2/2 – 7/4 2013 INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL & FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE PRESENT INSIDE RUNNING The Sport of Art

Erin Coates Simon Horsburgh Richard Lewer Gabriella Mangano & Silvana Mangano Todd McMillan Sarah Jane Pell Patrick Pound Nick Selenitsch

A PROJECT BY RICHARD LEWER & RIC SPENCER INSIDE RUNNING

The Confessions of a Sport 2 . & Art Addict Ric Spencer

THE CONFESSIONS OF A SPORT & ART ADDICT INSIDE RUNNING

Ok I admit it I’m a jock at heart, I Likewise hanging off a ledge, structure and feedback loops. As he says Steel springs”) and of him developing his love sport. As a kid I was always throwing judging the next hold or optimising the “Shooting hoops is a meditative training legendary skills by repeatedly hitting a golf a ball and catching it – up and down, path of a bouldering run, through her exercise for playing basketball. Art is a ball with a stump up against the water- throwing the tennis ball against the wall, climbing Erin Coates also responds to meditative training exercise for real life”. tank near his house. And who can forget kicking the footy up onto the roof and these types of stress levels on the body and Within sport, and particularly Cliff Young, the Potato farmer who ran catching it as it came bouncing back down. the need to internalise knowing. Her work here team based pursuits, the idea of (shuffled) in gumboots for over five days The ball changed depending on what for Inside Running has been developed team becomes the focus… and the teams to win the first Sydney to ultra- season it was but the premise didn’t, over through seven years of climbing, learning exploits become synonymous with the marathon or Shane Gould’s five Olympic and over, the relationship between ball and techniques and building confidence in individual. Over the 34 seasons, Selenitsch medals in the pool as a fifteen year old hand becoming subconscious, body and her body’s capabilites. Coates’ work has scored more then 10,000 points, In Australia sport has a definitive ball becoming one. As a kid sport seemed reflects the technicalities of climbing and in the process pushing his life into the link with mythology, it often conjures less a word to me and more a state of being the precision and planning required for a realm of the team, and the legend of their images, in a sense it is the stuff of legends – of simply being in a state of activity; of successful climb, but also the challenge and accomplishments. and those legends become collected running, climbing, riding, swimming. The the fun of interacting with the landscape Team sports are battles; for a team and engrained in our cultural psyche. idea that sport was something that was (whether it has been formed over millennia to go into battle, training and the constant Mythology has a social function, it builds separate to other parts of life didn’t cross or built in the last twenty years) and the rigorous pursuit of skills needed for ethics and through this a sense of cultural my mind. Equally neither did the notion spontaneity required to get the best out of survival are required, constantly refining identity. Through perceived personal that drawing was separate to jumping these interactions. Incorporating elements both defensive and attacking moves. relationships with those that play out or making something out of cardboard of climbing and bouldering, “buildering” However today, particularly in the media, these myths (icons) we develop a sense different to learning headstands. Maybe or urban climbing brings to the fore the sporting hero’s endless training is of self worth and from that a broader life growing up in the hills of Perth was knowing the limits of the body and where usually forgotten. Today the sportsperson nationalism. As it’s played out in Patrick different to elsewhere (I’m sure it was) it is situated and what it can achieve - in seemingly appears on the big stage ready Pound’s work, folklore and mythology built but for me learning to swing and learning essence the phenomenology of being for battle and if they win then they are around sport become fundamental to the to draw a straight line seemed to be two conscious of the self as it moves through ordained incomparably gifted. (Unlike tenant of understanding the self within a inseparable things. its environment. ninja films) we are rarely privy to the broader and socially identifiable narrative. Inside Running is not a treatise Gabriella Mangano and Silvana endless hours of training that prepares Pound himself emerges to fight the good on the equality of art and sport nor Mangano’s work also involves itself in this these athletes for their moment in the fight - always there when the action is a theoretical dissertation on the (in) type of nuanced dialogue, incorporating sun. And we are definitely not privy to the taking place. Through his engagement with comparable position of sport and art in a series of choreographed movements burnout and faded dreams of the many walking around Princes Park (home of the life. Neither is it specifically related to the which relate back to their penchant for which help paints this moment for the Carlton Football Club) Pound is conscious history of the two (a long one) but rather trying sports that involve fluidity through one. The cultural climate of sport and art of the importance of the encounter, the it brings together the work of nine artists space. These include attempting a variety in this sense are not so different and what moment that changes a game, a career, a for whom the idea of activity (particularly of sports which have led them to recent the world tends to miss when the media life… but also of collecting these moments as it relates to a sport) is central to the excursions into somatic practices that speaks of the creativity of particular artists and how memorabilia is used to develop way they view their art practice. Like me involve a holistic body-centred approach, is that they too spend many, many hours myths. To be remembered in history we they’re addicted to sport and art and the like Kung Fu, Tai chi and Qigon. Rendered in training and that within the arts burnout need to achieve but history of course is nexus of the two - which culminates in in video, their movements capture the and failures can also be a part of the reliant on embellishment to survive. 