Issue #45 ArtWrite July 2011 Contents Contributors Editorial Features Death and Taxidermy by Madeline Winch 3 Aust-Racism: The Art of Vernon Ah Kee and Richard Bell by Elizabeth Geyer 6 The Performing Body: Performance Art and Performing Arts by Emiline Forster 10 Google Art Project’s Impact on the Art Classroom and Art Museum Excursion by Marina Grasso 16 Commute and Take Notice by Lucy Ainsworth 20 Museum Mile by Carey Corbett 24 Reviews Hit and Miss: Tom Polo by Alexander Bellemore 28 Bringing Art Into the Open by Ellin Williams 30 Bedknobs & Broomsticks by Jess De La Hunty 34 Art and the Naked Body by Kathleen Worboys 37 Michael Stevenson: Innovation of a Tired Space by Sophie Venardos 38 E.L.K by Georgina Payne-Loy 42 Arlene TextaQueen by Elizabeth Robinson 44 Forum Art Crimes by Rebecca Rossman 46 Vessels of Nature by Laura Gamio Raluy 48 A Collage of the Australian Landscape: Gascoigne & Connolly-Northey by Dorothy Lui 51 Artists and Social Media by Charles Heyen 52 Realistic Art by Julie Kim 56 Cynical Realism by Phoebe Chan 57 Art Jam Therapy by Vivian Low 60 Ross Watson by Jack Mochan 62 An Inevitable Flow: Creative Industry. Art Cannont Live Without Commerce by Sandy Chien 65 An Analysis of the Salon des Refuses by Catherine Brown 68 Auction Anxiety by Catherine Mesenberg 70 Recognising John Kaldor by Emma Robertson 72 Front and back cover: E.L.K, Jesus H. Chimp, Aerosol on wood. 1 of 5. 600x1200mm. Above: Ross Watson Untitled #03-10 (after van de Velde, 1672; featuring Matthew Mitcham) Contributors Editorial Madeline Winch A disturbing trend has emerged over the last decade in contemporary art practice. Lecturer Welcome to ArtWrite #45. ArtWrite is an online Elizabeth Geyer Margaret Farmer magazine of student writing created by students at the To gain access to the benefits that this ‘lucky country’ has to offer, it is a great advantage if you are born white. College of Fine Arts, UNSW. The feature articles in Emiline Forster Editor-in-Chief this edition are about undercurrents. We look at what’s The line between performance art and performing arts is becoming increasingly blurred. Emiline Forster bubbling under the surface of the art world and try Marina Grasso to spot the artists, trends and ideas that are waiting to The virtual and the real can enhance and complement the entire experience of art and galleries in harmony. burst into the open. Lucy Ainsworth New spaces have created a strong counter hub for arts production within Sydney. Style Maestro We enquire into how art affects communities, from Carey Corbett Kathleen Worboys the development of the arts in Sydney’s West to the Being asked to attend a museum offers a very different experience from being invited to a block party. global impact of the Google Art Project. We unearth Alexander Bellemore Section Editors the deliciously disturbing trend of taxidermy and Polo’s work addresses and revolutionises the mundanity of daily routine. Marina Grasso examine the well-known and always subversive art of Ellin Williams Charles Heyen Richard Bell and Vernon Ah Kee. The term ‘site-specific’ has been appearing in artists’ statements all over the world. Rebecca Rossmann Jess De La Hunty We also review a broad range of exhibitions, from Can an entity be considered taboo for what it’s designed to do rather than what it does? Editors artists as diverse as Canberra stencil artist E.L.K to Kathleen Worboys Alexander Bellemore Avant-garde multimedia artist Michael Stevenson, What is the difference between a naked body and a nude? Catherine Brown from various incarnations of the naked body to… Sophie Venardos Sandy Chien more versions of the naked body. Finally, we look at Stevenson throws his audience right in the deep end of his diverse discussions. Laura Gamio Raluy a number of forces that are shaping the art world of Georgina Payne-Loy Elizabeth Geyer today, including commerce, nature and social media. The f**k-god, f**k-the-world, fuck-the-art-scene mentality cruises through each of E.L.K’s artworks. Jess De La Hunty Elizabeth Robinson Catherine Mesenberg ArtWrite could not have come together without the TextaQueen is able to make compelling comments through her simplistic and naive style. Emma Robertson fantastic efforts of this cohort of students. The stand- Rebecca Rossman Elizabeth Robinson ard of the articles is testament to the hard work not What did art ever do to you? Sophie Venardos only of the authors but also of the team of editors that Laura Gamio Raluy Ellin Williams made sure each article was at its peak. In addition the Maybe we have always been but vessels of nature. Madeline Winch design team have done an incredible job of bringing Dorothy Lui twenty-five disparate articles together into one cohe- Gascoigne’s art has a wonderful weathered quality to it. Designers sive (and very good-looking) whole. Charles