Making connections, part II

Part II 
Here is my segue from Not the way home to a couple of exhibitions at The Rocks. Bear with me ..... it is more a reminder than a straightforward connection. 
Fowlers Gap the site of exhibition/ residency/project Not the way home, is a scientific research base of UNSW which has been shared with artists for many years. Here, artists engage with geologists, anthropologists, ornithologists, agriculturists, astronomists and engineers who are all there to engage with an extraordinary landscape. Fowlers Gap features prominently as a resource and venue for experimental research for NIEA at COFA UNSW. Don't be turned off by the acronyms - NIEA is the National Institute for Experimental Arts at COFA College of Fine Arts. NIEA is a research facility which promotes innovative theory and practice-based research through cross-disciplinary collaboration and close partnerships with .... Australian and international universities, industry and community groups. The environment and sustainability are key areas addressed by NIEA in various ways via creative experiment and thinking: urban development, renewable energy,sustainable materials, climate, arid zones, land and water, ecology.
NIEA is worth getting your head around because it is an extraordinary research facility, and indicative of the level of creative research coming out of COFA. As COFA heads towards its fully refurbished campus in Paddington (2013) with galleries, design and media studios, NIEA will become increasingly visible. 
The 2 NIEA research groups which are more closely associated with Fowlers Gap are Imaging the Land International Research Initiative (ILIRI) which facilitates, investigates and promotes contemporary dialogue relating to imaging the land;and Environmental Research Initiative for Art (ERIA), with Allan Giddy at the helm, which conceives and realises site-specific public art that accommodates 'eco-logical' practices in ways that regenerate physical environments. As an aside, Giddy is currently working on the exhibition, Desert Equinox - taking a group of local and international artists to Broken Hill and Fowlers Gap, to create solar powered, site specific installations to co-incide with the 2012 spring equinox. Locals are invited to assist the artists, with the installation of the works. Hopefully more on it later this year. http://www.brokenhillartexchange.com/desert-equinox.php

This is what is going on at COFA - I think it is really exciting. Check all of it out at http://www.niea.unsw.edu.au/

Now, hold that thought and move back east, some 1100kms, to The Rocks, in downtown Sydney. Down a side street, above a cafe that looks pretty good, you'll come across 3 artists, all of whom are studying at various levels with NIEA at COFA. It is part of The Rocks Pop Up 2012: a series of exhibitions in temporary spaces, to co-incide with Vivid. 
As does Fowlers Gap afford opportunities for cross disciplinary activities, sharing of ideas and seeking creative solutions in a very concrete way to some very non-creative problems, so too does NIEA.

Exhibiting now are 3 artist students who offer works which are new, experimental and deliberately unresolved. Andrew Newman draws on scientific studies to create a series of diagrams and texts on chalkboards, which hope to map out the neurological pathways which lead to love. Josephine Skinner uses romantic quotes/ sayings/ poetry in digital format, together with a slowed, repetitive passionate kiss from the movie Love Story (Redford and Macgraw), to create quite an intense dialogue of the desparation of love. I didn't get the video works by Rafaela Pandolfini - there is a series which I should look at in its entirety - but I did love the cornucopia head gear ....

Rafaela Pandolfini Cockatoo headdress 3 Loneliness 2009
still from digital video, image courtesy the artist

The works are youthful, experimental and challenging. There's a lot of theory being blown around here and inevitably the works require a fair bit of explanation, which in itself is not always clear or obvious. Even more frustrating... However on a visual level, the works are intriguing: the use of people, sound, repetition, text, the distortion of things known and familiar. Go with the experimental nature of the work, and see where it takes you. 

More connections but of a different kind, I venture down the road to another Pop Up exhibition, Topographies I. Who should I bump into? Kath Fries (from my blog 14 March) & Thomas C Chung (the knitter from last week's blog). Initiated by Gallery 8 as a pop up satellite space, it is in a shop which is still in fit-out mode, on George St adjacent to the MCA. The artists have taken over, with the blessing of the authorities; sort of like a fully-sanctioned art squat. Landlords on Oxford St take note - this is such a good use of disused space, even if only temporarily. 
Topographies I is another landscape exhibition, though in a less obvious way than that of No way home.  Each exhibiting artist talks to the site, in terms of its history, location and state of renovation or abandonment.  Chung is in his element with knitted hammer, spanner, nail drill: butch, charming and such obviously hopeless tools. Fries' work is more subtle and elusive: gauze wrapped around an open channel in the ceiling, filled with feathers. She alludes to the seagulls which swirl the Bridge at night, catching the lights, feasting on the bogong moths which are drawn to the lights. It is always a remarkable, eerie scene, on a hazy, misty evening in particular.  Check out her blog www.kathfries.blogspot.com
Mark Booth's small pipe sculptures look to an infinite plumbing system, recalling that of the MCA, which recycles water directly from the harbour for its essential air conditioning system.

