tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44401634667338274262024-02-18T19:43:16.972-08:00Damien Minton GalleryDamien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-83464509336112519052014-07-10T19:54:00.002-07:002014-07-10T20:16:59.708-07:00PETER GARDINER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-1791581944945800382014-02-25T17:42:00.000-08:002014-02-27T20:07:34.602-08:00REDFERN BIENNALE 2014<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Saturday 8 March 2014 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">CLUSTERFUCK AESTHETICS <br />The radicality of garbage</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Essay by <span style="text-align: justify;">Yellam Nre</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Curator, writer, academic, theorist</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">We live today in the age of partial objects, bricks that have been shattered to bits, and leftovers. We no longer believe in the myth of the existence of fragments that, like pieces of an antique statue, are merely waiting for the last one to be turned up, so that they may all be glued back together to create a unity that is precisely the same as the original unity. We no longer believe in a primordial totality that once existed, or in a final totality that awaits us at some future date. We no longer believe in the dull grey outlines of a dreary, colourless dialectic of evolution, aimed at forming a harmonious whole out of heterogeneous bits by rounding off their rough edges. We believe only in totalities that are peripheral. And if we discover such a totality alongside various separate parts, it is a whole of these particular parts but does not totalise them; it is a unity of all of these particular parts but does not unify them; rather, it is added to them as a new part fabricated separately. </span></i></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Gilles Deleuze, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 42.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An abandoned mattress. A bent bicycle wheel adjacent to a broken lampshade propped against a garage roller door. A pair of seatless chairs locked together in a grim embrace. These are the theoretical objects which define our epoch. Deleuze’s partial objects are our totality. </span></span></div>
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The nihilism of the readymade – both sneering and naïve, complete yet broken – defines our experience of contemporary art today. Objects umoored from the womb of the white cube are without referent or narrative, and yet generate narrative in their very abandonment. Art made in public space is an assault on the narrative of community, and complicates the periphery of our social engagement. But when the anti-establishment gesture of the guerrilla artwork is subsumed within the cannibalising assault of gentrification, how can the art object reclaim its radicality? </div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The artist is the master of objects; he [or she] puts before us shattered, burned, broken-down objects, converting them to the regime of desiring-machines… the artist presents paranoiac machines, miraculating-machines, and celibate machines so as to cause desiring-machines to undermine technical machines. Even more important, the work of art is itself a desiring-machine. The artist stores up his [or her] treasures so as to create an immediate explosion, and that is why, to [their] way of thinking, destructions can never take place as rapidly as they ought to.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Gilles Deleuze, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 31-32.</span></div>
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In its democratizing gesture of a free-for-all pile of stuff on stuff Redfern Biennale is a shot across the bow of government sanctioned social sculpture for the greater good. It places public art back in the hands of the public, where they are free to ‘engage’ with it as they wish. The utopian desire, imagined or otherwise, of a multifarious yet united society is thus enacted via the analogy of trash. The value of what we discard, conceal and detain outlines the border of our collective culture. Thus the artist’s gesture of displaying a work of art in public space becomes one of defiance and generosity. In doing so, it confounds Duchamp’s exhortation to indifference to the aesthetics or origin of an object – it enforces direct interaction with the situation of appearance and context. Destructions should take place more rapidly. </div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-9361728562805007692013-08-16T18:43:00.001-07:002013-08-16T21:37:04.461-07:00EVOLUTION OF DESIRE TO THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Diana, 2013, ceramic, 340 x 140 x 90mm</span></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'Does sexual desire have its origin in the old lizard brain, focused on reproduction? Perhaps. However, by the time the sexual urge re-forms itself in the curly complex front brain it may have changed the gender it is attracted to, changed it’s own gender, could be wrapped in leather, hung up on hooks, be thrilled to be threatened, terrified about being threatened, desperate to be dominated, wired to be excited by a squeaky costume or take any number of other forms. I can’t say I know why. Perhaps because we have a large plastic brain able to form itself into the shape it needs to be. If indeed the largest sexual organ is the brain it’s no wonder we are obsessed with sex. Maybe this brain just gets bored easily. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'Sexual desire is a heat haze in the distance; the more we chase it the more it recedes. This is the disappearing horizon of desire. So in the end, most of us settle on some image, some sense, some mysterious relationship with desire that provides some satisfaction with that distance. Every now and then we try to thrill ourselves to close that gap, but distance usually returns. It’s a relationship with our imagination that consistently compels us to engage in a search for a consistent ardor. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'We dance with our history and our body chemistry. We may dally or just be hardwired from birth but to a greater or lesser extent we will do anything it takes to ignite the flame on whatever fuel we happen to run on. But is sex just the psyche taking the ego out to dinner trying to get laid? I don’t think so. I think we seek something deep, a connection that combines who we just happen to be with who we might be able to be. That could be just about anything. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'In this series of sculptures I have looked, in a rough order, from the ancient to the present and at some other possible future forms that desire might take. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'The first sexual memes were indeed the Venus figurines, best known of which is the Venus of Willendorf. The rough design spread all over the ancient central European world from Siberia to the Pyrenees. There are examples in Japan as well. Ancient historians disagree on why or what they mean but my point is simple: they are sexy and they travelled. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'In 2008 I made a stop motion film of the entire contents of the Athens Museum. I was struck by sexual classicism. Did the Greeks indeed have the first sex industry? What better way to sell your culture than to come up with a powerful sexual meme. The one the Greeks invented was ‘the draped reveal’. The fabric hiding and simultaneously accentuating the body both enthralled and assured the viewer. You can see this woman but maybe you’re not supposed to, much like the wet T-shirt. Greek culture went everywhere, just as porn does on the internet. This is just a personal theory: the general formula for packaging desire but keeping it on the high culture dais was a winning combination. That delicious sexual tension of half naked bodies became the very image of good neo classic governance for the Victorians. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'There is a moment in Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) where the world’s water is on the brink of being turned into a solid called “Ice 9”. It’s the end of the future. The two lead characters look at each other at last wanting to consummate the romantic tension of the story. Yet all the ardor vanishes and the narrator resigns to the idea that his desire was far more connected to reproducing the future generation than he had ever suspected. If the two leads had been gay what would have happened? Do we want to fuck if there’s no future in it? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'I’m not sure, maybe you’d just want to have one last truly connected moment. I really don’t think everyone needs the idea of producing the next generation to get off. But… We all have parents, even if we never meet them and we ponder their success or failure at both forming us and being parents. Our model for closeness is either formed or rejected. It doesn’t matter if it’s two men, two women, a woman and a chimp or a woman and a man provided they love and nurture us. If they shame us, damage us or cripple our confidence we will perhaps transfer this to whoever we encounter and that may mean something sexually dangerous and ugly. If we want to close the gap to this horizon of desire we need to connect somehow. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'At present we find ourselves in an age of continual desire updates. Our technology, our food and our sexual self-image is likewise, updatable. On top of all this market-placed commodification of need is a tantalizing prospect of genetic manipulation of our core. This is what I refer to with ‘Mechanical Reproduction’ (my apologies to Walter Benjamin). Even though we can sit, very assured in our comfortable present sexual relationships with our partners and our mutual imaginations, this possibility of tinkering with our DNA does change the rules somewhat. I have no idea really how much this will change how we feel about ourselves, quite literally, but it does make me wonder. It’s the first time in our evolution that one of the absolute bases of sex has changed. As a thought experiment I made “So What If I Cloned My Dead Wife”. I try to predict what type of desire might form. The sculpture depicts two identical women caressing each other’s sex. The title does imply another unseen figure however. We have to imagine a wealthy individual whose young wife might have died, now in old age gazing upon the cloned pair, pole dancing. They may indeed be some kind of genetically manufactured slaves. I tried to make them like someone you might meet, not too beautiful, so that they capture an individual more than an ideal. They are slightly different, just as twins can be altered by small differences in experiences. In this scenario it’s as if we are not cloning people but cloning sexual gratification and desire itself. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'As a society we have come some way to accepting diversity as being an expression of both being and culture. This exhibition is merely a collection of the forms sexual desire can take, along with a few threads that seemed to spin off from that general pattern. My apologies with the license I take with Freud, Parvati, Greek Mythology and anybody that may be offended by my trivialization of their obsession.'</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- Hobart Hughes, 2013</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Athens Museum time-lapse can be found at </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.hobarthughes.com/">www.hobarthughes.com</a> and click on the link Road Movie</span></span></div>
Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-69310243095323141282013-08-16T18:21:00.000-07:002013-08-16T21:43:33.685-07:00 GRACELAND A GROUP EXHIBITION <div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">4 - 24 AUGUST 2013</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Damien Minton Gallery has invited a group of artists to respond to the recently completed major work by Sydney artist, Martin Sharp: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Graceland: A Reprise of Giorgio de Chirico’s Song of Love’. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Graceland appropriates the surrealist classic and features the Apollo bust as Elvis. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Martin Sharp is fascinated with Elvis Presley as the King of America and refers to a sermon delivered by Dr Robert Wolfgramm at the Frankston Seventh Day Adventist church titled: </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“The King’s King of Kings”. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">In the sermon, which documents Presley’s career, Wolfgramm references Elvis’ favourite Scripture, 1 Corinthians 13. Some of these verses were transcribed on a plaque beside Elvis’ ‘Graceland’ bed. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">As Wolfgramm concludes: </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“This is what the religion of the King’s ‘King of Kings’ is all about – love. Elvis showed it to everyone who came in contact with him. He was generous and colour blind, He was no saint, but he knew who was: Jesus Christ. Thank you Elvis for being a living testimony to this our only hope. Amen” </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The painting by Martin Sharp will be on public display for the first time and we invited artists to contribute a new work or an existing piece that may evoke any of the varied concepts around Graceland, Elvis and kings.</span></span></div>
Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-82337586245684003022013-06-28T00:29:00.000-07:002013-06-28T00:40:07.173-07:00WORKING | NEWCASTLE<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">WORKING | NEWCASTLE</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">3 - 31 JULY 2013 | NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY GALLERY</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The idea of this exhibition started when I was reading the book by New York based musician David Byrne, well known for his role in the popular band Talking Heads. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Early in the book, ‘How Music Works’, Byrne articulates how the environment musicians find themselves helps shape and refine their creative output.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">They are responding and reacting not only to the social and cultural moment but also the physical spaces that are available to them at the time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the early days Talking Heads performed at the now infamous New York club, CBGB.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It was a small bar …”there was little reverberation in those spaces and they weren’t that big … so the groove could be strong and upfront. The details of one’s music would be heard and given the size of the place intimate gestures and expressions would be seen and appreciated as well, at least from the waist up”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">With that in mind it is interesting to transpose the same principle to the physical spaces artists currently engage with in order to create and nurture their practice.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Not so much the space they perform in, galleries, but the space where they are working, the studio.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The space where they are productive, converting a creative notion into a tangible form.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Everyone is fascinated with an artist studio, the romantic notion of a pool of creative unbridled expression. Yet the hard yards of creation, destruction and resolution are determined in these spaces. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This exhibition WORKING|NEWCASTLE presents three new bodies of work by three contemporary artists who are WORKING in Newcastle.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">PETER GARDINER</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">JAMES DRINKWATER</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">BRETT McMAHON</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Accompanying the new work is a photo essay by artist </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">SIMONE DARCY</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">who visited the three spaces and responded to the three artists’ relationship with their space.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is interesting to acknowledge the artists’ practice as WORK.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is exasperating that even now, in the early part of the 21st century, there is still a notion in popular consciousness that the creative output of a visual artist is not WORK but something ephemeral and essentially ‘part time’.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This is a constant tussle having to be addressed by those in the visual arts industry: maintaining and promoting the role and worth of artists within the public domain. The visual arts industry, especially those located in Australian regional areas, are consistently placed on a footing of justifying and defending, despite the centuries of cultural heritage easily accessible for all to see and experience.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The artwork in this exhibition is rich and varied, the space in which it was created is just as rich and worth describing, articulating, acknowledging. </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">JAMES DRINKWATER</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">James Drinkwater has recently moved into a new studio, an old glass factory in the West End of Newcastle. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Like a lot of young artists with limited financial capacity, James relies on contacts, intuition, inventiveness and resourcefulness.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“It’s a monumental run down Art Deco building and I’m in this great big mezzanine/loft at the back of the property. The windows were all boarded up which I had to address. A lot of the old glass racks are still there loaded with stunning pieces of antique glass. It’s a big dusty old space with high ceilings, untreated hardwood floors and big barn doors that open down onto a lane. I had to clean out all these relics and family heirlooms, which took a few days and then a few more to move my junk in. All that junk, hardwood, glass and dust is just glorious.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">James and his artist wife, Lottie Consalvo, recently returned to Australia after two tough but rewarding years in Berlin.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“I have worked in many different spaces and each space has definitely informed that body of work. When I am between studios I make site-specific work, which is again informed by that place or space. The aesthetic and scale of the space I'm in now means I can be quite ambitious while smaller spaces in the past have required a more sensitive approach and controlled orientation. At the moment I can just storm around the place and compose things. I even like the idea of having not having a studio as such and simply use a city as your space and respond to that energy and space, you know like a major installation.” </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Growing up in a typical East Cost Australia suburban environment, the garage, is one of the more enduring ‘creative’ spaces for young Australians, whether it be music, craft or the visual arts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“I started my love affair with garages as a young boy. At about 10 I took over my parent’s garage as a studio and then in my teens I played in bands and we made a lot of noise in garages all over Newcastle. Most of my studios have been in garages or sheds; I've converted warehouses and tiny garages to live in. If you’re resourceful enough its incredible how much space is really out there. I made a decision a long ago to F..K the real estate agents, fuck the rental market, just look around and start conversations. You have to think one thing and say another.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Having grown up in Newcastle he is well versed in the rhythm of the city.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Newcastle is such a tramp, I love it. It has this fantastic gritty and tough side with this die hard little scene. I find it so appealing to live and work here. I spent quite a bit of time between Leipzig and Berlin and found it to be so aligned with the Newcastle and Sydney thing. You know Berlin is this big super fabulous art city but in reality slightly further east in Leipzig is where I found a far more authentic and strong scene. Its easy in Sydney like Berlin to get caught up in all that art world crap, its expensive and everybody is screwing everybody to get somewhere and there is all this pressure to be at the openings and parties which can be amusing on occasion but I just see people all the time with that 'fear of missing out' syndrome gallivanting around when they should just be in their studio focusing on making meaningful work. It’s always been those regional cities where great art and movements have come. It makes perfect sense to be here.”</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">PETER GARDINER</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Peter is a mid career artist who grew up in Geelong, Victoria and arrived in Newcastle as a fresh visual arts undergraduate at Newcastle University.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">He never left, and has carved out a professional art practice based in Newcastle.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">His studio is located at his family home in inner suburban Newcastle. Yet the studio where a lot of the preliminary work is done is ….</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“… my head. I take it to Woolworths and my son’s rugby on the weekends. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It’s a studio of endless possibilities, where anything can be realised, ideas fermented and weakness resolved. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My other studio is 7 x 4 metres with a high 4 metre ceiling. It is not as vast as the cerebral space, but it is a big enough to hammer things out. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This studio stands one metre from the side of my family home. I’ve always lived close to where I make art. It’s convenient. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I like to be close to my family. They love me. It’s good to be loved. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I work hard at my art. A friend who was much older than me, who I met at art school, told me that I must approach it like a real job, ten hours minimum a day, two smokos and lunch. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Well I may not get 10 hours in, but I work everyday. The rhythm is punctuated by coffee breaks until my kids come home from school in the afternoon and then the family forms its wagons into a circle for the night. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Sometimes I venture out to an arts related function, but not as often as I used to. I don’t leave me house much at all. I don’t need a lot of socialisation anymore. I’ve got what I need. The mix of domestic and the otherness of the studio pulses through my life. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It’s diurnal, the light of the interconnected domestile with the dark of the lone creation.” </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">BRETT McMAHON</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Brett is a mid career painter with a national presence.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Having grown up in Newcastle, Brett has created his studio practice in Sydney, the Hunter Valley and the North Coast of NSW.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“My current studio in Newcastle is a space that I have leased for the past five years. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In Sydney, I had some great spaces in old rag trade buildings in Surry Hills, but they all required me to mediate my activity in regards to noise, process, scale of work.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The current space is located in an industrial estate so there is the freedom to work whenever I need, run equipment, make noise and mess.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is also surrounded by other businesses and their activities are useful for supplying materials and expertise or for subject matter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I grew up in Newcastle with my father, uncles and grandfathers’ all working in industry, so my thoughts and emotions related to making things are connected to that environment so I feel most comfortable positioning my activity in an industrial area. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I also like the sounds of production that you hear in working areas - it’s the most direct way I can tap into the deep feelings I had when I heard these sounds as a child.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The space also gives me the scope to work on whatever scale I need and to have several projects or processes going on at the same time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Paintings can be pinned to the flat concrete walls to be painted, sprayed, scraped and sanded while paper works can be worked on in a separate area.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Things that need to dry and stay clean can be moved and not stop work on other pieces.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Another bonus is to be able to mock up exhibition installs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The orchestration of the overall look of a show has always been important to me so to have the space to see how pieces work together (or don’t)is really helpful.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The studio itself is a standard concrete unit, concrete walls and floor with a big roller. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Functional, grey and rather sparse. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is space that compels you to make things, to address its lack state.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">High walls which I love – (though I always wonder what I’ll do if the light globes blow)!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In that way the studio and my work are in a dialogue that is becoming more interrelated.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In a broader context and out of the studio Newcastle works well at the moment – a town of industry near to a major commercial city, Sydney. It gives you the best of both and keeps you at arms length from the distractions of the city and the machinations of the art scene.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Presently, Newcastle provides me with the subject matter to feed my work and the time and space to think and feel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Other projects and places will become important in the future and the requirements of my studio practise will play a big part in where they take place and how successful the resulting work will be.” </span></span></div>
