Dr Daz is fired up about StudioMade

Posted on 13 June, 2013 by

Even though it is a chilly winter morning, the sun is shining and the studio of Geelong-based artist Darren McGinn is cosy, warmed by a glowing wood fire. A cat is lounging on the most comfortable chair in the room, firmly ensconced on a sheepskin rug while McGinn’s dog Fubuki, lies contentedly on the floor in front of the combustion heater. The atmosphere is relaxed, homely even, and the earthy aroma of freshly worked clay permeates the air. Natural light floods through the southeast windows and scattered around the studio are random curiosities that McGinn has collected – a basket of thongs, a bin of old signage, and a booty of marine paraphernalia gathered from around the Bellarine Peninsula. At one end of the room, a few well-used pottery wheels are waiting for action and around the corner in an adjoining room, a couple of imposing kilns are loaded with pottery ready to be fired.

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Darren McGinn outside his studio.  All photos by Artin’ Geelong.
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Fubuki chillaxes in front of the fire.
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The cat commandeers the best seat in the house.
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Two kettles convene on the combustion heater.
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Beautiful patinas everywhere you look.

McGinn has plans to expand the studio to include a bronze casting foundry and hopes to have it operational within the next 12 months. As a recipient of the coveted ArtStart Grant of $10,000 awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts, McGinn is one step closer to realising his dream. At 52, McGinn doesn’t exactly fit the emerging artist stereotype; however, he points out that as a recent visual art graduate he was eligible for the funding – he completed his PhD thesis Identity and Community Versus Non-place in 2011 through the University of Tasmania.

“Finishing my PhD was a major milestone even though it just about killed me. Another pinnacle was cracking the Australia Council ArtStart funding. I am tickled pink. This is a well equipped studio but with the ArtStart Grant, it is about to become even better,” McGinn says.

A keen fisherman and surfer, McGinn spends a lot of time around Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff “my spirit of place” and loves to collect found objects to use in his sculptural assemblages to explore maritime themes with a strong visual narrative. A vintage name plate, ‘Dawn’, from an old couta boat stands on the window sill. McGinn says this will be included, along with a large wooden rudder, in a new sculpture he is developing. He plans to articulate the sculpture so that it will move in the wind like a weathervane. The work references the couta fishing fleets that once worked the along the Surfcoast and will incorporate aspects of old marine navigation systems.

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Side entrance to StudioMade. The salvaged wooden rudder will be used in a sculpture.
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Fubuki at the side gate.
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Detail of found object assemblages outside the studio.

Dotted here and there around the studio, an extraordinary collection of some of his quirky and often humorous ceramic pieces – vintage caravans, glazed chooks, cartoon ducks, winged gumboots – all intermingle happily with neatly stored tools and equipment.  Although the studio is packed with an eclectic assortment of ‘stuff’, everything has its rightful place and everywhere rich textures and inviting patinas delight the eye.

McGinn has worked in this studio for over 15 years, not only fashioning sculptural pieces but also creating functional ceramic ware inspired by the aesthetics of quality Noritake porcelain. His pieces are made from Southern Ice porcelain, a translucent white clay which he describes as “sexy stuff” that “needs a lot of manipulation and caressing to harness its best”. It is internationally recognised as one the world’s best porcelain bodies. Ceramics is a medium McGinn returns to time and again, even though he usually works with timber, light and found objects.

“It is one of those love affairs that I go back to. I think it is the science of ceramics that I find fascinating,” McGinn says. “The trials and tribulations of the whole firing cycle and system really gets you in. If you are a bit of a pyromaniac, it is fantastic. It is great to make something that is so impermanent, permanent. Once it’s fired, it’s vitrified and it’s there forever.”

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Double Booking by Darren McGinn.
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Small ceramic sculptures by Darren McGinn.
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Angel Ducks by Darren McGinn.

