CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Secret Life of Plants
Produced and toured by Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, St Kilda
30 May 19 July
Downstairs Galleries
Inspired in part by Stevie Wonders album, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (1979), this exhibition presents plant life in its many guises. Whether as the nicotined survivors of exhausted suburbia; as elusive life forms on the top of buildings; or bursting from masonry, plants are assimilating among us.
The exhibitions imagery which ranges from botanical illustration through to more conceptual approaches connects with Fremantle Arts Centre's garden setting and taps into the dark undercurrents in the buildings architectural fabric.
Curator: Andrew Gaynor
Jane Burton, House Plant, 2008, Type C photograph, 110 x 110 cm, courtesy and copyright the artist
Huseyin Sami
Everything is Everything
30 May - 19 July
Kathleen O'Connor Gallery and Stairwell
Huseyin Sami (NSW) works with paint, yet instead of applying the medium to expected supports he extends the possibilities of paint
into a sculptural and performative medium. Stacking layers of paint skins and building machines that allow the painting to paint itself he pushes the materials as much as he questions the means of art production itself.
In this exhibition the Sydney-based artist works specifically with the architecture of Fremantle Arts Centre, presenting objects and painting installations that literally spill through the exhibition spaces. These works are active and suggest a constant state of movement and becoming, as if the action of painting is in continual progress. Sami is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
Curator: Consuelo Cavaniglia
Huseyin Sami, Paint Pile #5, 2008, Household paint, chipboard and plastic bucket, 56 x 40 x 45 cm, photography: Huseyin Sami, courtesy and copyright the artist
Simon Pericich
7 April 24 May
Main Gallery
In this exhibition, Simon Pericich (VIC) continues his exploration of self-destructive excess. Creating a large-scale maze comprised of 47 darkly bedazzling sections of cyclone fencing, Pericich immerses the viewer in his own intensely worked post-apocalyptic world. Also featured is the artists arsenal of weapons made from domestic objects, once again reveling in the throwaway consumerism of todays hyper-capitalist climate.
A Curtin University graduate, Pericich completed a Masters of Art (Sculpture) at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, in 2006. He received an Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2003 and is currently a Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Artist, Melbourne. Pericich is represented by Block Projects, Melbourne.
Simon Pericich, ...when they come we will be ready (detail), 2007-08, household objects and bling, dimensions variable, image courtesy and © the artist
Tanya Visosevic
Cuticle
7 April 24 May
Kathleen OConnor Gallery
Tanya Visosevic (WA) presents a video installation revealing the secrets of a Perth nail salon and the confidences between nail technician and client. Cuticle includes downloadable video footage for mobile phones.
Visosevic (aka Madam TV, tanyavision, tanya V & Citizen TV) employs the technologies of moving image, performance and bio-art. Her project, The Living Screen, developed with Guy Ben-Ary and Bruce Murphy, was recently shown at Exit Gallery, New York, and will be exhibited at The Performance Space, Sydney, later this year.
Visosevic is a lecturer in Film and Video at Edith Cowan University, Perth.
Cuticle (detail), 2009, digital photograph, courtesy and © the artist
Rebecca Baumann
From the beginning; one more time
7 April 24 May
Gallery 3
Incorporating artists books by Jurek Wybraniek, Rebecca Baumanns (WA) new installation arises out of her engagement with the City of Fremantle Art Collection. From the beginning; one more time looks at the language of the book, taking pleasure in notions of editioning, stacking and collecting.
A Curtin University graduate, Baumanns recent practice has explored the role of happiness and celebration, against anxiety and doubt, in the assessment of our lives. Baumann recently contributed to the Love Is My Velocity First Page anthology.
untitled, 2009, paper, dimensions variable, courtesy and © the artist, photography: Rebecca Baumann
Christophe Canato
Hunting Trophies Vol 1
7 April 24 May
Hall Gallery
Christophe Canato (WA) draws on his background in fashion and commercial photography to capture his trophies from the wild. Suspending his insect subjects in the picture plane, Canato not only records their minutiae but also retains space for our fears.
Initially trained at Beaux-Arts in Grenoble, France, photographer Canato relocated to Perth in 2005. He has exhibited in the Artrage and FotoFreo festivals and at the Perth Centre for Photography.
Hunting Trophies Vol 1 (Canicula), 2008, digital photograph, 80 x 80 cm, courtesy and © the artist
Yellow Vest Syndrome
31 January 29 March 2009
Fremantle Arts Centre
Yellow Vest Syndrome: recent west Australian art is about changing perceptions of landscape and country. It seeks a fresh perspective on a theme that had always been at the forefront of contemporary visual arts in Perth.
Presented at a time when the State has been experiencing an unparalleled resources-driven boom, the exhibition is intended to provide an opportunity to reflect on what we value.