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<br />Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-90150635070978399832013-05-01T20:04:00.000-07:002013-05-01T20:06:05.440-07:00Adam Hill at the Marrambang Meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GOULBURN REGIONAL ART GALLERY</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 – 25 MAY 2013</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Goulburn was traditionally a Meeting Place for surrounding Aboriginal peoples. In this spirit, Adam Hill from Sydney, Peter Swain from Canberra and Perc Carter from Goulburn come together in an exhibition at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW, of sculpture and 2D works including photography. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">ARTIST STATEMENT</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">BLAK DOUGLAS (AKA- ADAM HILL) 2013 </span></div>
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‘HALF’</div>
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General hearsay re the original inhabitants of Goulburn (according to local knowledge) states that ‘no one peoples presided within the local area’. However, the lands were apparently traversed by some dozen groups whom apparently met for ceremonies upon lands now occupied by significant icons. Sadly today, a significant population of the Indigenous peoples here is housed within one of the continents most notorious gaols.' </div>
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Coinciding with the ‘150th’ Celebration of ‘Australia’s first inland city’, this exhibition seems appropriate time to enlighten. At first glance when arriving or passing through Goulburn, one may be excused for noticing the absence of acknowledgement of cultural detail. Alarmingly, this is further emphasized when perusing the March / April Council Newsletter. </div>
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Granted, It is indeed commendable that Goulburn HAS adopted ‘Mulwaree’ (presumably the closest clans people within cooee) as part of the official title. However, the remainder of the newsletter- complete with two pages of pie graphs boasting economic expenditure seems a sad promotion of a community forged over one hundred & fifty years. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">GREY </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Upon the current ‘map of Aboriginal Australia’… the few areas across the continent that were NOT occupied by a language group per se, are conveniently coloured ‘GREY’. Goulburn however appears distinctly marked ‘Gundungurra’ (and coloured grey). Perhaps at time of printing, there existed uncertainty as well. Either way… grey seems an apt metaphorical colour defining ‘neutrality’. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PURPLE </span></div>
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The chosen logo featured to celebrate this festive occasion is a stylized Cathedral. Appropriate of course, given the enormity of the largest landmark within the CBD of Goulburn. The colour ‘purple’, the adopted colour of the dominant introduced denomination. I’ve therefore chosen to rely largely on purple as the basis of my installations within this show. </div>
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SEVENTY-FIVE </div>
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With such astute focus being placed on the numeric analysis, pertaining Goulburn Cities historic existence within the Colony, I’ve hypothesized my own mathematical equation. The timespan of the overall Colony arrives at two hundred & twenty – five years (225). The timespan of Goulburn- one hundred – fifty (150). Purely coincidental it may be, however… by subtracting 150 from 225 we arrive at ‘75’. Exactly half and sadly… the average life expectancy of an Aboriginal Female in ‘New South Wales’. That’s TEN YEARS less than the average female face featured upon the cover of the current newsletter. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">CARDBOARD </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Through no fault of our own… much withstanding history relative to Indigenous cultures has been / or is being recycled. Often then presented in the most ‘fashionable’ way possible. Urban ‘Dot Painting’ is a prime exemplar. I felt that by using salvaged cardboard often from ‘Plasma’ TV’s, this presented an interesting metaphor for such recycling of culture, and, the relative fragility of our remaining Indigenous cultures today.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Image: Half, 2013, mixed media assemblage, 770 x 1130mm.</span></div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-73891831694795660072013-04-17T19:43:00.000-07:002013-04-17T19:45:24.837-07:00THE ETERNITY OPENING<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqYXgAfa1CnIdtTBNrn74Chg3gv8EDs35NLrNTQ5uIjSpyPyFXNqDAUChyWbVlHgB1eLkWLZkTPVL15Ay1YGWhPunx7dbGfCSu_odvZzjMVG03oUdR3hK65OUGWfXS9Yh2bVuIzBU48ul/s1600/Eternity+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqYXgAfa1CnIdtTBNrn74Chg3gv8EDs35NLrNTQ5uIjSpyPyFXNqDAUChyWbVlHgB1eLkWLZkTPVL15Ay1YGWhPunx7dbGfCSu_odvZzjMVG03oUdR3hK65OUGWfXS9Yh2bVuIzBU48ul/s400/Eternity+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/62990885" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">View a short film by Haydn Keenan, Smart Street Films, from the opening of the Eternity exhibition.</span></a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">At the opening address of the Eternity exhibition I attempted to allude to the cultural importance of gallery spaces in Sydney. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Along with the early experiments of artist run spaces like The Yellow House there is a rich history of commercial galleries continuously nurturing artists, providing a sense of purpose for the artwork they produce. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">They are more than just places of monetary exchange. Commercial galleries in Sydney have been vital in shaping the visual history of this city. They have been at the forefront of providing a safe place and outlet for the rich and varied eccentricities and passions of creative people; both artist and audience. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">There is no doubt the commercial gallery scene world wide is experiencing a seismic shift as it deals with the changing nature of doing things in the digital age. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">On one hand it is an exciting time working towards new unique and successful formulas, reinventing the 20th century format of white wall gallery spaces. Yet there is a concern the very tight paradigm is strangling a very genuine legacy. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">It is a sentiment echoed in a recent essay by New York art critic Jerry Saltz in the on line magazine Vulture. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“Galleries are social space, collective séances, campfires where anyone can gather.” </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Yet he has found in New York the majority of galleries at the moment are ‘eerily empty’, that the shift of emphasis into art fairs, auctions, biennales and the ‘push push’ of jpegs is eliminating the essential role of art gallerists to nurture, develop, curate and juxtapose. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“Shows go up and don’t seem to have consequence other than sales or no sales. Nothing builds off much else. Art can’t get traction.” </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">What is worse he declares is: </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“A jadedness appears in people who aren’t jaded”. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Yet this is not a reactionary rant, it is an attempt to look at the reality of what is happening. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Saltz concludes by saying: </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">There is no “the” art world anymore. There have always been many art worlds, overlapping, ebbing around and through one another. Some are seen, others only gleaned, many ignored. “The” art world has become more of a virtual reality than an actual one, useful perhaps for conceptualizing in the abstract but otherwise illusory. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Once we adjust to that, we can work within the new reality. If the galleries are emptier, the limos gone, the art advisers taking meetings elsewhere, and the glitz offshore, the audience will have shrunk to something like it was well before the gigantic expansion of the art world. When I go to galleries, I now mainly see artists and a handful of committed diligent critics, collectors, curators, and the like. In this quiet environment, it may be possible for us to take back the conversation. Or at least have conversations. While the ultrarich will do their deals from 40,000 feet, we who are down at ground level will be engaging with the actual art—maybe not in Chelsea, where the rents are getting too high, but somewhere. That’s fine with me.” </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Fine with me too Jerry! </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Comin’ all the way from Redfern Sydney.</span></span></span></div>
Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-70140428421403556312012-12-19T22:27:00.004-08:002012-12-19T22:29:10.589-08:00The Keating Redfern Park Speech<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of Paul Keating's Reconciliation Speech in Redfern Park featured Gail Mabo talking and reflecting on its significance. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">It was a privilege to conceptualise and host this event.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We featured work by Papunya Tjupi, Adam Hill, Jason Wing, Susan Nakamarra Nelson and Will Coles. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The below section of the Keating Speech still resonates for all of Australia. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">“It begins, I think,
with that act of recognition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Recognition that it
was we who did the dispossessing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We took the
traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We brought the
diseases. The alcohol. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We committed the
murders. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We took the children
from their mothers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We practised
discrimination and exclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">It was our ignorance
and our prejudice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And our failure to
imagine these things being done to us. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">With some noble
exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into
their hearts and minds. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We failed to ask -
how would I feel if this were done to me? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">As a consequence, we
failed to see that what we were doing degraded all of us.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">PAUL KEATING, 1992</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/55408278" target="_blank">Watch the video here</a></span></span></span></div>
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</span>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-23004873108381739542012-11-27T18:22:00.000-08:002012-11-27T18:24:50.876-08:00WELCOME TO THE NEW DARK AGES CUTTING THE VISUAL ARTS IN TAFE <!--StartFragment-->
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><b>Remarks by Damien Minton at the SAVE TAFE ART</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><b>rally held at the Damien Minton Gallery 19 November 2012</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">To witness a living, breathing 120 year old institution like
the Newcastle Art School being kneecapped by the O’Farrell government is a
scandal.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">This act of school yard bully boy violence is distressing as
it has sent the dedicated art teachers, both full time and part time, into
trauma as they scramble to salvage a new structure to stay alive in 2013.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The actions of this NSW government to stop funding the
visual arts departments within the TAFE system from next year shows how we as a
society has slipped back into a new cultural dark age. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">As one drives through or visits many regional towns in NSW
there are still stately Victorian era buildings with the words ‘School of Arts’
sitting proudly on the façade.
