ir:,',::':ii'': ., and.'ajr11nt,,*5eri:'9.Bened'l:,ii l: :'."::::,' I 1 ll$,LocatGrouo,,,-,. Store 5 1989-1993 i,,lBecause.,Of:rthe, $ize of, the igalliaryllSpacei],!he F(OOyn McKenzre peison, ;,rnrnd!Rgrtheiaxhibritiqq :ge_nerally, stoo{:, 1, out6iO]e,ian]ittrellwell{*lay (sometimes the artist and/

,t. :,,',,:,At..thgl,Etalt ,/,t6,1.gsg;t or:;,ias,iOtten in],ili'eit;t'ence, Gary wiIson, who Store 5 was a small exhibition space, accessed took on the role of Director, or Melinda Harper, from the end of a cobbled laneway off High who also managed the running of the gallery). ,::,,,, :.,rS*e6ir'neaf,,th6,,e6iner,:,.wi!!r,,,,C.Mpel Stieelin J9!n9d py r119-!!o_1s before and after viewing,ihe Prahran. From early 1989 it ran a program of one exhibition, a gauntlet was formed that the visitor

:',.,: ', 'r,r:,::.aftemOOnql:fiiSepia.mUei',1 1ithd€beC6.w'as:: P*ip.t:aachinglihe gallery, at the end of the lane renovated and a second room added which you naturally looked up at the walkway - looking functioned as an office, and the program changed to see who was there. Then later, outside the to a schedule of two week exhibitions open four gallery on the walkway now yourself, you would days a week. Over the life of the gallery, which be looking down at those who were approaching,

Gary Wilson - who, with Melinda Harper, were anonymously, without a social exchange of some :i:rr,,.::::::,,ienting..!iVin$11sp.;aOe,,i61he,building'iO,rWhiehrenting living space in the building to which the sort. lt was inevitably therefore a self-conscious :]]lt]::t.]tt,iorAer,,.,t6r,mer strire:io0ii,wa6,dttached;s.tarerri-OOrn,,wi6,erttachd.: AS,:ttA5,,art ;trdenlstudents,,,,....1.. - e Ce,,.,rind.fo1 some a daglting one. There 1,,,!helhad a1letlggdiiviototiaiCollegerrln,,Prah!:an a!ri, i:,,was.ta,,0eiformancg,'.,l,ejvtehtrrqtatns,,t6,eXhibitions a the same time - across the road in High Street.' Store 5 - it made 'looking at art' a form of ritual The majority of artists who associated with Store 5 theatre (sometimes a theatre of the absurd or a lived, studied, worked or had their studios in that theatre of cruelty, perhaps). As a visitor to Store part of town.2 | came from the other side of the river 5, the physical set-up meant that you felt your to visit. viewing experience/practice was as much on ,..:.,,,,,.:,llValkihg..Ufi. . , S ,mg,S Lane to::theuehd;:.a:.bourtVaO.. Otepl6y*, thOworkS, !n',!|Q,ex,hibl!i9.q.r.itself : you were consciouq,of,how,fr spent, lf.r.lr:lllldpehed:.'ottr::suff6unqed,:gn,,th!ed,,sioe$:bY the rtjm,€_you uffi storied, dark, back of a building. Stairs led up to you actually looked at and how.a .!., .,tajirsiinooi,o warmi,lrmco:nyr,ame,en ! ,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,, ..., . ,,.,,,,,,,.' tt:,.i.,of,.WhiCh,.W,asl.Storc..5;,'ar'fO0mi,.appiOXimatelV:,thfea, ,:.r,',Prt tiCal.:mod6ls and a half metres wide and six metres deep, with The first exhibition in the space in April 1989 white painted walls and brown painted wooden established a 'core group': Poliness and Wilson ftoorboards. There were windows of wire netted were joined by Melinda Harper, and ,,lhldustfjal glass, onrrthe::tfo!l!,.uve'.ll,,fA,cJng],roltolhe Stephen Bram, and importantly the exhibition . walkway and double boom doors to the left as you :inclrdcd :wqk:Withe,,oldel..adi$,J0hn Nixon, urto entered (once presumably used for winching stock ,ac.!ed,ras::a. menlo(':!h,:.fespe9t.,of,1he project as a up and down), that opened westvvard, letting light whole in the initial stages.s :::':16,,{he,,.1t!erl:t g7gs, tndi,Eaily,i.gs0s;i.eio-ndsi6!'. .,,.:r.' ...ft.'ot:t.r,o*e. *1a.,ina,naxi, r,rre prihclpre that th€.m6rc..ConvetriiiorralrriorrnAArt,,n@eedt*ft-tr-.,,....',.ar,ilmaiian.Oi,ihe.lsp.acerand,conditions,of viewing 4,1's,pt1,VeQ0o.aridtopening,ftOlfrc;.ffd,..a,piogram:,.1,,1,,.:.@,ae.much.a*r,t,olm.e,artigts, remit as ,-,, of,ganiqgd',il1,.adrehceL.,Johnr,,Ni*;n"'''- aa.,a,,Se*ei l a,mAki6,o{,6tdr,a:,bgalcy. Of Minimalism, ofi,tefipoiaty,,exhibifion,:rgp,4q4Sll{$1t.An0;ec*,,Alinex.':1,e.e6bt1 .- ',-,ih,,emphasis a..iiSeff in progiath,r.,Mdlbduine;:19?lg;rtnsxt$q'oifer"'$iary1,;,1with1br,o-ader.,tre:rdsor:ttre,:time, keeping :: .,1:,

uv whom;:ritrwae he-er.andieiibb;6ii punk;,,bif;,efic,inioini* .tne,jdeil ;ihlbilit .,i tnat coutd.bCouiin w.heia,fariOungoAo*;iraii.:, park, atlMoDonildlt).:and'llrn ti aiitt,;,t r,:- O u rat ionrBtb.1n'otqd,fr. ten c.y.gndrth6 1eSponSiG,,,. Oevefopmen$iaeaa. ngsttmernbe-rs1of,the srou p of:,Uki.in iAaau&aid. rnnojVed.:ilr,,ii i'.,o **, The pioliam'of,Stoie'.:6,,@.many.1ihi1 srinr..

