspace.com.au

SAMARA ADAMSON- PINCZEWSKI WEST LOUISE BLYTON ELIZABETH BODEY END TERRI BROOKS ANNA CAIONE MAGDA CEBOKLI ART TRACEY COUTTS ROZ ESPLIN JENNIFER GOODMAN SPACE FIONA HALSE MELINDA HARPER ELEANOR HART SHELLEY JARDINE WENDY KELLY ROBIN KINGSTON REBECCA MONAGHAN SUZANNE MOSS CATHY MUHLING VANESSA OTER FRAN O’NEILL LINDY PATTERSON LINDA PICKERING WILMA TABACCO Curated by Anna Prifti

Artwork detail: Fiona Halse ‘IAM2’ 2018, 170x200cm, mixed media on canvas OF COLOUR & LIGHT 2018 Biennial of Victorian Women Abstract Artists

Opening October 6th, 2-5 pm. Guest Speaker Kate Nodrum at 3pm Exhibition dates Oct 5-27th

H: Wed-Fri 11am-4pm Sat 10am-3pm 185 Rosslyn Street, Melbourne VIC 3003 [email protected] westendartspace.com.au UPFRONT | SURVEY

WE ASKED... WHAT MAKES A COLLECTION MEMORABLE?

Surprise met by utter absorption: a “what is that?” and then not being able to let it go! I like either utter diversity of approach and media, or the opposite: the sense of a collector with a particular and quite distinctive, even quirky interest. In both cases you want order and chaos, demonstration of care but also of happily letting things fray at the edges. MARK AMERY, CRITIC, EDITOR AND BROADCASTER Q For me, art collections are created through momentum and moment. At times you collect more actively, while at others it might be more about capturing a single moment – a place, a person, a bowl-me-over beauty moment. What I find interesting are the nuances that sit across and between these works. Simply people are complex, and like a library of books, an art collection can equally unveil one’s personality. The more eclectic the better. GINA FAIRLEY, WRITER, CURATOR AND EDITOR Q What always sticks with me are the unexpected links between works that I never would have expected to see together. Also, the contrast between a particular work and the environment it ends up in: industrial sculpture in the domestic realm, rough and dirty work in slick contemporary spaces, a double entendre in the family home. REBECCA GALLO, ARTIST AND WRITER Q For me, it’s one that demonstrates risk-taking, knowing where to pare back, or when to say “no”. INEKE DANE, CURATOR AND WRITER Q When it reflects the changing tastes of the collector – and the collector buys work with love and passion, not caring if the artist is well known or not. The collection then becomes an extension of their true self.

JOANNA MENDELSSOHN, ART HISTORIAN AND WRITER Q Idiosyncractic choices and an ability to run your own race, independent of fashion and democracy. A sense of fun and disregard of the serious. LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW, ARTS WRITER Q Uniqueness, eccentricity and absurdity. ANDREW FROST, ART CRITIC, LECTURER AND BROADCASTER Q Money is probably the short answer to this question! But the long answer is more interesting. Truly memorable collections are about discovery – they reflect the collector’s eye, the growth of their appreciation and education, the directions they have taken and an indication of where they might go next. HELEN MCKENZIE, ARTS WRITER Q Maybe it’s a reflection of my fondness for order over chaos, but I love a collection with a tight focus. A dominant theme consistently running through works that initially appear disparate yet are inextricably linked in an unexpected way. BRIONY DOWNES, ARTS WRITER Q Artworks in a memorable collection reveal individually and collectively the way the generative human mind works, providing access and understanding to key aspects of a sense-based, creative mind; engaging intuition, risk taking, divergent thinking, playfulness, collaboration, imagination and invention. In this way, an art collection can act as an intellectual and aesthetic service station – fuelling up the innovation of viewers who seek benefits from the encounter. SUE GARDINER, ARTS WRITER AND COLLECTION DIRECTOR

59 Yurnangurnu Nola Campbell, All of Patjarr. Acrylic on Canvas, 101.6 x 121.9cm. Courtesy: The Artist and Warakurna Artists, WA.

Purchase artwork from over seventy Indigenous 9-11 August 2019 owned community Art Centres, whilst being in an exciting program of traditional dance, workshops, Darwin Convention Centre film, fashion and music. www.daaf.com.au Phenotype 2018 oil on canvas 92 x 92 cm

King Street Gallery on William TELLY TU’U 10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday 177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia T: 61 2 9360 9727 E: [email protected] 6 November – 1 December 2018 www.kingstreetgallery.com.au UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

WHY DO PEOPLE COLLECT? To contribute to general knowledge? Or your own general ego? In the second of this three-part series, Carrie Miller and Andrew Frost explore some more of the reasons people collect art.

ILLUSTRATIONS: COEN YOUNG

SOCIAL STATUS

THERE COMES A time when every collector for a documentary about you and your husband’s must decide whether it’s a good idea to own a collection of conceptual art? It beggar’s belief. work by a [well-known photographer]. Everyone As we’ve noted before [see Quest for Immortal- else seems to have at least one, sometimes more ity] donating your collection to a public gallery or than a few, so it seems like a good time to get in museum is a sure-fire way to get your name added on the market. The photographs of this particular to the inscriptions chiselled into the architrave. artist have proven resilient at auction, with no ap- Those are the special donors who thought so little preciable drop in price in close to 20 years, and a about the wellbeing of their shareholders, employ- few of the artist’s most famous images are setting ees, family and descendants [in that order] that record prices. And then there’s the added bonus they decided to give away millions of dollars of of enhanced social status… want to take look at art for little more than their name on the museum my latest acquisitions? wing and entry to every black tie event that will Like most investments, owning art by well- known artists is a sure way to climb the social ladder. A nicely rounded collection will impress Fellow collectors – and even curious other collectors you might happen to invite to onlookers like the guy who has come your home for an elegant dinner. It’d be even sweeter if the works you have on your walls are around to fix the pool filter – can highly desirable. The simple economics of desire spot a phoney baloney fake modesty dictate that those who own the most desirable almost immediately. objects are the winners, but the balance between simple satisfaction in your acquisitions, and an immodest pride, can be tricky. ever be held in it. While this pinnacle of social sta- Faking indifference to what you own is a quick tus in the art world belongs to a select few, there’s and easy route to losing social status. Fellow col- no reason you shouldn’t start planning early. lectors – and even curious onlookers like the guy Imagine you’re one of those fabled internet who has come around to fix the pool filter – can millionaires from the late 1990s who came into spot a phoney baloney fake modesty almost im- the market loaded with cash and ready to buy. mediately. If you’re so indifferent to your collec- Now remember that time you went to that art- tion, why do you even bother to hang it in your ist-run space in Chinatown and you saw early home when it’s a more advantageous tax arrange- works by [well known Australian painter] and ment to keep it all safely secured offsite? On the you bought the lot instead of humming and haw- other hand, an actual modesty and privacy about ing about the fact they were $200 each. Now your collection prompts the question – what’s the fast-forward 25 years and imagine you’re stand- point? Imagine you invested all your spare cash ing in your own private collection of [well known buying art – and supporting artists – but never Australian painter]’s work. HOW YOU LIKE ME telling anyone about that until you’re in your 80s, NOW WORLD?!!! and then the only time you tell anyone about it is Andrew Frost

62 UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

63 UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

THE URGE TO GAIN AND DISSEMINATE KNOWLEDGE

Not everyone appreciates art’s pedagogical val- relationship to the broader socio-political con- ue. As one person put it on an online discussion cerns of contemporary culture. board: “Whenever I look at a piece of art… I This takes a lot of psychological stamina. At the just think it’s ugly and it shows that the artist is beginning of this pursuit, it involves bearing pas- lazy. Stuff like that makes me think an artist is sive witness to long and excruciatingly pretentious just bullshitting about their art having a special conversations about the philosophical possibilities meaning.” and limitations of post-colonial identities. Only the These days, the belief that art is a unique re- most committed collectors survive these intellectu- pository for cultural knowledge seems as archaic al posturings. Over time, they will get a gist of the as having a domestic library stocked with leath- insiders’ lexicon and become confident enough to er-bound books. This wasn’t always the case. An throw around terms like “Husserlian intentionali- appreciation of art was once considered integral to ty” as casually as “send the bill to my office”. the type of cultivation of the mind nobly pursued by the intelligentsia. There is a rare breed of contemporary art col- Over time, they will get a gist of the lectors who remain faithful to this higher pursuit, both as an individual desire for intellectual refine- insiders’ lexicon and become confident ment as well as for the social good. Not only are enough to throw around terms like they committed to the development of a personal “Husserlian intentionality” as casually collection of critically significant work, they un- as “send the bill to my office”. derstand themselves as custodians of the knowledge these cultural products hold. They feel an almost moral obligation to disseminate this knowledge through various philanthropic endeavours, as It also involves a lot more than tolerating tepid if the future of human civilization depends on it. wine at a relentless schedule of exhibition open- Such collectors realise these lofty goals by div- ings. It requires the cultivation of relationships not ing into the deep end of the contemporary art only with artists, gallerists and museum directors, world. Most people who acquire art for invest- but art critics and scholars. And it requires a strong ment purposes will enjoy procuring the glossy constitution for the antagonism of others who monographs that accompany the exhibitions of now see you as a pretentious wanker. Of course, leading artists. But they will remain unread on as a result of reading The Cambridge Companion to the coffee tables of their beach houses. Collec- Nietzsche, you have come to identify this antipa- tors concerned with the value of art as a special thy as a form of ressentiment – a hostile projection form of knowledge will absorb as much infor- of another’s own inferiority. This will provide you mation as they can get their hands on about the with the necessary comfort to continue on your artists they collect, educating themselves about noble path. the conceptual motivations of the work and its Carrie Miller

64 UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

65 UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

66 UPFRONT | CULTURAL CAPITAL

EGO ENLARGEMENT

It has always been a part of art collecting that artists who dabbled in the style before moving the collector who wants to enlarge their ego will on to their mature work. Your name will be syn- always purchase the most expensive art, or the onymous with the unexceptional. most obscure, or the largest, or the oldest, or The key to true collector ego boosting is to be the rarest, or the best examples by artists that recognised for whatever it is you collect. You everyone else wants to collect. But with the top could pay for the publication of a fine book on 10 most expensive paintings at auction current- your collection, or you could arrange an exhibi- ly starting at $172.5 million USD and going all tion of your collection in an obliging regional gal- the way up to $450 million USD, getting in at lery, art school or lesser museum, or even better, the true top end of the market is now the sole if you’re on the board of a major museum, you preserve of Russian oligarchs, Gulf state princes or faceless corporations. So, what’s left for the run-of-the-mill everyday collector with a few The key to true collector ego lazy million to invest in art? There are some options to gratify the ego. boosting is to be recognised for One could collect in depth, buying all the best whatever it is you collect. work of a single artist, until you are the collector known for having the work of that certain artist. You can go so far as to rearrange the house so could get your collection shown there, boost its to feature all the artist’s signature works where potential resale value and then have a sweet tax hapless visitors to the foyer of your suburban write off when you donate the whole thing [see ranch will literally run into your taste. Imagine The Quest for Immortality]. – early examples of the adolescent style, those Or you could collect art in a way that has not one or two works that won big prizes, half of the be done before, such as becoming a pioneer of last exhibition and the entirety of the one be- collecting the new art of Internalism, where the fore. Your name will become synonymous with art that you commission from leading Internalist that artist, and for good or ill, like they say in artists is literally installed inside your chest cavity. Texas hold ‘em, you’re ALL IN. You’d carry it around inside you, and although no Another way to build your art ego is have all one would really know it’s there, the door in your the work on a particular subject, theme or move- chest could swing open so passers-by could look ment. No one ever dreamed that Australian art inside at your beating innards and the decorative would have its own notable examples of Unex- baubles that hang there like a mad woman’s Xmas ceptionalism, yet you’re the collector who has tree. No such thing actually exists, obviously. them all, from the lesser known fringe artists to Well, not yet anyway, but imagine being the first! prime examples of the three or four best known Andrew Frost

PAULNACHE PRESENTS

SCOTT GARDINER #THEDEPTHSANDTHESHALLOWS @PAULNACHE ON THE COUCH

THE GLOBAL COUCH In our annual global issue, we speak to the region’s key international players about where Australian and New Zealand art currently sits on the world stage. MODERATOR: CAMILLA WAGSTAFF

WHAT’S THE GENERAL PERCEPTION growing. Generally, however, there is a misplaced I would also argue that the internet has made OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND sense that we’re not a culturally rich country and our artists output more internationally accessible CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE WORLD that we don’t have anything pertinent to say ar- and educated a lot of people that Australia has STAGE? tistically. Our art is often enjoyed until the word the capacity to be a global thinker. Alexie Glass-Kantor: Australia is generally re- Australia is mentioned, and suddenly the whole Ursula Sullivan: Individual gallery owners have garded as punching above its weight in terms of perception shifts. fronted the costs of international exposure for its momentum and capacity to produce oppor- their artists at art fairs, which have begun many tunities for representation of Australian artists WHAT DO WE AS AN ARTS COMMUNI- conversations with curators and collectors. Indi- internationally. Increasingly, Australian and New TY DO WELL WITH REGARDS TO THE vidual artists are often funded with residencies, Zealand art is perceived internationally to be PROMOTION OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW which is great, but one gallery serves many art- more ambitious and more open-ended. ZEALAND ART INTERNATIONALLY? ists, so I feel the work they have done in this area Barry Keldoulis: It’s difficult to generalise – AGK: We’re not backwards about coming for- has been exponential. there are pockets of acknowledgement and ap- wards. We may be a couple of islands off the back preciation – however in the broadest sense you of Antarctica, but we have a huge amount of cul- WHAT COULD WE BE DOING BETTER? could say there is an abundance of ignorance. tural production here. AGK: For Australia and New Zealand to be taken This is perhaps not surprising when you realise We are a region that is at a deficit in terms of its seriously on an international platform, we have our international tourism advertising is all furry geographical location. I don’t think the internet to be more agile, less focused on the end game, animals and beaches, so many are surprised to changed the ability of our artists to reach out; it and more focused on the process. We also need find that we have any culture at all, let alone a didn’t change the way that people collect or think to invest in emerging artists. If you can’t gain vibrant, visual arts scene! about art. What we do well here is we mobilise, momentum at the beginning of your career, then Brook Andrew: I think generally, people are because we know that nothing can be taken for you’re not going to gain it at the end. As an artist, increasingly fascinated and curious about Aus- granted from this position. you have to build resilience early, and the ability tralia, especially that the Euro-USA art scene is BK: Our state institutions’ engagement with to be mobile. That can come at personal and fi- realising that the complexity of Australia is not a not only international artists, but also curators, nancial expense, but you to make yourself avail- one-dimensional, “ex-colonial” convict state. help focus attention our way. And we should not able to working outside your local context. Rachel Kent: There is definitely interest and forget the valiant efforts of our private galleries BK: We could get over our own cultural cringe! curiosity, but sometimes a limited knowledge that have international ambition for their artists We need to take advantage of the demise of the beyond the “big names”, or a limited awareness and participate in art fairs and do gallery swaps idea of the lone art capital of the world and be of contemporary Australian Indigenous prac- around the globe. more confident of the quality of the work pro- tice. For visitors who come to Australia to en- RK: Partnerships, collaborations and exchanges duced here. gage in art and culture, there is a real deepening between institutions in Australia and abroad – BA: Artists need to travel. I think we need to con- of awareness of the breadth and diversity of prac- no matter how big or small – are incredibly valu- nect more with Asia, the way in which South and tice here. There is also a realisation of the incred- able in offering opportunities to artists. In giving Central America is connected to North America. ible variety, power of Indigenous practice – and, much-needed exposure, they also help to gener- Asia has a very healthy arts community and is I think, a sense of awe. ate future opportunities. well supported, especially financially, something Roslyn Oxley: When collectors and curators do RO: Art fairs offer an excellent platform for many we need to look at more closely. come to Australia and New Zealand, they’re very Australian galleries to promote the work of their Natalie King: I think that state and federal gov- impressed with the calibre of our artists, many artists overseas. We’ve been going to internation- ernments need to strategically align their prior- are curated into international shows. But the al art fairs since 1990. The benefit here is that you ities and provide a collective vision for interna- major problems remain: Australia is a long way see the same audience and build a stronger fol- tional alliances and affiliations with a correlation away from the epicentre of art, and our popula- lowing and you’re on a more intimate basis with of creative objectives. tions are relatively small and isolated. It makes it collectors, curators and international galleries. RK: Invitational programs that bring internation- much more difficult for artists to sustain an inter- TO: I think our art market is becoming much al curators and critics to our shores can be in- national practice. more courageous in how it interacts with the incredibly helpful – it might be a curator research- Tim Olsen: There are certainly pockets of peo- ternational art world – participating in more fairs ing Venice, Documenta or a biennale-type event. ple who say that Australian contemporary artists and biennales, exhibiting across old and new Rhana Devenport: There is no question there possess enormous talent, and those pockets are markets, creating more experimental works. exists a different momentum when artists choose

70 ON THE COUCH

Barry Keldoulis: Director, Alexie Glass-Kantor: Executive Sydney Contemporary director, Artspace Sydney and curator, Art Basel Hong Kong

Rhana Devenport: Director, Art Gallery of South Australia and former director, Auckland Art Gallery Joanna Strumpf and Ursula Sullivan: Co-Directors, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore Roslyn Oxley: Director, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

71 ON THE COUCH

Rachel Kent: Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Tim Olsen: Director, Olsen Gallery, Sydney and Olsen Gruin, New York

Natalie King:gf Curator for the Australian Pavili on at tth57thV the 57th Veni ce Bi ennal e

Brook Andrew: Artist and Artistic Director offt the 2222nd Biennalale offSSyyydney

