MURRAY FREDERICKS IN OUTDOOR EXHIBITION AT ANU

MURRAY FREDERICKS is featured in a new photographic exhibition, situated outdoors on Exhibition Avenue - the new year-round, free and public exhibition space along the length of University Avenue in the new Kambri precinct at ANU in Canberra.

Where I Stand is a stirring exhibition of 24 photographs from six iconic Australian artists, curated in partnership with Ambush Gallery and Head On Photo Fest. The installation has been curated to create a narrative about rebirth and rejuvenation that can be read end to end, or taken singularly. Identity, connection to country and nature weave the images together.

Exhibition Avenue is a series of substantial cubes, each buttressed internally with water tanks and constructed from steel. These serve as a canvas for the photographs, which are lit by solar energy for 24-hour viewing.

The exhibition runs until October 31.

More information >

Install shot by Martin Ollman.

Murray Fredericks, Muybridge, 2015, digital pigments print, 140 x 187 cm

CYRUS TANG INTERVIEWED FOR ART GUIDE PODCAST

CYRUS TANG is interviewed on the latest episode of Faraway, so close, a podcast hosted by Tiarney Miekus of Art Guide dedicated to considering the anxieties and opportunities emerging in the arts in our new COVID-19 world.

In this third edition of the podcast, Tiarney asks: how do you think about the future at a time when the future feels so uncertain? Artists Cyrus Tang & Lucy McRae give their thoughts and feelings on where we are now, and where we’re headed next.

“In Eastern philosophy, loss is not really like a loss, it’s like a transformation from one state to another state. This is how I see it. Even though I deal with a lot of history and loss [in my work], I keep on thinking that it’s because of history that we can perceive the future,” says Cyrus. The artist moved to Australia in 2003, 2 months after the SARS outbreak devastated her family and friends in Hong Kong. She asks herself how the memory of that crisis and loss affects the present.

Cyrus’ new body of work seeks to capture & archive this present moment in Australia. ARC ONE will be launching an online exhibition of these works soon!

Listen to the podcast here >

Left: Cyrus Tang. Right: Lucy McRae, photograph by Ira Chernova.

LONG & STENT INTERVIEWED FOR ART COLLECTOR

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT spoke to Briony Downes of Art Collector Magazine about their latest body of work, Touching Pool, which will soon be installed at ARC ONE Gallery. 

Focusing on 2 of 18 works from their new series of photographs, the artists say: “Our aim with these is to create a stickiness which we think speaks to this conflicted and estranged relationship that we have with the so-called natural world. But also one that highlights the interconnectedness and harmony that exists between these seemingly different entities.”

See the full interview here >

Please note, due to the current restrictions, Long & Stent's exhibition Touching Pool will now open in mid-August, with an opening reception in September. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

ARC ONE DIRECTOR FRAN CLARK PROFILED IN ART COLLECTOR

Fran Clark, Director of ARC ONE Gallery, is profiled in the latest issue of Art Collector Magazine.

Helen McKenzie has interviewed Fran, exploring her beginnings as a young artist with a penchant for ceramics and a knack for working the room and how she came to represent some of Australia's most revered contemporary practitioners.

Buy the current issue of Art Collector here >

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

MAJOR FEATURE ON PAT BRASSINGTON IN ART COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

PAT BRASSINGTON is the cover artist of the latest Art Collector Magazine, which features a massive 12-page spread on her work.

Rex Butler examines Brassington’s groundbreaking practice, exploring her “in-your-face sensuous and psychically charged subject matter” and how “behind it lies an extraordinarily refined and self-challenging organisational principle. As Brassington puts it herself: “I am walking the fine line between something that is beautiful and its antithesis”.

Dr Anne Marsh, author of ‘Pat Brassington: This is not a photograph’, is interviewed for the article and describes Brassington’s work as a “tantalising mix of surreal mystery and psychological menace”, and admires the way the artist “works with an incisive eye on our cultural uncanny. Her work encourages us to look deeper into our psycho-social landscape and investigate the hopes, fears and stereotypes that hide there. It’s a very sophisticated practice that looks seamless.”

In February ARC ONE Gallery will present ‘Night Swimming’ – a new body of work by Pat Brassington for the inaugural PHOTO2021 Festival.

Buy the current issue here >

'HEAR THE PLANT SONG' TAPESTRY COMPLETE

The ATW’s tapestry Hear the Plant Song’ designed by JANET LAURENCE, is complete!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Handwoven over 1300 hours, this artwork combines the nature-inspired imagery of Laurence with the expertise of the ATW weavers.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Head weaver Chris Cochius says the tapestry was an absolute joy to weave. “There are sections that are quite painterly, and some areas that are quite reflective. It’s ambiguous and that works well for the way tapestry comes together. We blend up to 10 colours on a weft - the thread - so that there is a lot of variety in the colours, just as in nature.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Congratulations to the team, Janet Laurence, Chris Cochius,  Cheryl Thornton, Amy Cornall & Sue Batten!