Earlier this year, McGinn opened his studio to the public and under the enterprise StudioMade, started ceramic and sculpture classes which are tailored to meet the student’s individual interests. With a focus on processes and techniques to help students to realise their concepts, McGinn says it is important to keep class sizes small (only four students) so he can give each student his full attention.

“We say on our website ‘Be your own curriculum’,” he says. “Whatever people want to do, this studio can do it.”

Formerly a lecturer at The Gordon and Deakin University, McGinn originally studied at Melbourne Teacher’s College and has been teaching ceramics for nearly thirty years. He is now enjoying the freedom of running his own courses, liberated from the constraints of the tertiary education system.

“I was fed up with bureaucracy and institutions,” he says. “I wanted to deinstitutionalise myself and to teach without all the encumbrances of bureaucracy that goes on behind the scenes. It is great to get back to the coalface.”

After the rigours of academia, McGinn or ‘Dr Daz’ as his mates now call him, is pouring all his energy into StudioMade. Three hour classes are offered five days a week from Tuesday to Saturday, with a shorter children’s class held on Thursdays. Classes are available for beginners to advanced students and bookings are now open for term three.

McGinn is a master of his craft and StudioMade gives students the opportunity to learn from a leading Australian contemporary ceramicist. With the recent closure of several art courses in Geelong, McGinn’s StudioMade will make a valuable contribution to art education in the region.

StudioMade
43 Gurr St, East Geelong
Term 3 classes start 18 July
Ph: 0425 401 479
www.geelongartstudio.com

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Pinch pots.
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The kilns in StudioMade.
Studio Made 4-Functional ceramic ware made from Southern Ice Porcelain by Darren McGinn.
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Functional ceramic ware by Darren McGinn.
Studio Made 3Functional ceramic ware by Darren McGinn.
Studio Made 5Functional ceramic ware by Darren McGinn.
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Functional ceramic ware by Darren McGinn.
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Darren throws some porcelain to create a mixing bowl.

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Studiomade-ceramics

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Posted in Art, Art Promotion, Art Studio, Ceramics, Photo extravanganza, Sculpture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Call for Entries in the 12×12 Contemporary Art Prize 2013

Posted on 9 June, 2013 by

Art Is… Gallery is once again opening it’s doors for the 12×12 Contemporary Art Prize and Exhibition for 2013 and you are invited to submit your entries now. First Prize is $500. Other prizes include 5 x $100 prizes, a Special Prize for a First Year Entry sponsored by ArtWorx Geelong, and the People’s Choice Award sponsored by Geelong Art Supplies. An additional 10 Highly Commended Certificates will also be awarded.

All works must be on a 12 inch x 12 inch (30.5 x 30.5cm) square canvas (1.5 inches depth) unframed with no hooks or wires. Works not adhering to the criteria will be rejected.

Submitted works may include painting, drawing, collage, photography, printmaking, and mixed media. Collage material and/or mixed media must be contained within the canvas dimensions.

Entries close: Friday 23 August 2013

Download the 12 x 12 Contemporary Art Prize 2013 Entry Form here.

Exhibition Opening: Friday 6 September 2013, 6pm-8pm and continuing Tuesday-Friday 11am-4pm until Wednesday 26 September 2013.

For all enquiries phone Jan Synot 0421 969 230 or email jan@jansynot.com.au

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • Closing date for entries: Friday 23  August 2013
  • Delivery of entries by mail or in person: Friday 30 August 2013
    Art is… Gallery, Level one, 64 Little Malop Street Geelong,
    Tuesday to Friday, 11am – 4pm.
  • Exhibition opening:  Friday 6 September, 6pm-8pm.
  • Collection of unsold works:  Wednesday 26th September 3pm – 5pm (or by arrangement)
Posted in Announcements, Art Prize, Call for artists | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Seascapes – Jon Frank

Posted on 26 May, 2013 by

Water must run through Jon Frank’s veins. The Surfcoast artist photographer creates his work immersed in the ocean, shooting his distinctively individual view of the world under the waves or just above the water’s surface. Although he is best known for his magazine surfing photography, Frank’s lifelong obsession with the sea has seen him make images that go beyond the traditional surf image and into the realm of the poetic. Some of these works are now being exhibited at Geelong Gallery in Seascapes, which features large format photographs of evocative ocean imagery along with candid portraits.