Its critique is founded in a persistent idea that if you are wearing a yellow work vest you can get away with anything in Western Australia.
Curator of Yellow Vest Syndrome and Fremantle Arts Centres Exhibition Manager Jasmin Stephens says, The yellow vest is like the state costume of Western Australia - always worn with great pride but somehow constraining how Western Australians see themselves.
When everything is focused on the economic statistics, there can be a limiting of the social imagination and thats where artists come in, Stephens continues.
Yellow Vest explores evocations of landscape and country; expressions of State aspiration; and work by artists seeking to challenge dominant ideas. New graduates join established artists in this broad exhibition which encompasses every media.
Artists:
Daniel Bourke/Jeremy Davis/Lisa Purcell, Tim Burns, Susanna Castleden, Erin Coates, Penny Coss, Annabel Dixon, George Egerton-Warburton, Sarah Elson, fremantlestories.com, Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont, Mike Gray, Caitlin Harrison, Bevan Honey, Milly Kelly, Gian Manik, Tom Mωller, Mark Parfitt, Christopher Pease, Perdita Phillips, pvi collective, Layli Rakhsha, Trevor Richards, Nalda Searles, Alex Spremberg, Aubrey Tigan and Brendan Van Hek
Curator: Jasmin Stephens
Forum:
Donning the Vest
3pm - 4.15pm Saturday 14 March
Fremantle Arts Centre
RSVP: rsvp@fremantle.wa.gov.au
In an illustrated discussion, speakers will discuss the distinguishing features of the Western Australian scene and what opportunities they present for artists.
Speakers:
Dr Glenn Albrecht, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Newcastle
Dr Robert Cook, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia
Sarah Elson, Artist
Kelli McClusky, Artist and co-founder, pvi
Chair:
Dr Christopher Crouch, Professor of Visual Culture, School of Communication and Arts, Edith Cowan University
How You Make It
Ess.Laboratory, Dress (Madame Edwarda), 2008, cotton, silk, photography: Tatsuyoshi Kawabata, courtesy and © the artists
29 November - 25 January
Kathleen OConnor & Collection Galleries
Traditional tailoring and contemporary fashion
How You Make It looks at a range of approaches to fashion design by leading conceptual fashion designers from VIC, NSW, WA and QLD, brought together for the first time.
How You Make It takes the making process itself as a conceptual starting point. Specifically, it looks at the approach of the designer towards garment construction as an idea while investigating the evolution of artisan fashion design practices revealing how traditional highly-crafted tailoring techniques continue to form contemporary clothing in often radically new ways.
Catalogues available from Reception
Visit the How You Make It website netsvictoria.org, for free catalogues, posters, education kits and a downloadable pattern, The Envelope, by Anthea van Kopplen.
Alex Kershaw
One of Several Centres
One of Several Centres, 2007-08, production still from video installation, HDV/HDV 1080p25, courtesy and © the artist and GRANTPIRRIE
29 November - 25 January
Gallery 3
The video work One of Several Centres arises out of performative interactions between the people who live, work and holiday in Alice Springs.
Alex Kershaws practice instigates playful interventions which are intended to shift peoples routines and expectations surrounding the town.
Sydney-based Kershaw works with video and photography to generate unexpected relationships between people and their terrain. Often spending extended periods researching locations and characters, everyday people become involved in the work. Through Kershaws quiet activism the boundary between truth and invention is blurred. He is represented by the gallery GRANTPIRRIE.
Sound design: Gail Priest
Roderick Sprigg
Mechanical Nuisance
Installation of cup-guards in lounge room, 2008, size variable, photography: Roderick Sprigg
29 November - 25 January
Hall Gallery
Artist and farmer Roderick Sprigg explores the nature of contemporary masculinity, an interest central to his interdisciplinary practice and informed by his farming life in Mukinbudin, Western Australia.
In this installation of objects, drawings and photographs, Sprigg takes as his starting point the safety guards that farmers customarily remove from their machinery. Sprigg seeks to reveal the internal and external restraints acting upon communication while expressing his respect for the character of rural life.
Constellations
Elise/Jόrgen, Tom Freeman & Clare Peake
Tom Freeman, Storyboard (detail), 2008, from the series Stand by Me, watercolour and acrylic on stretched cotton, 122 x 91 cm, courtesy and © the artist, photography: Tom Freeman
Until 25 January
Main Gallery
Adventurers have always looked to the stars to fix their location. Similarly the artists in Constellations are navigating the early years of their practice buoyed by a keen sense that they are contributing to each others progress. This exhibition profiles a circle of young Perth-based artists whose work and aspirations, while enjoying some proximity, are in flux.