3 . different approaches to coaching, learning, flowing gracefulness and energy that landscape. Todd McMillan delves into the Central to the premise of Inside adaptation and translation. For all of them exudes from bodies conscious - through murky waters of judgement, critique and Running is getting inside sport and the though the skills they have developed training - of their breath and vitality: “We the fear of not being good enough – but rationale behind playing, but to also as artists is testimony to hours spent in enjoy training as a group, the dynamic for me his videos of swimming and rowing recognise that such things as sport and the studio and also equates with lessons energy in a room. The rhythm of training; are not so much about failure but the idea art are built on mythology and the desire of discipline and training learnt through sounds, silence, vibrations, movement, of pushing yourself into the unknown to to literally, through skills development, much time in the practice and playing silence, breathing… our bodies belonging see what lies there. In this sense his work build a narrative around yourself through of sport. to this.” is brave and the idea of “not succeeding” engagement and participation. I spent many hours learning and Understanding the dynamic becomes secondary to the idea of just Sport, like art, offers us moments honing sports skills - both in my own time relationship between body, space and beginning – and of filling the void of time of such sublime novelty that it persuades and through training sessions – developing others is also pivotal in the confines of the that lies in front of each of us. us that the world is not predictable and that what is now termed “muscle memory”; that boxing ring. Richard Lewer’s large scale Simon Horsburgh’s sport of choice we are better, much better, then the sum of is through the repetition of an act acquire drawing installation for Inside Running is also water based and also incorporates this ourselves. Both art and sport can offer us the strength and consolidation of a specific responds not only to the ring but also sensation of taking off into the unknown. that, the possibility of possibility, in striving motor task into the very fibre of your being. the training gym and the tactility of the Each wave is an individual element of for a newer, better benchmark we come So much so that when your body is under equipment used in boxing. A nostalgia nature and deserves the complete attention across such unfathomable occurances stress and your mind hasn’t the time or for the atmosphere of the gym eeks out of and acknowledgement these gifts bring. and outcomes that we can only nod with oxygen to think, your body can take over Lewer’s work; as the body responds to all For Horsburgh surfing is not something disengenuosness at why we bother with and perform in its own right. Sarah Jane the senses; touch, smell and taste as they undertaken on the weekends but rather plans. Creativity needs discipline, skill and Pell’s work takes the idea of training as a become apparent though his drawings. His a lifestyle or more-so the possibility of training to emerge but it also needs gaps key element to her audio visual work. Part work combines the subject matter of learnt momentary transcendence. His finely in the fabric of logic through which to pop of the transition of knowledge particularly skills as they come from the gym and into his balanced sculpture pulls together elements out – because only when we are slapped relevant to sport is the art of coaching methods of making – providing moments of tension, apprehension and fear but also across the face by perfect moments of and Pell’s work takes the coach’s voice (in of endurance and precision developed by the dream of flight, of that perfect moment. incongruity do we realise that things like this case her own) and puts it inside your putting the body through years of training The thrill of being complete with the wave sport and art manifest implausible delight. head. When diving, stress on the body is and training others. Lewer’s love of sport is is exuded in Horsburgh’s work and through amplified through increased pressure and about the development of the self through this the audience is encouraged to let go, Ric Spencer is an artist and writer and currently internal dialogue becomes all apparent a disciplined rhetoric of precision but also to stop worrying about the fear of falling Curator at Fremantle Arts Centre. He was sportsman of the year for his high school in 1984, represented within the claustrophobic confines of about being part of a community. over and to move toward a realisation that in cricket at junior level, played A hearing your breath and your body Nick Selenitsch understands this in letting go of our fears we might become grade cricket for Midland Guildford and footy in the operating within a different elemental idea of sporting community having played that which we dream of. country and amateur leagues . He holds a Doctor of condition. Muscle memory here takes on with the same basketball team, “Not Bad As a kid I dreamed of becoming like Creative Arts from Curtin University. increased importance within the anxiety Thanks”, for 34 seasons now. Also pivotal my idols – like Viv Richards, Barry Cable of panic and coping in life-threatening to his work is the understanding that an and Kenny Hunter - and I immersed myself situations. In Pell’s work the performance act is delivered over and over - in the case in the stories of their achievements. I loved and freedom of being in neutral buoyancy of basketball the ball is shot through the urban legends which became sporting is countered by the real need to master hoop. The refinement of this particular act mythology – like the story of “the Don” specific skills needed to operate within and the bizarre inconsistency with which it (folklore as well known to any Australian these environments. happens provides a common denominator as Phar Lap’s heart or the boys running the from which Selenitsch queries form, gauntlet at Gallipoli “What are your legs?

THE CONFESSIONS OF A SPORT & ART ADDICT INSIDE RUNNING

There is an incomparable sensation I experience when I am climbing; a kind of energised focus that I have heard theorists describe as ‘flow’. Erin Coates 4 .