a-.round0f ,one.dar,.exhtbjlionsr.g! at$,pr-q1glgd res pons'ivq a deyeio.pm6ni.frofu]Eiie.$hoiiv'':io, ttr e next, creating:a.,dia|9(iue,,,,.feMeen::irtiS*.iinO, meir rcrk, particU!,,@,i,ife.latiqA rio: 15!l.na1ufe,,anl,i'r, cfwacter of' ii$,,insttibiioqgnd,ne6liatifi .O+*e: space.

Where Store:,5,differed:fro1,n11661,miiOgi,,|.a*, ;. *ggesting':,'be]ngd,plim.sn6nt..VenUe-tidhei :,,, filun a changlng-.1@il me,ant:thai,fng:.,,1.1i

fta.s on tne cpneeiiitalr..anO.,f,ef,CO,rtua,,,*O*tS,

d the ex h i b iti on rl,,Vidwin$;ret,ithnShiO-:' Ai lS 5" rhe physicar spaCirieiibni: airtffiflpa*.*;ie a Gonstant, a template,,,r,g@,..a,,me,a$nr.e;abWing1r.,,,,..:: omrparison, superimp.|iition1tnd.r ,.l,- new abstraction'.10 From this, we might select what always stood out was the shock of those exhibitions which gave coherence to this an analytical approach to expression and group in particular: Geometric Abstraction atthe meaning - and a refusal of the usual signs of Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 1986, meaning or analysis. curated by Sue Cramer and John Nixon, included that was how things seemed then. that was work by Harper and Wilson in their first year out according to the rules of this new world (i of aft school; and Reslsfance, at 200 Gertrude thought was coming) that never eventuated. Street in 1989, curated by Melinda Harper in very embarassing, but iwas/am a real idealist the year Store 5 opened, included works by the in a way. there was a threshold that was never artists of this 'core group' (except Nolan).The most passed. whether it was one of practice or direct statement of their affiliations was the 1992 reception i don't know.13 exhibition Abstract Arf at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, organised by John Nixon, which brought together The untidiness of life, or Mondrian's work by the Store 5 aftists and contemporaries Chrysanthemums from First Draft (West) in .11 Nixon's There were memorable shows of work by contribution to the catalogue acknowledged that the 'core-group' which could be seen to be 'each of these artists has their own project ... formulated within this paradigm, and advancing the exhibition constitutes a meeting ground for this agenda: Anne-Marie May's Consfrucflons their ideas and their differences', while making of Grey Rays 1991 (No. 96) and Stephen Bram's the claim for a shared fealty to the cause of non- 'Photomicrographs' (No. 79) - high magnification objective geometric abstraction. lt ended with the photographs of the crystalline structure of the ad hominem statement: 'Theirs is a transgressive mineral Galena - stand out as two very different but idealistic art and the world is a better place examples. because of their endeavours.'12 But from my perspective this project is not what As Stephen Bram explained that time to me in a Store 5 was principally, and certainly not wholly recent email: about, either at the time, or looking back from the it seemed to me (and still does) that there armchair of hindsight - things were too untidy, it was nothing so well suited to the exploration exceeded the discipline of its original brief. of language, meaning and representation The work of artists who were ostensibly 'true as abstract painting, and it was a feeling believers' in the initial project of Store 5 was i had that the works exhibited there were diverted from its 'core values', simply through discovering/establishing new meanings, and undertaking the project and working through it. new criteria for the evaluation of meaning ln the process/practice itself, things came in from that was exciting at the time. also that i was outside, other things happened. amongst artists who weren't prepared to The extension of Gary Wilson's work is a case simply accept pre-established mechanisms in point. Take his Flower Construction #7 (No. 51): with which works would be read - the self-tie garbage bags dropped onto a backboard ol insistence on abstraction was to do with coloured newsprint, the arrangement pressed by a suspicion of iconicity. covering sheet of Perspex, clamped in place by ttx

4A frame. While the work is a material composition, all of her own making. it is also representational - both garbage bag A concern with the exploration of materiality and flower. ln another work in the series, black remained central, but Popist attitudes, an aesthetic household garbage bags were arranged into two logic approaching the relationship between large crushed flower heads with abundant petals, abstraction and representation from the other end looking 'all but like' chrysanthemums. 