Frank says the sea has always been his muse. “I would experience these really amazing moments in the water and need to record what I was seeing out there to show people, or just for my own benefit. Once you are in the water, it is like going through a portal. You are in a completely different space. It’s elemental,” he says.

Jon Frank Untitled (Seascape #1) 2010 (2)
Jon Frank, Untitled (Seascape #1) 2010, archival pigment print on fibre rag. Reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Frank’s dramatically dark seascapes depict seething seas and stormy skies. Some images, taken in the midst of the heaving swell, show mountainous waves which threaten to engulf the viewer. In a style reminiscent of Bill Henson, Frank has underexposed the image to induce broody blacks and ambiguous shadows which persuade us to look beyond what is readily apparent. In other images, shot from a distance, the play of light on the water creates an uncanny glow, again provoking a sense of unease. We detect undercurrents of the sublime, marvelling at the awesome power of nature and the insignificance of humanity in the face of it.

“At present, perhaps he carries the stigma of being a surfing photographer, but he’s so much more than that,” writes artist and film director, Mick Sowry, in the June issue of Surfing World which lists Frank as one of the 50 most intriguing people in surfing. “Some of the stuff he does, the seascapes, the people – it’s dark, like chiaroscuro. It’s Caravaggio-esque. He stops his shots down so that they’re dark enough that you get the sense of the thing rather than the actuality.”

In contrast to these painterly seascapes, Frank’s portraits of bathers at Geelong’s Eastern Beach, during a record breaking heat wave, are presented in crisp detail, brightly lit by the midday sun. In the grand 150-year-old tradition of street photography, Frank has captured fleeting moments with deft precision, taking the seemingly mundane and turning it into something unique.

“One of the great joys of having a camera is to shoot street photography – real people in a real environment which is what these portraits are,” Frank says. “Have you been to Eastern Beach on a hot day? It is like going to the circus. The number of people from different backgrounds, nationalities and ages is incredible.”

Jon Frank Untitled (Eastern Beach, Geelong) 2012Jon Frank, Untitled (Eastern Beach, Geelong #2) 2012, archival pigment print on fibre rag. Reproduced courtesy of the artist.

After two decades working in photography and cinematography, Frank has developed a finely honed sense of timing and framing. Frank not only isolates serene moments from the carnival atmosphere around the beach, but also portrays his subjects with grace and tenderness. None of the portraits are posed, Frank didn’t even speak to his subjects, yet the bathers have been captured in classical stances that we might recognise from art history. These people are not the models we find in advertising, fulfilling some commercial ideal of beauty, but rather everyday people whose beauty is embodied in graceful gestures.

In one portrait a teenage girl is poised to descend the ladder to the water. She stands like a Venusian statue from ancient Greece, as though she has been chiselled from her surrounds, her ivory skin as smooth as marble. In another image a young man emerges from the sea, water dripping from his ebony skin as he gazes to the heavens as if aspiring to greater heights. He is, in that moment, heroic.

“The portraits, all shot on medium format film, expose in tremendous clarity our secret vulnerabilities,” Frank says. “They reflect on how lonely our journey through this solitary world can feel [even] when surrounded by crowds of people. When compared to the grand indifference of nature, our lives seem so fleeting and fragile.”

It is surprising how filmic this series of portraits feel. We can imagine the seagulls squawking, water splashing, children squealing, the sounds carried off by the wind, but if we pause long enough, gradually we can feel the silence, as if the movie stops for a moment and we enter the bathers’ private world.