Curated by Marc Springhetti
Fertile Soil
50 Years of the City of Fremantle Art Collection
11 October 23 November 2008
Fremantles enduring role as home and favourite subject matter for artists is celebrated in an exhibition marking 50 years of the City of Fremantle Art Collection. The Citys Collection, comprising more than 1200 works, reflects the port towns particular artistic heritage, making it one of the most significant municipal collections in the country.The exhibition Fertile Soil highlights the strengths of the collection, ranging from painting, drawing, printmedia, assemblage, textiles and ceramics. Fertile Soil presents 68 works by 50 of Western Australian leading artists, including Kathleen OConnor paintings and past winners of the Fremantle Print Award.
Easy-to-use audio guides to the exhibition are available and provide 80 minutes of commentary by the participating artists about their work, ideas and inspiration.
Curator: Andrι Lipscombe, Curator, City of Fremantle Art Collection
Artists
Ray Arnold, George Baldessin, Marcus Beilby, Merrick Belyea, Sandra Black, Pat Brassington, Paul Brown, Rupert Bunny, Joan Campbell, Susanna Castleden, Jan Davis, Elizabeth Durack, Pippin Drysdale, Cordula Ebatarinja, Neil Emmerson, Christine Gosfield, Audrey Greenhalgh, Peggy Griffiths, Richard Gunning, George Haynes, Hans Heysen, Bevan Honey, Tony Jones, Jeremy KirwanWard, Theo Koning, Bela Kotai, Eveline Kotai, Colin Lanceley, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Akio Makigawa, Jane Martin, Brian McKay, Mary Moore, Sally Morgan, Albert Namatjira, Jαnis Nedιla, Kathleen OConnor, Shane Pickett, Trevor Richards, Stewart Scambler, Arthur Streeton, Brad Rimmer, Megan Salmon, Helen Smith, Holly Story, Paul Uhlmann, Ken Wadrop, Judy Watson, Karl Wiebke, Jurek Wybraniec
A companion book to Fertile Soil, published by Fremantle Press, is available from Fremantle Arts Centre Shop.
A touring version of Fertile Soil, managed by ART ON THE MOVE, presenting the work of 21 Fremantle-based practitioners will travel to 8 regional WA galleries in 2009-10.
Photo by Justin Spiers
Elvis Richardson
NOW7 YEARS LATER
A companion work to Fertile Soil, commissioned by Fremantle Arts Centre.
11 October 23 November
Gallery Three
Elvis Richardson has created a new work in response to Christine Gosfields work in Fertile Soil, 9/11 ..defining home. Gosfields work shows 360 portraits of Fremantle people that she photographed in the days following 9/11. Gosfield herself recalls at the time being driven by an almost visceral urge to solidify the Fremantle community.
Inspired by Michael Apteds acclaimed Seven Up series, Melbourne-based Richardson who was living in New York at the time, has tracked down and invited those people photographed by Gosfield to reflect on these momentous events, 7 years later.
Winners announced!
Printmaking is so hot right now
Fremantle Print Award supported by
Little Creatures Brewing 2008
In an exciting result, the 2008 Fremantle Print Award winner challenges the notion of printmaking by putting the winning work in your hands for four dollars!
Now in its 33rd year, the Fremantle Print Award supported by Little Creatures Brewing is Australias leading award and exhibition for prints and artists books in any print medium.
Together, this years winner and runner-up reflect the broad definitions of printmaking in todays contemporary landscape a conceptual, mass-produced work sitting alongside a technically masterful linocut.
$10,000 Acquisitive Prize Joel Gailer, Hot process
$3,000 Non-Acquisitive Prize Alick Tipoti, Kuyku Garpathamai Mabaig
Challenging the preconceptions of printmaking, Melbourne-based artist Joel Gailers winning entry can only be seen in the August issue of Art Almanac.
Gailer submitted and displays his work by paying for a page in the popular national guide to visual arts and exhibitions. The works appears with no clues to its origins and context.
Gailers work breaks from the tradition of displaying work within the confines of a gallery space. Hot process celebrates a lack of exclusivity and can be acquired for a mere four dollars.
The judges decision to award Gailer first prize was unanimous. Consuelo Cavaniglia, Fremantle Print Award Coordinator says, The judges were excited about the concept behind Joels work - its lack of preciousness, its disposability and humour.
Janice McCulloch, publisher of Art Almanac, was delighted that her publication is an integral part of the winning entry. She also felt Gailers work, which states, Printmaking is so hot right now, sends out a positive message. McCulloch also says, The August issue will surely become a collectors item.
In contrast, runner-up Alick Tipoti, a Torres Strait Island artist, adheres to more traditional practices with his epic, large-scale linocut print, Kuyku Garpathamai Mabaig.