1a These of the stick, and concerns from outside the circle, works use'poor', everyday materials, combined like feminism, jostled up, pushed in, and thickened with a Constructivist logic, but a Pop sensibility is the air. also there in the mix. lt was a very different look. Rose Nolan's VFL Paintings 7982-7989 (No. Nothing exceeds like excess: Pop goes the easel 9) brought the language of the historical avant- The presence of Tony Clark in the exhibition garde to serve a local alignment of art, sport and program (from 1990) and his influence further religion: clever, with an historical consciousness, queered the pitch - combining a sympathy for good to look at, funny and serious, and subject to the unwanted and the unwashed in the aesthetic local readings (dependant on local knowledge). ln pantheon, (announcing open season on whatever later exhibitions, from My Ways to God (No.39) to takes your fancy in the history of art), with a Sorf of Senslfrve, with Standards (No.1 1g), Nolan renewed energy for the ad hoc DIY self-starter (no pressed on with the marriage of Constructivist precedents or credentials, no references required) language and popular culture, incorporating school of creative experimentation. representational motifs, humour, sentiment and His exhibition Platoon (No. 77) - a 'what have I pathos.ls To my mind, the work exceeded its got at home' meditation on masculinity - consisted Modernist inheritance. While the initial character of a cheap pine bookcase placed against a wall of the exhibition program may be explained by the to form a plinth displaying items from Clark,s 'core-group' focus on the exploration of geometric collection of objects: a medical 6corch6 figure abstraction and its extension of that language, it in active pose with one arm raised, skinless in was not contained by it. The works shown at Store plastic; a mass produced Chinese ceramic 'Red 5 were impure rather than purist, more decorative Guard' boy doll; an Ancient Greek coin with the than doctrinaire, local in their orientation rather head of Alexander the Great. ln his work in this than universalising.l6 exhibition, Landscape (from the group show Works The range of artists that became regular on Paper No. 111), he appears to be messing exhibitors and the development of their work with the high cultural form of the decorative arts definitively broke the mould. The conceptual (Meissen, Wedgewood et. al.), bringing it down text-based projects of Sandra Bridie, included to the level of the paper cup. Or conversely, it is inagery and narrative. Gail Hastings architectural the 'poor' materials used that brings the work up irstallations (developing on Minimalist and Systems into the realm of fine art (avant-garde arte povera), Art) opened the door to a geometry of emotion. from its sources in the 'decorative' tradition. At Diena Georgetti used the language of abstraction this time Clark's project (including his work with (sometimes, along with other things) to explore a the landscape genre) generally addressed painting mystic parallel universe that was for the most part through reworking paradigms of decorative design. While not present in the program the influence of sometimes offhand or incidental, and, above all, others of Clark's generation could also be seen pleasurable activity, rather than programmatic or there: in particular, Juan Davila, strategic.ls lt could be both homage and at the , Jenny Watson.17 same time critique, and so much more. Exhibiting at Store 5 while still at art school and ln Constanze Zikos's work geometry was a i mmed iately afterwards, Kathy Tem i n's instal lation function or attribute of pattern. The grid, while Wall Drawings (No. 64) - its combination of an organising principle, was not foundational. ln formalist aesthetics with figurative representation, works exhibited at Store 5, using stencils (which home-craft materials and emotional (sentimental) could be repeated in different combinations) and content - was a watershed not only in her a spray can, he embellished a variety of different evolution as an artist but in the exhibition culture material supports. The Wonder of You (No. 74) of the space. She followed up with Repenting lined-up chromed circular cardboard cake bases, for My Srns (No. 66), a strung together rag-tag with stencilled abstract patterns (funerary flower team of modernist masterpieces of abstraction, arrangements), to make up a floor to ceiling redone in fake fur. The group exhibition Exultate column. Similarly, the colourfield abstractions Jubilate (No. 81)- curated by Elizabeth Newman of his later works explored the d6cor of a and Angela Brennan - crossed the crowded hang contemporary Greek-Australian identity: Laminex of the nineteenth century exhibition hall with and lam6, funerary monuments and the grave, the the syncopation of domestic home decoration, temple and the bar. The work holds contradictory arranging the work of five artists (Newman, attitudes at the same time - on the one hand Brennan, Hastings, Louise Forthun and Temin) disciplined and ordered, quiet and contemplative, into a single 'feature wall' of unrestrained colour, on the other operatic (in the scale of address) undisciplined form and unhealthy'feminine' feeling. and high-keyed (in colour), an hysterical drama, a It is perhaps inevitable that contemporary Greek tragedy. abstraction is located in relation to Modernist paradigms. But this view of the work - whether Not transgressive and oppositional but it is seen as a tribute and development or a alternative and complementary critique of those models - refers the work back ln his catalogue essay for the exhibition Recession to Modernism as its primary cause, obscuring the Art and Other Strategles (1986), Peter Cripps gives influence of present