JULIE RRAP INTERVIEWED ON 'THE ART SHOW'

For those that missed the insightful interview with Julie Rrap on Wednesday, this week’s ‘The Art Show’ is now available to stream via the ABC Listen App and on the web HERE >⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Julie reflects on her formative years as a young artist living in Sydney and Europe, and using her own body in her art practice. “It’s not an identity thing - I’m not an artist who’s trying to reveal something about myself. I’ve often spoken about what I do as more of a trickster, I act as a kind of vehicle,” she says. “When I see myself in an image, it’s almost like the third person - it goes through this transformative process in the making of art. It’s a representation, it’s not me.”

Listen back to hear about Julie’s time working for photographer John Delacour, the evolution of her ‘Overstepping’ concept, her interest in Cindy Sherman’s use of masquerade, and the importance of female role models in the art world.

Swipe through for images of the works Julie refers to in the conversation!

Portrait of the artist by Jacquie Manning

Julie Rrap, ‘360 degree self portrait’ [still], 2009, digital video, 10:42min

Julie Rrap, ‘Overstepping’, 2001, digital print, 100 x 100 cm

Julie Rrap, ‘“At Arm’s Length” Grip’, 2019, bronze, 10 x 28 x 53 cm

Installation view of ‘Disclosures’ exhibition at Central Street, Sydney 1982.

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.

'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

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS & JULIE RRAP AT THE AGNSW

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS & JULIE RRAP are featured in the exhibition Shadow Catchers, opening today at the AGNSW. This exhibition investigates the ways shadows, body doubles and mirrors haunt our understanding of photography and the moving image.

Eugenia's Diglossia (2009) series is on display, along with Julie’s Body Double (2007).

The exhibition runs until 17 May.

More information >

JULIE RRAP

JULIE RRAP has put forward a proposal for the AGNSW facade commission. Julie was one of six women artists invited to create a concept for the empty space above the Gallery’s grand entrance, once intended for a decorative bronze panel that was never realised.

In 1913, the Gallery trustees commissioned the expatriate Australian artist Dora Ohlfsen (1869-1948) to sculpt a classical Greek chariot race in low relief for it. Though Ohlfsen worked on the piece for many years and her designs were approved, in 1919 the commission was abruptly cancelled. One hundred years later, the AGNSW is examining the original commission and some exciting contemporary proposals for the space.

In her concept, Rrap uses her own body to engage with issues of representation, gender and power.

Titled Walk out, Rrap’s panel appropriates the legs of five favourite sculptures in the AGNSW collection: those by Ugo Rondinone, Patricia Piccinini, Hans Bellmer, Louise Bourgeois & Michael Parekowhai. If developed further, Rrap would perform these figures, acting them out and casting her own legs in bronze.

In Walk out, Rrap uses surreal humour to destabilise. She refers to the relentless imaging of the body - especially the female body - within Western art history. These disembodied legs walk out in protest from the bastion of culture; or do they join our own to reenter the museum confidently, through the front door?

An exhibition of the proposed concepts runs until 8 March 2020.

More information >

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JULIE RRAP

Julie Rrap in her Sydney studio. Photo: Jacquie Manning.

JULIE RRAP is featured in the Collector's Dossier in the new issue of Art Collector Magazine, on sale now.

In the feature, Julie discusses her four decades of practice and her upcoming exhibition at ARC ONE, Twisted Logic. The show will feature ambiguous bronze elements, cast from her body, that could be read as either weapons or armour; exploring what Rrap describes as 'that quite slippery relationship between art, culture, and any particular political regime or system that happens to be in power.'

ARC ONE co-director, Fran Clark, who has worked with Rrap since 1999, recalls seeing her work for the first time: 'I was immediately struck by this artist's unique creativity; an artist of intelligence producing strong and iconic art with an excellent grip on that ever-elusive quality, humour.'


Twisted Logic shows at ARC ONE from 3 September - 5 October.

Read the article online here >

JULIE RRAP

Opening today at Blue Mountains City Art Gallery is the exhibition with every breath, featuring JULIE RRAP's work Blow Back.

with every breath presents work by 15 artists who encourage us to be still, breathe, reflect and listen. The idea of breath is beautifully captured in Julie Rrap’s suite of photographs, Blow Back, where the artist has etched the breath of 33 female artists, friends and contemporaries on the frame’s glass. Five other ARC ONE artists posed as Rrap's subjects in this work!

The exhibition continues until 25 August.

More information >

Interview with the curator >

JULIE RRAP

Julie Rrap, ‘Stepping Out,’ 2012, bronze and metallic paint, 16 x 25 x 28 cm

JULIE RRAP's work Stepping Out is included in Simon Denny's exhibition Mine opening at MONA tomorrow. The exhibition revolves around mining as a reflection of hope and anxiety about the environment, technology, and development.

Stepping Out recalls Rrap's iconic foot image Overstepping (2001). In both works she extends an image of her feet, transforming them into a pair of stiletto heels. Rrap's high-heeled feet represent a futuristic speculation on where genetic engineering and cosmetic surgery may lead us.

This exhibition opening is part of the Dark Mofo programme. It will continue into the evening, with live music from 4pm.

DANI MARTI & JULIE RRAP

DANI MARTI and JULIE RRAP are in the exhibition Hunter Red: Corpus, at the Newcastle Art Gallery.

The overarching exhibition theme of red is loaded with symbolism and tactile metaphors. The colour also provides audiences with an exploratory experience in the exhibition space with works of art that evoke life, death, blood, reproduction and mortality.

The exhibition will open on 26 May and continue until 22 July, 2018.

More information > 

Image Caption: Dani Marti, 'Looking for Felix', 2000, plastic beads, curtains, 300 x 300 x 300cm.

JULIE RRAP

Image: Julie Rrap, Vital Statistics, 1997, fibreglass, rubber, synthetic polymer paint, chromed metal, cibachrome photographs. 

JULIE RRAP has work in the exhibition Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990s at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Curated by Jane Devery and Pip Wallis, Every Brilliant Eye explores a decade in Australian art, drawn from the NGV Collection.

The exhibition continues until 1 October 2017. 

Find out more here.