David M ThomasParty Disguised as Work or Work Disguised as a PartyBoxcopy, Brisbane7–28 July 2012 David M Thomas’ recent exhibition Party Disguised as Work or Work Disguised as a Party at Boxcopy in Brisbane presented an exhibition where art is neither all work nor all play. As an artist who works with a variety of […]
Jake WalkerPaintings and ReliefStudio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne13 July – 18 August 2012Painting and ReliefUtopian Slumps, Melbourne18 July – 18 August 2012 The titles of Jake Walker’s two solo exhibitions in July this year were homonymic descriptions. Paintings and Relief at Utopian Slumps presented a suite of nine paintings and an assortment of ceramic pieces […]
Steven RendallTelevision ProjectThe Substation, Newport26 July – 19 August 2012 An enormous painting of a retail television showroom formed the physical and conceptual centre of Television Project, Stephen Rendall’s recent exhibition at The Substation. The painting was initially sketched with blank white spaces on each of the represented television screens. An image of this partial […]
Max CreasyMaking MarksWest Space24 August – 15 September 2012 Looking at Max Creasy’s photographs at West Space, I am confused. The room sheet tells me that they are C-type photographs, but my eye suggests something else. The subjects of the images — highlighters, markers, pencils and pens — are depicted in a manner that is […]
Kosuke IkedaMelbourne Art-Power PlantRMIT Project Space20 July – 16 August 2012 Although at first glance Kosuke Ikeda’s Melbourne Art Power Plant may have looked like a room filled with boys’ toys, it was more like an alternate space for evoking a quiet revolution in the way we think about dirty energy. The exhibition was a […]
Katherine RileyPanpsychic Household SolutionsResidential locations throughout Melbourne Panpsychic Household Solutions is a project by Melbourne artist Katherine Riley, where her services as a ‘house cleaner’ are offered free of charge to willing participants. This offer, initially made in emails to friends, family and acquaintances and later publicised through social media and The Thousands, became so […]
Uncommon RoomJessie Bullivant, Heidi Holmes, Isabelle Sully and Isadora VaughanCurated by Isabelle SullyRear View, Melbourne5–25 May 2012* These artists have made the job of a reviewer pretty easy. I can think of no better metaphor for their outsized ambitions and inflated egos than the two giant beach balls that dominate the front space at Rear […]
There’s materialism and there’s materialism. Some documents.[^1] It’s as though this writer is speaking to and on behalf of a public that thinks not-knowing about Adorno, St John of the Cross, Derrida or Lacan is a responsible ignorance. As though to know that double messages could displace and even replace an image or thing is […]
Few artists are independent. Almost all rely on or seek support of some kind. There are, however, certain artists that require particular types of support. In 2010 I became involved in a project called the Supported Studios Network (SSN). The working group that maintains the project consists mostly of artists who work within visual arts […]
Brad : So, Chris, let’s talk about anarchy. Or, more precisely: I was wondering if you could tell me about the ways in which anarchist or syndicalist principles inform your practice? Christopher : I’m not approaching it from a hard-line political position, but anarcho-syndicalism is definitely something I align my work with. I’m not a […]
1 It is in the social that painting finds criticality. Painting’s particular set of constraints, its two-dimensionality, its ‘faciality’, its frontal, pictorial flatness, do not detract from this function. Painting by its nature sits apart. In this way it is predisposed to make comment. At the recent Paul Taylor symposium,[^1] someone — I think it […]
It is often said that we live in an era of post-production, of just-in-time labour practices in which the raw materialism of an industrial era is superseded by the immaterial and affiliative labours of the entrepreneur and the consumer. We need only turn to the concurrent worlds of a multinational corporation’s sweatshops, like Apple’s subsidiary […]
Scanning the landscape of local contemporary art practices, the body in motion presents itself in a variety of different guises. As a doing-body that negotiates space in Bianca Hester’s constructed environments; a choreographed dancer’s body in Sriwhana Spong’s videos and collages; and a medium — literally, a communication vessel — in Adelle Mills’ short, edited […]