72 ON THE COUCH

to study abroad. The influence and guidance of Mel O’Callahan is a video, performance and But what we’ve acutally seen is that there’s astute and generous teachers at art schools in sculpture artist based in Paris. Her work is ded- more information, more knowledge, more con- Australasia is pivotal in this process. icated to often extraordinary stories of the world tent, more history than we can ever comprehend. RO: I think one of the really big issues is transport from remote cultures working with traditional We’ve seen that every edge has its depth, its con- – it’s a real killer. A lot of artists send work over- practices to ideologies of protest. text. The edges are not the centre, there are still seas that’s not completely finished to make easi- NK: In 2016, Patricia Piccinini had the highest at- clusterfucks of power that exist in the art world, er to transport. You can’t take a huge Australian tended exhibition in the world at Centro Cultural because of economy, market forces, critical mass sculpture to Paris and London without spending Banco do Brasil in Brazil, which is a phenomenal around population and geography that simply an astronomical amount. If we can get sponsor- accomplishment. make them more accessible. ship for transport, we could have it all happening RK: I’m really looking forward to seeing what But what we have also found is that we have in a much bigger way. Angelica Mesiti will produce for the next Venice new currents that move underneath the kind of TO: Hopefully by what I’m doing in New York, Biennale. There is a universal language inherent dominant narratives of art history and say “fuck where I’m integrating Australian and internation- in the work, a kind of communication that cuts you”: feminist art histories and practices, people al art without emphasising its geographic origins, across barriers. of cultural linguistic diversity, Indigenous, First will make a difference. It’s going to take some RD: Lisa Reihana – whom I curated for the Bien- Nations. I don’t think Australian art is parochial, Larry Gagosian or Jay Jopling to take an artist nale Arte 2017 in Venice – is about to be seen at because what we have is a breadth and guts of from Australia and show that it can be done. I’ve the Royal Academy in London. Simon Denny is practice that’s actually doing something substan- got Gagosian’s curators coming into my gallery based in Berlin and had a solo exhibition at PS1 in tially different than we were doing 40 years ago. and showing an interest in artists from some of New York in 2015. Luke Willis Thompson won What we have is a really remarkable continent our recent exhibitions. I’d hate to think that I’d the Auckland Art Gallery’s Walters Prize in 2014 with a really incredible history. We have incredi- brought an artist all the way to New York to be with a disarmingly intimate and transactional ble stories that remain to be told in contemporary poached by Gagosian – I mean, I’d be disappoint- performative work. Zac Langdon-Pole lives in ways about the intersection of indigenous and ed in one sense and flattered in another. Darmdstadt and Berlin. non-indigenous artists. Joanna Strumpf: Participation is key. Being a RO: Tracey Moffatt, Bill Henson, Brook An- If Australia was only one city, right? The size of part of the rest of the world. Australia can live in drew, Bill Culbert and Patricia Piccinini, to New York state, the size of Seoul (that’s what our a bit of a bubble and be very defensive about how name a few. Tracey is arguably Australia’s most population is) – if we had every museum, every world class we might be. The world class conver- well-known artist, both nationally and interna- not-for-profit, every commercial gallery, every sation is really not necessary. tionally. She is certainly one of the few Austra- artist studio, every art fair, everything we pro- lian artists to have established a global market. duce as one city, we’d be one of the most fuck off WHO ARE THE KEY LOCAL ARTSITS US: Lindy Lee is an obvious choice, with multiple cultural cities in the world! WORKING ON THE INTERNATIONAL projects happening in New York, China and the RK: I am not interested in parochialism as it is lim- STAGE TODAY? Middle East. Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is busy iting, nor the centre/periphery debate. The mar- AGK: It would be really reductive to try and sug- too, with projects in Singapore and India, and gins are the new centre, and as Okwui Enwezor gest that there’s a type of practice that adapts well numerous collectors being based in Europe. Sam wrote in his essay for the 7th Gwangju Biennale to an international stage. I don’t believe you make Jinks has had many works in the Netherlands, (2007), there is an opening up of cultural seams work you think is going to appeal to a different Denmark, Mexico, Spain, America, and a solo and artistic production scattered in the near and type of audience or market because really, as an show in Taiwan. All of these artists have demon- far flung corners of the globe. Artists have orient- artist, or an institution, you need to be agile and strated a commitment to obsessive excellence in ed themselves not towards centres, but towards open to iterative ways in which you might work. their practice and international opportunities. a more transversal process of linkages, networks But of course, there are local artists that we see and diverse communities of practice. regularly in major international platforms: people PAROCHIALISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN TO: I think it’s the attitude of Australians to talk like Simon Denny, Patricia Piccinini, Angelica ISSUE IN THE AUSTRALIAN ART WORLD – about being Australian too early in the conver- Mesiti. Or someone like David Noonan, work- DO YOU THINK THIS IS CHANGING? sation. When you talk to an American or a Ger- ing and living in London, also creating project AGK: In his 1974 essay in Art Forum, Terry Smith man, a long conversation about art precedes any opportunities for emerging curators and artists. said that Australia has a Parochialism Problem. reference to nationality. In the days when art was BA: Andrew Rewald is a Berlin-based artist who What we’ve seen between now and then is the rise more about provincial themes, like French im- works with grassroots communities and perforce and fall of the notion of globalisation; in which the pressionism, the idea of being French was very and mixes this with his chef skills. He works edges were going to become the centre and the much a part of the conversation. Contemporary across platforms to expand further on how per- centre the edges. And we thought that there was art is a global conversation, and thinking on such formance and art can comment on social change, going to be a decentralisation program that would a level that your place, your habitat, isn’t there un- the environment and history. occur around making things more accessible. til the end. Q

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT VISIT ARTCOLLECTOR.NET.AU/GLOBALCOUCH2018.

73 COLVILLE GALLERY

Empire Day. Oil on linen, 84 x 102cm Stephen Lees Ether and Earth 12 – 31 October

Also Representing Matthew Armstrong, Julia Castiglioni Bradshaw, Corrine Costello, Richard Dunlop, Kylie Elkington, Ruth Frost, Paul Gundry, Jane James, Milan Milojevic, Anne Mestiz, Ian Parry, Chen Ping, Anna Sabadini, Paul Snell, Suze van der Beek, Luke Wagner

91A Salamanca Place, Hobart 7000 Tasmania P +61 362 244 088 M 0419 292 626 E [email protected] W www.colvillegallery.com.au OPENING HOURS 10am to 5pm daily oil on canvas 174 x 138 cm children playing c1968

charles blackman survey and retrospective exhibition of Marina Mirage, Seaworld Drive, paintings, drawings & sculptures Main Beach, Q 4217 Ph: 07 5561 1166 November 24 to November 30, 2018 www.antheapolsonart.com.au UPFRONT NOT TO BE MISSED The exhibitions you won’t want to miss in the coming months.

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: RIGHT INTO HER ARMS Annandale Galleries, Sydney 6 October – December 2018

There are a very select number of living artists whose works almost feel un-ownable. One gets the sense that these pieces cannot be bought or sold for personal display, but instead belong in large institutions, perpetually touring shows, or the occasional biennale. William Ken- tridge is one of them. The legendary South African artist’s forthcoming show Right Into Her Arms, presented at Sydney’s Annandale Galleries, is both a partial re- jection and acceptance of this idea. Indeed, talking with co-director Bill Gregory about the show, it almost feels like we are referring to the upcoming exhibition of Kentridge’s work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, rather than a commercial gallery. The wide cross-section of prints, drawings, sculptures and film are, of course, for sale, yet the exhibition itself defies the typical conditions of a commercially facing show, as it surrenders precious gallery real estate in order to contextualise the work. The opera Lulu, which Kentridge directed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, for instance, is scheduled to play continuously throughout the duration of the exhibition, alongside Right Into Her Arms (2016), a kinetic model theatre developed by Kentridge during the operatic production. This context is important. “I think what is different about this show is that the works come out of the theatre and opera now,” explains Gregory. “The work is reflecting those interests as he assimilates those experiences into his other practices.” In fact, the influence of Kentridge’s recent forays into the theatre transcend his artworks’ themes and extend to the attitude that underpins them. “If you have an exhibition of abstract painting and it doesn’t go well – nothing sells – you can put them away and say ‘they didn’t understand’ or ‘I was ahead of my time’. In theatre, if you have a bad review on Tuesday you’re shut down on Saturday,” observes Gregory. “You need to have an empathy with your audience, which [Ken- tridge] does.” Indeed, despite his renown, Gregory recalls the artist fret- ting about one of his films being too long, to which the gallery director responded, “I just watched it twice and I didn’t even notice the time”. Tai Mitsuji

76 William Kentridge, Right Into Her Arms, 2016. Model theatre with projected images, drawings and props. HD video, software and circuitry, electronic components, wood, steel, cardboard, found paper and found objects, 300 x 244 x 125cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ANNANDALE GALLERIES, SYDNEY.

77 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

PRIMAVERA Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 9 November 2018 – 3 February 2019

Why is identity important today? That’s the question asked by ies, looking for scenes with cultural dances or dancers. She then curator Megan Robson in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s inserts herself into these routines via green screen, as a way to annual Primavera showcase of young artists. The responses she interrogate and reauthor these constructions of cultural identi- gathers range across gender, culture, history and politics. Two ty. The second of these videos is a new work made for Primave- video works by Caroline Garcia take on clichés of exotic femi- ra which concentrates on depictions of black- or yellowface and ninity. Garcia has sampled dance routines from Hollywood mov- whitewashing.

Jason Phu, love in all its facets exists in hell. chlamydia, gonorrhea & syphilis ring my bell, 2017. Installation view, UNSW Galleries. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY.

78 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

Spence Messih looks at a different sort of cultural scaffolding. the Sydney art world for a photographic installation that also includes Messih presents three new sculptures premised on the idea that archi- props and references to other artists’ work. tecture can shape our ideas and identity. Two of the works in Primave- Also included in Primavera is Ryan Presley, with work from his Blood ra will be placed over a sandpit covered in snail tracks, hinting at what Money series placing Indigenous heroes on banknotes, as well as Hoda Messih has called the “soft life” beneath these hard, utilitarian forms. Afshar, Hayley Millar-Baker, Phuong Ngo and Andrew Tenison. Jason Phu draws on stories from his community, family, friends and Jane O’Sullivan

Hoda Afshar, Untitled #7, 2016, from the series Behold, 2016. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

79 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

MARTIN KING: RECESS Gallerysmith, North Melbourne 11 October – 10 November 2018

FROM LEFT: Martin King, black thursday diaries VI. Etching, relief etching, wax, hard cover book and ribbon, 55 x 38cm. Martin King, black thursday diaries I. Etching, relief etching, watercolour, wax, hard cover book and ribbon, 44 x 27cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALLERYSMITH, MELBOURNE

Martin King is a printmaker with an obsession with Australian flora and where he used its resources to investigate aspects of the flora and fauna in fauna and the interactions and histories of human interaction with our Strutt’s painting, which will form the basis of a more traditional suite of environment. As senior printer at the Australian Print Workshop, King etchings. “The etchings will read as allegories of contemporary attitudes spends much of his time at the inner-city studio where the workshop towards nature, contrasted with how the natural environment has been is based. But, given half-a-day’s notice, he will be packing his swag and viewed historically in Australia,” he says. billy and heading for the bush. His obsession with nature makes his latest But where the printmaker will surprise many of his followers will be creative shift all the more curious. in his sudden utilisation of new technologies. “A significant creative out- “I will be focusing on William Strutt’s painting Black Thursday, Feb- come will be the immersive virtual reality environment that I will build, ruary 6, 1851,” King says of his coming show presented by Melbourne’s allowing viewers to enter Strutt’s painting and explore the various ele- Gallerysmith. “I will be investigating the native flora and fauna in Strutt’s ments of native flora and fauna,” he says with palpable enthusiasm. “I iconic painting to create a body of work that reinterprets his iconogra- have recently worked with an immersive VR team on a project and ex- phy in the light of contemporary thinking and critique in science, art, hibition naturophilia at Melbourne University and I will have access to politics and philosophy of the environment and the value of nature.” specialised technology to build an immersive VR environment.” King recently completed a residency at the State Library of Victoria, Ashley Crawford

80 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

DECADE Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide 20 November – 12 December 2018

Justine Varga, Corrosive, 2016–18. Chromogenic print, 141.5 x 114.5cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, ADELAIDE.

After starting out assisting Paul Greenaway at art fairs followed by a stint chell has on the books, many of whom have been with him since the working for Jan Minchin at Tolarno Galleries, Hugo Michell decided to beginning. “I feel extremely lucky to work with the group of artists we do go it alone in 2008 and start his own gallery. Fast forward 10 years and and am in awe of all of their achievements. I am also very grateful for the Michell has built an impressive stable of local and interstate artists, in- support of our wonderful clients,” states Michell. cluding Richard Lewer, Ildiko Kovacs, Trent Parke, Janet Laurence, In a time when commercial galleries are facing an uncertain future Tony Garifalakis, Lisa Roet and Justine Varga, to name just a few. with artists looking for other ways to promote their work, Michell is “I am incredibly humbled to be celebrating the 10th year of Hugo Mi- still focused on the bricks and mortar model. His philosophy is sim- chell Gallery,” says Michell. “In a tough climate, we have been lucky to ple: “The team at Hugo Michell Gallery love what we do, are passionate grow each year, building our client base and our relationships with artists.” about the Australian contemporary art scene, and look to the future To celebrate the 10-year milestone, the gallery will host the exhibition with enthusiasm.” Decade. The final show for the year highlights the impressive artists Mi- Jane Llewellyn

81 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

POSSIBLE DREAM THEORY #2 Galerie pompom, Sydney 14 November – 16 December 2018

Emily Parsons-Lord, I’ve always had hot hands, 2017. Gallium, mdf, electrical heating element. Installation view, Artspace, Sydney. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY. PHOTO: ZAN WIMBERLEY.

Over many years, Galerie pompom and its antecedent MOP Projects have been proponents of the curated group show as a mode of presenting art that is dynam- ic, egalitarian and generative. Such exhibitions are a way of giving emerging and unrepresented artists exposure in a reputable gallery space, says MOP and pompom founder (and frequent curator) George Adams, especially with “the decline of the ARI as we knew it” over the last few years. Continuing this trend is Possible Dream Theory #2, conceived by Adams and co-curator Helen Shelley. The exhibition brings a group of artists with diverse practices into what Adams calls a “random but also calculated situation” to explore dream states, the blurred lines between reality and fiction, and the unsettling of identities that take places within them. “In reality, do we subconsciously believe that what we dream is reality or is it fiction?” Adams asks. Exploring this idea is a group of artists whose work spans a cornucopia of photography, painting, installation, performance and sculptural practices. With artists Polly Borland, Matthew Harris, Drew Connor Holland, Laura Moore, nova Milne, Emily Parsons-Lord, Philjames, and Kenny Pittock contributing, Possible Dream Theory #2 promises to be equal parts fever dream, wet dream, space dream and cheese dream. Kate Britton

82 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

PATJU PRESLEY Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne 28 November – 15 December 2018

Patju Presley, Yupa. Acrylic on linen, 110 x 85cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT, WA AND VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

There is colour and shimmering movement in Patju Presley’s dotted paint- He was one of the early male painters at Irrunytju Arts and has exhibited ings, which evoke his relationship with country throughout the Great Vic- since the early 2000s. Working in recent years with Spinifex Arts Project and toria Desert. It also reflects his shimmering personality. “It seems the co- living in Tjuntjuntjara, his painting conveys deep understanding of his cul- lour comes from within his being,” says Brian Hallett from Spinifex Arts ture, with guidance from the Tjukurpa (Dreaming), the Aboriginal creation Project. “He carries an innate optimism and gregarious positivity, with a beings that shaped the landscape and endure in its features. feeling that he quite possibly could ‘have it all’, and maybe he does.” Presley’s compositions shimmer with a sense of movement like Born in the desert in the 1940s, Presley was living a traditional lifestyle un- grasses across the red desert. He paints the places of the emus that til he and his family were “cleared” from the area prior to the British atomic came across the desert, with his song line and Tjukurpa moving in tests in the 1950s. He was educated at Ernabella mission, where he became a a west-east direction. This is Presley’s his first solo exhibition since pastor and, according to Hallett, continues to walk “the comfortable dual road 2007, and offers exceptional and unique paintings of Country. of Culture and Christianity that many of his peers also accompany with ease”. Louise Martin-Chew

83 Blue Cotton Dress 2017, f0il on linen, 142 x 109cm Image: Ian Hill T: 03 6231 6511 E: [email protected] www.bettgallery.com.au the wake

Contemporary Art Level 1/65 Murray Street Hobart Tasmania Australia 7000

16 November – 8 December 2018 PRUDENCE FLINT

new perspective. new plymouth. new zealand.

42 Queen Street Open seven days: New Plymouth 10am – 5pm Aotearoa New Zealand govettbrewster.com 12 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER 2018 12 OCTOBER BATHURST REGIONAL ART GALLERY GALLERY REGIONAL ART BATHURST

— GOODY BARRETT a selection of Jirrawun Arts works LOOKING FORWARD — PEGGY PATRICK from the collections of Geoffrey — RAMMEY RAMSEY Hassall & Helene Teichmann — — FREDDIE TIMMS — PADDY BEDFORD a Bathurst Regional Art Gallery exhibition with LOOKING BACK — RUSTY PETERS curatorial assistance by Robert Hirschmann — PHYLLIS THOMAS contemporary works from the east kimberley — WITH PETER EVE www.bathurstart.com.au

RUSTY PETERS, Three Nyawana in Yariny Country 2016, natural earth pigment on linen, 150 x 150 cm. © Rusty Peters/Copyright Agency, 2018. Collection of Geoffrey Hassall UPFRONT | IF I COULD HAVE

IF I COULD HAVE… Writer and curator Kate Britton selects 10 works from commercial gallery stockrooms that she would take home tomorrow if she could.

THIS PAGE TOP ROW: Judy Watson, Tipping BOTTOM ROW: Taloi Havini and Stuart Point, 2012. Pigment, pencil, and acrylic on canvas, Miller, Lillian, Daantania Nasioi Region, 212 x 154cm. $21,000. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND 2009. Inkjet print, edition of 10, MILANI GALLERY, BRISBANE. 80 x 120cm. $4,400. COURTESY: THE Kylie Banyard, Confetti Dance, 2017. Oil and acrylic ARTIST AND ANDREW BAKER ART DEALER, BRISBANE. on canvas, 152.5 x 122.5cm. $4,200. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY. Polly Borland, Not Good at Human, Jenny Watson, Young Magpie, 2018. Acrylic, 2016. Tapestry, 95 x 77cm. Japanese pigments, haberdashery on rabbit skin $24,200. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND glue primed Belgian linen, 270 × 203.5cm. $POA. SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9, SYDNEY. SINGAPORE.

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THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Shirley Purdie, Garlooroony Doo Wirrirril (The Nell, Mother and Child #2, 2017. Hand-blown Rainbow Serpent and the Lorikeets), 2013. glass, metal stool, 91.8 x 39.4 x 38.1cm. $7,000. Natural ochre and pigment on canvas, 100 x COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND STATION, MELBOURNE. 140cm. $7,800. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, WARMUN ART CENTRE, WA AND ALCASTON GALLERY, Julie Gough, Kidnap Co-ordinates, 2008. MELBOURNE. Tasmanian oak, cuttlefish bones, black crow shells, 9 panels each measuring 46 x 73.4 x Sally Mulda, Piggley Wiggley, 2014. Acrylic 5cm. $15,000. on linen, 88 x 180cm. $3,950. COURTESY: THE COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BETT GALLERY, HOBART. ARTIST, TANGENTYERE ARTISTS, NT AND RAFT ARTSPACE, NT. Nora Wompi, Warla Tuu, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 46 x 61cm. $1,200. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND YAAMA GANU, MOREE.