circumstances and meanings, a summation of the problems with the 'Australian and negating the specificity of the work as a set of art system', as diagnosed by radical artists in the positive aesthetic choices. There is another way to 1970s, which led to some of the moves, picked look at it - for this generation of adists references up and taken forward by Store 5. He accounts for to or borrowings from past art (quotation if you the momentum behind'recessional strategies'- prefer) was a given form of creative imagining ephemeral work displayed in temporary spaces, - material to make something with. The history the use of publication as an alternative exhibition of art was like a found object. What you did with venue - sheeting back to the fact that the it mattered (as much as / more than) where it audience/market was not significantly developed came from. Pilfering was an anarchic, piecemeal, (simply not large enough, or with enough depth) to provide viable support for (pretty well) any aftist's became known as its 'Flagship Policy', of on-going work. He makes the point that the involvement funding to one contemporary art space in each of artists in 'alternative' exhibition spaces had capital city, with allowance for a small number more to do with the kind of work they wanted to of other organisations which served a national produce, than whether or not they had commercial function.2a Amongst the conditions that needed representation (although those two things could be to be met in order to receive funding the galleries related).1s had to be legally constituted organisations, with The artist's showing at Store 5 were for the democratically elected boards of management, most pad 'emerging'.20 Even so, in some cases full-time professional directors, and an open before and after, but mostly during the run of membership. (Other contemporary art spaces Store 5, the majority obtained commercial gallery and artist-run initiatives would only be eligible representation.2l During the life of the gallery, for special project grants.)2s This was one of the Store 5 artists, either as individuals or in group ways in which avant-garde contemporary art was exhibitions, had a significant presence in both the institutionalised in during the 1980s. commercial and public gallery sectors. Store 5 Alongside this quantum leap in the development was not positioned as oppositional to the art world of a public sector supporting the exhibition system, but was very much a part of it, in that its of what was variously called experimental, activities complemented those of the commercial developmental or progressive ad, a generation of and public networks, as demonstrated by the new professionals graduated from art schools and inclusion of Store 5 artists in those spaces. universities willing and able to service this sector as Certainly by the late 1980s when Store 5 curators and writers. ln the 1970s, contemporary began, if not before, the art world system had art (art post-1960) began to be addressed through fundamentally changed from the situation artists newly instigated, structured 'Art History' programs rere responding to in the 1970s, as described in art schools, as well as in universities. The by Cripps. He identifies the development of teaching of contemporary art in tertiary institutions "dternative' exhibition ven ues as symptomatic in was pioneered by Margaret Plant dfiat time - the Ewing and George Paton at RMIT from 1967-1974. (Norbert Loeffler began Gdleries, Melbourne (1972), the Experimental Art teaching at Victoria College, Prahran in 1975, Foundation, Adelaide (1975) and the lnstitute of Janine Burke at the VCA in 1976). Margaret Plant llbdern Art, Brisbane (1 975). These were collective went on to teach at Melbourne University (with atist-run enterprises,22 dedicated to showing new the official title, 'Senior Lecturer in Renaissance sperimental work, that would otherwise find a and Contemporary Art'), and then, in 1982, was efficult reception in the public domain. appointed Professor of Visual Arts at Monash From the mid 1970s the newly formed Australia University. An engagement with contemporary Gouncil provided 'general purpose grants' for art practice was a foundational plank of the new srch organisations, which was regarded as Department when it was founded in the mid- 'seed funding'. ln the early 1980s, the Australia 1970s, with Patrick McCaughey as its inaugural Gouncil undertook a review of its support of Professor.26 This emphasis was enhanced and contemporary art spaces,23 which lead to what developed under Margaret Plant, whose own