Displaying superb technique and skill, Tipoti has produced a striking print that stands two metres in height. It tells the story of a headhunter communicating with the spirits of his victims.
This years judging panel is comprised of:
Glenn Barkley (Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW)
Pamela Gaunt (Artist; Senior Lecturer in Art, Coordinator Fashion & Textile Design, Department of Art, School of Built Environment, Art & Design, Curtin University, WA)
Ken Watson (Gallery Director, Jirrawun Arts, WA)
Moving Light
Sriwhana Spong, 7Days, Super 8 transferred to DV, 2007, Courtesy the artist and Anna Miles Gallery
Jonathan Jones, Under the aegis, 2006, fluorescent tubes and fittings, installed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, photo: Jenni Carter, courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis
Moving Light
Jonathan Jones & Sriwhana Spong5 July 17 August
Fremantle Arts Centre undergoes an illuminating transformation as artists Jonathan Jones (Sydney) and Sriwhana Spong (Auckland) present Moving Light an exhibition featuring drawings, light installations, objects and film.
In their first joint exhibition, Jones and Spong present works that represent the collusion, or the blending, of different worlds. Referencing their respective cultural backgrounds (Jones Kamilaroi/Wiradjuri and Spong Balinese), Spong and Jones draw on ideas surrounding Balinese shrines, the common fluoro tube and Indigenous line drawing, while linking these to diverse influences like minimalist abstract painting and the movies of Alfred Hitchcock.
Gallery Talk
Saturday 5 July, 4.00pmby artists Jonathan Jones and Sriwhana Spong
RSVP essential, fac@fremantle.wa.gov.au
Annabel Dixon, Untitled (Superman), detail, 2007, dimensions variable comic book, courtesy and © the artist
Making Something Else
Annabel Dixon5 July 17 August
Artist Annabel Dixon has an extraordinary affinity with paper. She sees the potential in material that others discard and through her artistic process of sorting, listing and classifying, transforms these objects into art.
Dixon is particularly interested in the way paper shows the imprint of its history and use. Making Something Else reflects this and presents an installation of Dixons work based on her collection of various forms of paper.
FotoFreo
The City of Fremantle Festival of Photography
A biennial international festival of photography
fotofreo.com
Hayden Fowler
Call of the Wild 5 April 11 May
Kathleen OConnor Gallery
Hayden Fowlers practice reflects upon the separation between humanity and nature at a time when the natural is becoming increasingly difficult to define. Fowler worked collaboratively with a tattoo artist to have a pair of extinct birds, the New Zealand Huia, etched into his torso. This photomedia and sound installation allows the spectator to watch the full and complex tattoo procedure unfold as the Huia is resurrected on Fowlers body.
Call of the Wild (iv) (detail), 2007, digital print mounted on di-bond, 80 x 80 cm, courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, © the artist. Photograph: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy
Chen Nong
San Xia 5 April 11 May
Hall Gallery
Chen Nong has created a sumptuous fable photographing the residents of the villages leveled by the Three Gorges Dam construction, clad as terracotta warriors. The images are taken using a bellows-style
camera. Chen Nong was born in Fujian Province, China. He has a background in ceramics and is a self-trained photographer and painter. His photographic career was established in 2005 after his
participation in the Rome Photography Festival.
From the series San Xia 2 (detail), 2006, hand coloured black and white prints, 1 x 1.2 m, courtesy and © the artist
Marian Drew
Every Living Thing 5 April 11 May
Main Gallery
Marian Drews photography and video explores relationships across time, domesticity, history and landscape. Every Living Thing subjects road kill to the close-up lens and painterly light recontextualising Australian wildlife in the European tradition of still life.
Drew is Convenor of Photography at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. The recipient of many awards and residencies, a monograph was published in 2006 by the Queensland Centre for Photography. In late 2007 she held a solo exhibition at Hous Projects, New York.
Bandicoot with Quince (detail), 2005, archival pigment on German etching paper, 112 x 134 cm, courtesy the artist and Robin Gibson Gallery, Hill Smith Gallery and Dianne Tanzer Gallery, © the artist
Christophe Bourguedieu
The Passengers 5 April 11 May
Gallery Three
Familiar aspects of everyday life in Perth are enigmatic when subject to the gaze of French photographer Christophe Bourguedieu. Bourguedieu exhibits regularly in France and Europe, most recently at Box Galerie, Brussels, and Musιe dArt Contemporain in Lyon. His monographs, Le Cartographe (2000), Tavastia (2002), Eden (2004) and Les Passagers (2007) are published by Point du Jour Editeur.