They symbolise our 19</span></span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">th</span></span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"> century great great grandfathers and
mothers developing and maturing an understanding and resolve in placing the
visual arts and crafts shoulder to shoulder with their work ethic of employment
and business.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">At the turn of the 19</span></span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">th</span></span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"> into the 20</span></span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">th</span></span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">
century there was real pride in using a visual language to inform, define and
articulate community and society.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The O’Farrell decision to stop funding the visual arts
within TAFE illustrates how far we have regressed from that proud stance.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We are back into the cultural dark ages, the neo age of
despots, it is an act of Cromwellian proportions. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Macquarie Street has no understanding or knowledge as to how
the visual arts in TAFE is an essential component of an economic eco system
that circulates well beyond the art school walls.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The vast majority of artists this art gallery presents teach
in the TAFE system, passing on their knowledge and skills for 8 to 10 hours a
week. Without it, their art
practice becomes vulnerable and precarious.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Also, the first solo exhibitions by emerging artists staged
at this gallery have invariably been recent graduates from TAFE.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The eagerness and enthusiasm of the artists’ families and
friends is far more meaningful and infectious than the nickels and dimes that
flow from the red dots on the white walls.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">It gives young artists the confidence and possibility of
being productive creative human beings.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The TAFE system provides a ‘hands on’ environment for
creative people to be nurtured and encouraged, a ‘pastoral’ care model of
teaching.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">So to suddenly witness these ‘culture houses’ being
destroyed is like watching a You Tube video of an Israeli missile slamming into
its target.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The complicity of the TAFE bureaucracy to step aside and
point at the soft target is cowardly and deplorable.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The art staff involved in this essential part of the broader
visual arts industry now have to gasp for air in order to survive. They are scrambling and stitching
together a new fee structure for students in order to survive, all within four
months.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">You may ask yourself, why?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Cutting the funds of Fine Arts in TAFE compared to the
enormity of NSW INC is hardly a cost saving measure.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">It is the mosquito, not the elephant, in the room. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">These gruesome and lethal cuts stem from the war the
apparatchiks within TAFE have staged for decades.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">It is a war against creativity, because creativity will
never fit neatly into an economic determinist excel spreadsheet. The visual
arts is irritating and the word culture immediately makes the eyes roll.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The bureaucracy’s obsession with quantitative data goes
right up to the level of the Bacon and Kapoor shows currently on offer this
summer.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Money spent in the visual arts can be justified if it fits
into an economic strategy.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">These people get turned on by balance sheets neatly adding
up, they get orgasmic when red ink turns into a surplus.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">So they fear creativity, even within themselves. They don’t understand it, they don’t
want this irritation.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">So get rid of it.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Ironically this becomes the main weapon for artists and arts
administrators.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">It is something O’Farrell and his dark age Macquarie Street
cronies fear the most … the joy and potency of creativity.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">DAMIEN Minton</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Director</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Damien Minton Gallery</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">NOVEMBER 2012</span></span></span></div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-86075726950123083312012-11-22T18:20:00.000-08:002012-11-22T18:20:52.770-08:00Bronwyn Barwell's opening address, 17 November 2012, Merchants of War: Tribute to Michael Callaghan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih51S-t9sDqAlLsExoSSf4JglR2ggCCfgfuga0pEF7nSsddZpvDPwAxH4Hb8unxDJZ00nFtpNnKHJ5bxz1QVgV7eittUlGB7VLO4y0zxNBr83fVMnvKUHy1MpHHvQGj7emlp_lK72XWRgG/s1600/IMG_2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih51S-t9sDqAlLsExoSSf4JglR2ggCCfgfuga0pEF7nSsddZpvDPwAxH4Hb8unxDJZ00nFtpNnKHJ5bxz1QVgV7eittUlGB7VLO4y0zxNBr83fVMnvKUHy1MpHHvQGj7emlp_lK72XWRgG/s640/IMG_2017.JPG" width="289" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Thank you all for coming to Merchants of War. Especially
thanks to the contributing artists and Damien Minton who has been pivotal to
this show. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The focus of the exhibition is on the international
corporations and middlemen – private and government, who foster and profit from
the international trade in arms – from light weapons such as the iconic AK47
through to the new wave of technology driven weapons epitomised by the Drone.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">These men and women in grey suits with neat suburban lives
far removed from their victims are real perpetrators of war and the natural
opponents of negotiated settlement. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">War is fuelled by global economic imperatives. Countries far
removed from the zone of conflict are profiting every minute of every day from
the arms trade. Their victims grow exponentially. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Their blood money powers the growth of first world companies
and economies. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">This exhibition was borne from a commitment to community in
the widest sense and fuelled by the anger at the sheer wrongness of a world
where negotiated settlement is held to ransom by the merchants of war and
frustration at the duplicity and inertia of our political leaders to come to
the table on an Arms Trade Treaty.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Merchants of War is also about the more intimate community
we inhabit as friends and colleagues who have come together to both pay tribute
to Michael and his artistic and political legacy and in solidarity, to continue
the tradition of politicised art practise. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">This was to be Michael’s last exhibition – he had a number
of works in progress. The night before he died, he said he didn’t know if he
had enough strength to get the work done. My reply was all we can do is try and
thanks to you all we have succeeded. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Michael’s practise was collective in nature.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The AK47 sculpture could not have been realised without:</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> Greg
McLachlan’s fine computer rendering in dissecting the connecting layers,
OR</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> Greg
Page’s considerable carpentry skills in assembling the gun.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">As Greg McLachlan commented, Michael always surrounded
himself with artisans – the AK47 is as much a product of their skills as of
Michael’s vision.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">This exhibition in its entirety is testament to the power of
collective practise.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">On Michael’s behalf thank you and congratulations on a fine
body of work.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Michael’s website is to be relaunched with the poster
archive available for sale and viewing through the site. The profits from the
sale and from this exhibition received by the estate will be held in a trust in
Michael’s name and over time will hopefully, in a modest way, fund a travelling
art scholarship amongst other things.</span></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-16010601724399783842012-10-09T21:09:00.001-07:002012-10-09T21:09:46.529-07:00LOTTIE CONSALVO: STEER A STEADY SHIP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRVA-gWz2tSRXwrugrvAdZf7OTfc7JcJ9F8-5GW4lmM_6A8v9s2s628Wd_sS4RseFeAVZPY8n0y-uu6HPvPkNrIYM4xZa13oINRmYq_6jnizF57K5D6VRoKbN-GenzrCV4x2E9Ygiea0n/s1600/Lottie+performance+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRVA-gWz2tSRXwrugrvAdZf7OTfc7JcJ9F8-5GW4lmM_6A8v9s2s628Wd_sS4RseFeAVZPY8n0y-uu6HPvPkNrIYM4xZa13oINRmYq_6jnizF57K5D6VRoKbN-GenzrCV4x2E9Ygiea0n/s320/Lottie+performance+.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">Last Saturday's performance by Lottie Consalvo, 'Steer a Steady Ship', has created a lot of online media interest. Consalvo endured seven hours of consistent and persistent drops of black dye falling on her face. The international online visual art site, ArtInfo, had her on their <a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/831786/see-artist-lottie-consalvo-endure-water-torture-for-arts-sake" target="_blank">front page. </a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">Our local Sydney Morning Herald ran a piece on the day and SBS World News Australia Online presented some coverage as well, <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1699661/Australian-artist-recreates-Chinese-water-torture" target="_blank">read and see it here. </a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">This is what Lottie Consalvo was attempting to achieve with the performance: </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">“</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">For seven hours I lay in a bed beneath the boat suspended in midair. </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">From the boat black liquid will drip upon my head. This is based on </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">Chinese torture which can cause psychosis. </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">
”This performance piece was conceived 12 months ago at a time </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">when I was so consumed by anxiety that I could not sleep. I was </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">scared of the thoughts that kept me awake. I feared my partner falling </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">asleep before me. I would beg him to tell me stories of life in a </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">sunroom by the sea to keep my mind afloat, sometimes this would </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">work but mostly I would sink. When he would fall off to sleep it was </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">just me and my mind, I felt completely alone. 'Steer a steady ship' was </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">a line I heard a lot growing up, it meant, hold yourself together and </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">stay focused. At this time I felt like I couldn't hold it together, the ship </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">hung heavy above me, I had no control. Bedtime was a time of absolute </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;">torture. I couldn't stop my mind. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10px;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>“</i><i>I think this experience is shared by many. The days and nights of struggle living </i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>with anxiety and depression.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This performance was part of Lottie's current exhibition, The Life Exchange, and its aftermath creates an eerie echo of the work on the walls, which can be viewed<a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/lottie-consalvo" target="_blank"> here.</a></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Exhibition dates: 3 - 20 October 2012</span></span></div>
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</span><span style="color: grey;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"> </span></span></span>
Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-4766510673823280142012-09-06T20:05:00.000-07:002012-09-06T20:07:12.709-07:00Toby Zoates in the Annex Space<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmMWF3Oi__yZpt7He8bLWh-b0Wb-Gn0PidfFf0IW7QT7MmIArtufkgykpzQV2tBrVIj11kd2RHxW_OdnZjKwTlv88VJZ5Lu5weYgKnbIWQ7BS2qv9YLWGLEmhj6jO2ohcPK7qX9G1kgSS/s1600/Zoates_newyears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmMWF3Oi__yZpt7He8bLWh-b0Wb-Gn0PidfFf0IW7QT7MmIArtufkgykpzQV2tBrVIj11kd2RHxW_OdnZjKwTlv88VJZ5Lu5weYgKnbIWQ7BS2qv9YLWGLEmhj6jO2ohcPK7qX9G1kgSS/s400/Zoates_newyears.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy New Year, 1978, acrylic on paper, 560 x 380 mm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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We are humbled and excited to have a slice of history from the Sydney underground in our Annex Space with Toby Zoates' exhibition Regurgitated, Posters + Paintings 1978-2012. For anyone who missed it, the Sydney Morning Herald ran <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/fringe-benefits-20120830-251ik.html" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">this candid article</a> on punk-activist-street artist <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/toby-zoates" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Toby Zoates</a> in the Spectrum 1/9/2012. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Come along to the opening </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2012</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
6-8 PM</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
583 Elizabeth, St Redfern</div>
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<br /></div>
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Don't miss Toby Zoates performing:</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
'The Artist's Sob Story' on</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
SATYRDAY 22 SEPTEMBER</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
3PM</div>
<span itemprop="description" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">with original music by Peter Urquhart</span><br />
<br />
<span itemprop="description" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Exhibition dates 11-29 September 2012 </span><span itemprop="description"></span>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-68166018094194355602012-08-23T19:11:00.003-07:002012-08-23T19:12:12.170-07:00Ross Laurie - New Paintings and Works on Paper 2012 catalogue essay<!--StartFragment-->
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymrenD7plA2lTKKV-V0mWQJzsbcIM-02KWyEUqk71GThohTSsH-jftE55ga0n1etW7Mpu0VlDA_YDyPzjaerETSPGnDfReESilHlR8mYqmi6Ul_Y6LcmWFlSzflzbZx05VnOGL7weoIDh/s1600/Near+the+bridge+III.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymrenD7plA2lTKKV-V0mWQJzsbcIM-02KWyEUqk71GThohTSsH-jftE55ga0n1etW7Mpu0VlDA_YDyPzjaerETSPGnDfReESilHlR8mYqmi6Ul_Y6LcmWFlSzflzbZx05VnOGL7weoIDh/s400/Near+the+bridge+III.jpeg" width="400" /></b></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ross Laurie, <i>Near the bridge III,</i> 2012, oil on Board, 400 x 510 mm</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">For the Ross Laurie exhibition, <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">New Paintings and Works on </span></a><a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Paper 2012</span></a>, we commissioned journalist and writer James Compton to contribute this essay:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"In the electric action of Ross Laurie’s painting
you can see the marks of progress. These steps are important to the artist in
documenting the creative journey, while also giving the wider audience clues to
the structure and sequence behind the total view. Laurie likes to examine, or
read, a painting – whether one of his own making or that of another painter. He
looks closely at the combination of gesture, abrasion, colour, form and flow.