Jon Frank Untitled (Eastern Beach, Geelong #1) 2012
Jon Frank, Untitled (Eastern Beach, Geelong #1) 2012, archival pigment print on fibre rag. Reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Although the portraits and seascapes are different in subject and style, what they have in common is a sense of the transience of life – that this too shall pass and is all the more poignant because of it. Whether Frank’s focus is on the majesty of the ocean or the beauty of candid moments, like all good art, his photographs transcend the scene, and we gain a sense of something much greater than ourselves.

“When I go to an art gallery I want to be stirred and I hope when people come to this exhibition they will feel something,” Frank says. “People need to be inspired. Life will do everything it can to suck that out of us, but art can help us remember how special it all is, how lucky we are just to be here.”

Seascapes – Jon Frank
Geelong region artists program
18 May to 14 July 2013
Geelong Gallery, Lt Malop St, Geelong. Ph: 03 5229 3645 Free entry. Open daily 10am – 5pm
www.geelonggallery.org.au
Jon Frank at Geelong Gallery sm
Jon Frank with one of his Eastern Beach photographs in ‘Seascapes’ at Geelong Gallery. Photo: Artin’ Geelong.
About Jon Frank
In a career spanning more than twenty years, Jon Frank is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker who is internationally renowned for his surfing imagery. He has exhibited in Australia, the USA and Europe, and last year he completed an Artist in Residence in the Maldives.
Recently Frank collaborated with violinist and composer Richard Tognetti to create a series of critically-acclaimed classical music concerts in which the Australian Chamber Orchestra perform music while film is projected onto an onstage screen. Concerts have included The Reef, Everything, Nothing and The Glide. The Crowd, originally produced in 2010, will be presented at the 2013 Melbourne Festival.
Frank’s work has appeared in numerous books and magazines including his own book Waves of the Sea published in 2000. He has received many awards including Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Awards Photo of the Year in 2008 and Surfer Magazine’s Photo of the Year in 2007. ‘Musica Surfica’ won Best Feature Film in the New York Surf Film Festival 2008, ‘Mick, Myself & Eugene’ about surf legend Mick Fanning was awarded Film of the Year by Tracks Magazine, and ‘Super Computer’ won Best Cinematography in Surfer Magazine Awards 2000. Frank’s first film ‘Litmus’ was voted one of the top 25 surf films of all time.
Frank currently lives in Torquay and is a Senior Photographer for Surfing World magazine.
You can find out more about Jon Frank’s work on his website www.jonfrank.org and his blog blog.jonfrank.org
Jon Frank Untitled (Seascape #1) 2010Jon Frank, Untitled (Seascape #1) 2010, archival pigment print on fibre rag. Reproduced courtesy of the artist. [This image is not in the exhibition but I liked it so much Jon Frank allowed me to include it. From his website www.jonfrank.org]

RELATED PHOTOGRAPHY POSTS:
• Cages within cages – art censorship in Vietnam
• A curious nature…
• Ballarat International Foto Biennale – Core Program
• Photographer in Focus – Alberto Sanchez

Posted in Art, Artin' Geelong, Artist, Exhibitions, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Susan Hase: Let Go – A Pop-up Exhibition