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WHAT NOW? Our writers sit down with three established artists to talk about their most recent work.

PAUL YORE

Tell us about your upcoming exhibition at tional Christianity in my teens. I borrow a lot of Neon Parc. themes and images from that tradition, because Alongside a selection of recent textile works, I it is a site where the personal and universal co- will be showing a large collection of works on exist. Catholicism and its material culture dom- paper from the past 10 years, the bulk of which inated Western art history for the better part of have never seen the light of day. So, I am par- 500 years, so a personal acquaintance with the ticularly excited about unearthing that body of inner workings of this belief system has helped work. me understand the mechanics of representation.

You have been exhibiting consistently You seem to have a bowerbird-like ten- for 10 years now. How has your practice dency for collecting. What types of things changed or evolved over that time? are you attracted to? I developed my visual language quite rapidly at I am enticed, perhaps against my better judg- the outset of my exhibiting career, and my work ment, to the gigantic toxic discharge of synthet- exuded a playful naïveté, even a utopian opti- ic obsolescence that seems to ooze endlessly mism. Now that I have grasped more thoroughly from every corner of our godforsaken culture. the parameters and limitations of my practice, For me, throwaway material – junk – is dynami- the work has become more speculative and cally queer by virtue of its inherent repugnance coded. I am enjoying this transitional process, or marginality, and its volatile transmutability. even though it is partly a reaction against past failures. Generally, I have been grappling with What do you think are the most important the inherent futility of attempting to sustain an issues facing us today? art practice in this cynical and nihilistic cultural Action on climate change, safeguarding biodi- climate. versity and generally reducing human impact on the rest of nature are vital. Toppling capitalism Can you explain your process of making altogether and replacing it with an anarchistic ABOVE: Paul Yore, Protest or Die (reverse side), 2017. work for an exhibition? Mixed media, appliqué; found materials, wool, beads, form of collectivism would, I believe, give hu- I have a rather reptilian work ethic – I will work sequins buttons, 245 x 194cm. manity a chance of meaningfully existing on this in bursts of vigorous activity after spending a RIGHT: Paul Yore, The Treachery of Images, 2017. planet into the future. The old systems of hierar- lot of time brooding in hibernation. I general- Mixed media appliqué; found materials, wool, chical domination have doomed us. beads, sequins buttons. 245 x 194cm. ly work in several stages, roughly figuring out COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE. compositions and then re-working forms many PHOTO: DEVON ACKERMANN. Given our current situation, why is art im- times over before fixing everything down. Final- portant? ly, each work goes through a few layered stages To paraphrase Terence McKenna, art is what of surface embellishment before it is complete. distinguishes us from machines. Laura Couttie There is a lot of religious symbology in your work. Were you raised in a religious family? PAUL YORE SHOWS AT NEON PARC, I was raised in a Catholic household, but I re- BRUNSWICK, FROM 26 OCTOBER TO jected the coercive, doctrinal aspects of institu- 22 DECEMBER 2018.

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ABOVE: Tony Lloyd, Pink Mountains. Oil on linen, 30 x 40cm. RIGHT: Tony Lloyd, Asteroid and Mountain. Oil on linen, 40 x 30cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

TONY LLOYD

What can we expect from your forthcoming an image that intrigues me. The inexpressible at- Both travel and nature are major prompts show Interglacial? traction to the image is the question that drives for you. How do they inform your painting? Last year, I hiked through the Swiss Alps looking the painting, and the finished painting is the most Exploring new terrains is very important to me. for new landscapes to paint. I climbed thousands articulate answer I can give to that question. In It has been my privilege to participate in a num- of metres, walked scores of kilometres and took the process of painting, the image is pulled apart ber of Residencies in Landscape organised by cu- gigabytes of photographs. All the superlative and put back together. The painting develops a rator Steve Eland. Over the past few years I have things that have been said about mountains are personality that is quite different from the orig- travelled with artists through various parts of quite true, that their vastness is humbling, that inal photograph. Australia, China and Tibet. In western China and they have a sense of the numinous, and that they Tibet, they revere mountains like gods. Humans are the embodiment of the sublime. The paint- Popular culture infuses your work. You’ve are utterly insignificant in these landscapes and ings in this exhibition have come out of that time. often referred to writer H.P. Lovecraft in the mountains themselves are in constant move- I have been painting mountain landscapes for your works for instance. Science ﬁction ment. I remember the terror of seeing a landslide nearly 10 years. This exhibition is by far the rich- (and space travel) have often cropped up. while driving, suddenly it was raining boulders est and most diverse I have done. The inspiration What other cultural items do you take as on the road in front of our vehicle. I took from this trip has taken my work to a new inspiration? While hiking on a moraine at the base of the level. This will be my first solo exhibition in my For me, a painting is a portal into another dimen- Eiger in Switzerland, I heard the sound of an av- home town of Melbourne in more than five years. sion. The best works of art open up new dimen- alanche directly above me. It was deafening, like It’s also my first exhibition at MARS Gallery, and sions each time you look at them. I paint land- thunder to the power of 10. There is something I can’t wait to see my work in that spacious and scapes that are pregnant with narrative potential. sublime about mountains, there is a complex feel- bright front gallery. The image must be specific enough to provoke a ing you get in their presence, it is a mingling of line of thought but have the potential to generate awe, beauty, fear and fascination. There is a sense To describe your painting as realist seems multiple interpretations and imaginings. of the numinous when you are in the presence of somewhat misleading. The style may border I rarely put figures in my paintings because I an object so large that you can’t see it in its entire- on the realist, but the content borders more don’t want the viewer to feel they are watching ty unless you are kilometres away. on the surrealist. How would you describe someone else’s story, I want them to have the your approach? experience of standing in the landscape, and to TONY LLOYD’S INTERGLACIAL SHOWS I know immediately when I have found an image ask themselves, “Why am I here?” “Where am I AT MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE, FROM I need to paint. I trust my instincts when I find going?” “What is about to happen?” 25 OCTOBER TO 24 NOVEMBER 2018.

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JAMES DRINKWATER

Your earliest paintings were quite faithful to and more sculpture. I look at more sculpture maternal grandfather, an enigma of my child- form, but over the past 15 years you’ve honed today than I do pictures and furthermore I find hood. He was an Italian doctor who went to Hi- a signature style that oscillates between ab- more solutions to my paintings by referencing roshima to serve just after the bomb. He was ex- straction and ﬁguration, often hovering in three-dimensional works. I have all this figura- posed to radiation whilst there and died back in between. How do you know when to stop – tive sculpture in my studio on dollies, so I can just Newcastle shortly after. My mum was 11. After what tells you a work is complete? wheel them out and work directly from them. I his death she would go to his wardrobe and im- Whether figurative or abstract, it makes no dif- can’t bear the idea of selling one, because I’m not merse herself in his clothing, they smelt of tobac- ference to me. I don’t set out to arrive at one or finished with them, they provide too much to let co, of aftershave, of him. It just breaks my heart. the other. Form, however, is always there. Both them go. His wife Marie Ferrari was the matron at the abstraction and figuration provide solutions for hospital on Newcastle beach and their lives were me at different times. It comes down to location; Your work is riddled with intimacy, micro orientated around the sea and places that I now place drives the whole thing. One can only re- or macro. The completed body is more like inhabit. The most meaningful thing I do with my spond to life when confronted by it; we seldom an essay – one long love letter (to a memo- children and [my wife, artist] Lottie [Consalvo] know we exist until our existence is textured by ry, person, place or time) broken into parts, is explore the rock pools, looking for crabs, oc- an event. As far as the act of painting goes I nev- accompanied by a poem. Will you continue topi, anything. Sometimes we find an urchin, it’s er really know where I am going to be beached. this with your next series? What can we ex- like I find a piece of him. Life is beautiful but it’s I’m just following a series of impulses, moving pect? also tragic, sharp and complex. between the gears of what I see then what I feel. It’s true the works are like documents – journal entries, snapshots – unashamedly romantic be- Imagine you’re 80 and looking back on In the past you’ve worked with sculpture and cause that’s how I view the world, enthusiasm your life’s work. What do you hope to have found materials, and you completed a large- is the lens I’ve chosen. They are also letters to achieved through painting and art? scale commission with Melbourne’s Monash my heroes and conversations with those I love. I Honesty. That I’ve adequately celebrated the University engineers – Walking with Giants have written a poem for this new body of work, ones that I love and that I’ve had a meaningful – that’s now permanently in the Monash col- not because I thought I should, it sounds trite but conversation with art history, one of value. lection. Can you see yourself collaborating in when the poems come about they sort of just that way again? Can you see a time where happen to me. It’s a way to decode my world, to JAMES DRINKWATER’S LOOKING FOR you would only work in sculpture? reduce it. URCHINS AND LOUIS FERRARI SHOWS AT I can’t see a time when I wouldn’t be painting, This new series is called Looking for Urchins NANDA\HOBBS CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY, but as time goes on I find myself making more and Louis Ferrari. Captain Louis Ferrari is my FROM 11 OCTOBER TO 3 NOVEMBER 2018.

94 WHAT NOW OPPOSITE FROM RIGHT: James Drinkwater, The Sea Calls me by Name, 2018. Oil on canvas, 240 x 180cm. James Drinkwater, Girl in Park under the Fort, 2018. Oil on canvas, 240 x 180cm. THIS PAGE: James Drinkwater, Hester in The French Polynesia, 2017. Corten steel and enamel, 240 x 1,300 x 800cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NANDA\HOBBS CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: DEAN BELETICH.

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WHAT NEXT? Three artists you should make a point of having on your radar.

SPENCE MESSIH

WHY PAY ATTENTION? Spence Messih is an artist firmly on curatorial and institutional radars. They were a 2017 finalist in the NSW Visual Art Emerging Fellowship, and in the last two years have been included in notable exhibitions such as the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art and Feminism (2017), Artspace Sydney’s Superposition of three types (2017), and Wayfind at Melbourne’s West Space, as part of Next Wave 2018. A return to exhibition practice after more than a year’s hiatus, Messih’s 2017 solo THE LOOK BACK at Alaska Projects in Sydney was a sign of things to come – thoughtful, restrained, and critically well-received.

WHAT DO THEY DO? Messih’s practice uses sculpture, installation, photography and text to explore the potential of forms and materials to communicate trans(gender) experience.

WHAT’S GOING ON? Drawing on the languages of abstraction and minimal- ism, Messih investigates the physical, systemic and psychological structures that try – and often fail – to support us. Recent work has seen utilitarian materials such as steel in dialogue with sand, tile mosaic, glass, and text, creating work that is at once inviting and im- penetrable.

THE ARTIST SAYS… “The new series [to be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Primavera 2018] challenges the notion that representation is synonymous with vis- Spence Messih, Psychic sex, 2017. Glass, sand, steel, wire, ibility. It disputes the implication that this visibility 225 x 225 x 210cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: FIONA SUSANTO.

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SPENCE MESSIH (CONTINUED) should be experienced as an inherently pro- ty and suggest power structures that make soft split-solo at Auto Italia in London; and Primave- ductive force for those being represented. lives hard to live.” ra 2018: Young Australian Artists at the Museum Through language, form and material the series of Contemporary Art. Work for these projects explores how cis-heteronormative power struc- SEE IT AT… has evolved out of a recent research trip to nu- tures feel on a bodily level and how they fun- Upcoming projects include The moan echoes, merous queer archives in North America, tak- damentally intend to keep certain bodies on the a collaboration with Archie Barry alongside ing both conceptual and material inspiration outside […] The works demand silent direction Power & Imagination at the National Gallery of from histories of trans masculine people such and coercion, secretly orienting bodies. The Australia; group show In a world of wounds at as Lou Sullivan and Reed Erickson. hard steel structures interrogate care and safe- Artbank; a solo at Bus Projects, Melbourne, and Kate Britton

BELOW: Spence Messih, You move (on the other side of), 2017. Steel, testosterone gel, dimensions variable. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY. OPPOSITE: Spence Messih, River beneath the river (I & II), 2017. Cyanotype on 300gsm arches coldpress watercolour paper, 56 x 76cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARTBANK, SYDNEY.

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SALOME TANUVASA

FROM LEFT: Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 1, 2018. Marker pen on paper, 117 x 84cm. Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 5, 2018. Marker pen on paper 121 x 82cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND. PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD.

WHY PAY ATTENTION? WHAT DOES SHE DO? idea of language itself, and to consider the ways Even before graduating from her MFA at Elam Made within a strict set of environmental re- in which verbal and visual languages can create School of Fine Arts in 2014, Auckland-based straints dictated by her hectic schedule as a meaning and convey experiences of living. multidisciplinary artist Salome Tanuvasa was fulltime working mother and artist, Tanuvasa’s garnering notice for her playful work, most of- drawings are frank records of her immediate THE ARTIST SAYS… ten made in response to her surroundings. In environment – of the humble materials at hand “To explore the idea of language, I draw from the particular, her 2012 film Expensive Moments, (paper, card, giftwrap, pens), and the snatched rhythmic action of writing, and from the phenom- first shown in This Must Be The Place at St Paul time they are made within. enology of direct experiences that allow me to Street Gallery, went on to be reshown at Auck- Yet they also transcend the conditions of play in the area of how meaning is formed. There land’s Ozlyn gallery and then again for a solo their making; they feel surprisingly calm and is a series of decisions happening when making exhibition at Gaffa Gallery in Sydney. Her most are refreshingly candid, made up of clean, de- my works, because of my scarce time, and the recent work has primarily resided in the (ex- liberate gestures that seem to be trying to tell many roles I play… I am constantly in conversation pansive) realm of drawing. Sometimes penned you something. with myself about what materials and actions can small on paper, other times swept large across be appreciated.” a wall, Tanuvasa’s gestural drawings have been WHAT’S GOING ON? shown in numerous galleries across Aotearoa They really are trying to tell you something. SEE IT AT… – including at her Auckland dealer gallery Tim For her upcoming exhibition at Tim Melville Tanuvasa’s exhibition untitled exhibits at Tim Mel- Melville, where she first exhibited in early 2018 Gallery, Tanuvasa will be employing her elo- ville Gallery, Auckland, until 13 October 2018. and will be showing again in September. quent, linear visual language to approach the Lucinda Bennett

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Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 6, 2018. Fabric pen on calico, brass eyelet, dimensions variable. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND. PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD.

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ABOVE FROM LEFT: Scott Gardiner, Thresholds (blue/brown), 2018. Acrylic on paper/collage, 40 x 30cm. Scott Gardiner, The depths and the shallows 5, 2018. Arcrylic on paper/collage, 40 x 30cm.

OPPOSITE: Scott Gardiner, Thresholds #2, 2018, detail. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 230 x 180cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.

SCOTT GARDINER

WHY PAY ATTENTION? with bold geometric forms, creating an uneasy THE ARTIST SAYS… A multiple finalist in the prestigious Wallace Art alliance between lyrical realism and hard-edge “This new body of work has seen my focus shift Awards in New Zealand and a regular participant abstraction. In his latest series of large-scale from the oceans depths to the boundary between at the Auckland Art Fair, Kiwi artist Scott Gar- paintings, the artist has replaced much of the land and sea… As a surfer this notion of ‘crossing diner has just returned to his homeland after a wave imagery with gestural line work, suggest- the threshold’ is a reality encountered on a regular two-year stint in Australia to stage a major show ing the rhythmic waves through painterly brush basis, leaving the safety of the land for the cold and for PAULNACHE Gallery in Gisborne. Having strokes. unpredictable embrace of the sea is often a heady exhibited in Sri Lanka, Berlin and Auckland in mix of fear and exhilaration, satiating a desire for recent years, he has just been picked up by Gal- WHAT’S GOING ON? adventure while longing for safety... Making art, erie pompom in Sydney where he will present Gardiner is exploring the juxtaposition be- like entering a tumultuous, lonely ocean requires his first solo exhibition there in 2019. tween solid abstract forms that represent hu- the desire and ability to set aside our fears, cast off man logic and rationality and the flow of light the shackles of uncertainty and cross the thresh- WHAT DOES HE DO? and motion across the surface of water. For this old into the unknown.” Gardiner creates evocative multimedia works keen surfer, the ocean has always been the cen- on canvas incorporating pigment, ink prints, tral theme of his work, promoting an environ- SEE IT AT. . . acrylics, gloss and matt varnish to produce col- mental consciousness as well as loosely evoking Gardiner’s The Depths And The Shallows shows at lage-like abstract compositions that reveal his our universal search for meaning. PAULNACHE, Gisborne from 17 October to 17 passion for the sea. The picture surface is dom- November 2018. Q inated by photorealist ocean imagery overlaid Victoria Hynes

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105 12 – 14 July 2O19 Opening night 11 July ciaf.com.au

1Oth ANNIVERSARY AUSTRALIA’S PREMIER INDIGENOUS ART FAIR

This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Backing Indigenous Arts initiative, which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable and ethical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts industry in the State.

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Limited is assisted by the Australian Government Supported through the Australian Government’s Daisy Hamlot, Gudar Acrylic on canvas through the Australia Council, It’s arts funding and advisory body. Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Programme.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

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CRITIC’S CHOICE Independent writer and curator Francis McWhannell selects five artists with a commitment to community and compassion.

THESE FIVE ARTISTS from Aotearoa New Zealand span different gen- erations and backgrounds and employ diverse media in their respective practices. They were initially chosen for the simple reason that their works caught my attention and refused to let go. However, points of commonality are discernible when one looks a little closer. The artists all make work that is distinctly poetic and emotionally potent. All explore politics of identity, variously touching on questions of feminism, indigeneity, and queerness. Perhaps most importantly, all honour and speak to the communities with which they are associated, opening up spaces for all who encounter their works to engage in compassionate reflection.

MAUREEN LANDER Maureen Lander creates subtle and intricate installations that grow out of raranga (traditional Ma-ori weaving) and centre on indigenous materials, including harakeke (New Zealand flax) and pa-ngao (golden sand sedge). Her current exhibition, Flat-Pack Whakapapa, at Te Uru Waita-kere Con- temporary Gallery in Ta-maki Makaurau Auckland, explores the relationship between raranga, whakapapa (genealogy), and whanaungatanga (kinship). Strands of fibre become strands of DNA. Kete (baskets or ‘kits’) under construction are bodies growing. Kit-Set Whanaungatanga (2017) is a collaborative work, its network of forms reflecting the ties developed between the weavers, as well as the interconnection of kindred individuals more broadly. The flat-pack of the exhibition title alludes to whakapapa as a process of stacking flat, or layering; to the ability of the works to be packed down and reinstalled; and to the notion that humans are mobile entities, capable of reconfiguring ourselves in unfamiliar contexts, while retaining deep ties to our homes and ancestors.

