Waterhouse: indenting an extent of space
Walking into the dark, cavernous space of the gallery the atmosphere changes and the sound of footsteps echo loudly. There’s nothing on the walls and rather ominously, toward the back of the space, is a large mound lit with a single spotlight, protruding from the floor. Well, not really protruding from the floor. It is … Read more
double edged sword of similarity
Surely, one of the most frustrating things for artists is finding out about someone else’s work that is similar to your own. Well, not just similar, but a little too similar. It was one of my pet hates at art school, having a teacher look at my work and then say, ‘you should look at … Read more
red bricks, blank pages and the external archival mind
There seems to be a growing trend of new shops that combine fine art elements with more design and craft oriented elements. The general underlying impetus appears to be a breaking down of the hoity toity highbrow air of the fine arts, together with a greater appreciation of the things that are locally made, hand-crafted … Read more
reality, pseudo reality and psycho-reality
Good ol’ Art Gallery of Ballarat. They’re always putting good stuff on. Which is a great pleasure really. Ballarat is such a unique city. There’s parts of it that are just breathtakingly beautiful. Some of the architecture is really wonderful. And yet, it feels like there’s about 50 000 people missing from the wide streets. … Read more
crap framing, process and the new inclusionary nature of art
The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) is always putting on great stuff. And they constantly tease me about their great shows by advertising on trams and bus-stops throughout Melbourne. Flaunting their cultural cache in the face of Australia’s cultural capital. Not that I’m jealous or anything. Just because I can’t afford to hop on … Read more
the perambulations of collings
In a class I once gave on Romanticism I was looking to describe the resurgence of the handmade and the gothic in 19th century Europe and had fortuitously stumbled on a rather brilliant description given by arts commentator Matthew Collings in his series This is Civilisation. Luckily, most classes have internet access, giant digital projectors, … Read more
ai wei wei: doco
There’s been a surge of artists coming out of China in recent times and by far the most interesting of these is Ai Weiwei. If you’re unfamiliar with his work I highly recommend checking him out. One of the great strengths of his work is his ability to produce work that melds the material with … Read more
dancing our artwork into the world
I’ve been pondering this for a while now and it’s become more apparent that art is always first and foremost performance. No act of creativity can exist without the performative actions of a maker. This is the very essence of creativity – the act of making. So while we may stand before an impressionist painting … Read more
are blue jeans a gene of our culture …?
This was an impressive show for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the textile artworks of Tamara Marwood stand on their own as art, regardless of their material, process and use. Secondly, for a venue to support a collaborative exhibition exploring product design, manufacturing and art is a bold and welcome move. Sure, Bendigo seems … Read more
honk if your child’s on the honour roll: la trobe grads
First of all, the VAC at La Trobe needs some praise for consistently putting on great contemporary art shows. For a region bustling with creative output, there’s frankly not enough quality contemporary art venues, and the VAC deserves mention and praise for holding up its end of the bargain, so to speak. The Honours students … Read more