There is an incomparable sensation I incorporated these into a conglomerate was the 2008 winner of the Joondalup with the thumb down and elbow out. The experience when I am climbing; a kind of bouldering structure comprised of the best Invitational Art Award and has undertaken grip maintains friction against a hold by energised focus that I have heard theorists holds public art offers. artist residencies at PICA in Perth and Red pressing outward toward the elbow describe as ‘flow’. Bouldering – climbing Gate Gallery in Beijing. She is currently jug: a positive shaped hold that is easy to shorter routes without ropes – has this When she was growing up Erin spent working towards an upcoming exhibition grip and pull on same quality but is also punctuated by considerable time snorkelling along the at Spectrum Project Space in Perth called off-width: a chimney route where there are moments of collective problem solving north and south west coasts of WA on The Cars That Ate Perth. two surfaces opposite each other, however and camaraderie. We work on a bouldering long trips that her Dad would organise as the gap is too wide to use stemming moves problem until we get the sequence of a professional shell diver. As a child and Climbing and it requires unconventional techniques, moves. Often each climber adds another teenager she also played hockey, before and Bouldering Terms: considered by many climbers as awkward transition between a hand or foot hold entering a period of late-teenage art-school arête: a small ridge-like feature or a sharp and uncomfortable. and cooperatively we are able to create the angst and ceasing all healthy outdoor outward facing corner on a steep rock face route, or solve the boulder problem that activity. smear: a climbing move that uses direct beta: information or advice given on the someone else has set. Living in British Columbia, Canada pressure against the flat face in the absence crux sequence before attempting a climb Bouldering in urban landscapes in her mid-twenties Erin discovered rock of any positive holds. (buildering) appropriates urban structures climbing. She has now been climbing and buildering: (taken from ‘bouldering’) stemming / bridging: climbing using to use them in a way they were not intended. bouldering for over seven years and has climbing on urban structures and two faces and applying pressure outwards This expands the function of urban space made climbing trips to China, Thailand, architecture against the faces to move upwards and critically challenges the way the built Canada, USA, France and Spain. In campus: powerful upwards climbing sloper: hand hold with very little positive environment is inscribed to homogenise addition to bouldering and rock climbing, moves which require only arms with no surface and poor grip potential - is corporeal interaction. This artwork, which Erin and her friends partake in both footholds comparable to palming a basketball I have made with my climbing friends, planned and spontaneous ‘buildering’ – crimper/crimp: (verb/noun) a hold which argues that bouldering structures of public the appropriation of urban structures as is only just big enough to be grasped with Climbing ‘She Magic’ in Kalbarri. art, in contrast to being an irreverent and boulder routes. the tips of the fingers 2012 mocking act is rather a way of intensifying Erin Coates is a Perth-based artist Photograph by Andreas Mitteregger crux: the most difficult sequence in a our experience of the public built and curator. She holds a Masters of climb Planning Diagrams for Slopers & Dynos, environment and collapsing the prescribed Fine Arts from the University of British or The Art of Bouldering Public Art aesthetic experience that is set out for us. Columbia, Canada, and her artwork has dyno: a dynamic move to grab a hold that 2012 When my friends and I created bouldering been exhibited in China, Canada, Turkey requires both feet to leave the climbing Pencil on paper sequences on these public sculptures, we and Australia, including exhibitions at surface contributed to each artwork by giving it its the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, edging: using the edge of the climbing own unique bouldering route. Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and Perth shoe on a foothold; sometimes only a few Of course, it was also fun. Institute of Contemporary Art. Her video millimetres is required with the correct Recording these bouldering sessions Thirst was a part of the official selection for angle and pressure applied and making moulds from the holds we 2012 Revelation Perth International Film free-soloing: climbing completely unaided appropriated, I have cast a series of Festival and was also screened as a part and unprotected by gear Perth Public Art Climbing Holds. I have of Loops at FELTspace, Adelaide. Coates gaston: a climbing grip using one hand

ERIN COATES INSIDE RUNNING

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ERIN COATES INSIDE RUNNING

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SIMON HORSBURGH INSIDE RUNNING

My current level of engagement with the sport is varied and rewarding. I live in a small village on Victoria’s Surfcoast, amidst a close-knit community of similar tragics. I surf several times a week… Simon Horsburgh 7 .