43 interests and scholarship in the area promoted a of a national 'flagship' publication, with Review rigorous critical approach to its study. Editors in each of the state capitals. Both of these When I studied at Melbourne University in the magazines followed the progress of Store 5 and its early 1980s contemporary art was off the menu in artists. the Fine Arts Department, with its preference for It should also be noted that in the early 1990s a more traditional Art History profile.2T lt was slow both Monash and Melbourne Universities (the to reappear - not surfacing in the curriculum until later, through the Vizard Collection), were routinely the mid-to-late 1980s, in subjects taken by Roger purchasing the work of contemporary artists, Benjamin and Chris McAuliffe. I returned to the including those from Store 5.30 The National University in 1991 to teach'lssues in Contemporary Gallery of Victoria, through the Margaret Stewart Art', one of the first dedicated subjects in the area. Endowment, (dedicated for the purchase of work A seminar topic I developed at that time looked at by younger and emerging practitioners), also the work of Store 5 artists among others, under the acquired work by Store 5 artists at that time. title 'Local Abstractions'. That there was enough 'Alternative' artists of the 1970s did not work documentation of this very recent history in the outside the system necessarily as a matter of form of exhibition catalogues, magazine articles choice or principle,3l and this generation didn't and reviews to construct a bibliography of sources have to - largely because the system, and what for art history students to use in an undergraduate it valued, had changed. Store 5 was always setting, speaks of the enduring value of the culture aspirational - while attracted to the siren song of criticism and commentary around contemporary of avant-garde outsider status at the same time art which had developed through the decades of they recognised (and had no problem with) the the 1970s and 1980s.,8 appeal of meaningful careers as artists in 'the The level of critical commentary ('by journalists, mainstream'. Perhaps they wanted it both ways, essayists and eventually historians') can be taken and perhaps they got it. as one of the key indicators of the process of Part of the motive of the activity of artists institutionalisation of avant-garde art movements.2e involved in 'alternative' practices in the 1970s ln the 1980s, as well as the redoubtable enterprise was 'to determine the content of their own artistic of Ashley Crawford's independently published biographies' - in effect writing their own CV's The Virgin Press and Tension, the VAB began - partly out of the desire for autonomy and self- to establish support for a national network of definition, but also simply because of the lack contemporary art magazines, parallel to the of people and opportunities available to do it for contemporary art spaces network. ln Melbourne them.32 The initiative of Store 5 was, as stated by Agenda Contemporary Arf, published (initially Gary Wilson, undertaken 'in the spirit of affirmative independent of VAB funding) by the Ewing and action, as the most direct and constructive way George Paton Galleries under the editorship of of addressing the limited and limiting exhibition Juliana Engberg, was founded in 1988. Art & Text, opportunities available to myself and my peers.'33 founded in Melbourne in 1981 by (a Due to the attention the gallery attracted under graduate of ) and now edited this very different set of conditions, the capacity from Sydney by Paul Foss, had taken on the status of the artists to exercise autonomy, independence and self-determination was to some degree 1. Gary Wilson and Melinda Harper studied for a BA in Fine Arts (Painting) compromised. at Victoria College, Prahran from 1983-85. Kerrie Poliness was a year ahead, completing her degree in 1 gg4. Looking at the program of Store 5 from this 2. For example, Constanze Zikos did a BA at Victoria College, Prahran (1982-84) before going on to a postgraduate distance one can track the ebb and flow of Diploma at the VCA (1 985-86). During the years Store S was active he currents in the art world over that time. As much as had a studio above Dan Murphy's in Chapel Street, prahran. Kathy Temin did a Foundation Year in what the Tertiary Orientation was happening at Store 5 radiated influence, Program at Prahran College in 1986, then a BA at Victoria what was happening at Store 5 was reciprocally College, Prahran (1 987-9); after leaving art school she had a studio above a shop in Chapel Street. Tony Clark, who taught hfluenced by what was going on around it. lt was in the Foundation Studies Program (later T.O.p) at prahran College, for a time one meeting point in a network of relationships had his studio in the store room next to Store 5. Anne-Marie May who also completed a Foundation between people and ideas,3a and Store 5 artists Year (1 984) and then a BA (1 995-87) at prahran, tived for some time in the Store 5 building, as did Callum Morton and turned up in a variety of other settings and Fiona MacDonald. @ntexts, concentrating/offering particu lar a;rd See Andrew Hurle, catalogue statement, in Deborah Hennessy (ed.), Sfore 5 /s..., Anna Schwaftz Gallery sometimes contradictory readings of their work.35 Melbourne, 2005, p. 45. I remember on one occasion, (after the 2nd room / office had been added where the person To conclude minding the gallery now sat), becoming aware of my footsteps, echoing loudly off the Store 5 was an effective proving ground for artists wood floor into the cold air, marking out the choreography of my spectatorship. Shelley Lasica, in two solo dance b engage and develop their skills and their idiom. performances