Installation view of Maureen Lander and her collaborators’ Kit-Set Whanaungatanga, 2017. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE DOWSE ART MUSEUM, LOWER HUTT. PHOTO: MARK TANTRUM.

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ANA ITI The recent work of Ana Iti suggests an intertwining of human and natural histories, genealogy and geology. Only fools are lonely (2018) takes the form of a jetty-like ramp composed of a wooden frame and a grid of hand-cut, unglazed tiles. This rises gently from the floor as if emerging from another realm. The clay evokes Papatu-a-nuku, the earth mother and a first ancestor. It is aggregate – composed of countless particles in fluent union – and physically ancient, ground into being over aeons. It is also the substance of pottery, an art form known to the Polynesian fore- bears of Ma-ori, no longer practised when Ma-ori arrived in Aotearoa, but learned by Iti in a process of reconnection. At the same time, the installation relates to one by Shona Rapira Davies in the centre of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, in which structures of glazed tiles me- morialise a stream and pa- (Ma-ori settlement) once found there but disrupted by the arrival of colonising Pa-keha- (Europeans).

Installation view of Ana Iti’s Only fools are lonely, 2018 in The earth looks upon us / Ko Papatu-a-nuku te matua o te tangata, Adam Art Gallery Te Pa-taka Toi, Wellington. - Cedar, hand-cut and fired clay tiles. 1,000 x 200 x 100cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE ADAM ART GALLERY TE PATAKA TOI, WELLINGTON. PHOTO: SHAUN MATTHEWS.

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Paul Johns, It is, 2017. Neon and acrylic, 115 x 115 x 12.5cm. Paul Johns, Was that a man or a woman. Yes, 2018. Neon and acrylic, 24 x 126 x 7cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NADENE MILNE GALLERY, ARROWTOWN AND CHRISTCHURCH.

PAUL JOHNS Paul Johns has long been interested in identities that are ambiguous, multiple, and fluid. In the early 1970s, he produced some of the first work in New Zealand to look at transsexuality, a subject that was taboo and often conflated with homosexuality, then illegal. His recent work Was that a man or a woman. Yes (2018) comprises a horizontal neon bar with bent ends: a straight line with kinks, a spectrum with indefinite termini, perhaps a new marker of non-bi- nary gender. The device appears again in It is (2017), doubled and arranged into a glowing form that is reminiscent both of a crucifix, and of an inverted pink triangle: a symbol of homosexuality reclaimed from Nazi usage. The work may thus be understood to allude to the mistreatment of queer people at the hands of churches and states. More importantly, the form represents a variation on the right-facing swastika. This connects the work with Jainism, a non-theistic religion of special significance to the artist, which promotes non-injury and embraces notions of the mutable and the manifold.

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Fiona Clark, Peter and Jenny, 1988. From the publication Living with AIDS (1988), 2018. Published by Michael Lett, Auckland. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL LETT, AUCKLAND.

FIONA CLARK In 1988, Fiona Clark took a series of photographs of people living with AIDS in Aotearoa. These were placed into two albums and annotated by the people involved, in a process of combining images and personal accounts used by the artist on several occasions. With her Auckland dealer, Michael Lett, Clark has turned the albums into books, painstakingly recreating their internal appearance. Bound elegantly in blue papers stamped with neat gold lettering, Living with AIDS (1988) (2018) faintly recalls 20th-century facsimiles published by the likes of the Na- tional Library of New Zealand of texts deemed “historically important”, such as accounts of European voyages of exploration. Clark’s publication ensures that the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s – which so disproportionately affected marginalised communities, including queer people and sex workers – is given its proper place in the record, paying tribute not only to those who appear in its pages, but to all who were and are affected by this terrible moment.

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Luca Nicholas, Grindr Study #14, 2017. Hand-coloured hard-ground and soft-ground etching and chine-collé on paper, edition of 10 + 2 AP, 69.5 x 50cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

LUCA NICHOLAS Luca Nicholas cribs self-portraits from gay dating and hook-up apps. Using the unfor- giving – and today uncommon – medium of etching, he produces works that eloquent- ly unite the coexistent senses of community and isolation, intimacy and distance that mark many encounters on such platforms. The prints evoke the careful staging of the photographs by their makers, in order to present their bodies and domestic spaces in the best possible light, as well as the answering process enacted by viewers of tempering expectation, attempting to imagine physicality and psychology alike by way of limited cues. They exhort us to consider the intricacies inherent in our changing relationships with our bodies and the bodies of others. The nude or semi-nude selfie becomes a marker of a moment that might sometimes appear cavalier and self-indulgent, but that is in truth characterised by a tangle of complex behaviours – to which we must relate and respond with commen- surate complexity. Q

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SAM

STAG

ANNOUNCING THE 2019 ANNE & GORDON SAMSTAG INTERNATIONAL VISUAL ARTS SCHOLARSHIPS_ The University of South Australia congratulates our 2019 Samstag Scholars Georgia Saxelby (NSW) and Elyas Alavi (SA)

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT SAMSTAG SCHOLARSHIPS, CONTACT_

T 08 8302 0870 W unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum E [email protected]

Image: Georgia SAXELBY, Lullaby (still from video performance), 2017, in collaboration with Viva Soudan and Bailey Nolan. Photo: Kristin Adair. Two artists, two completely different approaches, one abiding passion — to depict the natural bounty to be found in northern Australia.

Until 3 March 2019 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory FREE ENTRY magnt.net.au

Distant glimpses … 2017 (details), John Wolseley; National Museum of Australia. Darwirr, 2014 (detail), Mulkun Wirrpanda; donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Wayne and Vicki McGeoch. NATSIAA

NATSIAA PICK OF THE CROP Our writers select their standout works from this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

GUNYBI GANAMBARR

Each year, the National Aboriginal and Torres Ganambarr’s first solo exhibition at Strait Islander Awards are known for captur- Sydney’s Annandale Galleries in 2009 ing the dynamism at the heart of Indigenous sold out and it was after that he began to art. And yet again, the overall winning work work with found materials. In 2011, he has the scale, ambition and scope – together won the West Australian Indigenous Art with extraordinary innovation of medium and Award and received the Myer Foundation technique – that typify contemporary Indig- Creative Fellowship. He was part of the enous practice. Gunybi Ganambarr, born National Gallery of Australia’s Indigenous 1973, has worked with Buku-Larrnggay Mul- Art Triennial in 2012. His previous work ka Art Centre since 2001. As a Yolngu man, as a carpenter informs his skills, with in- he is subject to unwritten but firm and ancient dustrial materials like metal and glass of- conventions about how to portray culture. fering surfaces that attract him for their His winning work Buku portrays a ceremony enduring qualities. during which Yirritja ancestors come togeth- The judges found Buku compelling in er, created on aluminium with a Dremel tool. more ways than one. Director of the Ian Buku’s Coordinator Will Stubbs tells me that Potter Museum of Art at the University Gananbarr’s ability is outstanding. In his prac- of Melbourne, Kelly Gellatly, said the tice he uses “the stuff that white people have judging panel kept returning to this work, chucked on his land, and natural media as well. both for its command of scale and the There are more than a dozen areas in which he rigour of technique within that scale. She has been the first artist to make a new style of noted Ganambarr’s “incredible command doing things without offending the law. He is of materials and the beautiful movement able to represent the law with authority in a across the work”. creative, innovative way.” Louise Martin-Chew

Gunybi Ganambarr, Buyku, 2018, detail. Etching on aluminium board, 300 x 300cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, BUKU LARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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WUKUN WANAMBI

In 1997, when Wukun Wanambi began painting, it quickly became clear he would not remain an amateur for long. After just one year, his artistic efforts had already garnered attention and seen him win the NATSIAA Bark Painting Award. Two decades later in 2018, the artist found himself standing in the same position, accepting a different prize: the Tels- tra Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award. His original accolade suggested that he was an artistic force to be reckoned with, and his subsequent oeuvre has confirmed that fact – with many of Wanambi’s works finding their way into some of Australia’s most prominent public collections. Indeed, his offering at this year’s award, Destiny (2018), strongly suggests that this demand will only continue to grow. Destiny is made up of three painted stringybark trunks and a video installation that projects a large school of small fish onto the floor space between the poles. In the work, the fish circle in an expanding and contracting whirlpool that hypnotises the viewer. This movement is further echoed by the paintings on the poles, which similarly illustrate fish, swimming up and down the contours of the stringybark. “If you’re sitting on the beach and you dive your mind into the water, you can actually see the fish and how they rotate – but not a lot of people do that,” he says. “They only see the surface of the water, they never dive in.” With Wanambi’s work, we do. Tai Mitsuji Wukun Wanambi, Destiny, 2018. Natural pigments on Stringybark pole and video, 280 x 200 x 200cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, BUKU LARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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NYAPARU (WILLIAM) GARDINER

One of the star artists to recently emerge from South Hedland’s Spinifex Hill Studios, Nyap- aru (William) Gardiner is a two-time NAT- SIAA exhibitor, well-known for his haunting autobiographical figurative paintings. Born in 1943 in the Western Desert, and growing up in Port Hedland where he now resides, Gar- diner’s work draws upon his memories of working on pastoral stations throughout the remote Pilbara, following the infamous 1946 Pilbara Aboriginal Strike. This was a pivotal historical moment for Aboriginal Australia, and one with little photographic documentation. Gardiner’s works, painted from memory, provide a powerful link to this tumultuous time, when Aboriginal people’s human rights were for the first time acknowledged in the nation’s north-western frontier. Gardiner’s exceptional drawing skills lend his works their fragile beauty, whether lov- ingly depicting the horses he worked with for much of his life, or through his lanky human figures, most frequently male family members and fellow pastoral workers. His NATSIAA work is a monochromatic portrait of a brother with whom Gardiner worked on Shelley Sta- tion, an Aboriginal-run sheep station established in 1975 by a collective of those involved in the 1946 strike. Like much of Gardiner’s recent portraits, the unnamed brother is almost ghost-like, meeting the viewer’s gaze with enigmatic gravitas. Andrew Nicholls Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, Brother of mine, 2018, detail. Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 91 x 61cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, SPINIFEX HILL STUDIOS, WA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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NININGKA LEWIS

Born around 1950 in the remote Northern ly empowering presence across central Aus- sized grass sculpture of a human figure. Territory and living in numerous communi- tralia. Initially providing income and cultural Lewis’ strident Tjanpi coat of arms pulls no ties near the tri-state border, Niningka Lewis agency to women in remote communities punches in assertively reclaiming sovereignty, is renowned as one of central Australia’s most during an era when the Aboriginal art scene transforming the staid, bureaucratic, two-di- diverse and imaginative senior artists. Now was dominated by male painters, it grew to mensional crest into a dynamically wonky based at Ernabella, she is known for her figu- become one of contemporary Aboriginal art’s sculptural form through the use of bush ma- rative paintings depicting desert life, as well most compelling and inventive mediums. Lew- terials. Displaying all the technique, ingenui- as her wood carvings, ceramics, tjanpi fibre is is particularly recognised as a Tjanpi innova- ty and wit that one would expect from one of sculptures and basketry. tor. She was one of the first artists to introduce Tjanpi’s leading names, the work already feels Since the early 1990s the Tjanpi Desert the incorporation of raffia into the practice, like a new Tjanpi icon. Weaving movement has represented a unique- and is also credited with making the first life- Andrew Nicholls

Niningka Lewis, Australian Coat of Arms; we were there and we are here, 2017. Tjanpi (wild harvested grass), raffia, emu feathers, wool, nylon, 68 x 80 x 40cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS, ALICE SPRINGS AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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Patrina Liyadurrkitj Mununggurr, Dhunupa’kum nhuna wanda (Straightening your mind), 2018. Digital film, 1min 33sec. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, THE MULKA PROJECT, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

PATRINA LIYADURRKITJ MUNUNGGURR

At this year’s NATSIAAs, Patrina Liyadu- with a tactile tangibility – the viewer felt as if rrkitj Mununggurr’s video work totally they could almost reach into the monitor and mesmerised the viewer over the course of the scene. The audience was further drawn 93 short seconds. Her piece, Dhunupa’kum into the work by the chanting of the artist’s fa- nhuna wanda (Straightening your mind), not ther and brother, whose voices sang with great only captivated gallery-goers, but also the strength in the background. judges, who awarded her the Telstra Multime- But Mununggurr’s film transcended its own dia Award. Indeed, while the Yirrkala-based aesthetic and aural potency, as the artist de- artist’s practice is still relatively young, her scribed how the work held deeper cultural sig- work’s artistic maturity and gravitas rendered nificance. “White clay is important for us, ev- this fact immaterial. ery time we put it on our skin and face it makes The prize-winning film depicted Munung- us strong,” Mununggurr explains. “In Yirrkala … gurr methodically crushing and blending piec- you can just go down to the beach to get [the es of gapan (white clay) into paste, before she clay].” It seemed that with a single powerful slowly painted this mixture over her limbs and gesture, the artist was both symbolically and face. The stunning close-up shots of the art- literally painting herself with the land. ist’s hands, busy at work, infused the flat work Tai Mitsuji

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PETER MUNGKURI Peter Mungkuri’s striking work Ngura took out this year’s Telstra General Painting Award. An elder from the Anangu Pitjantjat- jara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, Mungkuri was born around 1946 in the bushland near Mimili, first seeing white men during his childhood. His intimate knowledge of Coun- try, his Ngura, is expressed in this poetic and detailed evocation of place. Mungkuri’s painterly style is unique, depicting trees at the heart of Anangu culture. From a central spiral, branches reach to country using red and black ink and a sensitive lin- earity. It expresses, according to Mungkuri, “This land, my home, where it all started. I’ve got good knowledge of horses, stockmen, and the Country. These things, everything, is my memory – my knowledge. I like to paint the memories of my Country.” The judges noted the painting’s compelling composition, “with its multiple perspectives and shifting pictorial planes… passages of time and space which speak of the artist’s experience of Ngura, his custodial inheritance, and his responsibilities to care for his homeland.” Mungkuri has been exhibiting his work consistently since 2010. “Peter is a prolific artist and dedicated mentor to the young men of Indulkana and the APY Lands,” notes Iwan- tja Arts manager Beth Conway. “A passionate leader, Peter’s artwork reflects his reverence to culture, the history of the Yankunytjatjara people and their land.” Louise Martin-Chew

Peter Mungkuri, Ngura (Country), 2018, detail. Ink and synthetic polymer paint on linen, 243 x 198cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, IWANTJA ARTS, SA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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GLOBAL WARMING We present five local artists who have recently been heating up the world stage.

Patricia Piccinini, The Couple, detail. Silicone, hair, fibreglass, sheets, 42 x 168 x 65cm. Installation view, Curious Affection, QAGOMA, Brisbane, 2018.

PATRICIA PICCININI

There are few artists who are as attuned to the acoustics of our times as Patricia Piccinini. Over the past 25 years, Piccinini has interrogated the murk of modern life through sculpture, painting, drawing and video, exploring issues of biological manipulation, environmental deg- radation and the limits of human empathy. Her approach is almost Shakespearean, seamlessly shepherding her audiences through different registers: from pathos, to comedy, to the most profound meditations on morality, suffering, public responsibility, and how these subjects might relate in the future. In recognising the importance of Piccinini’s practice, earlier this year the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) devoted an entire level to a solo presentation of her work in Cu- rious Affection – making it the largest single artist exhibition in the gallery’s history. She tells me that these opportunities to realise her vision in a proper scale are important. “My artworks pose questions about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I want people to enjoy them, be tested by them, fall in love with them and hopefully come to a conclusion about some of these issues.”

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Patricia Piccinini, The Observer, detail. Silicone, fibreglass, steel, human hair, clothing, chairs, 220 x 140 x 48cm. Installation view, Pulsanti, Abdulmecid Mansion / Arter, Istanbul, 2017.

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Patricia Piccinini, The Long Awaited, 2008. Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing, 152 x 80 x 92cm. Installation view, Pulsanti, Abdulmecid Mansion / Arter, Istanbul, 2017.

The success of Curious Affection follows Piccinini’s global 2016 Brazillian blockbuster, Patricia Piccinini: Consciousness, which saw 444,425 visitors through the doors, making it the most popular contemporary art exhibition worldwide and the second most visited exhibition globally in that year. “That exhibition really resonated with people. I’m so grateful for that,” says the artist. Her response is telling of her generous approach to art making and the art world. As an art student, Piccinini, along with fellow art students, began an artist run space in Collingwood called The Basement. It would be through co-operating a gallery that she would develop an intrinsic understanding of artist-led practice, audience and also how art can bring different people together. This sentiment has always underscored Piccinini’s practice. In conversation, Piccinini hints at some of the projects she is working on. She has just returned from a field trip to Queensland to research Australian environments for an exhibition in 2019 at Cairns Regional Gallery. “It’s important to be well-researched in developing any project,” she tells

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Patricia Piccinini, Kindred. Silicone, fibreglass, hair, 103 x 95 x 128cm. Installation view, Curious Affection, QAGOMA, Brisbane, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY, SYDNEY AND TOLARNO GALLERIES, MELBOURNE.: me. “I’m always interested in pushing the boundaries of my knowledge, and this always feeds the work.” This project will also coincide with an international exhibition of works from the QAGOMA exhibition at Denmark’s Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. Opportunities like this are major wins for Australian artists and the boarder arts community. “Ultimately, my work explores global issues that cross borders, cultures and times. The opportunity to have dialogue with different people across the globe is core to what I do as an artist.” This is most inspiring about Piccinini. More than an artist, she has a unique ability to draw people together and connect disparate threads. As we enter into her world, for a few precious moments, we’re reminded of the common fears, desires and hopes that bind us. This uncanny power, to unite with such powerful spectacle, is the inspiration that drives Piccinini onto the next big thing. Without revealing too much, 2019 will be her biggest and most important year yet. Micheal Do

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Dane Mitchell, Remedies for Remembering (Al) and Forgetting (NaCl), 2016. Homeopathic remedy, bulk liquid containers, spray pumps. Installation view, Sydney Biennale, AGNSW, Sydney.