T-Bird before I could walk. I played the obligatory I lived and worked in inner-urban art has been the recipient of an Australian footy (Australian Rules) and cricket, which ghettos, scratching out a largely nocturnal Postgraduate Award as well as Arts Victoria In the context of surfing, the eventually gave way to skateboarding and existence as a starving bartender/artist and International Cultural Exchange and New relationship with form and the endurance later to martial arts, but from the age of making sporadic trips to the beach - trips Work Grants. He has an MFA (Research) of an image is tenuous. In reality, the eight, my sporting passion and thus far life- that were characterized by dwindling levels from the Victorian College of the Arts experience of surfing is a collection of long obsession has been surfing. of coordination and a woeful lack of fitness. and held a studio residency at Gertrude intense, fleeting moments. Even images I did not grow up on the coast. My devotion was reignited by the Contemporary. Simon currently lectures that have become iconic in surfing culture My experience of surfing was mediated first of several trips to Indonesia, andI in sculpture and design studies at Monash are records of split second encounters. by distance and confined to Christmas moved back to the coast permanently College in Melbourne. They describe something that is constantly holidays and the rare day trip that a five years ago with the prime objective of in motion and more impossibly, an event busy family of five could squeeze in, to repositioning surfing as the central activity T-Bird that is utterly contingent upon a confluence accommodate the offbeat interest of a in my life. 2006 Flourescent lamp, playwood surfboard stinger of circumstances in order to exist. single child. This was, incidentally, 1980. A My current level of engagement Gaston Bachelard once wrote that 2000 mm (diameter) x 1200 mm time before what I would describe as the with the sport is varied and rewarding. Photograph by Simon Horsburgh a poet’s dream is a dream of flight. Surfing ‘surf-wear revolution’ and whilst no longer I live in a small village on Victoria’s Photo: ‘Dede at Freeline’ is a dream of flight. It is a finely honed counter-cultural, surfing was still a sub- Surfcoast, amidst a close-knit community balancing act, driven by the sheer thrill of culture and I was a pre-teen anomaly living of similar tragics. I surf several times a weightless, superhuman movement. It is a deep in bogan country. week – conditions and real-life permitting kind of harmonious defiance of what the Consequently surf magazines – and travel when I can, most recently elements and energy could possibly do - a became everything. I spent long, to southern Sumatra. I have expanded human intervention that attempts, for a landlocked months devouring their content my creative practice to accommodate time, to keep the havoc at bay. and memorizing the information between a role as Creative Director for a local Similarly, T-Bird is an attempt to the covers in its minutiae. Primarily, it was surfboard manufacturer (making images create an enduring ‘image’ from dubious all about the photographs, but I took it all for landlocked kids) and thirty-something structural contingencies, amidst gentle in – the copy, the graphics, the advertising years since I caught my first wave, find the chaotic dynamism. The work eschews – and it is impossible for me to reflect act as compelling and intoxicating as ever. the way surfing looks in deference to the on my relationship with surfing without way surfing feels. It is an abstraction that acknowledging the profound impact that Simon Horsburgh is primarily derives from explicit material relationships its symbiotic visual culture had on me as a sculptor and installation artist. His and implicit formal imperatives, aspiring a boy and later as an artist. In hindsight prevailing artistic preoccupations are with to a surfer’s desire to suspend everything I now wonder whether the visual side of elemental dynamics and the formal and that is impossible about their situation, on surfing was in fact the chicken or the egg. poetic potential of ordinary things. He the off-chance that they might transcend I continued to surf compulsively has exhibited extensively in Melbourne, everything that is. through my teens and early twenties, as well as interstate and abroad across I’ve been involved with sport for spending a few years residing on the the past fifteen years. Simon spent four as long as I can remember. Like so many coast in southwest Victoria. Surfing years on the management committee of Australian kids I was given a bat and ball then took a back seat for a time, while artist-run organization West Space. He

SIMON HORSBURGH INSIDE RUNNING

My personal mantra, Skill, Discipline and Training is analogous to both my art making and sporting pursuits… Richard Lewer 8 .

Sport has always played a pivotal Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne (2011); role in my life and its entanglement with Painters and Dockers, Hugo Michell “Northside boxing gym” art was evident (to me) from an early Gallery, Adelaide (2011); The Sound 2012 Photograph by Andrew Curtis age…it was my dream to either be an of Your Own Breathing, Hugo Michell artist, or to own my own sports shop, Gallery, Adelaide (2010); New York Below small photo or to preferably do both. My personal Stories, Melbourne International Art Fair “Christmas Bash North side Boxing gym” 2007 mantra, Skill, Discipline and Training Solo Exhibition, OREX Gallery, Auckland is analogous to both my art making and (2010) and 10 Days in Gunbalanya, Top large photo sporting pursuits (currently boxing, tennis, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide (2009). “Northside boxing gym photo board” 2012 table tennis, surfing and fishing) and the His work was recently surveyed in the Photograph by Andrew Curtis discipline of goal-setting, daily training, exhibitions I Must Learn To Like Myself strategically managed competition and at the Waikato Museum of New Zealand Large photo below “Christmas Bash North side Boxing gym” visualization applies to me both as an artist (2010) and Nobody likes a Show-Off at 2007 and sportsperson. Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) (2009). Recent group exhibitions include: In Melbourne, Richard was a Negotiating This World, Contemporary member of the Northside Boxing Club Australian Art, Melbourne National in Preston training three times a week Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2012); since 2001, holding member, committee Yonder, Perth Institute of Contemporary member (2009-2011) and trainer (2010- Art, Perth (2012); 10 ways to look at 2012) positions at the club till his recent the past, National Gallery of Victoria relocation to Fremantle. Whilst living in (2011); Freehand: Recent Australian Melbourne, Richard was also a member Drawing, Heidi Museum of Moden of the Royal Park Tennis Club (2007- Art (2010); I Walk the Line, Museum of 2012) playing several times a week with Contemporary Art, Sydney (2009) and the another “Inside Running” artist, Patrick Basil Sellers Art Prize, Ian Potter Museum Pound. Since moving to Fremantle, of Art, Melbourne (2010 and 2008). Artist Richard has become a member and trainer residencies have included: ISCP, Brooklyn, at Gloveworkx Boxing Fitness Gym, joined New York (2010); Gertrude Contemporary, the Fremantle LawnTennis Club, surfed Melbourne (2008-2010); Colin McCahon weekly and taken up fishing. Residency,Titirangi, New Zealand (2008) Richard was born in 1970 in and Lewer is currently artist in residence Hamilton, New Zealand, and currently at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle lives and works in Fremantle, Western (2012). Richard is represented in Australia Australia. Since the early 1990s, Richard by Hugo Michell Gallery (Adelaide) and has exhibited widely in Australasia, recent Fehily Contemporary (Melbourne) and in solo exhibitions include: Safe Travels, New Zealand by Gow Langsford Gallery.