The Passengers has received support from Lyon-septembre de la photographie 2006 and Picto-Lyon
Catherine, Perth (detail), 2005, inkjet print, 76.5 x 113 cm, courtesy the artist and Box Galerie, © the artist
Marina Troitsky, Residual
Residence (detail), 2007, perspex and paper , 1.4 x 0.4 x 0.4m
installation dimensions variable, courtesy and © the artist
8 December 27 January
Marina Troitsky presents a series of works based on displacement and memory in relation to the cyclical nature of existence. These fragments of object and
image engender contemplation of the effect of
transience on our lives, in both an environmental and a personal sense.
Marina, who lives in the South West has a German
and Russian heritage. Her environment and the
residual effect of migratory translocation influence
her evolving practice.
Belinda Fox, Backwards Forwards
Hold, 2007, drawing, painting and flocking on paper, 120 x 150cm, courtesy and © the artist
8 December 27 January
Belinda Fox presents an ambitious wall and floor installation drawing on the imagery and protocols of childhood games to describe current political and cultural themes. The work utilises a combination of flocking, painting and printing on wood and paper.
Belinda, an artist who specialises in works on paper, was the winner of the 2007 Burnie Print Prize. In 2006 Belinda undertook a residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute supported by the Australia Council and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Belinda is represented in public, corporate and private collections in Australia and overseas. She has representation with Art House Gallery, Sydney; Beaver Gallery Canberra; and Turner Galleries, Perth. Belinda is a recipient of a Fremantle Arts Centre residency and her project has been assisted by Curtin University of Technology Faculty of Built Environment, Art and Design.
Skin to Skin: a dialogue between art and fashion
Justine McKnight, Spinning Girl, 2007, digital photograph courtesy and © the artist
2 February 30 March
Highlighting the ways in which fashion and contemporary art feed off each other, Skin to Skin seeks to extend our understanding of the relationship between fashion and issues of identity, consumption and beauty.
Skin to Skin fosters appreciation of fashion as holding meaning beyond the aesthetic or marketable object. It includes seamless garments grown from micro-organisms, work that plays off architectural and sculptural references, and a live performance that repositions the male body as the central subject.
Contributors: Georgina Cresswell, Elizabeth Delfs, Anne Farren, Angela Ferolla, Donna Franklin and Gary Cass, Davina Homer, Kirsten Hudson, Justine McKnight, Minaxi May, Megan Salmon, Louise Snook and the collective Poets of the Machine. Curated by Lia McKnight.
Supported by Designer Fashion Grants Program, Department of Culture and the Arts
skintoskinexhibition.net
Opening Performance
Friday 1 February, 6.30pm
Free, RSVP essential, 08 9432 9555
or fac@fremantle.wa.gov.au
Panel Discussion
The Future of Fashion: What is possible? What is ethical? Where are we headed?
Saturday 16 February
3pm Discussion, 4.30pm Drinks
Panellists are exhibiting artists Kirsten Hudson, Vanila Netto and Minaxi May with Kate Rhodes, Curator, National Design Centre, Melbourne. Chair: Dr Christopher Crouch, Edith Cowan University.
Free, RSVP 08 9432 9555
or fac@fremantle.wa.gov.au
Associated Workshops
Donna Franklin and Gary Cass: Microbe Fermented Fashion
Wednesday 20 February, 6.30pm 9pm
Angela Ferolla, Draping Surfaces, Scaping Emotions
Wednesday 27 February, 6.30pm 9pm
Vanila Netto, Communication by Contact
Hogshead #5 (detail), 2007, digital print, 95 x 108 cm, courtesy of Arc One Gallery,
Melbourne and BREENSPACE, Sydney, and © the artist
Vanilla Netto Communication by Contact is supported by the Arts NSW and Graphic Art Mount
2 February 30 March
Vanila Netto creates photographic work triggered by found objects. A subtle reappraisal of their function, value and aesthetics is undertaken via a disarmingly simple process involving the reconfiguration of the readymade and the staged photograph. Vanila is drawn to the aesthetic edge and nobility of modest, underrated sources rejected goods and non-celebrities.
Vanila has stated, Lately I have been working on short performative acts using video and photography . Performance of simple acts that fail to fit in or do the expected thing. Treating a serious subject through actions verging on the ridiculous, insisting on the subjects failure, displacing obvious notions of success, and promoting a subtler utopia through ritual, drama, minimalism and parody.
A graduate of the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Vanila is working towards many solo and group exhibitions in 2008. Vanilas Fremantle exhibition is the first showing of her video work.
Alwin Reamillo, Mang Emo + Mag-himo Grand Piano Project
Javincello+Co (Christmas 1965, Manila) (detail), 2005, photocopy emulsion
transfer of re-used plywood, 20 x 30cm, courtesy and © the artist
8 December 27 January
Mang Emo + Mag-himo Grand Piano Project is an ongoing project hosted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Fremantle Arts Centre. The project explores the cross-cultural and cross-generational possibilities that emerge out of Alwins commemoration of his familys piano manufacturing business, Javincello & Company.