Watch the making-of video here >

Hear the Plant Song, 2020, Janet Laurence woven by Chris Cochius, Amy Cornall, Cheryl Thornton & Sue Batten, wool & cotton, 1.56 x 2.7m. Photo by John Gollings.

UNSW GALLERIES SHOW REOPENS WITH DANI MARTI

Friendship as a way of life at UNSW Galleries has reopened. This major exhibition celebrates LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge. It features DANI MARTI’s major video installation ‘Notes for Bob’ (2012-16), as well as one of his wall sculptures. 

Notes For Bob navigates issues of power and care in human relationships. The project has at its central subject a blind, gay man Marti met while on residency in New York with the Australia Council for the Arts in 2012, and it documents a number of exchanges between the pair.

Deprived of vision, Bob explains that for him “people are their voices” and his attractions focus on the individual pitch and tone of a voice. In Notes for Bob, Marti tenderly holds his subject and sings for him. As part of the extended project, Marti filmed and recorded 23 men singing. The artist gently encourages us to enter into Bob’s sensual universe and experience the fullness of an individual through their voice.

The curators of Friendship as a way of life have launched a series of digital initiatives including a virtual tour and an online series of live lectures, artist talks and performative actions that explore the themes of the show. It will run until 21 November. 

Explore the online content here!

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Images: Dani Marti, Notes for Bob, 2012-16, installation view at UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photos by Zan Wimberley.

MGA 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CATALOGUE

'VIEW FINDING Monash Gallery of Art 1990—2020', designed by Pidgeon Ward.

The MGA recently launched a landmark 30 year anniversary publication - VIEW FINDING Monash Gallery of Art 1990—2020. 

This fully illustrated catalogue features image plates by ARC ONE artists Pat Brassington, Lyndell Brown & Charles Green, Rose Farrell & George Parkin, Robert Owen, Jacky Redgate, Julie Rrap, Lydia Wegner and Anne Zahalka. It charts the history of the gallery, its present, and the future of photography in Australia. 

Over the last 30 years MGA has developed one of Australia’s most important cultural assets — the only public collection solely dedicated to Australian photography. MGA’s artistic program has explored the diversity of photographic practice in Australia, and has placed Australian photographers and photography within a global context. 'View Finding' looks at the past, present and future of photography in Australia, presenting moments that have defined MGA, its collection and exhibition history.

A selection of leading lights who specialise in photography in Australia have contributed essays to the publication. You can purchase it here.

JANET LAURENCE GUEST CURATOR FOR AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM

JANET LAURENCE was the guest curator for the Australian Museum's online photography exhibition, #CapturingClimateChange in the month of June. She shared images of her work on their online gallery along with commentary for each one.

"I am observing the fast falling avalanche of disasters being actioned by man upon the planet on top of accelerating climate change," says Janet. "This has created a sense of urgency for me and I see vividly the importance of acting through my art. I recognise how these actions can create an energy that is directed towards caring and generosity, which then creates a space of possibility and hope.

‘Waiting’ was a transparent mesh structure built for the Biennale of Sydney in 2010. This intricate installation echoed both a botanical glasshouse and a museological scientific vitrine filled with plants interconnected by scientific glass vessels. The medicinal cabinet/garden circulated various fluids and solids, creating a space of revival and resuscitation. Through this, I intended to create arresting reminders that our natural environment needs to be nursed and nurtured."

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

See Janet's images and read her commentary here.

Installation detail of Janet Laurence, Waiting - A Medicinal Garden for Ailing Plants, 2010, transparent mesh, duraclear, mirror, oil, acrylic, glass, plants specimens, 500 x 300 x 300 cm, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Jamie North.

'SHADOW CATCHERS' REOPENS AT AGNSW

Shadow Catchers at Art Gallery of New South Wales is open once again!

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS, JACKY REDGATE & JULIE RRAP all have works in the this exhibition, which draws on the AGNSW collection to investigate the way shadows, body doubles and mirrors haunt our understanding of photography and the moving image.

There is a fantastic video guide of the exhibition narrated by senior curator of contemporary Australian art Isobel Parker Philip. This was filmed as part of the AGNSW’s Together in Art initiative, which seeks to create meaningful art encounters online.

Watch the video tour here >

Eugenia Raskopoulos, installation view of Diglossia seriees in Shadow Catchers at AGNSW, 2020