RICHARD LEWER INSIDE RUNNING

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RICHARD LEWER INSIDE RUNNING

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GABRIELLA MANGANO & SILVANA MANGANO INSIDE RUNNING

Some we mastered and became quite good at, others we failed miserably and persisted until the challenge became uninspiring.

Gabriella Mangano & Silvana Mangano

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Our relationship with sport Recently we have become of Art, Melbourne (2009) They have been and movement has been an ongoing more interested in somatic practices, included in several group exhibitions experiment of researching, sifting, finding movement that involves a holistic body- including, recently, All Our Relations,18th and trialling - finding an appropriate sport centred approach. We enjoy that these Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2012) Basil that matches our body, mood, disciplines centre on the energy within Sellers Art Prize, Ian Potter Museum of temperament and lifestyle at the time. the body, shifting energies from subtle Art, Melbourne (2012) Contemporary Here is a combined list of the many movements to forceful actions. (Kung Fu, art: women, Queensland Art Gallery/ sports we have tried. Some we mastered Tai chi, Qigong) GOMA, Brisbane (2012); IdentityV111, and became quite good at, others we We enjoy training as a group, the Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo Japan failed miserably and persisted until the dynamic energy in a room. (2012); 21st Century: art in the first challenge became uninspiring. The list is in Bodies moving, the continuous decade, Queensland Art Gallery/GOMA, chronological order of experience; ratings flow of movement, the repetition. Legs Brisbane(2011); Before and after science: are based on our personal performance, thumping simultaneously on wooden the 2010 Adelaide biennial of Australian the levels achieved and also the enjoyment floors, the sound and the vibration art, Art Gallery of South Australia of the sport. it causes. (2010);The trickster, The Gyeonggi The rhythm of training; sounds, Museum of Modern Art, Seoul(2010); Love, Running A+ silence, vibrations, movement, silence, loss and intimacy, NGV International Cricket B breathing, swinging of limbs, jumping, (2010). Basket ball D sweating, turning, twisting, stretching, the Their work is held in collections Bowling D build up, pacing, pushing ourselves, pushing such as Chartwell Collection, Auckland, Handball B others, articulating, achieving, failing, The Monash University Museum of Art, Trampoline C Gymnastics C focusing, falling into distractions, holding, Melbourne, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ping pong B releasing, meaning… Our bodies belonging Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Soft ball B to this. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Netball B The University of Wollongong, and The Soccer C Gabriella Mangano and Silvana University of Queensland Art Museum. Rugby league D Mangano live and work in Melbourne. Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne Skating A The artists completed a Bachelor of and Sydney represent Gabriella Mangano Skateboarding B Fine Art (Majoring in Drawing) from the and Silvana Mangano. High jump A+ Victorian College of the Arts. Selected solo Javelin B exhibitions include Shapes for open spaces, Squash C within which all things exist (Production Stills) Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne (2012); 2012 Long jump A+ Neon, Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Images courtesy of the artists and Anna Schwartz Yoga B Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney Swimming A (recently a D) Melbourne (2010); In the stillness of Shaolin Lui He A+ shadows, Anna Schwartz Gallery Sydney Tai chi A+ (2009), Gabriella Mangano, Silvana Ziran Qigong A Mangano, Monash University Museum

GABRIELLA MANGANO & SILVANA MANGANO INSIDE RUNNING

A complaint often laid at contemporary art is that it is incomprehensible to those outside of the art world. To this I counter that so is cricket. Each can be learnt and in learning one can learn to love. Todd McMillan 12 .