Mark Booth ARROW.100 series 2011-2012 

U-PVC pipe and acrylic paint

image courtesy the artist and g8

Matt Busteed Anthropocene 3 & 4  2011

ripped street posters on board

image courtesy the artist and g8

Matt Busteed has torn posters from local scaffolds and reglued them in layers on board: detritus from a shifting urban landscape. This is the first in a series of Topographic exhibitions from g8 on George. Stay tuned. www.galleryeight.com

Now, though, like the moths, I feel drawn to the lights and need to go back to The Rocks at night, and just revel in the Vivid light show. 
So much to see, so much to take in ....

Making connections, part I

Last week it was hard to find connections. This week, it is all about connections and lots of them. Possibly at times a little tenuous, but connections nonetheless, which run from way out west to here in the east and from remote regions to the Sydney CBD.

I went to The Rocks a few times this week during the day - unlike most Sydney people at the moment. Apologies to Vivid, I am yet to, but am determined to, see the light(s). 

I started at SH Ervin Gallery on Observatory Hill. Run by The National Trust, it is a well resourced and respected public gallery which hosts a range of good exhibitions of Australian art, both historical and contemporary. It is home for the Salon des Refuses (the Archibald 2nds, if you like) and the Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Prize. You'll always find a solidly curated exhibition here - not necessarily cutting edge or experimental, but one with depth and scholarship.

Currently showing is Not the Way Home, curated by Owen Craven aka editor Artist Profile. This exhibition is the result of a project that began 12 months ago, when 13 artists headed way west together, to live and work in a desert landscape. All Sydney (& environs) based, the artists drove 1,100km west of Sydney, past Broken Hill, to Fowlers Gap. It was a 2 week residency during which each artist had an opportunity to forget about the grind of daily life and immerse themselves in their work. Luxury (the only luxury). Artists featuring in Not the Way Home include: Margaret Ackland, Elisabeth Cummings, Merran Esson, Joe Frost, Alan Jones, Jennifer Keeler-Milne, Ross Laurie, Steve Lopes, Euan Macleod, Idris Murphy, Amanda Penrose Hart, Peter Sharp and Guy Warren.  

Late afternoon Fowlers Gap
Not sure who took this photograph but thank you.
Found on www.notthewayhome.tumblr.com

It would be daunting to be cast out into the desert to work, for a limited period in which to come to grips with a difficult environment. No private studio or comfy bed, limited materials and few distractions. Working outside en plein air sounds very romantic, if it weren't for the flies, dust, bugs, uneven rocky ground, wind and sun. There is nothing like an enormous challenge to get the creative juices flowing. Each artist rose to this challenge and produced a body of work which reflected their manied and varied responses to a difficult yet seductive landscape.
Art about landscape is not just about what we stand in and look at, it is also about what we remember - our impressions and emotional responses and the layers of stories of place and inhabitants (people, animals, plants, spirits). Elizabeth Cummings and Idris Murphy do not disappoint - as always their sense of place is based on the feel of a memory; sketching in the landscape is the groundwork for future paintings in the studio. 

Elisabeth Cummings Creek bed Fowlers Gap 2011
oil on canvas 115 x 130cm
image courtesy the artist, King Street Gallery and SH Ervin Gallery

Euan Macleod paints en plein air, quickly and confidently: his bonfire piece masterful with its fiery highlights. Jennifer Keeler-Milne, daunted by the expansive vista, chose to look down at her feet and discovered a wealth of plant life which she studied and drew. Peter Sharp created objects from bits and pieces in the landscape, then drew and painted them - exploring abstracted forms which emerge from the landscape and encourage a different perception. Merran Esson brought the texture of the landscape back with her, as clay impressions to be reworked in the studio as ceramic sculptures. 
The artists here all have good credentials and, from this collective experience, they have produced a body of works which no doubt will inform their respective practices for a long time. 

Euan Macleod Escarpment 2011
acrylic on polyester 124x100cm
image courtesy the artist, Watters Gallery
and SH Ervin Gallery

Jennifer Keeler-Milne work in progress charcoal on paper
from notthewayhome.tumblr.com
image courtesy the artist and Tim Olsen Gallery

A project like this doesn't get off the ground without funding - this one being funded and organised by Artist Profile magazine and Windsor & Newton art materials. The artists have to get there, stay there, be fed & watered (always assists with the creative flow) and use appropriate materials, suitable for the location. Check out the blog developed to document the project http://open.abc.net.au/openregions/nsw-illawarra-86zZ5nx/posts/not-the-way-home-23uO4rR

It doesn't stop there. Not The Way Home satellite exhibition is on at Stella Downer Fine Art in Danks St www.stelladownerfineart.com.au and Jennifer Keeler-Milne is also currently at Tim Olsen Gallery http://www.timolsengallery.com/ with Lumiere. 
I have written too much for one blog (it was a wet weekend) - take a break and come back to Part II when you're ready for more.