at Store 5 (Nos. 128 & 148) explored this aspect ft was a place for trying things out and trying of the rhetoric of the space. She stood casually talking to people in the audience and then, unannounced, things on.36 And importantly it was not a space would 'begin'. Using the intimacy of the space, with the audience lined-up around the sides of the gallery she turned hr hire.37 Store 5 was a social artefact. The term the tables to make the 'behaviour of viewing, part of the 1fie local group' is the name given to the group of performance itself, blurring the distinction between artist and spectator, exhibition and looking. Videos documenting galaxies ,audience, that our galaxy belongs to, which our solar these pedormances record people in the intentiy hunched over with qtstem forms a small part of. As Astronomy 162, concentration, and others wearing dark glasses to escape the discomfort of the situation. I recall fre website, says: 'galaxies are enormous, but they being as conscious of my own stance and movements as those of the performer. ae not the largest structures in the universe.'38 Exhibitions of 'Other Photography, (Nos. 6 & 36) - Nixon Ilespite the diversity of their stylistic and aesthetic being founder and co-ordinator of the Society for Other Photography - and the use of the photocopied publication qientations, some basic gravitational forces held as an alternative form of exhibition (Bosebu@, are two direct this group of artists together: what is around and examples of the influence of Nixon on the activities and style of Store 5. nfio is around that exerts some attraction. For a survey and analysis of this activity, its antecedents, With thanks to Roger Benjamin, Stephen Bram, and fellow travellers (ie. 'The Fosterville lnstitute of Applied and Progressive Cultural Experience, founded by peter Tony Clark, Deborah Hennessy, Norbert Loeffler, Tyndall and Christopher Hartney in 1972), see peter Cripps, Chris McAuliffe, David Pestorius, Margaret plant, Recession Art & Other Strategies,lnstitute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1986, pp. 2-6. Kerrie Poliness, Kathy Temin, Gary Wilson, 7. Bronwyn Clark-Coolee, 'Fiction of the Real,, in Ross Harley (ed.), Gonstanze Zikos and especially Max Delany and Know Your Product,lnstitute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1986, p. 9. tre staff of MUMA. For comments on this aspect of Store 5 see statements by Sandra Bridie, Melinda Harper and Anne-Marie May in Deborah Hennessy (ed.), Store S /s..., Anna Schwanz Gallery Melbourne, 2005, pp. 32-93,12, and 16 respectively. For an account of this position made in relation to the work ,Recent of John Nixon, see Carolyn Barnes, Abstraction in Melbourne', Arf & Iexf, no. 30, September/November 1 ggg, pp. 80-83. 10. A significant exhibition at this time, Abstraction at the Art '19. Peter Cripps, Pecession Arf & Other Strategies, pp.2-6. Gallery of New South Wales, curated by Victoria Lynn, 20. The VACF currently defines an 'emerging artist' as 'an artist h mounted the argument that there was a broad, irreconcilable their first five years of professional practice'. rubric, and rather than being 'new' they could be linked to 21. Stephen Bram had his first solo exhibition at City Gallery developments in Australian abstraction which had taken in 1988; Melinda Harper was represented by the gallery place since the 1 eariy 950s. See Victoria Lynn, Abstraction, from 1992 and had her first solo exhibition there in 1993; AGNSW pp.4-11. Sydney, 1990, Gary Wilson joined that siable (now Anna Schwartz Galler$ 11. Artists from First Draft (Vincente Butron, A.D.S. Donaldson) in 1994. Kerrie Poliness had her first exhibition at Tolarno had shown at Store 5 and vice versa. The catalogue to this Galleries in 1991 ; Rose Nolan was represented by Tolarno exhibition included statements by Gary Wilson as Director of from 1 992, holding her first exhibition there in 1 993. Kathy Store 5 and Vincente Butron, one member of the collective Temin and Constanze Zikos both held individual exhibitiorsd Directorship of First Draft, as well as an essay by Carolyn Sutton Gallery in 1992. Barnes specifically addressing the work of the Store 5 artists, 22. With the exception of the Ewing and George Paton Galleries project. and their Prior to this, one of the first identifications of which was funded and administered by the Melbourne a Store 5 was the collective identity exhibition New Melbourne University Student Union. Abstraction, curated by Ben Curnow at Artspace in Auckland 23 Among the factors that spurred this review was the further in 1990. expansion of contemporary an spaces, the i.nsecurity of tile 12. Nixon, 'lntroduction', John Abstract Art, Roslyn Oxley9 present funding arrangements, combined with a general Gallery, Sydney, 1 992, unpaginated. Abstract Aft was increase in demand on limited VAB resources. held in Jan/Feb 1992. Octopus, at the University of South 24 'Flagship' contemporary an spaces were identified as Australia Art Museum followed in OcVNov that year also - Artspace and the Australian Centre for Photography (Sydneli. with a catalogue essay by Carolyn Barnes. ln 1 994, after the