The photographic and video art Ague political, poetical or rhetorical.” And yet What destroys what at Firstdraft Gallery of Todd McMillan brings the themes of it is a sort of resigned ennui-y success in and Masculin Feminin (part 2) at Sarah Romanticism to bear on the humorous In his poem Written After Swimming that achieved nothing but the feat itself, Cottier Gallery. He has also had a number and pitiful adventures of a twenty-first From Sestos To Abydos, Byron recounts an and thereby stealing the poetry in terms of of solo exhibitions at Hugo Michell Gallery, century Everyman. Deeply introspective, ocean swim of his that recalled the Greek a feat from the initial myth, as ‘degenerate GRANTPIRRIE and Sherman Galleries. the images evoke the tragicomedy of life, myth of Hero and Leander. In this myth modern wretch’s’ are oft to do. In its place Todd McMillan is represented by the inevitability of failure, and sincerity Leander swims across the sea to make love a new self-serving narcissistic poetry is Sarah Cottier Gallery. in the face of hopelessness. The place of with Hero. He succeeds in doing so for a created, poetry of the cynical, melancholic endurance and repetition in making sense summer’s length until one night a storm Byron like figure. swim 6 (from the series ague) of the world is afforded great significance. blows out the light Hero had as a beacon, Byron swam from Europe to 2009 c type photograph While these are broad themes, the work and Leander becomes lost and drowns at Asia. I tried to swim from England to sea. In retelling this story Byron contrasts 78 x 117cm focuses on the trials of men: how their France. Where he succeeded, I failed, but Edition of 5 + 2AP lives negotiate injury, obstacles, and the his own intentions to that of Leander’s; a succession occurs in that I was able to Photograph by Michael Moran ultimate barrier of empty time. love/glory, and subsequently its result: produce a work that speaks of the lone image courtesy of the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery In Deconstructing Harry, the death/fever or a rather a simple cold. figure in art history that has Byron himself lead played by Woody Allen speaks of his And think I’ve done a feat as its basis. inability to love. His Partner Fey counters: today. Ague is not so much about failing Fey: But you Love baseball. to achieve, failing to find something that is Harry: Baseball is easy because it But since he crossed the rapid tide, grand, rather it is about the impetus to try has rules. It has foul lines. According to the doubtful story, To woo— to do some thing that is if not impossible is I too love sport and for similar and—Lord knows what beside, And swam at least extraordinarily hard. In swimming reasons. I love rugby league, I love for Love, as I for Glory; the English Channel I experienced illness, cricket, and I love almost anything ‘Twere hard to say who fared the fear, exhaustion and self-doubt. An where somebody kicks something or hits best: Sad mortals! thus the gods still plague existential experiment, it saw me attempt something with a bat. For me it is in the you! He lost his labour, I my jest; For he something that was beyond myself. And yet apprehension of rules, the development was drowned, and I’ve the ague has myself as a protagonist in a self created of skills, and commitment at the sake of In 2008 I trained and attempted to drama of wholly human proportions. other aspects of your life that sport and swim the English Chanel. The subsequent In cantos iii – sea study auto art are intimately linked. A complaint video work I produced was entitled Ague. portrait and homage to those now lost often laid at contemporary art is that it With Ague being defined as a febrile I paddle to the horizon as the sun sets incomprehensible to those outside of condition in which there are alternating thinking of Andrew McAuley. the art world. To this I counter that so is periods of chills, fever, and sweating. cricket. Each can be learnt and in learning Byron’s swim was a success of sorts Todd McMillan is a Sydney based one can learn to love. for he achieved where the mythic Leander artist whose recent group exhibitions had failed. Indeed Byron later wrote, ”I include Primavera 2012 at the Museum plume myself on this achievement more of Contemporary Art, Desire Lines at the than I could possibly do any kind of glory, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art,

TODD McMILLAN INSIDE RUNNING

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TODD McMILLAN INSIDE RUNNING

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SARAH JANE PELL INSIDE RUNNING

1988-9, 1991 School Sport Victoria State High Jump Record Holder

Sarah Jane Pell 15 .