A long piece of string

Usually I try to weave a story for you, gentle reader, about the art that is out there during the week. This week it's been hard to find the thread to pull it all together. So what follows is more a long piece of string, marking the trail of where I've been and what I've seen. 

First stop James Dorahy Project Space. Just opened: Annie Aitken's Kaleidoscope exhibition of new pieces and the Project Wall, completely taken over by Thomas C Chung, with "Do you know where I am?"

This gallery tends towards representing a small number of artists, who are just beyond the beginning of their careers (not necessarily young or straight out of art school). Dorahy's interest is in nurturing their careers in a very focussed way, to firmly establish worthy and solid trajectories; he is in it, with the artists, for the long haul. 

His artists' works are diverse, interesting and generally nothing similar is to be found elsewhere. I'm thinking Sarah Newall and her delightful knitted bouquets; Sherna Teperson and her carved wooden everyday objects; Matt Glenn with his bullet holes through painted metal sheets; Ali Noble's gloriously coloured felt collages or Antonia Radich with her lush rich abstract paintings (just to mention a few). www.jamesdorahy.com.au

To add spice to the mix, Dorahy invites other artists to present an exhibition on his "Project Wall". It's a nice way of supporting other careers and introducing new work to his clientele. A lot can be achieved in a small space on the first floor. 

Annie Aitken Kaleidoscope #6 2012polypropylene, nylon net, poly-raffia,
straw yarn, wire & acrylic rod
35 x 35 x 35cmimage courtesy the artist and
James Dorahy Project Space

Annie Aitken works with recycled materials. Not for any political reason and recycling does not necessarily underpin her work, it just reveals her modus operandi. She likes to knit, weave, stitch, plait and bind old vegetable/ fruit bags (the netted ones), strips from plastic sacks, bits of fluoro nylon ribbon, plastic raffia and string to create these bulbous, hollow shapes that "burst straight from the wall". Each one has a rhythm of colour and fabric which becomes more complicated and detailed the closer you look. Beautifully crafted, they're lovely pieces - light, fresh, airy explosions of colour (and very well priced). www.annieaitken.com.au

The Project Wall features Thomas C Chung whose work is a nice adjunct to Aitken's. His is surely an homage to the layette. You know, old-fashioned wool (sometimes acrylic)fine ply, cloying colours, which old ladies love to knit into booties, bonnets and matinee jackets. But instead of clothing, here is knitted kiddies' food, crockery, teapots even pencils and crayons. All carefully box-framed, they are delightful, a bit cheeky, with moments of harsh reality - a lovely box of choccies, with one missing; a cake carved into pieces, with one slice breaking free; lollipops with broken stems; flaccid coloured pencils and precious tea parties. Enjoy!

Then to Artspace down the road in The Gunnery on Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo. Much more high brow and provocative, as it is meant to be. www.artspace.org.au The Other's other - an exhibition with an interesting premis and interesting work but, for me, the sum did not equal the many parts. I think a well crafted exhibition brings artworks together which talk not only to the curatorial brief but to each other. The works themselves were particularly interesting but remained isolated and disengaged from each other. Perhaps it was the diversity of what was represented and cultural approaches but the feel was stilted and disjointed.

I had just seen Paul Capsis' solo play Angela's Kitchen in which he reveals the life of his adored grandmother, who had migrated from Malta, as he knew and loved her. (Griffin Theatre www.griffintheatre.com.au) What he brought to the surface about dislocation and cultural identity through the experiences of one woman was deeply moving. The Artspace exhibition sought to deal with similar issues but it wasn't obvious: "multiple concepts of home and cultural belonging....how the memory... of cultural origin and involvement is configured and reconfigured from the perspective of living in estrangement from it." curator Mark Feary, 2012. Artists included are Raafat Ishak, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, Newall Harry, Jun Yang and Dinh Q.Le

Raafat Ishak Nomination for the Presidency of the New Egypt 2012 installation view
image courtesy the artist, Artspace Sydney and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

Raafat Ishak, Egyptian born, now based in Melbourne, has a practice which is invariably about home and a sense of belonging. His work is quiet and subtle, eloquently combining his Arabic heritage, his architectural knowledge and a delicate painterly style. His 3D piece in Artspace reminded me of a cardboard polling booth reconfigured as an elaborate and elegant political statement in itself - I guess because I saw it on the first day of polling in Egypt, the first time in 5,000 years (incredible!). Ishak shows with Sutton Gallery in Melbourne www.suttongallery.com.au.