Posted on 14 May, 2013 by
Recently I received a random text message from a friend on a Saturday evening. It read, “If you can get yourself to the white house, corner Gilbert and the Esplanade, before 8pm tonight, DO!!! There is a wonderful art exhibition here and a light projection on the house.”
How intriguing! With my curiosity aroused, I went to Torquay to have a look. It was a extraordinary pop-up exhibition titled Let Go by Susan Hase, featuring installations, light projections, paintings, text based works and sculpture on display in her holiday home. The exhibition was the artist’s expression of her journey as she came to terms with her husband’s diagnosis of dementia and his eventual death.
When I arrived the house’s facade was lit up with still-image projections which the artist organised in collaboration with her son David Hase from Hase Media. Photos of Torquay beach as well as images of the artworks in the exhibition were projected. Bright colours highlighting the building’s structure were reminiscient of Howard Arkley’s airbrushed paintings of suburban houses.
“Let Go is inspired by a poem by e.e. cummings that I have been going over and over since my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,” reflects Hase. “Over the years I have had to let him go, watch him go. We’ve been in this holiday house for 32 years but finally I have sold the house and now I really have to let go.”
While studying her Masters of Fine Art at RMIT, Hayes was simultaneously researching Alzheimer’s Disease which is the most common form of dementia and one of the fastest growing diseases in Australia. In fact, by 2050, over 1.13 million people are expected to have the disease. The disease causes severe memory loss associated with the development of a toxic protein in the brain known as amyloid beta.
Hase has used seaweed roots to symbolise the neurons in the brain and in one installation she has coated them in wax alluding to the way amyloid beta protein clumps together to form plaques which prevent the neurons from functioning normally. In another installation, she has painted some of the seaweed black, referencing the work by Italian scientist Golgi who in the late 19th century discovered a method of staining nervous tissue that enabled the paths of nerve cells to be seen. The seaweed shape is a central motif throughout the exhibition.
While I was at the pop-up exhibition I read a sensitive and insightful account about Let Go by arts writer and curator, Damian Smith. Smith is the Director of Words For Art, an international consultancy specialising in contemporary culture and discourse. He has published more than one-hundred articles on contemporary art, and curated more than thirty exhibitions and I am delighted he has kindly allowed me to reproduce his article here on the blog. Thanks Damian! So read on to learn more about Susan Hase’s unique exhibition that was held for three days during April 2013.

~~~

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Hase’s family holiday home was transformed into an artistic space for ‘Let Go’. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.

For more than thirty years artist Susan Hase has maintained a home on the beachside resort of Torquay, a place shared with her husband Peter (formerly a QC and Family Court Judge), her children, her pet dog Bernie and many friends. Peter passed away five years ago after a long drawn illness battling with Lewy Body Dementia. Faced with this momentous personal change, Susan’s decision to sell the weatherboard house has been not only an occasion for sadness but also a chance to look back, to reflect on past memories and finally, with great resolve, to let go.

With the house emptied of furniture and in the brief interim between the new owners taking possession, the moment for an important and deeply felt exhibition was born. With the assistance of son Dave, responsible for a night-time projection onto the structure’s exterior, the exhibition has taken shape. It is Susan Hase’s ‘LET GO’.

Each room of the Torquay house has been occupied by different aspects of Susan’s artistic practice: sculpture, installation, painting and word play, and on the outside of the building, still-image projections. Bounded by the house itself, we see in each mode of work a different manner of reflection, conveyed through materials deemed most suitable for the task.

One recurrent motif in the exhibition is the holdfast or root-like structure of a local ocean seaweed species. Hase has gathered examples of these on the Torquay foreshore, dipped them in wax and arranged them in installations. With its clustered head and tapering stem the holdfast root is similarly shaped to a neuron, the iconic nervous-system cell along which electrical impulses are carried, the conduits also of our thoughts, and site of vulnerability in Alzheimer’s. The wax represents plaque formed on neurons that are affected by dementia.

ln one of Hase’s pieces the holdfast is laid on a light-box covered by a scan of the human brain. Thus one part of her environment becomes a reminder and talisman of another. The image of the seaweed root is taken up in yet another room where paintings are featured. ln Seaweed Tangle the forms are jumbled together and for the most part chaotic. Yet after studying the work over time the clarity of the piece emerges.