Alwin was born in Manila in1964 and moved to Australia in 1995. His practice is diverse embracing installation, sculpture and performance with a focus on questions about migration and translation. He recently completed the Thuringowa Helicopter Project with Pinnacles Gallery, Thuringowa, Queensland.
Pip & Pop presents Ill Be Your Mirror, Tanya Schultz and Nicole Andrijevic
Play Date No 1, 2007, installation view, courtesy and © the artists
27 October 2 December 2007
Collaborative duo Pip and Pop transforms everyday materials into a playground of desire and abundance. With a child-like optimism of wanting it all, this candy coated paradise provides a looking glass in which to ponder the external world and reflect the synchronistic dialogue that occurs between the two artists. From the moment they met and saw each others work, Pip and Pop felt as though they had reunited as long lost sisters. The uncanny synchronicities in their visual language and personal lives have brought them to collaborate happily ever after.
Olga Cironis, Behind Each Look
Behind Each Look, 2007, courtesy and © the artist
27 October 2 December 2007
Olga Cironis transforms everyday objects by covering or embalming them with fabric. Her protective attentions surround her chosen objects with a gentle melancholy. Cironis reiteration of covering and stitching slows down our response, inviting touch, and shifting the emphasis in the gallery from object to performance. Fremantle-based, Olga has exhibited widely in Western Australia and recently in Melbourne with fortyfivedownstairs Gallery. She is a recipient of a Fremantle Arts Centre residency.
Ruth Parker, Shadow Space
Archaeology (detail), 2003-07, found bottle tops, 300 x 200cm, courtesy and © the artist, photo: Bewley Shaylor
27 October 2 December 2007
Ruth Parkers woven installations of rusty bottle tops cast shadows that appear hard or soft depending on the viewers vantage point. Her humble materials are sourced from bottle shops car parks and road sides. Ruth lives in Fremantle, has exhibited widely in Perth and also practices as an art therapist.
Susan Flavell, Unhorsed
Men 1,2,3,4,6, 2006-7, cardboard, hot glue, prosthetic eyes, 2.5 x 1.2 x 0.7m approx, courtesy and © the artist
27 October 2 December 2007
Susan Flavells practice has recently shifted away from figures of animals into the human form. Her cardboard sculptures are heroic in scale but not in material. Flavells works have many similarities with drawing the lines of construction, including the mistakes, the rubbings out, the overdrawing can be seen. Out of the physicality of modelling cardboard on this scale has emerged a struggle between the artist and the apparent agency of each figure. Susan has an extensive history exhibiting in gallery and outdoor contexts in Western Australia.
Her work is held in the States major collections.
Fremantle Print Award supported by Little Creatures Brewing
Australias leading award for prints and artists books in
any print medium
8 September 21 October
For more information Fremantle Print Award supported by Little Creatures Brewing
Also on view Relief Method: prints from the City of Fremantle Art Collection.
Stories from the North, Tales from the West, Franck Gohier and Chayni Henry
Left: Chayni Henry, Kimberley Crocs, 2007, acrylic on board, 40 x 30 cm
Right: Franck Gohier, OXO, 2005, acrylic on board, 44 x 33 cm, courtesy Ray Hughes Gallery
21 July 2 September 2007
In their first joint exhibition, Franck Gohier and Chayni Henry, present a selection of paintings that reflect their engagement with the Kimberley landscape and their home city of Darwin. Drawing on a favourite fifties novel, Cowboy Small, Franck brings a pop-inspired twist to the politics and topography of the Kimberley cattle industry. Chaynis paintings record trips through the Kimberley shared by she and Franck.
Predominantly self-taught, Chayni Henry is currently Artist-in-Residence at Charles Darwin University in Darwin. Included in Primavera 2006: exhibition by young Australian artists at the MCA in Sydney, her style juxtaposes painting and writing.
Franck Gohier taught and editioned prints in communities across Northern and Central Australian for many years. He now pursues his own socio-politically motivated practice full-time and is represented by Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney. Francks works have not been exhibited previously and the show includes new works by Chayni.
Projector Video Works
Sam Smith, Tokyo Exercises Suite (edit), 2005, digital video still
28 July 2 September 2007
Artists Anthea Behm, Brent Grayburn, Soda_Jerk, Brendan Lee, David Mackenzie & Craig Bender, Todd McMillan, Ms & Mr, Kate Murphy, Rachel Scott, Sam Smith, Peter Volich and Emma White
Projector is an internationally touring selection of works by Australian artists curated by Kate Murphy for FOUR Gallery, Dublin. Currently International Artist-in-Residence at the Fire Station Artists Studios in Dublin, Australian Kate Murphy, has assembled videos ranging in duration from 40 seconds to six minutes which offer an eclectic range of moving image work. Program length: 41 minutes.