Through the textures of the paint’s physical application, the artwork becomes a
landscape in itself. These contours have to hang together in a composite
tension, or it simply isn’t working.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Laurie sits outside the mainstream. A whitefella
painter schooled in the European tradition, yet intensely drawn to the lexicon
of indigenous artists, particularly the desert painters, that has emerged from
Australia into the global consciousness since the 1970s. In this context, he is
a vital representative of Australian art’s contemporary collision between old
and new – and it is fair to say that many see the close affinity with
indigenous painting in some of Laurie’s works before they get fixated by any
abstraction. He takes on, whether subconsciously or overtly, the exploration of
where the DNA of an ancient but very much alive Aboriginal culture recombines
with a transplanted Western art sensibility. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is not afraid to acknowledge his
antecedents. Laurie’s painting is
clearly informed by the great leaps made in the 1940s and 50s through the
abstract expressionism of De Kooning and Pollock, while not ignoring their
Australian contemporaries such as Tony Tuckson and Ian Fairweather. This era of experimentation is the
starting point, a lineage and context to which Laurie often returns; in essence
he is competing with himself to produce something he would value as much as a
great work done by one of his artistic influences. He calls himself an ‘old
artist’, but what he is forging should be regarded as an emergent push into new
territory, boldly venturing further into the unknown. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From his bush-bound isolation on the New England
plateau, he often buries himself in art tomes, absorbing ideas, spaces, and
experiences that will be turned into riffs played out on canvas, paper or board
in the studio. He paints from the inside out, and the outside in: landscapes as
much of the soul as of the physical reality that makes up the country around
him. His output resonates with an often brutal honesty; rather than a precise
delineation, it is </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">nomadic, cycling through fertile ground in a meandering
songline. </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As abstract as they may appear at first blush,
Laurie’s works are ultimately rooted in the trees, the hills, the clouds and
the quality of light that makes up his </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">milieu</span></span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A single work might involve a stretch of 7-8 hours
until he is finished, content that the act has reached some sort of resolution.
Picture the crucible of creation: it is a cold winter’s night, wind scouring
from the south-west, rain sleeting across the corrugated iron roof. A rusted
pot belly stove gives off a good heat, chock full of brushbox and ironbark
harvested from deadfall around the studio, warm enough to take the chill out of
the air but not quite enough to melt the oilstick debris piled up around the
workbench. His collection of CDs lies scattered, a range of aural cues ready to
assist in shutting out the chattering of conscious thought and loose forth his
own dreamtime. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The studio resounds to a newly found live recording
of Miles Davis in his prime of electric experimentation, trumpet at full blow
as he gets his Bitches Brew band into the groove. A kettle steams in the
foreground, seemingly on continuous reboil as the session unfolds. Fuelled by
endless cups of tea, straight black (no chaser), Laurie flares into action as
he attacks the canvas. He deftly manipulates brush and paint, a trance-like
series of movements focused on capturing that definitive pulse of inspiration.
It is an outpouring, a process of envisioning that persists into the wee hours, striving to keep up the
momentum as he backs himself from one step to the next, wary of too much of a
pause lest he interrupt that precariously dancing muse. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each
painting is wrought from elements intermingled in that particular time and
space. </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He feels the subject matter through a series of filters,
devising colour combinations that make the works sing in a way that expresses
his unique feel for the expanses in front of (and behind) his eyes. Random
routines are introduced into the process as he tries to break the mould. If he
reaches a blockage, he might rotate the canvas through 180 degrees, or paint
with eyes wide shut, in order to see new </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">permutations within a
complex algebra. </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His urgency is driven by
trepidation that if he stops, he might not be able to get back ‘out there’
again into the same headspace. </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the same time, he is not scared to scrape
back and start again if a particular passage is not working. It is a wild ride,
holding on bare-knuckled until the right combination reveals itself and points
the direction of the painting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
collection – in its synthesis of oils, oilstick on paper and charcoal drawings
– is one of consolidation. Ross Laurie has taken his technique, his
composition, his style to a new place.
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He articulates his experience in a conglomerate tongue
that takes some time to get your head around. Not that it is impossible but
perhaps it is beyond rational thought. It is fundamentally spiritual, and therefore
difficult to articulate. There is an emotional resonance from each of these
works that speaks to your inner being and asks: ‘do you feel me’? <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The works are also inspired, much like his passionate
verbal discourse, by a quest to cut through the mundane and extract a kernel of
truth. </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There
is no deliberately grand theme, save that of a further investigation of the
human condition. With every completed work comes a new discovery, and as Laurie
says upon reflection: “I can then look back and find out what I was doing, and
that knowledge enables me to move on.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James Compton, August, 2012</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">New Paintings + Works on Paper 2012</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Tuesday 4th - Saturday 29th September, 2012</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Wednesday - Saturday, 11-6</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">View a selection of the work <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">here</span></a></span></span></div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-39772657818520543952012-08-21T19:28:00.002-07:002012-08-23T18:18:29.013-07:00Elaine Campaner selected as a finalist in the Bowness Photography Prize - for the second year running<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBY0PXw9RuI-uWHEMzZA0GAI9hFiXmti0UFmDzX_TGvgdbMUorscDnvA1F1fKajHECcjSGBwrn4iuDXj-DF3RCO0BESPrKF4IqiV1wDUwHXqsP2XRzsPiGKPsn2drvmgcu_1DmAAt2AkBz/s1600/Campaner_LandscapeWithCamels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBY0PXw9RuI-uWHEMzZA0GAI9hFiXmti0UFmDzX_TGvgdbMUorscDnvA1F1fKajHECcjSGBwrn4iuDXj-DF3RCO0BESPrKF4IqiV1wDUwHXqsP2XRzsPiGKPsn2drvmgcu_1DmAAt2AkBz/s400/Campaner_LandscapeWithCamels.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Landscape with camels</b>, 2011, </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">pigment ink-jet print, 93 x 140 cm</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">from the series <i>Of Middle Eastern appearance (the visual guide) </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We would like to congratulate Elaine Campaner for being selected in the 2012 Bowness Photography Prize with the above image, <i>Landscape with Camels</i>, </span>from the series <i>Of Middle Eastern appearance (the visual guide)</i>. This is a commendable achievement particularly considering that of almost 2500 photographs submitted by 495 entrants, only 42 were selected. This is the second year that Elaine's work will be hung as a finalist. You can see the 42 finalists <b><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monash_gallery_of_art/sets/72157631092394564/with/7791705638/" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The William and Winifred Bowness Prize was established to promote excellence in photography, showcasing some of the most outstanding contemporary work produced in Australia over the past 12 months. This year Elaine will be exhibited alongside the likes of Julie Rrap, William Yang, Tim Johnson, Stephen Dupont and many other esteemed Australian artists.</span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-81577174742436730062012-08-08T23:27:00.002-07:002012-08-14T19:33:14.664-07:00Jon Frum Art Foundation 2020 On Again<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Damien Minton Gallery welcomes back <a href="http://www.2020art2012.com/" target="_blank">'2020'</a> to the Annex Space, and this year it is 20 art shows over 10 days, curated by Jon Frum Art Foundation and Robert Lake. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>15-24 August, 2012.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEvzI10NOZUP0DzU7V-o1vh8Nr21z-frDLK51POAvjovV8BnSEXDXAR-gSXH39vyswCdFadcuWNOK4z_O50N3geciSq6TntRx1MioVwk8LIOzirhTckzu_OKm4W1bcPgH47zem9g-5QiLK/s1600/anthes_instal_sfexpdetail4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEvzI10NOZUP0DzU7V-o1vh8Nr21z-frDLK51POAvjovV8BnSEXDXAR-gSXH39vyswCdFadcuWNOK4z_O50N3geciSq6TntRx1MioVwk8LIOzirhTckzu_OKm4W1bcPgH47zem9g-5QiLK/s400/anthes_instal_sfexpdetail4.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">'Science Fictions' 2011- Connie Anthes and Dr Julian Berengut, who will appear in 'Method in Madness', Thursday 23rd August </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Last year the Jon Frum Art Foundation attracted much interest and attention with this curatorial model that sees short sharp exhibitions as one-night-only events. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We are pleased to note that many of the young artists presented in <a href="http://damienmintongallery.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Jon%20Frum%20Art%20Foundation" target="_blank">last year's '2020' </a>have since attracted interest and attention from </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">galleries in Sydney and in terms of funding and residencies</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">. In 2012 </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Curators Jon Frum Art Foundation and Robert Lake will split the space and have one show each over 10 days. Full program below.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZY5CsekPk-RCb2XGuBj8KnQCw1wSSophyphenhyphenLiK-qPqlSJEP9wvBcvjREz1I7FP8B3Yruy_mMsvwOL7UinjChdCzlzwXAHIzcKwuyvAW_ovV3dO_gSpS3LodI8aZBoc46QiU2f8IGiXta5Y/s1600/calendar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZY5CsekPk-RCb2XGuBj8KnQCw1wSSophyphenhyphenLiK-qPqlSJEP9wvBcvjREz1I7FP8B3Yruy_mMsvwOL7UinjChdCzlzwXAHIzcKwuyvAW_ovV3dO_gSpS3LodI8aZBoc46QiU2f8IGiXta5Y/s640/calendar.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's hard to pick favourites, but we recommend:</span></div>