Wax covered seaweed
Wax covered seaweed. Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist.
Susan_hase_Let Go 3Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.
Susan_hase_Let go 8Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.

Text too has been a major fascination for Hase. As a collector of ‘industria’ she has patiently assembled an alphabet of antique block-print characters, from which concepts and text-based emblems can figure in her practice. On this occasion the title of the show has taken up residence on the front porch of the house – ‘let go’, it announces even as we enter the space.

Susan_hase_Let Go 6Susan_hase_Let Go 7Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.
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Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.

ln another of the rooms a single life size doll sits quietly in a chair. lt is a disturbing, faceless presence with text emblazoned on its legs, arms and torso. At its feet, written on a blackboard is a poem, The moving point by Omar Khayyam, words that remind us we cannot escape through what we have lived. ln a companion to this work, Peter’s professional robes and wig are the focus of another installation. The piece, titled The Judge, stands silently as a sign for an absent presence.

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Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.
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Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.

At last we arrive in a space where ink-stained papers flutter gently in the breeze. Over each of these is a layer of fine, diaphanous material upon which lines of text criss-cross the surface. They are private diary-like notes that hang in the manner of prayer flags, offering their message to the world. Like the Tibetan flags on which they are based, these too are suggestive of impermanence – that all things must ultimately leave us and that life is in a continual state of flux.

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Susan Hase, Let Go exhibition. Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greta Costello.

Susan Hase: Let Go is a singular opportunity to see this artist’s work in a setting that has been central to her life for more than thirty years. lmportantly it shows how one artist can work across multiple mediums and styles while still maintaining a consistent aesthetic and conceptual vision, all the while imparting deep feeling for subject and presenting the work with notable sensitivity towards the context in which it is shown.

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Susan Hase, Dave Hase & Steve Ryan, Haystacks, projection mapping. Image courtesy Nick Azidis.
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Susan Hase & Dave Hase, Let Go Projection, projection mapping. Image courtesy Nick Azidis.
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Susan Hase, Dave Hase & Greta Costello, Let Go Doll, projection mapping. Image courtesy Nick Azidis.
Susan Hase: Let Go
19-21 April 2013
37 The Esplanade, Torquay.

let it go – the
e.e. cummings

let it go – the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise – let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go – the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers – you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go – the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things – let all go
dear

so comes love

(Complete Poems 1904 – 1962)

RELATED POSTS ON ART AND DEMENTIA:
• Exhibition explores the labyrinth of memory loss
• Eu thanatos – Exhibition by David Beaumont

RELATED POSTS ON LIGHT PROJECTIONS:
• Illumination bedazzles Geelong with light art
• Geelong City Hall Lights Up

Posted in Art, Exhibitions, Guest Contributor, Installation, Light Art, Painting, Projections, Text | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Award Winners

Posted on 5 May, 2013 by

The winners of the Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Awards were announced Saturday afternoon at Salt Contemporary in Queenscliff. The $5000 Open Art Acquisitive Award went to Mark Cairns for his oil painting Blue Entry II. Anita Iacovella won the Print Making Award of $500 for her monotype Numen I.

Cairns says of his work, “Blue Entry II represents a direct access to the Australian beach in summer. In this painting I’m interested in the juxtaposition of the vertical man-made poles and the horizontal undulations of the ocean water.”

The everchanging nature of the sea has been a constant source of inspiration for Cairns who lives in Barwon Heads. His evocative paintings capture the capricious nature of the ocean with its infinite variation in light, form and colour – the fleeting movement, the dance of light on the surface. His canvases are consumed by a vast expanse of water with a high horizon line or sometimes no horizon at all. Simple man-made structures contrast against the shimmering sea, signalling human activity, but these semi-abstract shapes are executed with such economy, an air of mystery lingers.