Kate Murphy gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the NSW Government through the Ministry for the Arts
FOUR acknowledges the assistance of Dublin City Council and The Arts Council, Ireland
Brendan Lee is represented by Crossley & Scott, Melbourne
Todd McMillan is represented by GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney
Ms & Mr are represented by Kaliman Gallery, Sydney
Pete Volich is represented by Stills Gallery, Sydney
MARKER>, Pia Bennett, Larissa Boyd, Patrick Doherty, Joshua Fitzpatrick and Clare Peake
Larissa Boyd, Horse, 2006, ink and charcoal and watercolour on paper, 76 x 56 cm
9 June 15 July 2007
MARKER> brings together a circle of young artists working with drawing to reveal the visually unapparent. At times extending beyond both the wall and convention, these artists explore mindscapes through narrative and the abstract. Curated by Jo Emmons.
Media release available under Exhibition Publications
Izabela Pluta, Home(land)
Home(land) 2, 2006, inkjet wallpaper prints, 200 x 300
9 June 15 July 2007
Izabela Pluta was born in Warsaw, Poland, and migrated to Australia in 1987. She works in photomedia and installation, and is currently based in Sydney. Home(land) was produced during an Australia Council Studio Residency in Barcelona and investigates the conjuring of place through materiality. Izabela has described her work as being somewhere else but not necessarily a representation of it.
Media release available under Exhibition Publications
Michelle Glaser, The Diabolical Doctor Pancoast
Helen Smith, credit from The Diabolical Doctor Pancoast
9 June 15 July 2007
The Diabolical Doctor Pancoast is a tale of sex and alchemy set in the Victorian era. Michelles video, combining animation and live action, invites the voyeur in all of us to join the Doctor, a hell-bent hedonist, on a magical journey to the underworld. Michelle is an artist, curator and writer who works with linear and interactive media and biologically enhanced technology. Her new media projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Media release available under Exhibition Publications
Jeremy Kirwan-Ward, Undercurrent
Undercurrent (detail), 2006, acrylic on canvas, 390 x 570 cm
28 April 3 June 2007
Undercurrent arises out of Jeremy Kirwan-Wards questioning of the paradox of still movement in relation to natural phenomena. This installation of two vast paintings envelopes the viewer in light and reflects the artists encounter with sensations of water.
Jeremy Kirwan-Ward is a painter engaging with the language of colour-field abstraction working in Fremantle. He has been exhibiting since 1971. His works are held in collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Artbank, the National Gallery of Australia, the Kerry Stokes Collection and the Wesfarmers Collection. He is represented by Perth Galleries.
The exhibition is accompanied by a free publication which includes an essay by Helen Carroll Fairhall, Curator, the Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, also available under Exhibition Publications
Associated Event
Saturday 5 May, 2.00pm
Jeremy Kirwan-Ward and Andre Lipscombe, Curator, City of Fremantle Collection, lead a tour of Undercurrent and the exhibition, Private Viewing, which offers an insight into the evolution of the artists ideas over three decades.
Free, bookings not required
Stuart Bailey, Crafting self-esteem
My first creative act, 2006, polystyrene, plaster, dirt, found plastic and paint, 44 x 44 x 30 cm
28 April 3 June 2007
Stuart Bailey is a Melbourne based artist and curator. He works in a variety of media with an emphasis on
site-specific installation. Crafting self-esteem explores issues around the past uses of the building now occupied by the Fremantle Arts Centre. Channelling an art therapy class for troubled teens, Bailey has created a group of difficult sculptures. His sculptures are installed alongside a wall drawing and works by Basil Hadley (1940-2006) from the City of Fremantle Collection. Bailey is drawn to Hadleys enjoyment of the tragicomic and looks to him as a possible mentor in his commentary on the impact of institutions on the individual.
Further information on the exhibition (0.11MB)
Abe Dunovits and Tania Ferrier, Collide
Tania Ferrier, Funky Victoria, 2006, artline pen and gesso on paper, 34 x 24 cm
28 April 3 June 2007
Abe Dunovits and Tania Ferrier are Fremantle-based artists who enjoy solo and collaborative practices that encompass drawing, installation and live events. Gathering up memories, trinkets and images from their recent travels, Ferriers quirky drawings embed reproductions of 18th and 19th century engravings in contemporary printed papers. Dunovits offers irreverent assemblages of found and recycled objects as shrines to consumer culture. Tanya is represented by Stafford Studios.