Sangeeta Sandresagar is another whose quiet approach is commanding. She recently completed a residency in Bangelore (southern) India - courtesy of the Australia Council - and her contribution here addresses what she researched. Eucalypts were introduced to this region as trees best suited for local use as scaffold supports. As with most introduced species, the eucalypts have had a devastating affect on the local ecosytem. Sandrasegar has cast several scaffold lengths of the timbers and imported them back into Australia. The message is as much environmental as it is political and economic. Their installation in the gallery is informal and seemingly random - sort of left on the edges, in the shadows, almost forgotten. Check out her great blog  - www.sangeetasandresagar.blogspot.com

They lead into a room with 2 very recognisable films running simultaneously - Martin Sheen in Apocalpyse Now alongside Platoon featuring his son Charlie Sheen. Both are Hollywood films about what is known in Vietnam as the "American War" but elsewhere, the "Vietnam War". This is a clever piece by Dinh Q.Le a Vietnamese artist who is interested to pursue how his country and culture has been defined by popular foreign cinema. Both films are suitably edited to sit alongside one another, establishing their own dialogue between the films and the actors (father and son). The piece is called From father to son: a rite of passage. It was pretty enthralling and has prompted me to revisit Apocalypse Now. That's this week's treat.

Stefan Thiel Prada handbag 2012
 101.7 cm x 81.5 cm, paper cut-out
image courtesy the artist and
Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

Next stop Danks St to Dominik Mersch's gallery, which always has an interesting mix of local and European based artists. Currently showing Stefan Thiel, a Berlin-based artist, whose cutout silhouettes are decidedly racy. A warning at the door about explicit images should draw the crowd in. Titled There is always something better Thiel uses cutout silhouettes to explore his theme of fetish and vanity. Cutting and slicing shadow and form from digital images on paper reveal incredible b&w silhouettes of designer handbags and provocatively posed gay men. The cutout technique is so refined, the textures of the skin handbag versus the patent leather are easily discerned under gallery lights. Quite amazing. www.dominikmersch.com.au
Then onto Darren Knight Gallery, Waterloo. www.darrenknightgallery.com 
Showing at the moment is Patrick Hartigan and NZ photographer Laurence Aberhart. As with much of what is shown here, the works are quiet, subtle, beautifully crafted, intelligent and enduring. Aberhart's photographs are something else in this day and age. Taken with an 8x10" camera, they are contact prints formed on silver gelatin, gold selenium and platinum papers. So out of the norm is this now that he is having difficulty sourcing papers and chemicals. His is a photography that is based on truth to reality, to the image and truth to the craft. He is not interested in any manipulation, rather capturing an image in b&w as it stands. The exhibition is based on his ongoing engagement with monuments, revisiting this theme over and over in his travels. There is a great interview with him on youtube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVdgKLCX1DI. It's well worth listening to.

Laurence Aberhart Madonna of the Eternal Snows,
McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica, 29 November 2010printed 2010 silver gelatin, gold and selenium toned  19.4x24.5cm
image courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 

I think the string is sufficiently stretched this week. Onto next week's search ....

Two women photographers

This week's blog is from elsewhere. Not where everyone else has gone this week. It isn't from the HK Art Fair! This is a postcard from Gymea - in the Shire.
I went to the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre on the Kingsway (can't miss it - it is the main drag) in Gymea. I saw some great art - Australian photography; had an invigorating  exchange of ideas and opinions with a colleagues; and ate well - no dumplings but stuffed figs, which were particularly fine. The only thing I didn't do was shop. http://www.hazelhurst.com.au/ 
Hazelhurst evolved from an estate built up by Ben and Hazel Broadhurst and then bequeathed to the local community. It is now a well regarded part of the comprehensive network of small public galleries across NSW (& Australia) known as 'regional galleries'.
In the 80s there was a real push to develop what were hobbyist/amateur art galleries into professionally managed, purpose built and well resourced public art museums whose collective mission was to collect, exhibit, educate and promote the visual arts to its local community. 
In NSW the flavour of each gallery is determined by each community, rather than imposed on it. The catalyst was usually the result of a generous bequest (as in Hazelhurst), a donated collection (Orange Regional Gallery), an art prize (Tweed Heads Regional Gallery) or (eg)an energetic craft group (Tamworth Regional Gallery). The Local Council would get on board in an official capacity, allocating funding to fit-out gallery spaces to store/ exhibit artworks and employ professional staff. The potential for the gallery is dependent on the commitment of the Local Council and community, and the dedication of the gallery staff. It is a great way to tour country NSW: visit the local regional gallery and then swim a few laps in the local memorial public pool. For more info on the network check out www.mgnsw.org.au
It was a glorious day and Hazelhurst was pumping. Locals looking, talking, eating, creating - making thoroughly good use of their cultural centre. The relatively new gallery complex (opened in 2000) is on park-like grounds, with a snappy cafe and the original home of the Broadhursts. There is alot to get excited about this place. The complex incorporates studios for ceramics, printmaking, mosaic, drawing, painting etc; good exhibitions can be held in the purpose-built, versatile, functional gallery space. There's a great cafe with good food, coffee and wine; an interesting shop with arty goodies and then, across the garden, the original cottage is being used for artists in residence, the Friends (official local volunteer support group), and an art library. 
Two really good photographic exhibitions were in the main gallery space, each allotted a half, and sitting quite comfortably together. Both are surveys of two influential Australian women photographers Sue Ford and Ingeborg Tyssen. Both women died relatively recently and these two exhibitions firmly reinforce their legacies to contemporary photographic practices in Australia.
Time Machine: Sue Ford is a travelling exhibition, curated and organised by Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne. www.mga.org.au Ford died recently, in 2009, but had worked with Monash curators to begin to develop this exhibition. The core here is her Self portrait series, in which she photographed herself throughout her life. The 47 self portraits start in 1960 and go through to 2008. The portraits are unadorned, direct and honest - holding true to her progress, her ageing. The series highlights an interesting (and what could possibly be described as as disciplined) focus in her work: that of people and their passages through time.