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Mark Cairns, Blue Entry II, 2013, oil on linen, 122cm x 106cm. Image courtesy the artist.
Mark Cairns awarded Queenscliff Art Prize
Mark Cairns accepts his $5000 award.  Photo: Artin’ Geelong.

Iacovella’s Numen I dwells between abstraction and figuration, a monochromatic work rendered with immediate and expressive gestural marks. It references the ‘numen’ – a spirit presiding over an object or place, or a guiding principle, force or spirit. In a recent interview on Artin’ Geelong, Iacovella explained her artistic approach. “I feel sensitively attuned to the natural world and the impact it makes on me at an internal and spiritual level. Within the process of making the work the images come from the unconscious mind. The images are informed by memory which brings forth aspects of the sublime, atmosphere, light and history through various representations of landscape, space and nature.”

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Anita Iacovella, Numen I, 2011, Monotype, 120cm x 85cm. Image courtesy the artist.
Anita Iacovella
Anita Iacovella with her Print Making prize and the winning work, Numen I.  Photo: Artin’ Geelong.

The exhibition runs for the next two weeks at Salt Contemporary and Seaview Gallery in Queenscliff and Tussock Upstairs in Point Lonsdale. Viewers can vote for their favourite work in the People’s Choice Award which will be announced at the end of the exhibition.

For more information about the exhibition, check out Finalists announced in Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Awards

Borough of Queenscliffe’s 150th Anniversary Art Awards exhibition
4 May to 19 May, 2013
Salt Contemporary Art, 33 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3988
Seaview Gallery, 86 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3645
Tussock Upstairs, 89 Point Lonsdale Road, Point Lonsdale. Ph: 0418 392 485
Posted in Announcements, Art, Art Award, Art Prize, Painting, Printmaking | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cages within cages – art censorship in Vietnam

Posted on 2 May, 2013 by

I usually report on art exhibitions around the Geelong region but this post is about an exhibition approximately 7000 km north west from here. The reason I feel compelled to post about this exhibition, in the motorbike metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is that although this work deserves to be seen, the Vietnamese government censored the exhibition.

I travelled to Vietnam earlier in the year and came across this exhibition at Sàn Art, an independent, non-profit, artist-run contemporary art gallery and reading room. When I visited, it was two days before the exhibition, Space/Limit by photographer Phan Quang, was due to open. A large bamboo cage was being installed over the entrance of the gallery and it was a hive of activity. Just as preparations for the exhibition neared completion, however, the gallery received news that only two of the nine artworks for public exhibition would be allowed to be shown.

Phan Quang - System
Phan Quang, ‘System’, 2011, archival pigment print mounted on aluminium, 100 x 170 cm. Image courtesy Sàn Art. This is image was the only photograph to receive exhibition approval from the Vietnamese government.
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Entrance to the gallery transformed by the bamboo cage structure. This was allowed to remain for the exhibition. Image courtesy Sàn Art.

Incredibly, at least from my Australian viewpoint, every gallery in Vietnam is required to obtain an approval licence for each exhibition from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The Ministry did not allow most of Quang’s works for exhibition, without any explanation.

So what was not allowed to be exhibited and why? The Space/Limit exhibition comprised large photographs printed on aluminium, and two installations. Quang has used the motif of the bamboo cage, a container widely used throughout Vietnam for housing and transporting poultry, to comment on the limitations of every day contemporary life in his country. In dramatic, sweeping tableaux, Quang’s carefully staged subjects are positioned inside giant bamboo cages: a man sits on the bonnet of his new car, perhaps imprisoned by the cage of consumerism; pupils study at their desks, presumably held captive by current pedagogy. In another image, a person become the cage himself, caught in his own body.

The artist juxtaposes this symbol of traditional rural life with imagery of modern living. The bamboo cage is open and spacious, yet it contains and limits. Are the limitations experienced from without or from within? The Sàn Art media release states:

“Space/Limit is an exhibition concerned with the social habits, expectations and desires of contemporary society. How does popular media, cultural myth and custom, or ideas of class affect the way we live our lives? … What is the affect of living as part of a collective, a community, a nation? How can an individual maintain integrity within a community while seeking innovation beyond what is already practiced or believed?…”