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<a href="http://marynowsky.net/index.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wade Marynowski</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.tamaramendels.com/p/blog-page_3582.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tamara Mendels</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sadiechandler.com/" target="_blank">Sadie Chandler</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/330472320381183/?ref=ts" target="_blank">A night of performance - Method in Madness</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All shows are on at the Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space. 583 Elizabeth St, Redfern.</span></div>
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Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-71125663430406889632012-06-20T23:16:00.000-07:002012-06-21T00:05:54.806-07:00Ross Laurie gets the thumbs up... again!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lNiq3Agddz5gSp-6v5PEd2IQXJTr4EWG1tQkC4sfg6FfRQPdWbxx5WezUHfqwgJ6qQmcHjVeX-o-s7SoIdr0SV1NTaYrBSDe1By7HRaBs4PNHE4KnHmQoisUWSRRp2p6RcHUQuIYgMZv/s1600/IMG_0226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lNiq3Agddz5gSp-6v5PEd2IQXJTr4EWG1tQkC4sfg6FfRQPdWbxx5WezUHfqwgJ6qQmcHjVeX-o-s7SoIdr0SV1NTaYrBSDe1By7HRaBs4PNHE4KnHmQoisUWSRRp2p6RcHUQuIYgMZv/s400/IMG_0226.jpg" width="396" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Ross Laurie, From Ochre Hut - Fowlers Gap IV, 2011, oil on board, 590 x 590 mm</span></td></tr>
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Art critic John McDonald, in reviewing the exhibition 'Not the Way Home: 13 Artists Paint the Desert' at the S.H Ervin Gallery, has written:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"the standout performer is Ross Laurie, who has produced an impressive variety of images, from small charcoal sketches to densely worked studies in oil stick, to large oils on canvas.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">In Laurie's work one sees the complete cycle from straightforward observation to transformation in the studio. His two large paintings, </span></span></i><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Ridge and Creek, Fowlers Gap I</span></span></em><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> and </span></span></i><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">II</span></span></em><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">, are very far from being snapshots of the desert landscape. Laurie has taken huge liberties with the colour, using swaths of white-ish paint to reproduce the effect of bright sunlight. This is reminiscent of Ian Fairweather, who would often finish a painting with a final tracery of white. The other Fairweatheresque aspect is the creation of an internal rhythm that holds the composition together, even though each component seems to be bulging and sliding."</span></span></i></div>
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum, 16-17 June, 2012</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">View the full article<b> <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/outback-inspiration-20120614-20b3d.html" target="_blank">here</a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;">View more images of the Fowlers Gap suite <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.478068685541082.122897.112472135434074&type=1" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a><b> </b>on facebook</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Some Ross Laurie dates to remember:</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;"><b>1 July, 2012</b> - Last day of 'Not the Way Home' exhibition at <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/placestovisit/sheg/exhibitions/notthewayhome/" target="_blank">S.H. Ervin Gallery</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;"><b>1-5 August, 2012</b> - <a href="http://www.artfair.com.au/fair/" target="_blank">Melbourne Art Fair</a> - we will be presenting a new suite of Ross Laurie works at our stand, A51, upstairs in the Exhibition Centre.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;"><b>14 August - 8 September</b> - Group show 'The Bigger Picture', at King Street Gallery</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;"><b>4- 29 September</b> - Solo exhibition 'Paintings and Works on Paper 2012' at the Damien Minton Gallery</span></span></div>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-65750004832984132782012-05-31T22:04:00.001-07:002012-06-01T00:52:49.623-07:00Vale Michael Callaghan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It is with great regret we note the passing away of the Australian artist Michael Callaghan (1952-2012). We were very proud to have been associated with Michael, staging his exhibition, <b><a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/michael-callaghan" target="_blank">The Torture Memo</a></b>, in 2010. The gallery was looking forward to presenting his second solo exhibition in November this year, 2012.<br /><br />It was an honour to work with Michael; a searing intelligence who applied his life to the creative arts in Australia, pushing the cultural envelope into political action.<br /><br />Many will know Michael fought with illness and pain for the last 20 years, yet it was still a shock to learn of his death. <br /><br />It was a privilege to attend his wake in the small Southern Highlands town of Exeter where amazing creative Australians gathered from as far as Darwin, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney to honour his life. Born in Wollongong, Michael, when a young teenager, discovered with his school friend Philip Batty the interventionist possibilities of Dada. Together they explored the underground art/film/political scene of Sydney and even did an art performance at the launch of the seminal book on Australian artists: ‘In the Making’.<br /><br />From being a student at the National Art School, Darlinghurst in the early seventies through to his involvement with the Tin Sheds at Sydney University, Michael is remembered as having a sharp sense of design and style and just as sharp sense of literature and politics.<br /><br />His political posters and campaigns for the Earthworks Poster Collective and Redback Graphix are now firmly placed in the collections of Australian cultural institutions.<br /><br />In 2010, after a fellowship at the ANU, we staged the exhibition The Torture Memo: Recent Works, which was both beautiful in its style, finish and attention to detail as well as being confronting with its raw exposé of the Iraqi War.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />I will remember it as one of the highlights of this gallery’s history.<br /><br />The gallery’s association with Michael was to continue this November, 2012 with another solo exhibition of new work. This time more three dimensional sculptural work was envisaged with the overall theme relating to the huge multinational armaments industry. Like all his work, Michael was researching in minute detail the labyrinth-like and brutal world of arms trading; guns and money.<br /><br />The gallery, with the imprimatur of his wife Bronwyn Barwell, has decided to proceed with the exhibition, but now we will ask a number of Australian artists to contribute work based around the themes Michael was developing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />The opening will be Tuesday night November 13, 2012 - see you then. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Callaghan in 2010 at Redfern</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-31979864896873668082012-05-31T19:20:00.000-07:002012-05-31T22:18:57.248-07:00Ross Laurie in Not the Way Home<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie" target="_blank">Ross Laurie</a> is in the group exhibition <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/placestovisit/sheg/exhibitions/notthewayhome/" target="_blank">NOT THE WAY HOME</a> at the S.H. Ervin Gallery until 1st July. The show was forged through a two week residency in Fowlers Gap, an outback research station. Read the feature in last Sunday's Telegraph</span>.</span><br />
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<br />Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-39347410064023642732012-05-02T18:36:00.001-07:002012-05-02T18:40:25.440-07:00Carment, Laurie and Gardiner get the thumbs up from John McDonald in the Salon des Refuses<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">In last weekend's SMH Spectrum, John McDonald called this year's Archibald a "generally acknowledged [...] dud show". He at least has some kind words for Tom Carment, Ross Laurie and Peter Gardiner in his review of the <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/placestovisit/sheg/exhibitions/salon2011/" target="_blank">Salon des Refuses</a>, the "breakaway" exhibition curated from the unselected entrants in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Wynne and Archibald prizes. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr5HDTDWmVKhrZRX-btVMOlhFHCmU00sP125FNwOo7e7qwQrQp1oGtIhZvon8QqQp3Z7drZYkCZXAgcFNGBCu9c_GTt38YpT0K7HMc-Tx6PzYm1NGEup-Lh9z_e3TiShSxSFwUheKz3Fqw/s1600/Geoffrey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr5HDTDWmVKhrZRX-btVMOlhFHCmU00sP125FNwOo7e7qwQrQp1oGtIhZvon8QqQp3Z7drZYkCZXAgcFNGBCu9c_GTt38YpT0K7HMc-Tx6PzYm1NGEup-Lh9z_e3TiShSxSFwUheKz3Fqw/s400/Geoffrey.jpg" width="291" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Tax laywer and poet Geoffrey Lehmann by Tom Carment</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="hasCaption">“If I had to choose a favourite portrait, I’d fall back on stalwart performer
<a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/tom-carment" target="_blank">Tom Carment</a>, who has given us a typically sensitive depiction of
Geoffrey Lehmann…” – John McDonald, Spectrum, SMH, 28 April, 2012</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tKw-86sqY03S7a1TGChCzuDS2Ph1BQdjRauJIse6B3R_pzgK_0CUMEinZhVa6KQPbXA_AuuLmKDpyYAPWm4rgzcpAgdRAV34nE8kZTqopnUkh2YYoniL4-u8xFeryzJ2GoLwjrflHpn7/s1600/Peter+Gardiner,+Swamp,%28Burrumbeet%29,+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tKw-86sqY03S7a1TGChCzuDS2Ph1BQdjRauJIse6B3R_pzgK_0CUMEinZhVa6KQPbXA_AuuLmKDpyYAPWm4rgzcpAgdRAV34nE8kZTqopnUkh2YYoniL4-u8xFeryzJ2GoLwjrflHpn7/s320/Peter+Gardiner,+Swamp,%28Burrumbeet%29,+2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Peter Gardiner, Swamp I (Burrumbeet), 2012</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="hasCaption">One of two </span><span class="hasCaption">“... original, confident works [...is] <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/peter-gardiner" target="_blank">Peter Gardiner</a>’s hypnotic <i>Swamp I (Burrumbeet)</i>” John McDonald, Spectrum
review: Salon des Refuses, SMH, 28 April, 2012</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ross Laurie, Ridge and Creek - Fowlers Gap, 2011,
</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">oil on canvas, 1200 x 1500 mm</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="hasCaption"></span><span class="hasCaption">“The
two most impressive Wynne rejects are <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie" target="_blank">Ross Laurie</a>’s Ridge and Creek –