Sue Ford Self portrait 1961

Sue Ford Self portrait 2004
both images here Copyright B&E Ford.
Courtesy of Monash Gallery of Art and the Artist's Estate.

The other great series in this survey is known as the Time Series and again, are great examples of the power of the photograph to capture change and memory. From 1962 to 1974, she photographed portraits of people - straight up, no props or fancy finishes - and then returned a few years later to do it again. Invariably her sitters were her friends, families, colleagues.

Sue Ford Lynn 1964-1974
 images here copyright B&E Ford.
Courtesy of Monash Gallery of Art and the Artist's Estate.

I think about Lynn here and wonder what happened in the decade between the portraits. A  sadness and heaviness to her gaze in 1974 has replaced the perkiness and charm of 1964. Whereas Ford's practice is politically charged, there is a poignancy to her personal reflections.
Ingeborg Tyssen: Photographs is the exhibition on the other side of the room. There is much said and written about Tyssen. This exhibition curated by Sandra Byron is a personal homage to a dear friend who died tragically young. There is an intimacy and warmth in the selection of works, the way they are hung and briefly described. It is very much a personal interpretation of her work. 

Ingeborg Tyssen, from the People series - City Light 1977
courtesy and copyright the Artists Estate
John Williams and Sandra Byron Gallery

Tyssen's people are not known to her, rather are studies of anonymous people: in action, in the city, at a fairground. The People series - City Light 1977  images reveal a sense of isolation in a crowd. People emerging from the dark shadows of the same station/ mall and march into the sunlight. They are expressionless, uncommunicative, isolated, yet display a keen sense of self and appearance. Mostly minding their own business, doing their own thing, they seem undisturbed by the female photographer standing nearby. She must not have been intrusive or demanding, just there with her camera at the ready. 
Studies of kids in the Ryde pool series 1981, in their togs, jumping, splashing, sunbaking, wonderfully capture their sheer joy in the water. They are oblivious to Tyssen and her camera. She's found the wetness of the pool, the delight of the water, the warmth of the concrete. There is a gorgeous image of wet togs which is sublime: the way the togs could stick and bubble over the crevices and bumps of the body. The bloke two steps behind me muttered out loud exactly what I was thinking: "You'd be arrested if you took that photo these days." Too right. 

Ingeborg Tyssen, from the Ryde Pool Sydney 1981
courtesy and copyright the Artist's Estate
John Williams and Sandra Byron Gallery

I have hesitated in my choice of image for this part - the wet bubbling togs. I didn't feel entirely comfortable posting it here. Who knows who is out there trawling for information, to be used as misinformation. I am thinking of the clamorous debate that surrounded the exhibition of Henson's work a couple of years ago. Though his are intense studies and this series of Tyssen's is more observations, it seems like the prospect of misinterpretation based on community fear and ignorance could still be out there. Controversy beaten up. Pornography and exploitation v. the brick wall of unthinking censorship. How we accept, or not, photographic observations of people in the crowd has changed since the 1981 photographs by Tyssen. The unabashed directness of these photographs speak now of another time. Can we still photograph people like this: anonymously, unstaged, no waivers or copyright or permission forms in triplicate? Short answer - no. 
There are other important series presented in edited form: the Tree series 1982 and Billboard series 1982 both of which reveal a keen sense of humour and irony, and sharp powers of observation.  The series From the heart of the forest to the edge of the road is more about her own sense of dislocation, having arrived from The Netherlands at 12 years old. The physical and emotional upheaval of this adjustment become positive forces within her practice. 

