OPINION Review: Cai Guo-Qiang at QAGOMA & Melbourne Now at NGV Anna Waldmann Two extraordinary exhibitions opened on the Bank, Berlin - is appearing in Australia for the same night: Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to first time. Earth at QAGOMA and Melbourne Now at NGV. The Tea Pavilion invites visitors to pause and reflect on the works in the exhibition. Visitors Falling Back to Earth builds on a longstanding can sample Tie Guan Yin tea from Cai’s home working relationship between the artist and the province of Fujian and watch a documentary gallery, which dates back to Cai’s participation created especially for Falling Back to Earth to in the Asia Pacific Triennial exhibitions in 1996 learn more about the processes behind the and 1999. exhibition. Cai Guo-Qiang said the exhibition title was At the opening Cai Guo-Qiang presented inspired by fourth-century poet Tao Yuanming’s Sound of the Earth, a suite of new improvised prose poem ‘Ah, homeward bound I go!’ performances with leading musicians William Barton and Wang Xinxin together with local There are only four works taking over the entire children from Voices of Birralee. ground floor of GOMA. Heritage (2013) is an installation of 99 replicas of animals including Cai is a megastar. His recent solo exhibitions pandas, tigers, bears, giraffes and kangaroos, and projects have included the retrospective lowering their heads to drink water together Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe, presented from a lake that is surrounded by white sand, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, evoking the islands of Brisbane’s Moreton Bay. New York, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 2008 and the Guggenheim Eucalyptus (2013), a 31-metre tree suspended Bilbao in 2009. He was Director of Visual and Cai Guo-Qiang along GOMA’s central Long Gallery, came Special Effects for the opening and closing China b.1957 Eucalyptus 2013 from a plantation earmarked for clearing for ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Spotted gum (Corymbia maculata), wooden stools, paper and pencils urban community development. The work In 2012, the artist appeared in solo exhibitions Length: 3150cm (approx.) was inspired by the ancient trees of Lamington in Los Angeles, Hangzhou and Copenhagen. Commissioned for the exhibition ‘Falling Back to Earth’, 2013 National Park, and creates a meditative, His first South American exhibition toured to Photograph: Natasha Harth, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art immersive experience. Cai presents Eucalyptus Brasília, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as an unfinished work to be completed by the in 2013. audience, who are invited to draw and write their ideas on the tree’s past and future. Peaceful and almost reverential the exhibition conveys a lyrical utopian vision that embodies The third major installation, Head On (2006) - Cai’s image of a ‘last-chance paradise and his Cai’s signature work of 99 life-size sculptures awareness of a sense of crisis.’ of wolves, was commissioned by Deutsche Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 Nothing could be more different at the The installation by Hotham Street Ladies who National Gallery of Victoria where Melbourne have created a domestic life-size environment Now is exuberant and anarchic. Assembling out of icing sugar is a fun way to explore over 250 outstanding commissions, acquired nostalgia and feminism. A wild performative and loaned works and installations, Melbourne shop by Anastasia Klose is selling a range of Now explores the idea that a city is significantly kitsch and humorous ‘knock-off’ t-shirts and shaped by the artists, designers and architects mugs. Lou Hubbard’s videos EYE OPS is a who live and work in its midst. homage to Luis Buñuel Un Chien Andalou made bearable only by its quirkiness. The exhibition brings together over 400 artists, architects, dancers, fashion and jewellery The NGV collection is the subject of artistic designers, spread over the NGV’s two sites and reflection, reinterpretation and repositioning, a daily rotating program of free workshops, with artists Arlo Mountford, Patrick Pound, talks, catwalks and show’n’tells during some The Telepathy Project, Julia deVille and design 600 events over the four months. practice MaterialByProduct bringing new insights to it through a suite of exhibitions, The collaborative curatorial structure of videos and performative installations. Melbourne Now saw more than twenty NGV curators working across disciplinary Melbourne Now is a wunderkammer of and departmental areas in collaboration joyful creativity, whilst Falling Back to Earth with exhibition designers, public programs has tranquil gravitas. Both enjoyable and and education departments. The project energising, they are must-see exhibitions this also involves a number of guest curators summer. contributing to specific contexts, including architecture and design, performance and