the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), closure of Store 5, Nick Tsoutas at the lnstitute of Modern Art Chameleon (Hobart), the Experimental Art Foundation mounted a Store 5 'retrospective'. Exhibitions of the core- (Adelaide), the lnstitute of Modern Art (Brisbane), and Praxb group of Store 5 artists in different configurations continued (Perth). Melbourne also was home to the Ewing and George into the late 1990si Primavera 7995, curated by Sue Cramer Paton Galleries which enjoyed the support of the VAB, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Stephen however the majority of its funding was derived from the Bram, Rose Nolan, Melinda Harper, Gary ff/son, AGNSW Melbourne University Student Union. Contemporary Projects, Sydney, 1998; andOpen House, )4 curated by Ben Curnow at the Pestorius Sweeney House, The 1 984-85 Revlew of the Visual Afts Board's Program of Asslstance for Ad was by Brisbane, 1 999. Contemporary Spaces conducted John Aquino and Karilyn Brown for the Australia Council. 13. Email correspondence from Stephen Bram to the author 3 Their report, published by the Australia Council in March May 2005. 1 985, set forth a body of conclusions and recommendations 14. I reviewed this series of works when it was originally shown which were adopted by the Visual Arts Board and outlined at Gallery. Robyn 'Gary See McKenzie, in its Ass/stance for Contemporary Aft Spaces: Policy Wilson: Flowers', Art pp. & Text, No. 40, September 1991 , Guidelines, Australia Council, March 1987. See Max Delany, 91-92. Ben Curnow, the inaugural Director of the Deakin 'Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council Funding Policy was University Gallery a supporter of Store 5 artists: Stephen lnstitutionalising the alternative: contemporary art spaces Bram and Kerrie Poliness, as well as Gary Wilson, all had 1 975-1 985', unpublished post-graduate seminar paper, gallery iridividual shows at the during 1991 , making up a Department of Visual Arts, Monash University, October 19(n- significant part of its program. 26. This was also a focus of the Power lnstitute at the UnivenE$ '15. See Robyn McKenzie, 'The Last Temptation of Rose Nolan', of Sydney established in 1968, under Bernard Smith. World Att, Vol.1 , No. 2, 1994, pp. 40-43. 27. This lacuna was offset by the presence of the Ewing and 16. For a on Iocal precedents parallels commentary and to this George Paton Galleries on campus, and the efforts of the approach to abstraction, 'Don't see Chris McAuliffe, Fence students themselves to access this realm independently d Me ln: Art and Suburbia in the Sixties', in Sarah Ferber, Chris their formal studies. When studying at Melbourne University Healy and Chris McAuliffe (eds-), The Beasts of Suburbia, I belonged to a student society (FASS), the central aim of Melbourne pp.94-1 University Press, Carlton 1995, 10. which was to redress the lack of teaching and information 17. Those members of Store 5 who attended art school at in the area of contemporary art by independently inviting Prahran (referring collectively to both Prahran College and speakers to address the student body. Victoria Prahran) College, had contact with the following 28. See Donald Brook, 'From the Margin', Terry Smith, 'Art artists, who were members of stafl at different times: Howard Criticism in Australia: The Mid-1970s Moment', Suzanne Arkley, Tony Clark, Aleks Danko, Lesley Dumbrell, Robert Davies,'The Feminisms of Lrp 1 975-.1 985', and Adrian Jacks, John Nixon, Jenny Watson. lt is also worth noting here Martin, 'Before and AfterArt & Iexf', in Robyn McKenzie, the relationship between Prahran and 1st Floor. Key initiators (ed.), Aft Papers: the present and recent past of Australian of the project went through T.O.P at Prahran College, art and criticism, special supplement, Agenda, No. 2, Augld including David Rosetzky, Lyndal Walker, Megan Marshall 1988, pp. 8-10 and 12-19. See also, Roger Benjamin, (ed-), and Alex Pittendrigh. Practices of Criticism in Austrara, Art Association of Austr{L 18 See Robyn McKenzie, 'lnfantile Terrible: Object Relations and 1 986. the Problem Child', Art & Text, no.45, May 1993, p. 30. Roger Benjamin, ,new 29. 'When is art academic? Notes on the seemed totally inadequate. Other strategies evolved to fulfil Academy', Art Monthly Australia, no.24, September 1 989, these needs.' pp- 8-10. Benjamin identifies four criteria for examining 33. Gary Wilson , Abstract Att, Roslyn Oxleyg process Gallery Sydney, the of institutionalisation: access to exhibition 1992, unpaginated. space; level of critical commentary; evidence of converts / 34. SWIM (Support Women lmage Makers) is just one imitators / followers; art market performance. ln his article example: a student initiative at Victoria College, prahran, instigated, of 1989, written before Store 5 had become Store 5, Roger in 1989, by Kathy Temin and Megan Marshall, among Benjamin concluded that'perhaps the best way to rule others ,new who came to be involved with 1st Floor, the group invited finally on the validity of claims for a academy' is to see 'practitioners' (artists, curators and writers) to speak whether its putative members have spawned a school. For about