DANE MITCHELL

Part of smelling a violet is ceasing to smell at all, just for a moment. A slight sweetness in the air before the scent receptors are desensitised by ionones present in the flower’s chemical make- up. When the nerves recover, the violet fragrance returns, all the sweeter for having slipped away, until it disappears once more… How curious, for ephemerality to be explained by a molecule, for a feeling of loss to be chemically induced at the top of a ladder in an empty gallery. And yet this curious blend of science, poetry, and perfumery is entirely characteristic of the work of Auckland-based artist Dane Mitchell, whose name will be familiar to many as New Zealand’s representative at the forthcoming Venice Beinnale. Another distinct characteristic of Mitchell’s work is the way it is often barely there, with many of his preferred materials being slight or formless: air, gas, dust, suggestion. Mitchell sits within a lineage of artists who have employed invisible materials to create new possibilities for sculpture, charging these materials in some way to give the viewer a sensory experience, to trigger some reaction, to probe their imagination. Mitchell’s work requires bodies in order to be activated (does a gallery smell like loss if your scent receptors are alive and well in another room?). Luckily, there will be no shortage of opportunities for bodies to experience his work over the next 18 months, wherever they are in the world. His solo exhibition Iris, Iris, Iris at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, has recently closed but has just reopened in his hometown at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. He has another solo exhibition currently open at the Institut d’art Contemporain in Lyon and will also show work in the forthcoming Thailand Bien- nale, at Christopher Grimes Gallery in Los Angeles and at Belgium’s PLAY Kortrijk 2018. Lucinda Bennett

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Dane Mitchell, Weight of the World, 2014. Scales, 45 x 35 x 40cm. Installation view, Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HOPKINSON MOSSMAN, AUCKLAND AND WELLINGTON.

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Heather B. Swann, I will not remember your name, 2018. Wood, modelling compound, shellac, dimensions variable.

HEATHER B. SWANN

FOR THE PAST YEAR, Heather B. Swann has been working with Asialink and the BUoY Arts Centre in Tokyo to produce I let my body fall into a rhythm, a large-scale exhibition blending visual art with performance. A self-confessed “haberdashery nut”, Swann creates highly detailed work with layers of fabric and intricate handstitched elements that can take months to complete. Describing her pieces as “performance tools”, in 2016 Swann presented Nervous, a multidisciplinary installation at the National Gallery of Australia featuring her distinctively unsettling Banksia Men. Since then, Swann has maintained a rigorous travel regime, crisscrossing the globe for residencies, exhibitions and collaborations. Naples, London and Tokyo have been frequent stops and as a result, many of her recent works have been site-specific, or created with the suitcase in mind. Referencing two works included in I let my body fall into a rhythm, Swann explains: “The wire hoops of Awkwardo are all individually shaped into their structures of

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FROM LEFT: Heather B. Swann, The letter that never came, 2017. Wood, glass, ceramic, ink, dimensions variable. Heather B. Swann, Awkwardo, detail, 2018. Wire, cotton, silk, modelling compound, 160 x 132 x 45cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART AND BUOY ARTS CENTRE, TOKYO.

tapes, cotton, silk and velvet, allowing each piece to collapse like a concertina.” Part of the eight-month Australia now Japan program, I let my body fall into a rhythm is set in a former Japanese bathhouse. Incorporating elements of the original interior – old baths, signage, water – Swann presents a mix of wearable sculptural pieces, sound works and performance, each linked by the themes of “waiting, the absurd and the melancholy”. Similar to the performative elements seen in Nervous, at select points during I let my body fall into a rhythm, actor Riki Takeda and soprano Astrid Connelly will perform wearing Swann’s imposing structures made from black silk and covered in glass eyes or white doll-like heads made of cork. Layered with meaning, Swann acknowledges the influence of surrealism and intense emotional states on her work, concluding: “I embrace enigma and a darkness that leaves room for mystery.” I let my body fall into a rhythm shows at BUoY Arts Centre, Tokyo, until 21 October 2018. Briony Downes

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Vincent Namatjira, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 67cm each. Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2016: Endless Circulation. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: ANDREW CURTIS.

Vincent Namatjira, Welcome to Indulkana, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 304cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: JANELLE LOW.

VINCENT NAMATJIRA

Vincent Namatjira’s story is an all-too-familiar one for Indigenous Australians; that of removal from his home as a child, disconnection from language, culture and family to grow up thousands of kilometres away, surrounded by strangers. By the time he was able to return to Country – the illustrious artistic community of Hermannsburg in the Central Desert – he was an adult, and surprised to learn of his connection to one of Australia’s most famous artists, his great grandfather Albert Namatjira. This difficult beginning spawned an artistic practice bent on interrogating the society that perpetrated this violence. Namatjira’s bold, irreverent painterly style, applied to subjects like Captain Cook, a myriad of British royals, Australian politicians, his family and himself, has garnered fans the world over. Off the back of recognition in Australia through exhibition, prizes, fairs and acquisitions, Namatjira’s practice has gained traction internationally, including with the British Museum, which has acquired a number of his works over the last five years, and curated him into the major exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation. In December, following presentations in London, across Germany and Hong Kong over the last few years, the artist will become the first Australian Indigenous artist to have a solo show at Art Basel Miami Beach. This is not only a first for the artist; it is the first time an Australian gallery – Melbourne’s This Is No Fantasy – has presented a solo at the prestigious fair; an achievement that would surely make Namat- jira’s great-grandfather proud. Kate Britton

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Vincent Namatjira, The Queen and Me, 2016, detail. Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.

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Julian Day, Together We Breathe, 2013. Performance documentation, Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: GETHIN THOMAS.

JULIAN DAY

Artist, composer, writer and broadcaster Julian Day has been quietly building an international reputation for some time, particularly across the USA, UK and Germany. “Patience is the strongest virtue you can develop,” he says of this success, which has been fuelled by a series of residencies and grants, starting with the British Council in 2011 and bolstered by travel scholarships from the University of Sydney and Samstag Museum. Over the last few years, his patience has paid off. A new work for performers, keyboards and mirrors, LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT, premiered at the Tate Modern earlier this year, fulfilling a long- held dream. “I remember standing outside Tate Modern 10 years ago, vowing to one day present work in its spaces,” says Day. “This year that dream came true.” Tate Modern is just the latest in a list of dreams to come true for the multidisciplinary artist. In the last few years Day has exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery; the Centre for Per- formance Research in New York; T Berlin; and the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. The California-Pacific Triennial at Orange County Museum of Art was a particular highlight. “Working at OCMA was an extraordinary experience. I spent four months in Southern California, getting to know the local context [and] creating a sprawling work incorporating performance, installation, scores and multi-channel video, the latter acquired by the museum.” Up next for Day is an MFA at Colombia University’s School of Arts in New York. “My work is deeply concerned with social and political issues,” he says. “I’m studying the complex social and civic overlays of New York City as a way to better understand how we cooperate with one another, form alliances and deal with conflict. It’s the perfect city for this – you get a good dose of it every time you step into the subway.” Kate Britton

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Julian Day, Common Ground, 2017. Performance documentation, Orange County Museum of Art, California. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER WORMALD.

Julian Day, from the series Squaring the Circle, 2018. Julian Day, Hammer Action, 2015. Performance documentation, Performance documentation, Brooklyn, New York. Royal Academy of Music, United Kingdom. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CARL MASON.

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Julian Day, Together We Breathe, 2013. Performance documentation, Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: GETHIN THOMAS.

JULIAN DAY

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Julian Day, Common Ground, 2017. Performance documentation, Orange County Museum of Art, California. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER WORMALD.

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Photograph taken at Asia Society Hong Kong Center

COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER BEING TIMELESS In her six-and-a-half-decade practice, Elisabeth Cummings has become recognised as one of the most important painters of her generation.

WORDS: SASHA GRISHIN PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL BRADFIELD

ELISABETH CUMMINGS IS an artist who has improved with age. Although she has always been a competent painter, it is over the past few decades that she has really found her own voice. And her quiet, tonal paintings of landscapes and domestic interiors have in turn attracted national attention and critical acclaim. Through her distinctive, vibrant, yet intimate image of the Australian landscape, imbued with a distinctly female sensibility, Cummings is increasingly regarded as one of the most significant painters of her generation. Cummings was born in Brisbane in 1934, the daughter of an architect and a teacher. At the age of 19, Cummings moved to Sydney and studied at East Sydney Tech (now the National Art School), which was at the time the leading art school in Sydney. Here she came under the spell of artists John Passmore, Wallace Thornton, Godfrey Mill- er and Ralph Balson. On being awarded the New South Wales Travelling Art Scholar- ship in 1958, she spent the next decade in Europe, based mainly in Florence, but with extended visits to France and England. In 1960, she spent a month at the School of Vision in Salzburg studying with Oskar Kokoschka. Cummings was back in Sydney in 1969, where she commenced teaching at East Syd- ney Tech on a part-time basis, as well as at numerous other art schools – something that she continued to do for the next 30 years. In 1970, she settled in Wedderburn – a rural retreat outside Campbelltown on the Georges River south of Sydney – with a group of other artists. Today she divides her time between Wedderburn and Sydney. When asked about the artists whom she considers as having had an impact on her development, the names Giorgio Morandi and Georges Braque she prefaces with the words, “I adore”. Others to whom she pays homage include Australians Ian Fairweather, Fred Williams, Ken Whisson, Clarice Beckett, Grace Cossington 139 COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

ABOVE: Elisabeth Cummings, Arkaroola Morning, 2009. Etching, 48 x 63cm. OPPOSITE: Elisabeth Cummings, Coffee or Tea, 2014. Monotype, 76 x 58.5cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY.

“I think her broader relevance is really the fact that she has absolutely no concern with being broadly relevant.” TERENCE MALOON

Smith, Dorrit Black and Grace Crowley, as well as Richard Dieben- the inside. This sense of excitement and intimacy is shared passionately korn, Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Édouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Max with her audience, perhaps more convincingly than with many other art- Beckmann, Frank Auerbach, Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky ists. Her paintings, almost without exception, are beautifully structured, in Europe and America. highly personal, lyrical and often possess a touch of whimsy. Her work In some of her earlier works, Cummings employed the lingua franca of breathes with freshness, energy and great visual resonance. painters emerging out of East Sydney Tech in the 1950s, with their Pass- Although Cummings has been a very consistent artist, she has only more-inspired interpretations of Cézanne. Subsequently, in the 1970s, achieved widespread recognition in the past couple of decades. Her work Cummings eagerly embraced the French Intimist painters, Vuillard and is well-represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Bonnard, which was coupled with an awareness of the late painted interi- Wales and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Her best paint- ors of Cossington Smith. The results were charming and sensitive interi- ings belong to her work from the past 25 years, along with some of her ors, with much in common with her sources. spirited atmospheric monotypes. Her ceramics, made in collaboration But the best of Cummings’ paintings take the landscape as a point of with Lino Alvarez, are rare, but are highly prized and frequently take the departure, which she interprets with confident, sweeping gestural marks form of small stage sets inhabited by little figures and are quite distinct that negate the literalness of the image. Her earlier, heavily painted can- from her paintings and graphics. vases subsequently gave way to a lightness of touch with a drier, scrappi- In 2017, Sioux Garside curated a major survey exhibition of Cum- er surface that could bring to mind a parallel with Fairweather. Many of mings’ paintings, graphics and ceramics that toured New South Wales her works are memory paintings that grow of their own accord, with the and Canberra. The catalogue is the most up-to-date account of her prac- sketches and photographs acting as an aide memoir. When working in the tice and the website of her gallery, King Street Gallery on William, con- studio, she notes that, “the painting takes on a life of its own and dictates tains links to many of the publications associated with her art practice. the way it develops”. Cummings is a free spirit who has created a very personal and intimate ELISABETH CUMMINGS EXHIBITS AT KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, relationship with the landscape that she has grown to understand from SYDNEY, FROM 6 NOVEMBER TO 1 DECEMBER 2018.

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“As one of Australia’s most significant artists, who has been producing work for more than 65 years,

Elisabeth has made Elisabeth Cummings, 1998. PHOTO: CALEV CARTER. her mark in the OPPOSITE: Elisabeth Cummings, Grey interior, 1982. Oil on canvas, 99.5 x history of Australian 80cm. Bathurst Regional Gallery. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING painting.” STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY. RANDI LINNEGAR

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Her paintings, almost without exception, are beautifully structured, highly personal, lyrical and often possess a touch of whimsy. Her work breathes with freshness, energy and great visual resonance. SASHA GRISHIN

RANDI LINNEGAR TERENCE MALOON Co-director, King Street Gallery Director, Drill Hall Gallery on William, Sydney and Art Critic

While Elisabeth Cummings has been represented by King When Terence Maloon recalls his first impression of Elis- Street Gallery on William for more than two-and-a-half abeth Cummings, he begins with a confession. “Elisabeth decades, its co-director, Randi Linnegar, still describes her is … I wouldn’t say a late bloomer, but her acceptance and work with the excitement of a new acquisition. “The beau- her success has come very late in her life,” he confides. ty, intellect and emotional strength of Elisabeth’s work are “She was this rather reticent self-effacing person who you what draws us to [it],” Linnegar says. “She is an artist who were charmed by, but not really prepared for the serious- is devoted to her practice beyond the demands or con- ness of her art.” But serious art was what Maloon found cerns of trends, expectations and consumerism.” Yet, iron- when he collaborated with Cummings on her exhibition ically, it is this very attitude that has seen Cummings’ art Interior Landscapes at Drill Hall Gallery last year. “I was become highly demanded. “Elisabeth’s work is regularly really quite amazed at how wild [the artworks] were – collected by an audience who have followed her for many, wild in the sense of daring, of unexpectedness and in the many years,” Linnegar observes. “Most collectors hold on sheer physical energy that went into her larger paintings,” to what they have acquired, as Elisabeth’s works can often Maloon says. “And people loved the show with a passion be difficult to access.” And it is easy to see why. that we rarely see.” Both the crowds’ and Maloon’s enthu- Cummings is held in some of Australia’s largest and siasm was in many ways unsurprising, since each of Cum- most significant collections, and just this past year had a mings’ pieces carried with them the knowledge of more travelling survey exhibition of her work. Indeed, while all than half a century of professional practice. art dealers have a vested interest in inflating their artist’s Yet when I ask Maloon about Cummings’ place in standing, one gets the sense that for Linnegar the truth and the Australian cultural landscape, he paints a picture this imperative conveniently converge. “As one of Austra- of someone wholly unconcerned with such questions; lia’s most significant artists, who has been producing work someone more invested in the substance of her work for more than 65 years, Elisabeth has made her mark in the than the optics of it. “I think her broader relevance is history of Australian painting,” she explains. But the im- really the fact that she has absolutely no concern with pact of Cummings’ work is not confined to the past. “Elisa- being broadly relevant,” he explains. “She is so power- beth’s most recent exhibition will feature works on paper, fully driven by her passion for painting and her passion limited edition bronzes and a small number of paintings,” for the landscape and her attunement to the bush en- Linnegar adds. It cannot be easy to produce new work vironment.” Nonetheless, pausing to reflect upon her against the backdrop of such a significant pre-existing oeu- artistic longevity, Maloon remarks, “She’s not a young vre, yet Cummings redoubtable efforts continue with no person, you might even say she’s an old person, and sign of stopping. On and on. “Grounded in a visual style to have such courage and to be able to unleash such an and aesthetic that is timeless,” as Linnegar puts it. amazing burst of energy is remarkable.” Tai Mitsuji Tai Mitsuji

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Elisabeth Cummings, Jean Luc, 2014. Monotype, 58 x 76cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY.

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TIMELINE

1930s–1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1934 1963 1972 1982 Born in Holds her first solo Wins the Portia Geach Portrait Prize, Sydney Holds her first solo show at Mori Gallery, Sydney, Brisbane, exhibition in Australia at where she will exhibit again in 1984 and 1987 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane Queensland 1974 Elisabeth at 1953–57 1964 Wedderburn Attends National Art School, Sydney

1958–68 Is awarded the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship. Lives and studies in Italy and France

1977

1965

1989

1969-2001 Teaches part time at The National Art School, Sydney

1964 1965 1977 1982 1989 Elisabeth Cummings, Still Elisabeth Cummings, Elisabeth Cummings, Light on the gorge. Elisabeth Cummings, Grey Elisabeth Cummings, Life. Oil on canvas, 74 x Venere pensione. Oil on canvas 76 x 91cm. interior. Oil on canvas, 99.5 Veranda morning. Oil on 51cm. Oil on canvas, 76 x Elisabeth Cummings, Minerva waterhole. x 80cm. canvas, 121.5 x 136.5cm. 91.5cm. Oil on canvas, 108 x 154.8cm.

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1990s 2000s 2010s 1992 2011 Holds her first exhibition at King Street Gallery, Sydney, where she has regularly exhibited since 1993 Is included in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where she will be a finalist an additional six times in the decades to come 1996 Wins the Mosman Art Prize, Sydney

2000 2012 Wins the Fleurier Prize for Landscape, SA Luminous: Landscapes of Elisabeth Cummings exhibits 2002 at SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney Elisabeth Cummings & 1997 Clara Hali exhibits at Orange 2013 Regional Gallery, NSW Cummings’ Survey Show (1965-1995) exhibits at Is included in the exhibition Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD Australia at the British Royal 2002 Academy of Arts, London Is included in the Archibald Prize at the Art Is featured on the cover of Gallery of New South Wales, where she will be a Art Collector magazine issue 22 finalist again in 2000 2015 Elisabeth Cummings Hong 2006 Kong exhibits at the Nock Art Lives and works in Wedderburn, NSW Foundation, Hong Kong

2017–18 A major survey exhibition of Cummings’ work travels to Drill Hall Gallery ANU, Canberra; SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney; New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale; Orange Regional Art Gallery; Newcastle Art Gallery; and Gold Coast Art Centre

1996 2006 2011 ALL IMAGES COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING Elisabeth Cummings, The yellow jug. Oil on Elisabeth Cummings, Edge of Elisabeth Cummings, STREET GALLERY ON canvas, 70 x 90cm. Simpson Desert. Diptych, oil on Across the gully. Oil on WILLIAM, SYDNEY. canvas, 114 x 149cm. Elisabeth Cummings, White cliffs. Oil on canvas, 150 x 300cm. canvas, 60 x 70cm.

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148 MONSTERS IN MASKS English artist John Stezaker brings his eerie photographic collages to Australia and New Zealand in a series of exhibitions hosted on both sides of the pond.