www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/cai sound, as well as artist-curators invited to www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbournenow create ‘exhibitions within the exhibition’, develop off-site projects and to work with the NGV’s collection. The show moves into the RELATED LINKS streets of Melbourne with initiatives such as the Flags for Melbourne project, ALLOURWALLS at Utopia in Southern Queensland - Cai Guo-Qiang: Hosier Lane, walking and bike tours and open Falling Back To Earth via ABC Arts studios. Our Place In The Universe via The Art Life There are too many works to be able to Anastasia Klose distinguish a common thread, so I picked a One stop knock-off shop (Marcel Dachump) 2013 few favourites. Photo: Vanessa David Image courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 THE BUSINESS OF ART Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Art Award Anna Waldmann Maybe it’s the fact that Australia is an island: Qantas wanted a point of difference for their we are obsessed with travel, we need it for our support. There are hundreds of prizes and intellectual and emotional well-being; and if scholarships around the country and while we work in the arts, it’s a necessity and a career thousands of hopeful artists apply, often they requirement. are limited in scope, force artists to work in a certain genre or are acquisitive. The Qantas The red kangaroo pops up on many Foundation Awards look at an entire body of advertisements and banners for cultural events work, the artists are recommended by their because almost every blockbuster and touring peers in the contemporary art spaces in each exhibition requires transport. Despite that, not state and territory, and there are no limits to many people are aware of another aspect of the ideas the artists might put forward and how what Qantas, through its Foundation, is able they might be delivered. In 2011, a Community to do for individual artists. Residency component was included, to broaden the reach of contemporary art, share In 2007, Qantas decided to sell its corporate it with local communities and engage local collection. Arguably, even the fact that people and places in artistic and cultural there was a 1,000 works strong collection, activities. came a surprise to some. Twenty works were auctioned by Sotheby’s in May with its The Qantas Foundation Encouragement centerpiece, Brett Whiteley’s Opera House of Australian Art Award is made up of the (1971-1982) selling for $2.88 million. two elements every artist wants - money and flights to anywhere in the world on the At the time Qantas asked Australia Council for Qantas network. The Award recognises advice on what might be the best approach emerging Australian contemporary artists to return some of the funds so that the and aims to increase awareness of Australian money raised through selling art would help contemporary art by encouraging promising, Australian artists. As director of Visual Arts, I emerging artists to produce further work. was asked for ideas and for the best way to go Alex Davies beyond just giving a few grants to a few artists. Since 2008 the Qantas Foundation Art Award Häusliche Glück 2009 I thought about what every artist who spent a has supported 54 Australian contemporary mixed media installation few months in one of the VAB overseas studios artists, who have risen in artistic acclaim and courtesy the artist told us when they came back: that travel made enjoyed successful exhibitions in Australia and photo Alex Davies a difference to their career, that it opened their around the world: Katherine Huang, Vernon Ah eyes to possibilities they didn’t know existed, Kee, Yhonnie Scarce, Neridah Stockley, Izabela that it was a transformative experience. Pluta, James Newitt, Nick Selenitsch, Newell Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 Issue 2 - Summer/Autumn 2014 Laith McGregor S-O-M-E-O-N-E 2013 mixed media on paper 411 x 153 cm courtesy the artist Harry, Jemima Wyman, Roy Ananda, Lucy students to share storytelling and create The most important element is what the He says ’’I was able to expand my vision by Bleach, Brown Council, Ash Keating, Hiromi community connections; Ali Khadim (NSW) Awards mean for artists. For Alex Davies ‘’the understanding different modes of production Tango, Jess Olivieri and Hayley Forward, Min wants to engage children from Bamiyan, substantial support the award offered made as a professional artist and gain experience in Wong, Susan Jacobs, Mark Hilton and many England, Japan and Australia to connect and a significant contribution to my practice. It interacting with the broader arts community. more. create artwork using images of their own lives; enabled me to collaborate with leading artists The potential for creative development and Yinimala Gumana (NT) will collaborate with in Austria and Brussels throughout the course the experience I was able to gain at this level Some of the artists’ projects made a difference Indigenous artists from India and develop an of a year.