their work and their interests. Artists from Store academic art is pre-eminently art which re-produces itself., 5 spoke to the group in a weekly program which included The 'Ecole de Nixon' was one perjorative nickname given among others, artists Elizabeth Gower and Elizabeth Newman, (a to the 'core-group' of Store 5 artists. Whilst their conviction member of the artist collective 'A Constructed World,), in undertaking an exploration of the language of geometric curator Juliana Engberg (Director of the Ewjng and George paton abstraction as a continuation of the Modernist project might Galleries and Editor of Agenda\, and writer Brenda Ludeman. have been given impetus and direction through John Nixon,s 35. Seven, engagement and support, as I have argued here, through of a total of eleven, artists in The Subversive Stitch, 1991 at Monash undertaking this process of exploration, they extended that University Gallery had connections to Store language (in the directions of their own individual projects), 5: Bronwyn Clark-Coolee. Melinda Harper, Anne_Marie May, Rose in ways which exceeded the definitional boundaries of the Nolan, Kerrie Poliness, Kathy Temin, Constanze Zikos. The premise radical Modernism Nixon identified in his project; of the exhibition as ouflined by curator Natalie own as it ,pay equally exceeded the category of critical post-conceptualism King, was that these artists rather than homage to the forefathers Nixon is associated with by contemporary critics. lt does of modernist abstraction,, offered a critique, 'problematiz[ing] ,subvertfing], however remain, I think, a moot question whether thls work the limits of abstraction,, its 'formalist ,authority,. can be taken as that of a school: it is not.imitative, but it discipline' and its See Natalie King, The does takes a form of analysis and applies it: (under different Subverslye Stirch, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1991, pp.3-8. conditions, offering different choices, with different results). How the work looks in context, in relation to the historical 36. Linda Marrinon, for example, (already established as a circumstances and environment in which it operates, brings painter, and represented by Tolarno Galleries since 19g6), further readings again into consideration. exhibited works of sculpture for the first time at Store 5 (No. 27), in 0- ln the Monash University Collection as well as the Caboose October 1989, alongside mixed-media works by Rose - Nolan: portfolio of prints purchased in 1993 (the year it was exhibited Marrinon's Albury 1g8g consisted of two blocks of quartz placed at Store 5), there are works by eight of the thirteen Store stone on top of each other with the plastic armature 5 artists in this exhibition, mainly purchased during the of a six-pack of beer sandwiched in-between. The exhibition was noticed years the gallery was operating (in 1 992 and 1 993)" ln the and well-received in a review in ,Linda Mzard Collection which focussed on emerging art (initially Agenda magazine. See Naomi Cass, Marinon,, Agenda, No. g, in Melbourne) of the 1990s, there is a suite of paintings by December 1989. Later, in 1993, Marrinon exhibited related works along with Kerrie Poliness dated from 1 989 to1 992, purchased 1 993; sculpted terracotta pieces, at Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. works by Constanze Zikos, one of which is from 1991 , purchased 1 993; a work by Kathy Temin from her exhrbition 37. Exhibitions at Store 5 were organised by invitation. Artists paid basic at Sutton Gallery in 1 992, purchased 1 995; and a 1 996 work costs including a contribution to the rent and by Rose Nolan. covering the expense of a mailout if there was one, but 3l- Cripps claims that he and Nixon chose their position ,outside additional overheads that could have been accrued (things such as the parameters of the existing gallery structure,. However, staffing) were not factored in. lt ran under a (volunteer) in his essay he describes a dialectical process in which DIY ethic. 'methods and techniques' from 'Minimalism, process and 38. Astronomy 1 62 institutional structures, were assimilated into art practice, at the same time as there was a developing perception of the inadequacies of 'the system', and its ability to serve artists needs, with the consequent development of these ,other strategies' to fill the gap. lt is not clear which came first, and where the choice fitted in. See, peter Cripps, Becesslon Art & Other Sfrategles, pp. 3-6. 2- See Peter Cripps, Recession Aft & Other Sfrategles, p. 6: The development of alternative spaces can be seen as part of the move by artlsts to become responsible for their own promotion. lt also registered a desjre to determine how their work was to be viewed. Throughout the seventies the commercial galleries were unable to provide the promotion or the professional support structure desired by these artists with their increasing output. An exhibition every two years Diena Ger:rgetti installatir:n view 1992

h' top l: Diena Gecrgetti installation view'l 992 top r: Kerrie Poliness Wal! painting 1991 botiorn l; John Nixon instaliation view 19$2 bottom r: Tony e lark Iryo le,';'lples 1990