WORDS: JOHN HURRELL PHOTOGRAPHY: CARLA BOREL ARTIST PROFILE

PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLAGE IS one of those methods so commonplace Some are about looking, the unconscious mind and mental associations, that it is hard to imagine any artist attaining genuine distinction through it. while others are about tropes, the conscious mind, its use of logic, and And yet John Stezaker is without a doubt an influential, much acclaimed conventions of classification. exponent, an English artist who since the mid 1970s has been investigat- Last year, Robert Leonard, chief curator at the City Gallery Welling- ing the juxtaposition of paired, cut-into, film photographs. He has become ton, organised an exhibition of 47 recent Stezaker works – including famous for his use of a specific kind of vintage Hollywood film still – an- collages, found mannequin hands and a film – that came to Wellington, tique publicity photographs of unknown actors on sets (usually made in New Plymouth and Christchurch. John Stezaker: Lost World is now about the decade before his birth) – also using Edwardian postcards that he to open in Melbourne, and another new show of 25 collages – sparked overlays intact. He likes to research various themes in parallel for long by a talk that Stezaker gave at Auckland’s Starkwhite in August last year periods, exploring archives where he has purchased photographs in bulk. – is planned for the gallery in October. Stezaker is particularly well-known for his disturbing Marriage collages Lost World features eight Masks, in which Stezaker has placed land- where – although separated by straight edges – male and female portraits scape postcards over actors’ faces so that the cliffs, bushes, clouds or are combined. The different eyes, nose and lip parts from two photo- bridges disturbingly merge into profiles. The resulting physiognomies graphs are aligned across the divide. But these are not conventional sur- look diseased or mutilated. In the Starkwhite show, titled John Stezaker: realist collages. Stezaker makes minimal changes and does not trim away Collages, there are only two of these, to be presented alongside a group contradictory remnants. He likes to leave those discordant scraps intact, of small Biblical images: hybrid bearded men named after Jesus and seeing their presence as a way of challenging the viewer. “The Marriage the Apostles, as well as works from an Aviary series of natural history pieces have nothing to do with the matching of images; they are to do postcards. with the fact that they do not marry. That is the point,” the artist said in an The Aviary works see pairs of birds, illustrated in natural settings, interview with curators Daniel Herrmann and Christophe Gallois. “Be- positioned against backdrops of heterosexual couples placed on their cause when they don’t marry, the beholder has to participate in creating sides. The painted animals – whether hovering in the sky or standing the marriage.” on branches or in a woodland clearing – have coloured plumage that can The artist is drawn to the compulsive images he creates – unsettling be decoded into species, gender and age. The sky is above and the earth collages that by various means exert an obsessive fascination – for reasons below, with no directional ambiguity – unlike the matching coloured unknown, but are linked to juxtaposition. “Creating the monstrous out backdrops where parts of multi-gendered clothed bodies can be detect- of the benign is not just tapping into something that is already there, but ed. Parallel narratives continue in confusion. usually the result of combining other images,” Stezaker muses in another conversation with writer, curator and artist David Campany. “[This] al- JOHN STEZAKER: COLLAGES SHOWS AT STARKWHITE, AUCK- ways leads to a more extreme disjunction.” LAND, FROM 9 OCTOBER TO 3 NOVEMBER 2018. LOST WORLD In about a dozen ongoing projects, each has its own interpretative tem- SHOWS AT THE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, plate. These vary between the two poles of perception and conception. MELBOURNE, UNTIL 11 NOVEMBER 2018.

BELOW FROM LEFT: John Stezaker, Double Shadow LII, 2015. Collage, 23.9 x 30.2cm. John Stezaker, Double Shadow XLII, 2015. Collage, 23 x 29.2cm. OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XIII, 2008. Collage, 26.7 x 23.2cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON.

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“The Marriage pieces have nothing to do with the matching of images; they are to do with the fact that they do not marry. That is the point.” JOHN STEZAKER

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ABOVE: John Stezaker, Night Mask I, 2011. Collage, 25.5 x 20.7cm OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XXI, 2013. Collage, 26.5 x 20.5 cm COURTESY THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON.

JOHN MCCORMACK Co-director, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland

Auckland’s Starkwhite presents a suite of works by John Stezaker titled John Stezaker: Collages in October/November. John McCormack, co-director of Starkwhite alongside Dominic Feuchs, says that the show came out of a long admiration for Stezaker’s practice and for the recent touring exhibition John Stezaker: Lost World. The opportunity to invite Stezaker to exhibit in Auckland came about after the artist gave a well-attended public lecture at the gallery. Stezaker has a big following in Auckland, and since Lost World went only to Wellington, New Plymouth and Christchurch, Starkwhite wanted to offer Stezaker the chance to display new work in another New Zealand city. “New Zealand has a good incoming international program, and so Starkwhite has an opportunity here, like other galleries,” says McCormack. “We don’t want to focus solely on New Zealand artists, and we already represent several artists from other places. We want to explore contemporary art interests that sit between the public and private; between the museum and commercial sectors.” 25 collages for this show were selected by Stezaker and his London dealer, Jake Miller of The Ap- proach. Thinking about the market, McCormack says: “Stezaker’s artworks are unique, their cost is equitable with the prices of many New Zealand and Australian photographers. Given his high international profile, price will not be an impediment for local collectors.” His remarkable images will no doubt attract the response they deserve.

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ABOVE: John Stezaker, Mask CL, 2010. Collage, 25 x 19.9cm. OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Mask (Film Portrait Collage) CLXVIII, 2014. Collage, 25.3 x 20.7cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON

ROBERT LEONARD Chief curator, City Gallery Wellington

“I love John Stezaker’s Masks,” says Robert Leonard, chief curator of the City Gallery Wellington. “In curating John Stezaker: Lost World, they were my starting point. He takes old black-and-white head shots and lays older scenic postcards over them, across the eyes, so they line up magically, in an uncanny merger of face and place. This simple idea plays out in nuanced ways. “Stezaker prefers showing the Masks as individuals, but I like seeing them en masse. It shows how repetitious, perhaps compulsive, they are. Stezaker is drawn to particular genres of scenic postcard. He returns to caves and rock arches, rivers and waterfalls, arched bridges and buildings. Is this his bent, or are they simply the kinds of view that will interlock with faces? Is he imposing his will, or coaxing out something latent in his sources? “Stezaker talks about fascination, about being in thrall to the image, as if he were not in control but akin to a medium – his sources speaking through him. But is that mere pretext? The question: ‘agency or fascination?’ hangs over his whole project. “The Masks also dance on a knife edge between life and death. Stezaker says masks are necessari- ly morbid – being dead, inanimate faces worn over vital, animate ones. But, the faces Stezaker masks are photos, already fixed. Paradoxically, by masking them with other dead images he breathes new life into them. Beautiful people of yesteryear, long gone, are resurrected and reanimated, their faces caught in metamorphosis. Petrifying, putrefying. Becoming, blooming.”

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ARTIST PROFILE THE TOOLS OF “AT FIRST, I always fail,” says Kawita Vatanajyankur about the weeks of practice she needs to turn her body into different tools and machines. Eventually she adjusts, she says. By the time she makes the final works, which she exhibits as CHANGE videos and photographs, she appears strong and composed. But the threat of failure is always there. Because how can a Kawita Vatanajyankur turns her own human body survive as a machine? Vatanajyankur’s new series, Performing Textiles, sees her body into a factory machine because this turn herself into machines used in the textile industry. Some of these works were exhibited at Dunedin Art Gallery earlier is what labourers are turning into these in the year. Since then, the series has expanded to six videos, longer than any she has made before. They are currently days. They work every second and they in the Bangkok Art Biennale and will also be shown in Mel- have to be exactly right. bourne with Alcaston Gallery in October. In one of these new textile works, Vatanajyankur hangs up- side down and dips herself in a vat of lurid red dye. Another WORDS: JANE O’SULLIVAN sees her leaping through a weaving loom to make fabric. (She PHOTOGRAPHY: ATITTA VATANAJYANKUR will also perform Shuttle live at the Bangkok Art Biennale.) In Spinning Wheel, she spins head over heels, winding yarn. “There are always elements of danger,” she says. “In Spin- ning Wheel, I had the needle from the spinning wheel stick- ing up from the ground, as a symbol that you have to continue and hold on as the machine. If you fall down, you get hurt and that’s the reality.” It mirrors the experience of labourers in the modern global economy, and for that matter, anyone who uses money. “The human condition is about work and action and labour. This is what it is now.” she says. “You have to work.” Vatanajyankur’s interest in labour and identity developed when she moved back to Bangkok, a few years after graduating from RMIT in Melbourne. She had spent 10 years living in Australia and, as she puts it, had grown up as a teenager and young woman in Australia. “When I came back to Thai- land, I didn’t know anything anymore. It was as if I had to grow up again as a Thai woman, to fit into the society,” she says. Her uncertainty about cultural expectations led to a body of work about domestic labour, which included a video of herself as a dustpan and brush. It was, she says, less a comment about Thai women than an act of questioning “if this is what it should be, if this is what I should be, or not”. This questioning approach has remained in her work – one reason why her practice has drawn such different responses from audiences around the world. In Japan, she says, women reacted to her machines by confessing feelings

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ABOVE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Shuttle, 2018. Still from HD video, single channel, 3min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP. OPPOSITE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Dye, 2018 detail. Still from HD video, single channel, 7min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST, NOVA CONTEMPORARY, BANGKOK, ALAMAK! PROJECT!/ CLEAR EDITION GALLERY, TOKYO AND ALCASTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. SERIES COMMISSIONED BY DUNEDIN PUBLIC ART GALLERY.

of inadequacy and the pressure to be better. In South America, audi- artist. She wants her work to make people consider their responsibilities ences were more concerned with gender objectification and, in Thai- – for their own desires, and the labourers tasked with answering them. land, consumerism. “I try to have different layers that are connected Her current interest in the textile industry, also known for labour together so that once you look at it, it depends on your experience and abuses, began on a return visit to New Zealand. She drove around the your life,” she says. South Island in a campervan as part of a Dunedin Art Gallery residency. This early, domestic work also cemented her interest in everyday la- She visited the farm where she’d lived for a few months as a teenager, bour. She went on to research industrial food production, visiting facto- and then other wool-producing properties. She realised she knew little ries and interviewing the labourers who worked in them. “I started to be of Thailand’s own textile producing regions, and more travel followed. interested in today’s consumer materialism,” she says. “I thought, how These new performances, like her earlier works, are executed with- could I turn myself into the machines or tools in the factories? Because in clean, brightly coloured sets. The colours are very candy-like, like a this is what people, the labourers nowadays, are turning into. They work package of food, she says. “You don’t at first think that it’s going to be every second. It’s not just every day, it’s every second. They have to be quite violent, that it’s going to be confronting,” Vatanajyankur says. “I exactly right.” This sort of pressure is captured in works like Egg Holder think the colours represent the package… but the actions of my perfor- from 2016, where eggs fall into Vatanajyankur’s mouth. “I was like the mances are what’s really behind the thing.” Q box holding the eggs in the factory,” says the artist. Vatanajyankur then became aware, through family connections, of la- KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR’S NEW WORK IS EXHIBITED IN THE bour exploitation in the fishing industry. “It’s a true form of slavery,” she BANGKOK ART BIENNALE UNTIL 3 FEBRUARY 2019, AND AT ALCASTON explains, describing conditions where labourers are effectively jailed on GALLERY IN MELBOURNE, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BIENNALE boats. The media’s lack of interest in the issue has galvanised her as an AND ANTIDOTE, FROM 17 OCTOBER TO 10 NOVEMBER 2018.

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“I think the colours represent the package… but the actions of my performances are what’s really behind the thing.” KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR

159 “The human condition is about work and action and labour. This is what it is now. You have to work.” KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR

ABOVE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Untangled, 2018. Still from HD video, single channel, 21min, edition of 4 + 3AP. OPPOSITE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Spinning Wheel, detail, 2018. Still from HD video, 2 channels, 5min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST, NOVA CONTEMPORARY, BANGKOK, ALAMAK! PROJECT!/ CLEAR EDITION GALLERY, TOKYO AND ALCASTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. SERIES COMMISSIONED BY DUNEDIN PUBLIC ART GALLERY.

BEVERLY KNIGHT APINAN POSHYANANDA Director, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Artistic director, Bangkok Art Biennale

“Alcaston Gallery has been exhibiting artists from the Asia Pacific region For the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale, Apinan Poshyananda and his cu- since the early 1990s, and this will be the first time we will exhibit an artist ratorial team have assembled more than 70 international artists, including from Thailand,” says Alcaston’s director Beverly Knight. “My gallery manag- Kawita Vatanajyankur. The theme of the biennale is “Beyond Bliss”, an idea er Glenn Manson drew my attention to Kawita Vatanajyankur and her agent Poshyananda links to hope. “Kawita’s latest video series on the body and fe- in Australia, Grace Partridge [artistic director of Antidote festival], about male labour fit perfectly,” he says. “Her provocative work is a process of over- two years ago. Kawita’s social commentary, sense of place, aesthetics and co- coming prejudices and stereotypes.” lour was immediately appealing, together with the focus on subtle movement Vatanajyankur exhibits six works from her current series about textile pro- in her videos that I thought would appeal to collectors in Alcaston Gallery’s duction. She will also perform Shuttle and exhibit the large weaving loom worldwide client base. used in this work. The installation will be shown alongside works by artists “The whole world for artists, galleries and collectors is now possible – not Lee Bul, Heri Dono and Sara Favriau. “Kawita’s performance is most chal- a dream as it was before the internet; in fact, it is in the palm of the collector’s lenging as she pushes the limit of her body to extremity,” says Poshyananda. hand. Kawita and Grace are exciting young professionals and we trust this “Quirky and seductive, the viewer is allured into her visual space, which is exhibition will delight and inspire other young women, as well as further the manipulated and controlled by the artist. With her abundance of talent, there pathway for Kawita to share her inspirational art.” was not much convincing needed for Bangkok Art Biennale selection.”

ARTIST PROFILE THE INFINITE

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Andre Hermer asks what it means to make an image in the digital age. His bold, intimate paintings are proof of the era’s material possibilities. SKY WORDS: LUCINDA BENNETT | PHOTOGRAPHY: LEONHARD HILZENSAUER

I FIRST ENCOUNTERED André Hemer’s work at the crest of the post-internet wave in the early 2010s. Naturally, I assumed Hemer himself was riding this wave, the iridescence of his paintings reminding me of light catching on greasy fingerprints left on a phone screen, making rainbows from the oily marks to highlight the clash of clammy flesh touching cool technology. From his studio in Vienna, Hemer tells me I am not the first to have read his work in this post-internet context. Born in New Zealand in 1981, Hemer graduated from the University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in the 2003. His practice, he explains, developed at a time when “it was considered very, very uncool to do anything with any kind of digital process. From about 2000 to 2006, it was the lamest duck in the room, and this annoyed me on a lot of levels because I thought, here was this thing that was affecting our ways of seeing, making and looking… and people just saw it as visual detritus.” Using flatbed scanners and digital printers to produce his distinctive, multidimensional paintings, Hemer often felt he was fighting against this perception of the digital as unfashionable or cliché. That all changed very suddenly with the advent of post-internet practice in the mid- 2000s. “There was suddenly this welcoming of the internet; this interest in post-internet and a desire to engage with it.” However, Hemer’s work sits just outside the post-internet bubble. He explains: “I’m sort of caught between things. I’m on the older side of the post-internet movement, and I think a lot of the work made at that time had no assurance of the materiality of technology, or no engagement with what was materialised. Everything was about the idea of these

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ABOVE: Installation view of Andre Hemer’s The Imagist & the Materialist, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND COMA GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: ANDREW BUTLER. OPPOSITE: Andre Hemer, Evening sequence #1 (Tuesday, 17 July 2018 at 7-31 PM), 2018. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 120 x 85cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.

digital objects, but no one was really interested in what the outcome of his painted objects, Hemer then makes new marks with paint and could be, or whether that outcome would be interesting at all.” plaster – thick, visceral daubs that sit atop the smooth picture surface By contrast, Hemer’s paintings are proof of the material possibili- but are also amalgamated into the complexity of dematerialised ges- ties offered by digital technologies – in particular, the idea of trans- tures beneath. In their final form, the paintings look dramatic from ference between materiality and form. Each work begins with various far away. They seem to be built of grand gestures and stark, contrast- painted objects made by Hemer, which he then scans and digitally ing colours – pale lathery pink on rich wet merlot, silky black over prints onto canvas. Perhaps somewhat ironically, it is through these creamy pearl. Up close, however, there is a pleasing tactility to them, a digital processes that his paintings come to record the ephemeral at- familiarity in the way the smooth surface is interrupted by something mospheric conditions of the physical environments in which they are sensuous and coarse. made. “Each series of work is a combination of which objects I am us- To talk to Hemer about his practice is primarily to talk process, for ing and where I am doing the scans – where in the world, and what are in his work all conceptual concerns are almost indistinguishable from the conditions. For example, is it a sunny day outside? Is it summer or the way a painting is made. But what are these paintings, once ma- dusk light, is it a rainy day, is it snowing? Am I in New York, or Vienna, terialised? Numerous writers have employed the word “intimate” to or New Zealand?” These atmospheric conditions delineate the scope describe Hemer’s work, and I ask if he considers his paintings so. “In- of a series so that one exhibition might be made from just one set of timacy is about a one-to-oneness, a first-hand experience of a thing,” scans, made over a four-hour period on a certain date three months he tells me. “That is really what I always want to come back to in terms prior. “They always have this lineage of a certain time and place, and of the way a painting gets materialised. It’s just trying to find a way I’m sort of interested in working with that initial constraint, even if that work can be intimate.” it’s not apparent in the final work in a representational way.” Of course, all of this forgets that Hemer is, first and foremost, a ANDRÉ HEMER EXHIBITS NEW WORK AT GOW LANGSFORD painter. Atop each canvas, already layered with the scanned forms GALLERY, AUCKLAND, FROM 28 NOVEMBER TO 22 DECEMBER 2018.

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“His range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces, which is particularly attractive to new collectors.” ANNA JACKSON

ABOVE LEFT: Andre Hemer, Midnight Surfacing #1, 2017. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 78.74 x 58.42cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE. ABOVE RIGHT: Andre Hemer, Deep Surfacing NYC #12, 2017. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 177.8 x 127cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND LUIS DE JESUS, LOS ANGELES. OPPOSITE: Andre Hemer, After the rain #1 (Friday, 20 July 2018), 2018. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 110 x 73cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND YAVUZ GALLERY, SINGAPORE.