Heyen Lucy Ainsworth Without realising it I started collecting artists about five years ago. Jack Mochan Special thanks must go to Margaret Farmer, who guid- Julie Kim Georgina Payne-Loy ed us through this complex process. Her knowledge Sometimes the best artwork causes controversy and super-real art is no exception. Carey Corbett and generosity have been great catalysts in working Phoebe Chan towards creating this edition. One day, the bubble just burst and all that was left was disruption, despair and repression. Image Sourcing & Vivian Low Permissions We hope you enjoy meandering through this collec- Through painting, hopes, fears and ideas are all translated into a personal visual language. tion of articles. Jack Mochan Phoebe Chan The beauty of Ross Watson’s paintings and photographs is impossible to sum up in one glib phrase. Julie Kim Vivian Low Sandy Chien Emiline Forster Dorothy Lui As a creative industry, art has to keep evolving to pursue its real value. Editor-in-Chief Haihan Zhou Catherine Brown ArtWrite #45 People always want to analyse the rejected. Catherine Mesenberg Auctions, it seems, can trigger the fight-or-flight impulse. Emma Robertson John Kaldor has pushed the limits of art in Australia for almost forty-two years. 1 Features Death and Taxidermyby Madeline Winch A disturbing trend has emerged over the last decade animals. They used legs for lamps, feet and claws for in contemporary art practice. Initially it was just a chairs and even fashioned his and her elephant bed few, lone artists. Today, the somewhat creepy practice heads. This macabre furniture trend has also been of Taxidermy – yes, the stuffing of dead animals - has revived with contemporary designers and artists cre- become mainstream and is a full-blown trend. ating strange, grotesque and gothic pieces. Chilean- born, New York-based artist and designer Sebastian Taxidermy is traditionally considered a highly skilled Errazuriz is one such creator whose quirky piece The craft rather than an art form. Like craft in general, Duck Lamp 2002 plays with the dichotomy of life and taxidermy is experiencing a renaissance, particularly death. By using common objects (that is, the lamp not in the art world. Is it simply that once Damien Hirst the goose) he reminds people of their own mortality does something, it is only a matter of time before with an absurd but humorous approach. Errazuriz is everyone else follows? Or is there something else leading the way in taxidermy applied in design. behind this turn to taxidermy? Many contemporary artists have explored this niche The word taxidermy originates from the Greek ‘taxis’ medium in recent years. Mary Frey is an American meaning arrangement and ‘derma’ meaning skin. photographer who studies the relationship between Taxidermy is a skill where the skin of a dead animal photography and taxidermy. She describes this con- is taken and treated (to ‘freeze’ it). The skin is then nection: stretched over an artificial form (like a mannequin), its features arranged to represent a life-like expres- Photography invites us to pay attention. It describes sion. While the Egyptians were perhaps the first to with economy, precision and detail. It enables us to preserve animals after death, the Victorians were the stare, scrutinize, and become voyeurs. Taxidermy al- original masters of this art form when the idea of lows us to do the same. Its complete replication of an preserving the liveliness of a creature for perpetuity animal’s stance, gesture and look provides us a way to was very popular. This era was all about discovery, study and comprehend its existence.”(Frey) scientific study and the natural world. Even Charles Darwin had advanced skills in taxidermy. Here, taxidermy is observed as a medium that creates similar references to photography, recalling its origi- Renowned for being a bit over the top, the Victori- nal scientific and observational uses. While taxidermy ans went as far as creating furniture from parts of will always have significant connections to the notion 3 Features of ‘the real’, the added elements of fantasy, anthropo- way. She respectfully places sparrow wings on a still- morphism, the absurd and the exquisite have pushed born puppy, the creature still tightly curled in a foetal this medium beyond science and craft. position. It is a powerful work with serious tones, promoting reflection in the viewer. DeVille skillfully Damien Hirst has had a prolific artistic career which exercises the authority of taxidermy; it is, if nothing centres on the theme of death. Hirst is most famous else, a reminder of our fragility and that is always for the Turner prize winning work The physical impos- confronting. sibility of death in the mind of someone living, 1991, where he commissioned a fisherman in Australia to The past is always with us.