Daily repetitive bounce-diving in remote because I was a girl. Lest we forget. Commercial Diver accreditation from the Centre Yuri’s Night and 2m2 Gallery black water harbours After passing up engineering to Underwater Centre Fremantle, her interest Stavenger Norway. Attracts extreme weather attend art school at the VCA, I became in performance in extreme environments Pell has also published and and gnarly crews obsessed with outdoor rock-climbing at Mt. and escapist tendencies deeply ingrained. presented widely – from the International Nature is a fierce competitor Arapilies and Gariwerd. This lasted seven She was determined to take the notion that Astronautical Congress to MOMA Brisbane, Both the internal and external kind years. artists explore new worlds to the extremes. TEDxSydney, TEDxISU and TED Long impact performance Argentinean Tango filled the gap She became the first artist alumni of both Beach. Her DVD Walking with Water is for while and then in 2001, I started a PhD the International Space University and available on international release with To be a successful diver, you must be able Visual Art exploring Aquabatics as new the futuristic Singularity University, NASA Contemporary Arts Media AU/UK. Leonardo to overcome your fears works of Live Art at WAAPA and enrolled Ames. She is currently Co-Chair of the LABS awarded her PhD proposing Perform life-critical time-tagged in a recreational dive course at Perth European Space Agency Topical Team Aquabatics as New Works of Live Art, best manoeuvres — no matter what Diving Academy. Within a few months Art & Science, and Atlantica Expeditions international PhD Art & Science (English distractions present on deck or below — I became a fully-qualified ASAS Part 2r Undersea Colony Official Crew and is soon Language), MIT 2007. Her first Space Art practice arousal control Occupational Diver... and started making to begin training for the Mt. Everest Summit payload was launched on-board SPRITE- wwand be mentally focused dive art. expedition Mission Vision Passion in 2015. SAT Payload H-IIA JAXA Japanese Space Commit to lovingly surrender to the abyss The idea is to take one small step from Agency (GOSAT) 2009. Random Stats below, perform an action, return safely, underwater to outer space...little by little... and then slip into her deep embrace, 1988-9, 1991 Victorian State High Jump bit by bit...yes, yes, yes...we can do it!!! Deep Performance Enhancement over and over. Record Holder Dr Pell was recognised as “a young 2012 1996 National Student Indoor trail blazer of exceptional accomplishment’ Video, Audio, Acrylic & Steel Like most Aussie kids growing up, Rockclimbing Champion Women, Runner and honoured to be Australia’s first I felt grounded outdoors. I particularly ‘La petite Mort’ video stills night ‘mort’ dive, Up Open. TED Fellow. Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania 2009 enjoyed climbing trees, jumping, building, Pell has been making art for 20 Strahan Dive: Tim Richards, Matt Tennant, Nicole hammering, exploring bushland and all 2002 – 2012 ADAS Occupational Diver years and diving for 12 years. Her first Strzelecki, Jono Ross, Sarah Jane Pell. filmed and sorts of water activities. I was hopeless 2010 San Fransisco (first and only attempt) produced by Pell 2012 solo shows were at the National Gallery of at classical ballet, singing and music Half Marathon Victoria in 1997/8. Other highlights include or anything that required following expositions at the Western Australian instruction instead of exploring! Sarah Jane Pell is an artist, researcher Maritime Museum; Perth Institute of My teenage focus was on ‘skill’ and explorer from Melbourne. She spent Contemporary Arts; National Review with Vic State high jump, running and seven years in WA waters developing an of Live Art; International Symposium shot-put; several women’s basketball aquatic studio practice - by experimenting of Electronic Arts ISEA; Thailand New leagues; tennis teams and private coaching; with the fusion of diving, live art and Media Arts Festival MAP; Taiwan National and yoga. the aesthetics of life support and Museum, Museum of Fine Arts; Live Art At age 14, I was invited to join the the rigors of occupational sport-like Surgery UK; BEAP; Bonnington Gallery UK; Australian Institute of Sport for Rowing disciplines. Graduating with the unusual GreenMuseum.Org; Adelaide Festival of based on my biometrics and fitness. I combination of a PhD Visual Arts from the Arts; SPARTEN Space Art Environment, come from a strong rowing family but I had and ADAS P2r Reykjavik Arts Festival, NASA Ames Research never been in a boat. My parents forbid me

SARAH JANE PELL INSIDE RUNNING

“Ricky Ponting has given Pat Pound freedom to express himself in this World Cup, and the speedster is growing in stature as the tournament continues.” Patrick Pound 16 .

Sport has always played too big a Patrick Pound is a Melbourne based One of the works in this exhibition part in my life. I played table tennis for one artist. His work ranges from photos of features a collection of newspaper clippings Upside Down club and then with my brothers established things found flattened on the street, to of photographs of sportspeople from all found photos from an ongoing collection 2010 onwards a new club so we could play interclub more. a collection of Lost Bird posters; from types of sports. Their captions have been Courtesy of the artist and Fehily Contemporary, I played cricket for my school on Saturday newspaper cuttings of people with changed to feature Pound’s name instead Melbourne, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, and mornings and for a club on Saturday their faces covered, to the title pages of that of the person pictured. Mounted New Zealand afternoons. I did the same in the rugby of CANCELLED library books – Cubism on cards, they operate like a scrap book season. I was the captain of the first 11 and CANCELLED, Painting as a Pastime of a ‘could have been’. For example, one played in the championship first 15. When CANCELLED, Museum Pieces CANCELLED, of the captions beneath a press clipping I left school I played rugby for Marist and Great Expectations CANCELLED. now reads: “Ricky Ponting has given Pat then Ponsonby. I was never a champion. He also works with vast collections Pound freedom to express himself in this I had a few moments that I sometimes of found photographs filed in endless World Cup, and the speedster is growing in exaggerate. I made the Auckland under 19s, categories. There are portraits. There are stature as the tournament continues.” was punched in the scone by the All Black images of people in groups of two, three, In 1995 Pound bought his way into captain Sean Fitzpatrick (who years later four, five, and then crowds. There are ‘Men of Achievement’ as part of a ten year sent a nice note for my wedding), played photos of people with their names written project called ‘c.v. – a work in progress’. front yard cricket with Mark Greatbatch on them. There are pictures of cars, and In 2003 he featured in the Cambridge and backyard cricket with Martin Snedden; of pets, and of people with pets and cars. edition of ‘The International Who’s Who of clean bowled Martin Crowe in a rep There are photographs of people holding Intellectuals’, and in 2004 he was named tournament, and played a demonstration a single thing — a fish caught, a gift ‘International Artist of the Year’. He also rugby match inside the great Bryan received or, something else — something has a PhD in art history from the University Williams who’d been my hero when I was a worthy of being photographed. There is of Melbourne. schoolboy. I’ll never (let anyone) forget it. a whole set of photographs of amateur He is represented in Australia by models with the impressions of their Fehily Contemporary in Melbourne, and socks, or their waistbands embedded in New Zealand by Hamish McKay Gallery on their skin. There are images that in Wellington and Melanie Roger Gallery previous owners have marked to show in Auckland. His work is held in numerous where they are in the picture, or in which public and private collections including: cabin they stayed, or just which bunch the National Gallery of Australia, the of flowers on a grave is theirs. There are, National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of course, also photographs of people of New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery, and holding cameras, and photos with their the Dunedin Art Gallery. photographer’s thumb in them. There are numerous images that feature the shadow of their photographer. There is also a huge collection of people in the wind.