Ingeborg Tyssen, from the Tree series 1982
courtesy and copyright the Artist's Estate
John Williams and Sandra Byron Gallery

A while ago I was given the beautiful monograph of Ingeborg Tyssen edited by John Williams (published by T&G Publishing 2006) with a moving obituary by eminent photography critic Robert McFarlane. Most of the images in the Hazelhurst exhibition are in this book.
One imagines Ford and Tyssen knew each other or would certainly have known of each other. Tyssen lived in Melbourne in 1975 for a brief period and ran The Photography Gallery. Whilst their work did not necessarily cross over, their time and place did; their sense of humanity and curiosity did. The two shows together generate a compatible synergy. A glimpse into an association would have been a nice addition. 
The exhibitions form part of the Head-On photographic festival which seems to have taken over Sydney's galleries in a big way. http://www.headon.com.au/
So, after these delights in Gymea, what next? I'll keep you posted.

A peaceful revolutionary

I ventured into a different world this week. I went to the University of Sydney and discovered a couple of gems: the University Gallery and the Macleay Museum. www.sydney.edu.au/museums 
The attraction was the late German artist and activist, Josef Beuys. There was a pre-opening (mini) symposium last Saturday and then I returned on Monday during opening hours to view the exhibition on at the University Gallery.
The symposium and exhibition are hosted by the Power Institute at the University of Sydney. Dr John JW Power was a medico doctor and an artist (of some note) himself who became a significant benefactor to the University last century. 

John Joseph Wardell Power Cubist composition with nautical elements
gouache 36 x 20.5cm
Collection The Art Gallery of NSW, purchased 1964

His is a comprehensive, enduring legacy which culminated in the Museum of Contemporary Art www.mca.com.au. For more on the Power Institute go to www.sydney.edu.au/arts/power. The exhibition of Josef Beuys and the 'Energy Plan' is part of series to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that bequest. I digress but everything is so interwoven I think a bit of background is important. 
Back to the symposium last Saturday - I was so glad I went. I do not always feel like that after an art talk fest, but I have always struggled with Beuys and wanted to know more. All I needed were some of his stories (and possibly a little more of my own maturity and patience) and the penny began to drop.
Speakers included Tony Bond Deputy Director at the AGNSW and Bernice Murphy former curator of the Power Institute (and initial Chief Curator and Director of the MCA). Both knew Beuys, his works and his main dealers well and have been strong advocates of his work here. 

photographer unknown 

Artists Janet Laurence (see my blog 22.03.2012) and Tom Nicholson (see my blog 9.03.2012) spoke of Beuys' influence on their respective practices - both for quite different reasons: Janet's more from an environmental perspective and the idea of social connectivity and Tom, from a performance perspective.
What I took away was that Beuys was a peaceful revolutionary. His practice which included sculptures, 'actions' (performances), and documentation of the actions (traces) was focussed on the healing powers of art and art as social action. He was deeply connected to his social, political, spiritual and mythical world view. He was influenced by the philosophies of Steiner, by the struggles of St Ignatius who founded the Jesuit Order and, most particularly, by his and his country's role in WWII. 
Beuys joined up in 1940 and ended up with the Luftwaffe. He was shot down over Crimea in the Ukraine and rescued by Nomadic Tartars. These people saved him from hypothermia by smearing his body with animal fat and wrapping him in felted animal hair/ fur. Much of his later sculpture features felt and fat, two natural substances that, for him, were life savers.
The war, his role and his fellow countrymen's shame must have informed his thinking. It was something he struggled to truly come to terms with. He would not have been alone: the post-war generations in Germany found it difficult to reconcile their's and their forebears roles in the Holocaust. Many sought to find new paradigms, to reshape and shift the traditional cultural and social boundaries. Beuys' peaceful actions to invigorate social change on many levels must have been inspiring for many, not just artists. 
To my mind he was an optimist and an idealist and channelled this into his art work and art activism. He became Professor at the Kunst Akademie in Dusseldorf where he had studied sculpture. He established the German Student Party in 1967 which had as its focus, worldwide disarmament and educational reform; he was at the forefront of the Free International University, established in 1972, which promoted the creative potential in all and advocated the crossover between disciplines of sciences and arts and he was one of the 500 founding members of the Green Party in 1979, which has since become a powerful political force in Germany.
His entire art practice was a continuum of revolutionary ideas, and mostly ones which explored the interconnectedness of the natural world, life forces (including metaphorical ones), social activism, healing powers in nature (animals, plants, elements), alchemy and sciences. He wove a belief in shamanism into his practice - that every being in the universe is alive and enmeshed - and he used symbols from these belief systems many times over.  He was a major influence on his generation and beyond, locally and internationally. 

Josef Beuys Overcome Party Diectatorship Now Dec 1971.
Action in Dusseldorf, reproduced as Save the Woods 1973. 
In this photograph the person immediately behind Beuys (leading) is a young Anselm Kiefer,
 the great German painter of the later 20th century. 