ANNA JACKSON ALISON BARTLEY Director, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Director, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington

“Gow Langsford Gallery has represented André since 2015, having fol- “Andre’s work makes me feel alive. Alive, curious, and stimulated. This lowed his practice closely for a number of years. The following year he quality has been there since the beginning. I first showed his work in won two prestigious national awards: The Arts Foundation New Gener- 2005 when he was completing his Masters at Canterbury University. ation Award and the Paramount Award at the Wallace Art Awards. Al- Even then his work was so fresh and different – his colours popped and though his works deal with themes that are very current, namely the his titles made you laugh: The Little Painting that could (boom and bust often-fractious relationship between the digital and the material, it occu- baby), A hot flush with every touch. There’s always been wit, irony and a pies a new space both aesthetically and in its materiality. sense of excitement about the work. Unlike many young artists, André edits his work rigorously and the net Right from the beginning, his core question has been ‘what does it mean result is an extremely high demand for the limited number of works. His to make an image in the digital era?’. He has explored that relatively nar- debut exhibition New Representation Part III (2016) sold out in minutes, row terrain, conceptually and materially, in great depth over a long time and we haven’t been able to keep up with the market interest since. His now, and how he answers that question has obviously evolved. I am con- range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces, stantly surprised that each new exhibition brings an expansion of ideas which is particularly attractive to new collectors. There is a growing wait- and process. At the beginning, his project was a simple exploration of list. Internationally, his reputation continues to gain momentum. He reg- mark making and the differences and similarities between hand and com- ularly shows at galleries and in art fairs in the USA, Europe and Asia, as puter-generated marks with his work always totally hand-painted. Now well as across Australasia.” there is an interweaving of the digital and the hand, with the boundaries blurred. In the last couple of years, with his use of a scanner, the world has entered to complicate what may have seemed like pure abstraction. The sense of infinite sky and portals to other worlds in his paintings now is very beautiful.” Q

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167 ARTIST PROFILE PERFECT STRANGENESS Dawn Ng’s practice compels us to come face-to-face with what she believes truly motivates us: the desire to belong.

WORDS: MICHEAL DO PHOTOGRAPHY: TAN WALTER

IF OUR ERA of Trump, Brexit and populism has taught us anything, it is that deep down, humanity is collective, dangerous and deeply flawed. It seems almost natural to retreat into our own co- coons, building borders and chambers that divide and separate. But as with every rule, there is always an exception. And Singapor- ean artist Dawn Ng knows this well. In her latest project, she has opened herself to the world, revealing her most intimate thoughts, memories, desires and fears to mesmerising results. Ng’s Perfect Stranger (2017) began as an experiment following a chance encounter with an Israeli psychologist whom she met after delivering a talk at Singapore Art Museum. Over the course of a year, this person, whom Ng shares no friends or acquaintances, asked her probing questions. This conversation was distilled into 61 individual colour-soaked photographs laid across Ng’s pristine studio floor. She admits: “I don’t think I knew where the work was going whilst I was making it, but I knew I had to get to the end to find out.” Studying fine art and literature, Ng has always had a poetic sensibility and commitment to narrative. Far from being an escape to life, Ng believes that reading and writing are crucial dimensions to life itself. Across each panel, aphorisms, anecdotes and elements of their conversation have been inventively collapsed together to create a rich and unfolding exchange between these two women.

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ABOVE: Dawn Ng, A Thing Of Beauty, Green, 2015. Photographed Installation, 116 x 153cm. OPPOSITE: Dawn Ng, Inner Voice, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

Throughout these cinematic, dreamlike interactions, we get glimpses of inti- stranger she says: “Often when someone says they miss something, they macy, humour and fragility: Is something real just because it feels true... or when are alluding to a time, person or place. But in my understanding, what I was five there was nothing I hated more than swim class... But never do these they truly miss is a version of themselves which they can never get back to haunting recollections enter the realm of cliché. again.” This feeling, one of longing, or perhaps hope, that we can find that Together, the works read as a sea of delicious pastel colours swirling to- somebody who completes us, forms the motivation of her work. Ng wants gether in a chromatically stunning cocktail. It’s therefore no surprise that us to dig deeper, to sift through her archive to determine where and how Ng admits her interest in the light and space movement of the 1960s and these desires form, and to what extent they’re self-projected and imagined. 1970s. Central to this movement were the American West Coast artists As we navigate through her maze, we can’t help but spin narratives that like James Turrell, John McCraken and Robert Irwin, who transformed reflect a little bit of our own personal histories – seeing flickers of our own geometric shapes and light to create light-filled objects and experiences. intimate thoughts, memories, desires and fears. In doing so, we unlock a Ng, who has created interior projects, design and adverts in a former life, deeper, more probing investigation of our own inner thoughts; something has done the same. She describes Perfect Stranger as an ephemeral place that may reveal the knotty truths buried deep in our psyches. Ng’s prac- that “exists between sleep and unconsciousness, the gentle awakening to a tice reminds us of the importance of chance encounters, deep reading and new beginning.” And you cannot help but feel as if you have entered into opening ourselves up to the strangeness of the world. Maybe then, in our another world. increasingly fractured and balkanised age, we’ll see a gradual thawing be- In making these works, she admits that the narrative of the initial project tween people with different histories, origins and trajectories. There is of- slightly drifted away, becoming something else. More than just a process ten magic in the unknown, after all. Q of documentation, Ng envisions the ensemble of colour-filled panels as a refuge from the complexities and chaos of the outside world – a place for DAWN NG, PERFECT STRANGER, SHOWS AT SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, self-reflection and discovery. When asked about the concept of a perfect SYDNEY, FROM 24 NOVEMBER TO 22 DECEMBER 2018.

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Dawn Ng, White, 2015. Installation for Dom Perignon’s Blanc de Blanc, 700 x 1,000cm. OPPOSITE: Dawn Ng, Pinball, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm.. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

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“His range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces, which is particularly attractive to new collectors.” ANNA JACKSON

ABOVE: Dawn Ng, Walter, 2010. Inflatable, 600 x 400 cm / 700 x 1,000cm. LEFT: Dawn Ng, Lucky Boy, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

URSULA SULLIVAN KHAIRUDDIN HORI Co-director, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore Curatorial Director, Chan + Hori Contemporary, Singapore

“I first saw Dawn Ng’s work in the mad rush of Art Basel Hong Kong in “In the words of Oscar Wilde, ‘thought and language are to the artist instru- 2013. But not until Sullivan+Strumpf began working in Singapore did I ments of an art…’. Since the time of traditional Japanese, Arabic and Chinese think to reconnect with her. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to calligraphy, we find words, text and design, where often they would singu- visit her studio as she was developing the Perfect Stranger series. As soon larly dominate most of their surface medium. These devices are indeed not as I saw these works, it was love at first sight. There was such a romance foreign apparatuses of artists. Dawn Ng’s biographic, confessional scripts fall to the works. The words in her panels were so tender, beautiful and con- into this tradition – using text and phrases to emote and evoke the limits of sidered. our imagination. The gradual movements of colour in each work first struck me. Dawn Like contemporary artists who also employ text and typography – includ- meticulously assesses, monitors and then changes the hues as she creates ing Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Shirin Neshat, and Tracey Emin – Ng pro- each panel. In a lot of ways, the works seem so effortless to make into foundly signifies rites of passage associated with womanhood and motherhood. existence, but having watched Dawn work, that isn’t the case. Each panel But unlike these artists, Perfect Stranger forsakes slogans, protests or calls to ac- is a true labour to love. She nurtures each work, with time, care, and pre- tion, opting instead for the poetic. The words in her work are confessional – in- cision. These processes made me love the works more. tended as advice for her young daughter, a gift to be handed to her 35 years later. And there are so many aspects to Dawn’s practice. She’s not inhibited Ng’s approach to creating these works reveals a fearless drive for clarity by a specific medium. When I last visited her studio, she was working through direct communication. She emotes what rings bells for the rest of us, with freezing coloured ice. Before that, she made blow up rabbits, and women, men, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. Washed in illuminating ink photographs that read like essays of colour. She never limits herself and within the bounds of otherwise white surfaces of paper, Dawn Ng situates our has such a sense of freedom. fragmented lives into frames of perpetual perspectives. This line of interlocu- The world is getting smaller and I think culture is so much richer when tion, between the personal, social, memories and the future, has been the main we embrace other cultures, change and ideas. It’s the right time for this subject in her journey. Each of them attentive to their immediate cultural envi- solo. I know there will be others in Sydney who will enjoy her works as ronments. Like the others, Perfect Stranger prompts its audience to come face much as I do. Sydney is ready for Dawn Ng.” to face with words that impel introspective dialogues.”

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THE INNOVATORS Tjungu Palya Art Centre shows us that the most amazing things can often come in the smallest packages. WORDS: ANDREW NICHOLLS

SINCE 2006, Tjungu Palya has represent- on Country project, instigated by senior ed artists from the tiny communities of law man Keith Stevens and curated by Kanpi, Nyapari and Watarru, on the Pit- Nici Cumpston for TARNANTHI in 2017. jantjatjara Lands, around 100 kilometres A series of breathtaking, limited edition south of Uluru. Described by manager photographic prints documenting ephem- Benji Bradley as “a very small Art Centre eral white pigment paintings at various sa- with a large cultural presence”, it is in fact cred sites on Country, the show typified the smallest on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara the Art Centre’s explorative approach to Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Nonethe- facilitating connection with the land, and less, it wields powerful influence and a intergenerational knowledge-sharing. national reputation for high-quality work, “When Anangu sit down on Country as well as a high level of innovation. we are happy,” Stevens states. “When I A case in point is the substantial com- am outside painting with my family, I feel mercial and critical success of the Painting peaceful. You can see that in this project.”

ABOVE: Keith Stevens during the making of Painting On Country at Piltati Rockhole, 2016. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.

RIGHT: Bernard Tjalkuri, Tjitji Tjuta. Tutu on rock, inkjet print, 150 x 220cm, edition of 6. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.

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“When Anangu sit down on Country we are happy. When I am outside painting with my family, I feel peaceful. You can see that in this project.” KEITH STEVENS

Keith Stevens, Nyapari Tjukurpa. Tutu on rock, inkjet print, 150 x 220cm, edition of 6. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA. 179 ART CENTRE

Teresa Baker, Minyma Mailiunya, 2017. Synthetic polymer on linen, 180 x 300cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI AND REDOT FINE ART, SINGAPORE. PHOTO: GIORGIO PILLA.

The series was acquired by the Art Gallery medium of ink drawing. The entire suite of for Contemporary Art’s Painting. More Paint- of South Australia, and numerous interna- works was acquired by Artbank. ing with a sell-out show at Vivien Anderson tional collections, with only one set cur- While expanding the practices of its senior Gallery. “Melbourne is a big city with beram- rently remaining unsold. Similarly, Ngayulu artists, this explorative approach has also al- pa tjuta (many whitefellas), but a lot of people Mantangka Walkatjunanyi (I am Drawing in lowed younger artists to assert themselves. know about my paintings,” she observes. Baker the Sand), a group exhibition of 36 works Rising star Teresa Baker has established an was one of three Tjungu Palya artists to travel on paper at Darwin’s Outstation Gallery in impressive profile in recent years, following to Switzerland earlier this year for a survey of mid-2017, saw senior artists explore the new her inclusion in Melbourne’s Australian Centre collector Berengere Primat’s Aboriginal acqui-

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Beryl Jimmy, Nyangatja Watarru, 2017. Synthetic polymer on linen, 180 x 200cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI AND RAFT ARTSPACE, CICCONE. PHOTO: DALLAS GOLD.

sitions, the trip highlighting the attention the output to focus exclusively on the creation of Country and attending to cultural business.” Art Centre has received from Europe in recent fewer, but more culturally-potent, large-scale The approach seems to be paying off; 2017 was years via the sale of numerous major works. works targeted at major prizes, acquisition by an almost-sell-out year for the Tjungu Palya, “I’m so happy that people in the cities want to institutions and international markets. It is a with 2018 proving equally as strong to date. learn about Anangu and our tjukurpa (stories),” strategy that “naturally leads to far lower pro- Tjungu Palya will show a series of nine mas- says the artist. duction than other Art Centres”, notes Bradley, terworks by the Art Centre’s leading artists at Tjungu Palya’s innovation also extends to but “the benefits of this are numerous. Artists Vivien Anderson Gallery, from 31 October to its business model, recently streamlining its have more time to be outside, looking after 24 November 2018. Q

181 DEALER PROFILE IMAGINE WHAT YOU DESIRE In one of the oldest Georgian buildings in Australia, Hobart-based dealer Michael Bugelli combines the old world with the new.

WORDS: BRIONY DOWNES PHOTOGRAPHY: JESSE HUNNIFORD

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WHEN I ARRIVE at Ingle Hall, Michael Bugelli is busy twisting the body of a spindly black sculpture, adjusting the length so it stretches vertically from ceiling to floor. He is prepping for a forthcoming exhibition and the work is Heather B. Swann’s medita- tion on Modernism, Figure that fills the space between floor and ceiling, (2018). Weaving my way along creaking floorboards through a narrow corridor lined with books, Bugelli reveals Ingle Hall was built in 1811 and is possibly the oldest Georgian building in Australia. Once a boarding facility, a coffee house and a printing museum, Ingle Hall’s current incarnation is multi-purpose – it is a home, gallery, studio and at times, a place for artists to live and create work. Bugelli has landed here in Hobart via the Gold Coast, New York and London. After studying architecture at Bond University, he completed a stint of work experience at the late Madeline Gins and Shu- saku Arakawa’s Foundation in New York, whose practice he describes “as much poetry or philosophy as it was building”, before moving to the UK and taking up a position at design and antiques store Howe London on Pimlico Road. Working primarily with antique objects, Bugelli says Howe “gave me an understanding and appreciation of the relationship between beautiful things and luxury markets; between antiquity and currency”. For Bugelli, widening his focus to contemporary art was a natural progression. “I really enjoy the juxtaposition of old and new; the way you can create or explore the same kinds of feeling through antiques as through contemporary art,” he explains. With its historical architecture and constant ebb and flow of artists, it is clear Ingle Hall is a perfect location for Bugelli’s gallery practice. Slowly building his commercial stable, Bugelli currently represents Jacobus Capone and Heather B. Swann. In contrast to the white cubed space of a gallery, Bugelli has chosen to embrace the character and

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“I admit I am something of an outsider, a bit of a newcomer in the world of contemporary art, but I always have a clear and immediate response to works of art – a yes or a no. When it’s a yes, I am compelled to explore and extend that feeling, and to share it with others by moving the work out into the world.” MICHAEL BUGELLI

history of his home, displaying the work of his artists within its nooks and crannies. “When architecture or art or objects trigger feeling in me, I respond,” he says. “It was very much the experience of living in Ingle Hall, this extraordinary colonial building, with all its stories, spaces and surfaces, that made me want to occupy it and animate it in a special way.” Bugelli continues: “I admit I am something of an outsider, a bit of a newcomer in the world of contemporary art, but I always have a clear and immediate response to works of art – a yes or a no. When it’s a yes, I am compelled to explore and extend that feeling, and to share it with others by moving the work out into the world.” When he engages his artists to create work for an exhibition, Bugelli describes it as a residency of sorts, as they are invited to work on-site and live at Ingle Hall for the duration. When I visit, Swann is there for 10 days and she regales me with how an antique hat pin holder she gifted to Bugelli has become the catalyst for new work. “Antique objects are the platform we come together on,” she fondly says. There is a mutual admiration between Swann and Bugelli and it speaks of their ongoing and in- dustrious exchange of ideas. While Bugelli may be a newcomer to the commercial gallery scene, he maintains a distinct vision of blending the old with the new. He cites Sir John Soane’s Museum in London as inspiration for its “eclectic mix of antiquities, copies and the work of Soane himself and his contemporaries”. Also of influence is Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park and contemporary art gallery set among the 100- acre grounds of 19th-century manor, Bonnington House in Scotland. “The owners Robert and Nicky Wilson have commissioned major site-specific works by contemporary artists including Andy Goldsworthy and Christian Boltanski,” Bugelli says. “In fact, the title of a Nathan Coley light and text work installed there sums up my own quest - Installation view of Heather B. Swann’s Luna, Michael Bugelli Gallery, Hobart, 2017. You imagine what you desire.” Q COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

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2018/2019 DEALER HIGHLIGHTS

HEATHER B. SWANN BUoY Arts Centre, Tokyo October 2018

Heather B. Swann’s I let my body fall into a rhythm exhibition is part of Japan’s Austra- lia now Program and is a crossover between art and performance. The show features Swann’s frequent collaborator, soprano As- trid Connelly, and will mark the launch of Michael Bugelli Publishing. The inaugural publication is dedicated to Swann’s practice and Bugelli reveals: “I would like to make books about my artists and collections – not just exhibition catalogues, but really hand- some and meaningful publications.” (Read more about this exhibition on page 132.)

Heather B Swann, The Shoemaker, 2018. Leather, cork, modelling compound, rubber, shellac, 21 x 76 x 40cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

JACOBUS CAPONE Auckland Art Fair, Auckland May 2019

Bugelli will take Perth-based multi-disci- plinary artist Jacobus Capone across the pond next year for Auckland Art Fair 2019, held in May. Known for his dedicated feats of endur- ance, the artist’s recent work, Double Enigma, documented the epic two-year process of collecting water from extreme locations near each polar cap through an evocative selection of video, photography and installation. Most recently Capone’s Wounds 1 & 2 (2018) – a work on paper made from glacial water and white gouache – received a Highly Commend- ed Award in the 2018 Hadley’s Art Prize.

Jacobus Capone, forewarning (act 1), 2018. Site- specific performance, 78 degrees North. Inkjet print on Canson rag photographique, 250 x 160cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

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DETACHED CULTURAL ORGANISATION Old Mercury Building, Hobart Ongoing

In the former office building adjoining Ingle Hall, Bugelli is curating multiple new commissions and artworks. Destined to be a new private museum housing the art collection of the Detached Cultural Organisation, those with keen eyes might have spotted Mike Parr emerging and retreating into its bowels before and after his 2018 Under the Bitumen the Artist Dark Mofo performance. “We re- fer to Detached as TOMB – which is an ac- ronym for The Old Mercury Building,” says Bugelli. Due to be completed within the next 18 months, the museum will be a permanent home for Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hen- nessey’s installation, The Shadows Calling (2015), and new large-scale commissions by Brigita Ozolins (readers may be familiar with her work Kryptos at David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art) and collaborative duo Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh.

Brigita Ozolins, A Tasmanian Reading Room, 2018. Tasmanian books, hand-painted map, soundscape, wood, glass, mirror. Site-specific installation at TOMB, Hobart, 2016–18. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

HEATHER B. SWANN Michael Bugelli Gallery Ingle Hall, Hobart June 2019

Swann’s 2017 solo exhibition Luna included The Letter that Never Came, a sculptural work reflecting on Ingle Hall’s former use as a boarding house for school boys. Created as a direct response to the history of the site, Luna serves as a springboard for Swann’s next exhibition. For her 2019 show at Ingle Hall, Swann will again create a multidisciplinary exhibition that includes a specially commissioned performance by Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean.

Heather B Swann, Unforgettable (introversion vehicle for Timothy Hill), 2018. Wire, silk, velvet, copper, performance documentation. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART

187 COLLECTOR PROFILE THE ART MACHINE The double-sided, moveable art racks rotating throughout the internal floors of Peter Wilson and James Emmett Sydney warehouse tell but a part of a life story fuelled by art.