Fowlers Gap and Gladdy Kemarre’s Anwekety (Bush Plum). One wonders what
Laurie has to do to be selected for the Wynne, as he is arguably one of
Australia’s most dynamic landscape painters, albeit in a semi-abstract
idiom. Although it is no easy matter to identify the specific features
if a landscape in Laurie’s work – let alone swaggies, jumbucks and other
standard bush items – he conveys a powerful sense of the heat and light
of the Australian environment – in this instance, the arid regions near
Broken Hill. – John McDonald, Spectrum review: Salon des Refuses, SMH,
28 April, 2012</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="hasCaption">Considered prestigous in its own right, we heartilty congratulate Tom, Peter and Ross for being selected into the Salon des Refuses, at the S.H. Ervin Gallery until May 20. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="uiButtonGroup mtm mbl uiButtonGroupOverlay" id="u4nq33_1"><span class="firstItem uiButtonGroupItem buttonItem"></span></span></span>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-73012768098684244952012-04-26T18:27:00.000-07:002012-04-26T21:38:14.415-07:00In the Annex: Megan Garrett-Jones performance 'Advice to Park Users'<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks to all those who braved the rain on Wednesday 18th April, to attend the performance and pop-up exhibition opening, Megan Garrett-Jones' Advice to Park Users.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The event marked the end of a year-long commitment by Megan to 'walk in the park' every day, and create subsequent writing and documentation. The performance was a story-teller style durational outpouring in which Megan read the entirity of her year-of-park diaries, clocking in at a hefty 6-hours. The recorded sound became an installation for the remainder of the exhibition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Megan has now launched stage two of her park project, a blog that offers a year of weekly "advice", performance demonstrations, and writings drawn from her year of parks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="http://www.meggj.com/advicetoparkusers" target="_blank">Advice to Park Users blog here.</a></b></span><a href="http://www.meggj.com/advicetoparkusers" target="_blank"></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/40907603?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&loop=1" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/40907603">week TWO: metaphor</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/meggj">Megan Garrett-Jones</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Beware of metaphor. (How) everyday to be at a crossroad.</span>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-2633417758738299082012-03-15T17:51:00.000-07:002012-06-20T22:06:07.688-07:00A profound opening of Red Gate in Redfern, by Dr John Yu, AC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Red Gate in Redfern, at the Damien Minton Gallery</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">It was a special occasion to have Dr John Yu, AC open the exhibition Red Gate in Redfern on Tuesday 13th March, 2012. You could hear a pin drop as the appreciative audience listened to his reflections on Chinese art and its relationship to Australia. John has kindly given us a transcript of his speech.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">'I have been reading a book by Bruce Carpenter on “The Tribal Jewellery of Indonesia”, the subtitle is continuity and evolution. I would like to borrow those words as a theme for my remarks this evening.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">To me, ‘continuity’ provides a sound cultural basis for looking forward, it is not or should not be a limitation on creativity or ingenuity but it does provide a legitimacy if contemporary art in China is to be regarded as Chinese art rather than global art by Chinese artists as valid as that may be to Chinese artists or artist from any other cultural background. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Perhaps that is an arrogant presumption .</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">But as I grow older, I recognize how my Chinese values have indeed contributed to the person I am. I see contemporary art in China as being based on a long cultural history and resulting from evolution rather than revolution though it cannot be denied that the Cultural Revolution has greatly influenced the Chinese artists who immediately followed that terrible event, as they fought to express themselves.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Most of the artists from Red Gate tonight reflect something of China, its culture and its history. But the experiences of Tianamen did rob many of the artists affected by Tianamen of the exuberance and joy seen in artists of other cultures when artists were emerging and breaking with the constraints of their past and seeking the newness of some future promise.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">But before I make some comments on tonight’s show, may I briefly return to the concept of Chinese thought and sensitivity. The traditions of Chinese scholarship valued above all else painting, calligraphy and poetry.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Recently I was listening to some music played by Chinese musicians in a Western style orchestra and the music was undeniably Chinese but what made it sound Chinese to me ? I looked at the English notes provided but that didn’t help me until I read the opening words to the introduction words ( with some editing) –</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“We think that we should no longer be moved, no longer be sentimental and weep for a poem, a picture, a song or a breath.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">In fact we are…</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">One day you l hear a song from the wind and are not conscious of the tear on your cheek. As the tears flows into your mouth, you say with a smile “what a cold wind” and wipe the tear as you turn.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The wind is cold while the heart washed by tears is full of warmth and happiness. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Let’s thank the years which gives us such sweet age.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Those words Ladies and Gentlemen expresses Chinese values and sensitivities better than many words from me. I hope you will be able to view tonight’s art keeping these values in mind , I think it will modify if not change the way you see things.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">SONG YING’s ‘Girl No 3’ is what we have come to expect from Revolutionary art but this picture shows reserve if not restraint in the young Red Guard , a restraint not seen in the earlier revolutionary paintings which glorified the energy of youth and conviction.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">But go to XIE FUJIN and ‘Youth- where is the road’ and we see the exuberance return thanks to the freedom conferred by Deng Xiao Ping and his Commercial Revolution. This freedom is also seen in HE ZUBIN sensitive painting ‘Food’ where the humour underscores the social comment.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I was going to say that GUAN WEI’s “fragments of history No 8’ continues to express humour together with profoundness that so marks his work but I guess it would be more accurate to describe it as Guan Wei being his own marvelous best. Exuberant ? No but certainly joyful.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">References to classical Chinese painting is seen in WANG LIFENG’s ‘Qing mountain’ but Wang Lifeng has captured the greatness of Chinese landscape painting in a thoroughly modern way yet retaining the Chinese reverence for mountains and indeed for rocks..</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I also really liked HANG CHUNHUI ‘Prophet No 2 ‘ where there is a masterful use of traditional watercolour on paper. A sensitive figure with that whimsical bird what also has references to classical painting.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I have a particular weakness for prints and what better printmaker in China today than TAN PING and his beautifully understated woodcut in black and white. I was sorry not to see a print from Su Xin Ping as he is the other great living Chinese print maker.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">That leaves me with two photographs. CHEN CHEN’s “Gazing” . My good friend Liyu Yeo , the Gallery Manager at Red Gate, Beijing provided me with a quote by Chen Chen which speaks for itself, he said “ one can choose not to photograph but one cannot choose not to see”. You need to stop and think about that.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">That brings me to the last work that I wanted to comment upon tonight ZHOU JUN and his marvelous image ‘Phoenix Ancient City’ which captures that sensitivity which defies definition. This of course is the image that Damien had chosen for his invitation.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I left the photographs till last as they represent something removed from Chinese traditional art and I think it says a lot for the art scene in China today that something new such as this can speak so strongly across a barrier of cultural heritage. A heritage that hopefully will always continue to inspire but never to limit or constrain China’s art and her artists.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The art tonight has captured the true elements of Chinese sensitivity and values, My compliment is to say it makes me proud to be Chinese. I am truly honoured to open ‘Red Gate in Redfern’.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-3115727507141001182012-03-08T18:44:00.005-08:002012-03-08T23:01:26.371-08:00Ross Laurie Artist Profile Feature<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A Journey to desert country</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzHzgXm5bLfD2IBNFQwYsP-RK0lDAwSiKZ_Y4o6D7cZarS7dH8Gvps2SFf4IBv6RWbey8et4UxsyMnCbZPSp65TsLrxrAitL5QXypkF3g2RppzEDwx3qLEE2weTu663dxdLboks97vz24/s1600/AP18_cover_pr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzHzgXm5bLfD2IBNFQwYsP-RK0lDAwSiKZ_Y4o6D7cZarS7dH8Gvps2SFf4IBv6RWbey8et4UxsyMnCbZPSp65TsLrxrAitL5QXypkF3g2RppzEDwx3qLEE2weTu663dxdLboks97vz24/s320/AP18_cover_pr.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.artistprofile.com.au/">Artist Profile</a></b> invited 13 prominent Australian artists on an expedition to a research station at Fowlers Gap, Broken Hill. In this interview <a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/ross-laurie"><b>Ross Laurie </b></a>reflects upon his experience of the 'Not The Way Home' prjoect and the relationship with landscape in his painting.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://damienmintongallery.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/AP18_pp-86-87-Ross-Laurie.pdf">GET THE ARTICLE HERE</a></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">2012 will be a big year for Ross, with the 'Not The Way Home' exhibition on at the <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/placestovisit/sheg/exhibitioncalendar/">S.H. Ervin Gallery</a> <b>25 May-21 July</b>, and then touring nationally.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>1-4 August</b>, Ross Laurie's work will be on display at the Melbourne Art Fair.