This exhibition focuses on what items are held in the Power Collection. Curator Donna West Brett has written an eloquent catalogue essay which discusses much of the history of Beuys, his social sculpture and some of his more significant works/ actions, though not all is featured on the Uni walls. The catalogue is available online www.sydney.edu.au/museums/pdfs/Art_Gallery/666%20Beuys_catalogue_finalextra.pdf
and is certainly worth a read, particularly beforehand. I say this because, visiting the exhibition without having any prior knowledge of Beuys' work, could leave you cold. If you missed the action in the 70s, you missed the artwork. What we now rely on is documentation, the remnants of the moment. The work becomes historical not immediate; the experience is vicarious and theoretical. That does not lessen Beuys' significance as an artist; it just makes it difficult to walk into an exhibition of traces of these actions and really understand what he was doing and why.
But, historically, it is really important that these traces are held in collections, to be considered and reconsidered against the backdrop of ensuing artistic practices. Beuys' work sits within a tradition of revolutionary art, think Duchamp or Klein, but it does not shock or offend. It has an integrity and honesty about it. It falls with the realm of what we understand to be art, but in order to read it, context is what is required. 
To be honest, I would have been lost if it were not for the symposium and a quick read of the essay. His work is not a pretty bunch of flowers or a technical painterly feat. The 'social sculpture' is easier to read but again needs an explanation. There was one in this exhibition. How to read a felt suit? 

Josef Beuys FilzAnzug (Felt Suit) 1970
felt, cotton, ink on sythetic fabric & metail safety pins, ed 69/ 100 ,160 x 73, 2cm
JW Power Bequest, The University of Sydney, acquired 1972

The Filz Anzug (Felt Suit) 1970 is just that: a modest man's business suit, made from felt. There are no distractions with a wearer as it is just the suit, hanging fairly stiffly from hanger. Simple, unadorned - western in style. No buttons or lining. Made from a cloth that is generally handmade from natural fibres. In the context of Beuys, it becomes a source of life - it protects and warms whoever wears it. I imagine this is Beuys' homage to those nomadic peoples who saved him. Now, two such simple things - felt and clothing - take on mythic and heroic proportions. But how to think this through when confronted by the suit itself and nothing else? Historically and conceptually it is interesting; aesthetically it is difficult.
The University Gallery is tucked up in a garret in the main quadrangle of Uni of Syd. If you continue past the main quad, follow the signs to the Macleay Museum. Up the stairs, it also feels like it is in the garret. What a find! A natural history museum which is small but stuffed with vitrines, stuffed with stuffed birds, marsupials, weird looking things in jars, skeletons, trays of pinned bugs and beetles: all specimens from eons ago. It is a wonderworld. So it comes as no surprise that artists like Robyn Stacey www.stillsgallery.com.au and Janet Laurence have spent time there, fossicking around, drawing inspiration from the collection. The smell - also natural: pure naptholene. 
Again there is a nice cross over between the science and art worlds: a small exhibition with 4 women artists who have created art works which respond to both the current research into coral life at the University and our relationships to this fragile watery world. Jacky Redgate and Debra Dawes www.gbk.com.au have collaborated on a silent video, Jenny Pollak has created coral forms which resemble human skulls www.jennypollak.com and Carmel Wallace has woven tiny washed up coral and other sea bits together www.carmelwallace.com . This museum is a real gem and worth a visit. 

Jenny Pollak One degree of separation #1 2011
ceramic   image courtesy of the artist

It was great to be back on campus, surrounded by beautiful buildings, a sense of living history and engagement. There was even a real protest going on with placards and police but I gather it degenerated later into a riot - not so good. For a moment though, it was reassuring to see activism alive and well.

A potted history

Usually when you are seeking those fabulous Australian works from the 50s, 60s and 70s, you generally start at the secondary market and seek out the reputable auction houses or dealers who've been around forever. Peter Pinson Gallery in Woollahra is a relatively new commercial gallery which specialises in this era and which mostly represents living artists, who are alive and well and still at it well into this century. www.peterpinsongallery.com It's in a great neck of the woods - same strip on Edgecliff Rd as Sambag www.sambag.com.au, No Chintz www.nochintz.com, Little Joe www.littlejoeny.com and Ecletticca www.eclettica.com.au 
Ceramicist Milton Moon AM and some ardent admirers and friends are still well and truly working and the exhibition currently on at Peter Pinson Gallery is a testament to the strength and endurance of their creative output.
Milton Moon. And Friends. And 50 works is a group exhibition of ceramics to celebrate Moon's first solo exhibition in Sydney at the Rudy Komon Gallery in 1962, that is, fifty years ago. Les Blakeborough (b1932), Marea Gazzard AM(b1928), Peter Rushforth AM (b1930) Shiga Shigeo (1928-2011) and Moon (b1926), share the room with painter Guy Warren (b1921) (in collaboration with Mud ceramics) and the next generation, Merran Esson, Anita Taylor, Mitsuo Shoji, Jan Guy, Susie McMeekin and Peter Pinson himself are all represented here by one or two works each. 
You do the maths and work out the combined age and average age and be amazed at the rich history here and what is really represented in terms of experience, technical know-how, shared knowledge and personal connections.This is a serious group of artists who collectively were at the forefront of reinvigorating ceramic practices in Australia. 
The exhibition does not offer monuments to an extraordinary career (clay is after all a humble material) but small offerings of beautifully crafted objects brought together in recognition of a respected colleague - Milton Moon.
To show at the Rudy Komon Gallery in its heyday was a coup. Rudy Komon was well known for his love of wine and art. He was a very well respected dealer who showed the leaders in abstract and figurative expressionism: Fred Williams, George Baldessin, Jon Molvig, John Brack, Robert Dickerson, Leonard French and Clifton Plugh. All blokes, mostly from Melbourne. He did show one woman, local and fellow expat Judy Cassab. His gallery in Woollahra was open from 1959 until his death in 1982. (Is there a biog on Komon out there? It would make a fabulous read.) There is a terrific portrait of Komon by Fred Williams that was in the equally terrific major Williams exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia recently and Eric Smith won the 1981 Archibald Prize for his portrait of the ebullient character, now in the AGNSW collection.