Echoes of Home, Memory and Mobility in recent Austral-Asian art
Renee So, The Merchant and The Villain, 2005, knitted lambswool, 66 x 46 cm Photos: John Bush
Echoes of Home presents the work of 14 Australian artists, craftspeople and designers who have an Asian background and includes historical and experimental approaches to media such as ceramics, textiles, paper, jewellery, sculpture and painting. Developed by the Museum of Brisbane, it has been curated by Christine Clark who worked on the Asia-Pacific Triennial for ten years at the Queensland Art Gallery.
Accompanying the exhibition is a discussion hosted by the Asian Australian Studies Research Network at www.asianaustralianstudies.org/echoes.html. Moderated by Dr Dean Chan, Postdoctoral Research
Fellow, School of Communications and Contemporary Arts, Edith Cowan University, this ongoing program will consider the shows curatorial framework and further highlight these artists contribution to
contemporary understandings of cross-cultural experience.
Artists
Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser, Dadang Christanto, Yuri Kawanabe, Won Seok Kim, Liu Xiao Xian, Yoshie Mizuno, Humna Mustafa, Alwin Reamillo, Pamela Mei-Leng See, Shine Myung-ok Shin, Renee So, Jaishree
Srinivasan, Alistair Trung and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn
Public Programs
Exhibition Tour with Christine Clark, Exhibition Curator
Saturday 10 February, 2.00pm
Free, bookings not required
Asian Australian Studies Research Network Online Responses
View responses to the exhibition at www.asianaustralianstudies.org/echoes.html
Moderated by Dean Chan, responses by invited contributors from diverse backgrounds will be uploaded on a rolling basis during the exhibition. Continuing for the duration of its national tour, and incorporating curatorial essays and images of the exhibition, the online program will create a valuable archive for Echoes of Home.
Download PDF Media Release (0.20MB)
Turning into a corner, Bernadette Anderson
Turning into a Corner (detail), 2005, PVC plastic, images (drawings & digital) and movement;
Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, WA
20 January 4 March 2006
Seeking to give expression to the Taoist notion of movement and stillness, Bernadette Anderson invites viewers to linger in her work - its luminous quality and contained spaces giving rise to intimate and private recollections.
Catherine Higham, Presence
Sensory Connection (detail), 2005, oil on board and baling twine, 1.2 x 2.4 m
20 January 4 March 2006
Catherine Highams assemblages and sculptures utilising found materials
weathered over time are expressive of her experience of the inter-relationship between nature and farming life.
Pantjiti Mary McLean, Paintings and Drawings
Wati Nyarlpi(detail) 2002, drawing pencil on paper, 120 x 80 cm
20 January 4 March 2006
A suite of paintings and drawings, several never exhibited before, celebrating Pantjiti Mary McLeans family history and culture. Drawn from different periods and selected
in association with Nalda Searles, the exhibition will include drawing books from the
artists collection.
Walking with the Wongi, Karron Bridges
Damien Lane (Pilpanhi), 2006, gelatin silver print, 20 x 23 cm
20 January 4 March 2006
Karron Bridges photographs of life in Ninga Mia, north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, capture the hardships of living in this community while
reflecting the resilience of family relations.
Karron Bridges acknowledges the friendship of Pantjiti Mary McLean and Dinny Smith and the support of Ninga Mia Village Aboriginal Corporation.
Digging the Past Burying the Future, d&k
Tomorrow digging the past burying the future,2006
9 December 14 January 2006
2006 Artists in Residence, David Turley and Korin Gath, present work
within the Centres grounds unearthing its origins and delving into its future.
Wallal to Israelite Bay, Justin Trendall
Tomorrow Will Be Fine , 2006, screenprint on silk, 73 x 105 cm. Photo: silversalt photography
9 December - 14 January 2006
Justin Trendall creates images that fuse pattern and diagram with visionary architecture. Employing printmaking technologies to explore the intersection of coastal and cultural space, the Western Australian coastline is used as a reference point to map an autobiographical landscape.
Each moment a new tale is shouting to be told in silence, Layli Rakhsha
My Place is no-place(detail), 2006, mixed media and lapis lazuli on canvas, 16 x 24 cm
9 December 14 January 2006
Layli Rakhshas printmaking approaches the Western Australian landscape with feelings of nostalgia and longing. Uncertain pathways and hidden places are articulated through the application of precious texts by Persian poet Rumi (1207-1273).
Ichor ( kτr ) n., Pip McManus
That further shore(detail), 2006, ceramic, fire, 15 12 x 82 cm
9 December 14 January 2006
Pip McManus continues her exploration of the archetypal rituals and iconography employed by all cultures as protection against evil or suffering, or as sacred engagement with the Divine. McManus' archaic clay figures and vessels invoke the importance of connecting to the rhythms of the natural world and convey a sense of urgency about its dissolution.