WORDS: HELEN MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHY: JACQUIE MANNING

188 James Emmett (left) and Peter Wilson (right) in their Sydney home. Work on the wall behind, left: Stephen Bush, Tupelo, 2010. Right: Stephen Bush, The Lure of Paris, 2017.

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PETER WILSON AND his partner James Emmett are at the top of their respective fields in finance and the law. Professionally, they are busy and serious. Pri- vately, they give their time to arts bodies and other not-for-profit organisations where they think they can help. They also like to party, and their new home was designed just for this purpose. We roam over the five-level warehouse that Wilson and Emmett have convert- ed into a remarkable home in one of Sydney’s edgiest inner suburbs. Their home is high-tech; music, lighting and three video screening sites are controlled room- by-room via a mobile phone. An internal elevator (installed at the insistence of their mothers) complete with a padded blue leather interior and an Agatha Go- the-Snape work connects the four-floor home. But certainly, the most arresting feature of the property is the double-sided moveable art racks, four of them, that rotate vertically through all internal floors. The racks are variously described. Wilson says they are an “Art machine” while Emmett, with a smile (and much to his partner’s chagrin) gives them the handle: “The dumb curator.” The industrial looking contraption that owes its design origins to the theatre stage is so cool, and so necessary. Wilson and Emmett are

LEFT: Alex Kosmas’ sculpture Silent Escape III, 2011, sits on the table. ABOVE: Andre Hemer’s video work Sky Sculpture #4, 2018. OPPOSITE PAGE LEFT: On the shelf above: Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott’s Reclining Leaf, 2007. Below: Emma Varga’s Vibrant Red #14, 2008. OPPOSITE PAGE MIDDLE: Kirsteen Pietersee’s Dead Reckoning, 2007. OPPOSITE PAGE FAR RIGHT: On the shelf above: Caroline Rothwell’s Crop Seed (poppy), 2008. To the right: Emma Varga’s Ada Grey Shrub, 2014. Below: Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott’s Hunter, 2012.

“The image we have – not just for our taste in art but for our life generally – is from a novel by Stella Gibbons. Two people from very different worlds run away together and a wise old grandmother says that they will be fine, because they have puppy bones and will grow into each other.” PETER WILSON

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191 The racks are variously described. Wilson says they are an “Art machine” while Emmett, with a smile (and much to his partner’s chagrin) gives them the handle: “The dumb curator.”

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BELOW: In the foreground: Peter D. Cole’s The Nativity, 2011. Behind: Peter D. Cole’s Sculpture, 1992. OPPOSITE PAGE: Movable art racks rotate throughout the entire home. Featuring Stuart Fleming’s Meteor 8, 2010. keen art collectors. They have been in their new digs for a year and say they are ready for a rehang. Six large works by their friend Julian Meagher wait bubble wrapped in storage, returned from loan for an exhibition in Penrith. After their three-year search across Surry Hills, East Sydney and Chippendale for a suitable warehouse, the couple “lucked across this place”, says Emmett. Architect Matthew Bennett, a friend from Em- mett’s time at Harvard, was given the job. Wilson recalls their initial brief to Bennett was indeed brief: “Room for guests and a party,” he says. “And we had run out of wall space,” Emmett chips in. “We just let him do what he wanted to do,” Wilson concludes. “It was such a joyful process.” Involvement with not-for-profit organisations is also a source of joy for the two men. Wilson is Chair of Playwriting Australia and sits on the boards of Belvoir Street Theatre Company, Women’s College, The Sisters Of Mercy and Artspace. Emmett is Chair of National As- sociation for the Visual Arts (NAVA), the peak body of Australia’s visual arts sector. Art is in abundance on the home front. “Painting, figurative work and craft” are their go-tos according to Wilson; although glass, sculpture and video art also feature. Two works by Stephen Bush have pride of place in the sitting room. In the bedroom, an Alex Seton sculpture and an Alexander McKenzie oil painting seem to peace- fully converse. On one of the moveable racks is a salon hang of 12 works that includes fine portraits of Emmett’ grandmother and great great aunt, hanging beside a portrait in pencil of Wilson as the devil. Here also are two works Wilson bought as a “baby lawyer” – they are by Peter D. Cole. In lieu of paying bonuses, the firm Wilson was working for bought the works. The pair subsequently purchased two sculptures by Cole. One, a nativity scene, was commissioned. The commissioned nativity scene is a useful indicator of Emmett and Wilson’s ability to compromise. “I love Christmas,” Emmett says. “Left to my own devices the place would be decked with endless awful decorations.” Wilson rolls his eyes at the thought and offers that the work is the only acceptable decoration allowed in the house, and is allowed out of the cupboard for just one month of the year. Which brings the obvious question about how they have gone about selection works for their collection. “The theoretical rule is we have to both like it,” says Wilson. Barrister Emmett, in very legalese speech adds: “There is a rarely exercised, no-questions-entitled, right to a veto.” Emmett and Wilson have now been together for 19 years. “In a very real sense, our aesthetic tastes grew into one another,” Emmett offers. “The image we have – not just for our taste in art but for our life generally – is from a novel by Stella Gibbons. Two people from very different worlds run away together and a wise old grandmother says that they will be fine, because they have puppy bones and will grow into each other.” “I’m not sure that we had puppy bones,” says Wilson with a smile. “But we were certainly puppies; like a Labrador with big feet.” Q

193 PICA EDITION During Ramadan Abdul-Rahman Abdullah everybody is equalised by a Iftar, 2017 Iftar by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah fundamental appreciation of Concrete, ﬁfteen 23.5 carat sustenance and self control. gold electroplated almonds 15 x 15 x 15 cm Iftar marks the end of the day’s fasting at sunset, Edition of 30 when a handful of almonds is all you want, because it’s all you need.

For more information on how to purchase the PICA Edition please contact PICA on (08) 9228 6300 or visit pica.org.au.

Perth Cultural Centre pica.org.au Photo: Alessandro Bianchetti 51 James St Northbridge WA

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196 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

PREVIEWS The exhibitions in our calendars for this quarter.

NICHOLAS HARDING: NEW PAINTINGS 17 November – 8 December, 2018 Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne

Collectors will know Nicholas Harding for any number of reasons. It might be for his huge, idiosyncratic pen or paint depictions of eastern Australia’s scrubby bushland; it might be for the sheer scope of his representation, from his placement in the collections of the country’s major galleries to his decades of appearances in prizes such as the Archibald, Wynne, Dobell and Sulman; or it might be for the irreverent artworld anecdotes he has been at the centre of, such as the period during which he drew spur-of-the-moment portraits of his fellow airline passengers on the sick bags in the seat in front. Personally and professionally, it has been a year of reassessment and recali- bration for Harding. Following his last solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last year, the artist returned to South Australia to gather more images for new work, only to find the vegetation blackened and charred by bushfires. It was during this trip that he discovered the lump in his neck that was soon to be diagnosed as cancerous. In November, the works that came of this period will be shown at Mel- bourne’s Sophie Gannon Gallery. These new works, shown as part of a solo exhibition appropriately called New Paintings, speak allegorically through landscapes of mortality and regeneration. The burnt landscape, with its green shoots persisting through the blackness, directly acknowledge Harding’s ill- ness and subsequent recovery. Collectors can expect a suite of oil paintings across a variety of scales, from more intimate observances of flora and fauna to large vistas set among the Flinders Ranges – all of which demonstrate Harding’s characteristic eye for jumping textures and fine colour, but this time with a pronounced undertone of triumph. Kirsty Sier

Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Wren, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

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Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Ringneck and Gum, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

Nicholas Harding, Ringneck Parrot Feeding, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

RIGHT: Nicholas Harding, Gum Wattle Light, 2018. Oil on linen, 112 x 107cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY, MELBROUNE.

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199 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

JOYCE CAMPBELL: THE REEF Two Rooms, Auckland Until 20 October 2018

Joyce Campbell, The Reef, 2018. Producton still. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TWO ROOMS, AUCKLAND.

Interdisciplinary artist Joyce Campbell’s most As the image is captured over time, the film recent work employs photographic and cinemat- becomes damaged to the point where it starts to ic techniques to examine the collision of natural break down. The Reef becomes both a sort of eu- and cultural systems. Her latest project, The Reef, logy of film on film, and a call for us to protect our thoughtfully explores the relationship between two degrading natural environment – the foundation dying forms: analogue film and climate-stressed upon which all technologies rise and fall. environments. Now spending her time between her home coun- The moving image work reframes 16mm film try of New Zealand and the USA, Campbell’s slew footage of waves breaking on an endangered Fijian of local and international exhibitions – and mul- reef at dusk. Campbell has repurposed an optical tiple commercial gallery representations at Two printer to degrade the surface of the film with grit Rooms in Auckland, McNamara Gallery in Wan- and sand, as it is scanned to high-resolution digital ganui and Nadene Milne Gallery in Arrowtown video file. – are testament to a considered practice that, these

200 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

FIONA LOWRY: THE TIES THAT BIND 18 October – 11 November, 2018 Martine Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Fiona Lowry, Sometimes your a stranger to me. Acrylic on canvas, 210 x 260cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY.

There is something prophetic and far-reaching sition of physical intimacy and emotional distance about the work of Sydney-based painter Fiona that Lowry deftly achieves with their composition. Lowry. Arguably best known for the portrait of This potent compression of conceptual layers Penelope Seidler that won her the Archibald Prize makes sense when the artist points out that one in 2014, the majority of Lowry’s subject matter is of the foundational influences of her practice is less tied to the hard-and-fast realities of our waking the 1972 film A Thief in the Night, a biblical tale of urban lives. rapture that imbues an idyllic landscape with dark In her upcoming solo exhibition at Sydney’s Mar- possibility. In these new works, beautiful bodies tin Browne Contemporary, Lowry will unearth a and pastoral backdrops glisten with a strange mel- body of new works that return to the subject mat- ancholy. There is something not quite right within ter on which she has staked her claim, the figure these landscapes, something you can’t put your fin- in the landscape. Collectors will recognise the hazy, ger on, that lingers in the mind long after you step sinister way in which her airbrushed figures shiv- back into the sunlight. er across the canvas, and the melancholy juxtapo- Kirsty Sier

201 AUCTION NIGHT THURSDAY 25TH OCTOBER THE PARK MELBOURNE 36 LAKESIDE DRIVE, ALBERT PARK

7PM - Registration & drinks 8PM - Auction MC - Brian Nankervis AUCTIONEER - Scott Livesey Special Music Guests & DJ EVENT TICKETS - $65 & $185 VIP Drinks & canapés included in ticket price. TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: www.trybooking.com/WYLC & www.akc.org.au

AKC presents our 25th Anniversary Art AAuction. 60 works EXHIBITION by prominent Australian artists wilwilllg go under the hammer. BRIGHTSPACE Funds raised give chilchildren experiencing hardship the Friday 19–Sunday 21 October, 2018 oopportunity to participate in cultural, artistic, musical, 8 Martin St, St Kilda sporting and educational activities. GALLERY HOURS: 11AM–5PM

ABORIGINAL & OCEANIC FINE ART AUCTION ancaaustralian national capital artists

10 October - 21 October 14 November - 2 December Interspatial Walking Entanglements Nyx Mathews Antonia Aitken 24 October - 11 November 5 December - 16 December Mood Shifts At the Edge of Matter Debra Jurss Christine Appleby, Riley Beaumont, Mahala Hill, Merryn Lloyd and Lucy Quinn

Rammey Ramsey, Untitled (My Country 127), 2007 Natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on composition board 80 x 100 cm. Pre-sale estimate $6,000 - $8,000 27 NOVEMBER 2018 | 7pm 326 Oxford St, Paddington NSW 2021

Specialist: Adrian Newstead OAM [email protected] +61 (0)412 126 645 Administrator: Kathleen Roberts [email protected] +61 (0)2 9300 9233

1 Rosevear Place Dickson ACT Paddington | Bondi Beach www.anca.net.au cooeeart.com.au Image: Nyx Mathews, ‘Studies of elevation and containment (No.02)’, 2017 29.5 x 5.5 x 17cm. Paraffin wax, nickel silver, silver solder Photo Simon Cottrell ART COLLECTOR SUBSCRIBE TODAY

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ABOUT JAMFACTORY ABOUT KINK JamFactory is a not-for-profit design The delightfully sculptural KINK Oil Bottle organisation located in Adelaide and was designed by Deb Jones for JamFactory. It is the Barossa Valley. The flagship site in made using traditional glass-blowing techniques Adelaide provides skills and business – including gathering glass from the furnace, training for artists and designers in blowing, hand-forming, and basic hot finishing the fields of ceramics, glass, furniture, – that eliminate costly waste and that make each jewellery and metal – as well as KINK unique. The kink in the neck emphasises showcasing contemporary Australian the function of the bottle as well as the material craft and design through its exhibitions qualities of hand-blown glass and adds a sense of program and retail spaces. delight to the ergonomics of pouring.

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1 SENTENCE REVIEWS The recent exhibitions that have caught the eyes of our writers… summed up in 30 words or less.

A provocative protest through frosted glass, Rrap’s silent portraits spoke loud and clear to the ongoing gender issues facing women today. CAMILLA WAGSTAFF

JULIE RRAP: BLOW BACK Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney 7 June – 7 July 2018

Julie Rrap, Blow Back #16, 2018. Digital print and hand-ground glass, 52 x 64cm. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY, SYDNEY.

A dark room divided with dark wood screens, the feeling of a church where words are worship and communion is a Don’t be fooled by the gentle title – McHaffie’s Sea Breeze was coal-skinned avocado, a sharp, perfectly observed study of the everyday culture clashes taken from dirty that make up life in suburban Melbourne. fingernailed hands. LUCINDA BENNETT JANE O’SULLIVAN EVANGELINE RIDDIFORD ROB MCHAFFIE: SEA BREEZE GRAHAM: LA BELLE DAME Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney AVEC LES MAINS VERTES 16 June – 14 July 2018 RM Gallery, Auckland 6–23 June 2018 Rob McHaffie, Save our modernist heritage (Beaumaris Modern), 2018. Oil on linen, 77 x 61cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DARREN KNIGHT GALLERY, SYDNEY

204 REVIEWS

The delicacy in Ivimey’s visceral sculpted characters speaks to the tenacious grip of life and the vulnerability of threatened species (and us all) as the climate inexorably shifts. LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW

LINDE IVIMEY: CONVERSATIONS WITH A CATERPILLAR Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane 21 August – 15 September 2018

Linde Ivimey, Conversations with a caterpillar, 2018. Acrylic resin, natural fibre, dyed cotton, cast and natural turkey and wallaby bones, woven vertebrae, peacock feathers, cabochon rubies, 122 x 56 x 54cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JAN MURPHY GALLERY, BRISBANE. PHOTO: JENNI CARTER.

205 REVIEWS

Phu and Young make the point that you don’t have to shout to be heard; that sometimes, softer approaches are equally powerful in reflecting upon otherness in Australia today.

GINA FAIRLEY

JASON PHU & JOHN YOUNG ZERUNGE: THE BURRANGONG AFFRAY Installation view of Jason Phu’s In the morning I wake the rooster. In the afternoon I drive across the mountains & waters. At night I cut all my ties, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, 2018. COURTESY: THE 29 June – 12 August 2018 ARTIST AND 4A, SYDNEY. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY.

This powerful multimedia show profiled the work of 16 The true message of every Nixon Islamic Australian artists who gave voice to the struggles work (and the truth of seeing experienced by contemporary Muslims in Australia, them) is “I was there”.

challenging stereotypes about Islam in the West. REX BUTLER VICTORIA HYNES JOHN NIXON: EPW: ENOUGH ėţÿī KHALAS SELECTED PAINTINGS UNSW Galleries, Sydney Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne 4 May – 14 July 2018. 5 July – 18 August 2018

206 REVIEWS

Mangan’s exhibition presents an elegant metaphor for collectivity as a social, political and economic organism. A bug’s life. PARIS LETTAU

NICHOLAS MANGAN: TERMITE ECONOMIES Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 4 August – 1 September 2018

Installation view of Nicholas Mangan’s Termite Economies, Sutton Gallery, Melborune, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SUTTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: ANDREW CURTIS.

207 OFF THE WALL

DANIEL BUREN

Installation view of Daniel Buren’s Comme un jeu d’enfant (Like Child’s Play), Carriageworks, Sydney, 2018. PHOTO: ZAN WIMBERLEY.

Daniel Buren’s recent exhibition Comme un jeu d’enfant transformed the industrial halls of Carriageworks into a new kind of playground.

WORDS: TAI MITSUJI

DO YOU WALK differently in an art gal- ly resembled those that I had played with in less. Because by simply changing the colour lery? I do. I think I always have. In the gallery my younger days. However, unlike the pieces palette, Buren seemed to be asking us why space, my steps are tentative, and my gait is that I used to pick up and throw, these blocks we tread so lightly in the hallowed halls of measured. No one ever demanded this of me, towered above me. the gallery; he seemed to be asking us why yet the stark austerity of the white cube has The gallery was divided into symmetri- we don’t play. always silently implored it. cal halves. The first was completely white, Following the artist’s lead, I asked a nearby It was this feeling, this indelible sense of from the floor to the blocks to the walls – the gallery attendant whether I could touch the propriety, that Daniel Buren’s latest exhi- quintessential white cube – while the second blocks. She explained that they preferred that bition, Comme un jeu d’enfant (Like Child’s was a mix of colourful hues and punchy pas- we didn’t, so as to preserve the work’s colour. Play), at Carriageworks managed to challenge tels – a place that felt like one’s childhood This was, of course, rational and probably for and ultimately rupture. The French concep- incarnated. The success of the work turned the best. Yet I could not help but feel satis- tualist’s work transformed the strict space of on the carefully constructed nature of this faction when I spied a blackened foot print the grown up into the playful domain of the layout, which initially forced a gallery-goer on top of a bright blue block in the corner. child. Stepping into the gallery was like step- to tip-toe through the white, before jaunting Breaking the rules of the gallery somehow ping into my youth, as I was immediately sur- through the colour. It may sound like a sim- felt like the greatest affirmation of the work rounded by sets of wooden blocks that close- ple proposition, yet the execution was flaw- that it housed. Finally, we were playing. Q

208 Camilla Tadich Missing

1–20 December 2018 Traveller, 2018, oil on linen, 55 x 40 cm oil on linen, 2018, Traveller,

7 JAMES STREET, WINDSOR www.marsgallery.com.au MICHAEL PAREKOWHAI

11 September - 6 October, 2018

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery 8 Soudan Lane, Paddington NSW, 2021 (+61) 2 9331 1919 roslynoxley9.com.au