Eric Smith Rudy Komon 1981
oil on canvas 180x 166cm Winner 1981 Archibald Prize
Collection The Art Gallery of NSW

It was out of the groove for Komon to show potters; he was very much a painters' dealer. Moon was living and working in Brisbane so I wonder what brought them together. Perhaps it was his friend Jon Molvig who was living in Brisbane, represented by Komon and who introduced Moon to  Ian Fairweather. 
Nonetheless the ceramics would have sat well with Komon's aesthetic and were obviously worthy of the illustrious company in which they sat.
Moon's ceramic objects have consistently been described as tough, rugged, free form and with an Australian characteristic. Pinson talks about the work as 'brutal', as though the pots themselves have suffered through their birthing. 
Moon was practising his craft at a time of great renewal in the craft industry; a time when there was a renewed respect for the handmade unique object and when other techniques and approaches (both philosophical and physical) were being discovered and experimented with. 
For a potter, Japan was an obvious place to explore, with its unique and long standing traditions of firing and glazing techniques. Moon visited Japan many times and immersed himself in its traditional ceramic practices and religious philosophies. He spent a long there, connecting in ways that informed and enriched his work and he brought these techniques and approach back to Australia. Rushforth is another whose work has been deeply influenced by Japanese ceramic traditions. Shiga Shigeo came to Australia on the invitation of Les Blakeborough to teach and practise at The Sturt Workshop in the Southern Highlands and he stayed. Each of these artists were teachers as well, as many were, and would have shared their knowledge and experience with their students. These influences run wide and deep.

Milton Moon Bush pattern (vase form) 2011 37.8x13cm
Bush pattern (large bowl form) 2011 33.4x17.8cm
image Courtesy the artist and Peter Pinson Gallery

Despite the Japanese traditional influences, Moon was able to make his work his own and Australian: his inspiration coming from the bush around him. His pots and tubs feel like the earth from which they came, roughened, imprecise, impolite. The markings are more like a natural stain and smear rather than a specific painterly script. Edges can be slashed and seemingly unfinished. The refinement lies not in a delicate nature or appearance but in the processes and techniques that it took to achieve the final object. 
Moon has been well acknowledged for his work as a practitioner and advocate. Among other major honours he was awarded one of the few Creative Fellowships by the Australia Council. He was also conferred with honorary doctorate from the Uni of SA in 2008. 
Moon also shows with Aptos Cruz Gallery www.aptoscruz.com in the Adelaide Hills where he has lived for many years   
I love Marea Gazzard's work as well. There is a small piece here. Well known for her ceramic sculptural work I find her work deeply moving. For me the shapes she nurtures have an aura of calm and peace about them. They are solid and simple, with a strong connection to an earth bound world in which time has slowed. I've always found her work particularly beautiful. If ever you find yourself in a meeting with our PM in Canberra in her office, gaze out the window and consider the Gazzard installation in the private courtyard. It'll put everything back into perspective. Maybe that is what our politicians should do before they start each day. Gazzard is represented by Utopia Gallery in Danks St Sydney. www.utopiaartsydney.com.au

Marea Gazzard Janus III 2007
43.5 x 15.5 x 10.5cm
image courtesy the artist and Utopia Gallery, Sydney

Other Sydney-based galleries celebrating a younger generation of ceramic artists which you should check out are Planet in Surry Hills www.planetfurniture.com.au and Object Gallery (which evolved from the Crafts Council Gallery) also in Surry Hills www.object.com.au 

Craft, art, design - it's all interlinked - and for me, the common purpose (if one is needed) is about bringing a thoughtful and enduring beauty into our lives.