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>4-29 September, </b>Ross' first solo show in two years at the Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern. </span></div>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-2914393019038279682012-01-24T20:43:00.000-08:002012-06-20T22:05:32.241-07:00Sydney's Original Art House?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Damien Minton Gallery has made arguably the first example of an art film in Sydney and even Australia available for viewing online. David Perry's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Walking </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(circa 1955) depicts a young flâneur wandering Sydney, giving attention to the the abstract shapes and the movements of the city, and the moments and poses of contemplation.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/35545468?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/35545468"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Walking</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> from </span></span><a href="http://vimeo.com/user10080945"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Damien Minton Gallery</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> on </span></span><a href="http://vimeo.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Vimeo</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Perry's Walking will be featured in the group exhibition <b>'Five Bells - A Visual Ode to Sydney'</b> that runs from 1-18 February, 2012. See previous post for more information on the 'Five Bells' exhibition. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Below, Perry describes how he came to make Walking.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>My career since the early 1950’s encompassed all the visual arts, painting, drawing, photography and video and film making. [Once ] someone gave me an 8 mm camera, I began randomly recording events and images in all these media and have never stopped.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the early sixties I encountered Albie Thoms and together with him, John Clark and Aggie Reid we founded Ubu films. I was on camera and also directed my own experimental films and videos as well as doing a large number of graphics for posters and flyers advertising not only our films but also the light shows/dances which we organised and which were so popular at the time.</span></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During the early years I used to frequent the Roundhouse at the then East Sydney Technical College, Sydney’s only Art school at the time. A man called Kaplan used to regularly show 1920’s and ‘30’s European art films. I was deeply moved and entranced by these films, especially by the camera techniques used. From then on my approach to filmmaking was strongly influenced by what I saw, and all my work comes from this artist’s perspective, rather than from the popular, narrative form of cinema.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Walking was the very first film I ever made on standard 8 mm film (there was no other way to make low budget films at the time). I tried to capture the feel of the industrial landscape of Sydney of the ‘50’s particularly around the old Pyrmont Bridge, to express the working class grittiness of Sydney, the aspects of it that I knew and loved, and the art film techniques and sensibility were the best way I could see to do this. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The original footage has been lost but when it was still available I made a copy on videotape. That copy imported to my modern computer and edited to remove clunky transitions. It remains the only record of Walking.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Walking was my first exploration of these art film camera techniques, I continued to make films and subsequently videos, using these techniques and experimenting with them. A number of my videos and films have been and continue to be shown at various exhibition s and festivals throughout the world.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Perry<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6/1/2012</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-23237507771294791642012-01-24T19:07:00.000-08:002012-01-24T20:09:52.763-08:00Five Bells - A Visual Ode to Sydney<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">WE ARE EXCITED TO OPEN 2012 WITH THE GROUP EXHIBITION: </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Five Bells - A Visual Ode to Sydney</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">. </span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Exhibition dates: 1-18 February.</span></span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">To be opened Saturday afternoon, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">4th February, 2-4pm</span></span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">by poet and friend of the late Kenneth Slessor </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Geoffrey Lehmann.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXVi0jFdAz563xdqFtLxCBarvvs5dNtyK0sRUqoTTt3-EVY1JJoHFoyQEkxnsedm0CF14roXtBin-OuXei3_4boQpQdp0pH4xy-fOSsBQwp-HCmvTzdHe07gl0VGJ1xhJSKohA4THCeD9/s1600/The+Harbour+View%2528Breakfast+in+Sydney%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXVi0jFdAz563xdqFtLxCBarvvs5dNtyK0sRUqoTTt3-EVY1JJoHFoyQEkxnsedm0CF14roXtBin-OuXei3_4boQpQdp0pH4xy-fOSsBQwp-HCmvTzdHe07gl0VGJ1xhJSKohA4THCeD9/s400/The+Harbour+View%2528Breakfast+in+Sydney%2529.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Elaine Campaner, Breakfast in Sydney, digital print, 553 x 830 mm, 2009</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I looked out my window in the dark <br />
At waves with diamond quills and combs of light <br />
That arched their mackerel-backs and smacked the sand <br />
In the moon's drench, that straight enormous glaze, <br />
And ships far off asleep, and Harbour-buoys <br />
Tossing their fireballs wearily each to each, <br />
And tried to hear your voice, but all I heard <br />
Was a boat's whistle, and the scraping squeal <br />
Of seabirds' voices far away, and bells, <br />
Five bells. Five bells coldly ringing out. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Five bells.</span></i></span></span></span></i></b><br />
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<div style="text-align: auto;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><div style="display: inline !important; text-align: justify;"><div style="display: inline !important;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This passage from the poem Five Bells by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor appears in the very first section of the book ‘Sydney’, by Delia Falconer. Falconer's re-reading of the city of Sydney through the lens of this haunting and seminal poem has inspired the Damien Minton Gallery to invite 40 artists to contribute artwork about Sydney. We received a phenomenal response and are pleased to announce the final list of contributing artists:</span></span></span></span></i></b></span></div></div></i></span></span></span></i></b></div><br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Gallery artists:</span></span></span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
Michael Callaghan • Elaine Campaner • Chris Capper<br />
Tom Carment • Lottie Consalvo • James Drinkwater<br />
Di Holdsworth • Cecilia Heffer • Hobart Hughes<br />
Pia Larsen • Ross Laurie • Marie McMahon<br />
Eric Niebuhr • Louise Tuckwell • Tony Twigg</span></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">We are delighted to host the following:</span></b></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">CLARRICE COLLIEN (Roomies Artspace) ELISABETH CUMMINGS (courtesy King Street Gallery on William)<br />
ANNE FERGUSON<br />
BECKY GIBSON (winner Brett Whiteley Scholarship 2011) JOHN GILLIES<br />
MYFWANY GULLIFER (courtesy King Street Gallery on William)<br />
ADAM HILL<br />
ALEX JACKSON WYATT<br />
PETER KINGSTON (courtesy Australian Galleries)<br />
BRUCE LATIMER (courtesy Australian Galleries)<br />
FRANK LITTLER (courtesy Watters Gallery)<br />
EUAN MACLEOD (courtesy Watters Gallery)<br />
DAVID PERRY (featuring one of Sydney’s first art films, “Walking”, 1957)<br />
AMBROSE REISCH (courtesy Stella Downer Fine Art)<br />
LIANE ROSSLER<br />
KEN SEARLE (courtesy Watters Gallery)<br />
PAUL SELWOOD (courtesy Watters Gallery)<br />
MARTIN SHARP<br />
ANDREW SIMPSON<br />
STEVE SMITH<br />
MARC STANDING (courtesy Brenda May Gallery)<br />
BRETT STONE<br />
TONI WARBURTON (courtesy of Mori Gallery)<br />
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<b>PLUS A PROGRAM OF TALKS, READINGS AND PERFORMANCE AT THE GALLERY:</b><br />
</span></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>SATURDAY, 11TH FEBRUARY, 3-5 PM</b><br />
<b>Geordie Williamson</b> (chief literary critic of the Australian)<br />
in conversation with <b>Gail Jones</b> (author of the book 'Five Bells')<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>SATURDAY, 18TH FEBRUARY 3-5 PM </b></span></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span></span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Fiona McGregor</b> (author of 'Indelible Ink') </span></span></span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Martin Edmond (Author of 'Dark Night, Walking with McCahon)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>SATURDAY, 18TH FEBRUARY 5-6 PM </b><br />
<b>Laurie Scott Baker</b> and <b>Ruark Lewis </b><br />
performing Five Bells Remix.</span></span></span></span></i></b>Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440163466733827426.post-15398187339611399462011-12-13T21:53:00.000-08:002011-12-15T19:02:10.928-08:00Peter Gardiner selected as a finalist in the Dobell Prize for DrawingPeter Gardiner features as a finalist in the 2011 Dobell Prize for drawing, which can be viewed at the Art Gallery of NSW until the 5th February.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Gardiner in front of 'Hexham (swamp)' </td></tr>
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</div>"Peter Gardiner's <i>Hexham (swamp) </i>[...] is an unusual venture for Gardiner, who often favours the more dramatic scenes. The swamp is almost featureless but possessed of a strange, crackling vitality. The artist has filled the sheet with small staccato dabs of charcoal that extract a glimmer of individuality from the uniformity of the landscape"<br />
Says John MacDonald in a review of the show for the Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum (10/12/2011).<br />
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We also congratulate James Drinkwater for being selected as a finalist in the Dobell 2011.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Drinkwater's selected work 'Trails Beginnings', part of a suite of works on paper featured in the March 2011 exhibition at our gallery </td></tr>
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</div>In other Peter Gardiner news, we are proud to announce that the Damien Minton Gallery had been accepted into the 2012 Hong Kong Art Fair. We will be exhibiting in the ASIAONE section with a development of Gardiner's Ravensworth Series.Damien Minton Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705212577220205966noreply@blogger.com