PATRICK POUND INSIDE RUNNING

17 .

PATRICK POUND INSIDE RUNNING

18 .

NICK SELENITSCH INSIDE RUNNING

In the past 23.5 years Nick Selenitsch has played approximately 1293 games of competitive basketball...

Nick Selenitsch 19 .

For me, the situation that 34 seasons), and been involved in three illustrates a relationship between art and Premiership victories. One particular (clockwise from top left): sport is epitomised by the act of ‘shooting Monday night (playing with the Human Balancing Act hoops’. Shooting hoops is a meditative Tornados Basketball Team) he amassed 2010 training exercise for playing basketball. Art a personal tally of 69 points, which the Photographic documentation is a meditative training exercise for real referees at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic (Suomenlinna, Helsinki) Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne life. The action of shooting hoops involves Centre reliably tell him is a stadium record. eyeing the target (the ring), shooting, Nick Selenitsch received a Bachelor Hitting the Wall gathering the ball, and repeating the same of Fine Art (Painting) with Honours from 2006 Type C photograph process over and over again. Engaging the VCA in 2003. He completed a Masters Documentation of a chalk wall drawing at Spensley with art involves looking at the work, in Cultural Material Conservation at the Street Primary School responding, gathering your thoughts and in 2005. Recent Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne looking over and over again. They are solo exhibitions include Felt, Sutton Gallery, NBT wins their 4th premiership; summer season both endless feedback loops, circulatory Melbourne, 2012; Structural Goals, Sutton 2011-12 systems that operate by integrating the Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; Movements, (Defeating Sweeney Plumbing 50-32, VBHBA body and the mind. Furthermore, both (with Arlo Mountford), RMIT Project Space, competition C-grade. Their 4th title in 65 seasons actions might be viewed as solitary, insular Melbourne, 2011; Linemarking, Y3K and counting) and frivolous endeavours yet they are also Gallery, Melbourne, 2010; and, psychic Stuck - to the participant - a method of being income, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2007 vividly aware of the world. 2009. Recent group exhibitions include Installation view Nylon carpeting, velcro, table tennis balls Shifting Geometries, Embassy of Australia, Variable dimensions Nick Selenitsch regularly employs Washington, DC, 2012; Rainbow Eaters, West Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces the strategy of adapting the aesthetics and Space, Melbourne, 2012; New Psychedelia, Photograph by Andrius Lipsys motifs of games, sports and street markings UQ Art Museum, Brisbane, 2011; Freehand: Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne to create open-ended visual systems that flirt Recent Australian Drawing, Heide Museum ambiguously with the rules and procedures of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2010; and, gone of their source; the results of which are in no time (gone in no time), Experimental something akin to maps of play. Art Foundation, Adelaide, 2009. In the past 23.5 years Nick Selenitsch was the recipient of the Selenitsch has played approximately 1293 2009 Qantas Travelling Art Prize. In 2010 games of competitive basketball. From he undertook an Australia Council Skills the age of 12 to16 he played competitive and Arts Development studio residency in tennis, but not quite as well. For the Not Helsinki. From 2006-08 he was a Studio Bad Thanks Basketball Club - the longest Resident at Gertrude Contemporary, standing of his team associations - he has Melbourne. scored over 10,000 points, been awarded Nick Selenitsch is represented in the best-and-fairest award 15 times (from Australia by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

NICK SELENITSCH Inside Running: the sport of art A project by Richard Lewer and Ric Spencer Fremantle Arts Centre 2 Feb – 7 Apr 2013

Acknowledgements Fremantle Arts Centre would like to thank Richard Lewer whose passion for sport has driven this project and for the tireless effort, inspiration and personal vision he has brought to this show. We would also like to thank the artists’ representative galleries and the artists themselves for their enthusiastic involvement in the show. FAC would also like to thank the Perth International Arts Festival for their support and encouragement of this project and the Department of Culture and the Arts for their ongoing support. Design: Dom Forde, famousvs.com Printing: Geon, Perth, Australia © 2013 Fremantle Arts Centre and the artists Fremantle Arts Centre City of Fremantle 1 Finnerty Street, Fremantle WA 6160 Australia ISBN 978-0-9872930-2-2

A Perth International Arts Festival event supported by Visual Arts program partner Wesfarmers Arts