Below are Quang’s works that were not allowed to be exhibited.

Phan Quang - Everlasting
Phan Quang, ‘Everlasting’, 2011, archival pigment print on aluminium, 100 x 170 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - Nouveau Riche
Phan Quang, ‘Nouveau Riche’, 2011, archival pigment print on aluminium, 100 x 150 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - TV Time
Phan Quang, ‘TV Time’, 2011, archival pigment print on aluminium, 100 x 150 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - ControlPhan Quang, ‘Control’, 2012, archival pigment print on aluminium, 100 x 150 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - 50 follow this direction
Phan Quang, ‘50 follow this direction’,, 2012, archival pigment print on aluminium, 42 x 180 cm, ed. 3 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - 50 follow that directionPhan Quang, ‘50 follow that direction’, 2012, archival pigment print on aluminium, 42 x 180 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.

In the two panoramic photographs above, 50 men stand facing the sea in one while in the other photo 50 men stand in the opposite direction. These works reference a Vietnamese creation myth where 100 sons are born from the union between the fairy Âu Cơ and the dragon king Lạc Long Quân. The couple separate and 50 sons follow their mother to the mountain and the other 50 sons accompany their father to the sea. Here Quang suggests the myth confines – an individual imprisoned by the collective fate of a nation.

The following three works were not for public exhibition due to their strong themes and nudity (nudity is still taboo in Vietnam). In the provocatively titled, The Red Thread, a loudspeaker is placed on a red strip and covered by a bamboo cage. The loudspeaker is commonly found on street corners throughout Vietnam to broadcast, very loudly, public announcements from the government. Instead of people inside a cage, here Quang places what could be interpreted as a symbol of communist rhetoric. It too is limited, constrained, unable to free itself from the ‘red string of fate’.

Phan Quang - The Red Thread
Phan Quang, ‘The Red Thread’, 2012, archival pigment print mounted on aluminium, 70 x 75 cm, ed. 5 + 1AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - Pupils
Phan Quang, ‘Pupils’, 2011, archival pigment print mounted on aluminium, 100 x 170 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang - The Disappointment
Phan Quang, ‘The Disappointment’, 2012, archival pigment print mounted on aluminium, 100 x 170 cm, ed. 5 + 1AP. Image courtesy Sàn Art.

Sàn Art responded to this censorship by completing the installation of the exhibition and documenting it photographically. Then they took down the restricted works and put them in storage just hours before the exhibition was due to open. “Not allowed to exhibit” signs were mounted in place of the photographs, quoting from the Ministry’s licence to the gallery.

Phan Quang Space Limit exhibition1Installation view of the exhibition before the works were taken down. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang Space Limit exhibition2
Installation view of the exhibition before the works were taken down. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Installation view Phan Quang San Art
Installation view of the exhibition before the works were taken down. Image courtesy Sàn Art.

On the opening night, viewers were confronted with NOT ALLOWED FOR EXHIBITION signs, the signs themselves serving as a kind of post modern art.

Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, Assistant Curator at Sàn Art, explained that the gallery also set up an information table with photos of the installed exhibition. She said “We hope that by providing these documentary photos, the public can get a sense of how the show should have looked and experience Phan Quang’s works, even if indirectly.”

Phan Quang -Space Limit Opening1
Signs in place of Phan Quang’s photographs.
Phan Quang -Space Limit Opening2
Not allowed to exhibit signs, quoting directly from the Ministry’s licence.
Phan Quang -Space Limit Opening3
A photocopy of the licence and its translation were pinned to the door in Sàn Art. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang -Space Limit Opening4Installation view of the exhibition at the opening of Space/Limit. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan Quang -Space Limit opening5Installation view of the exhibition at the opening of Space/Limit. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan_Quang_bamboo_installationInstallation view of the exhibition at the opening of Space/Limit. Image courtesy Sàn Art.
Phan_Quang_bamboo_installation_3
Viewers physically experienced restriction at the opening of Space/Limit. Image courtesy Sàn Art.

The exhibition opened, despite the ‘limits’ set upon it. With the bamboo structure almost blocking the entry, the viewer’s experience of the gallery space is confined in much the same way, ironically, that the state restricted the exhibition.

Sàn Art was the most exciting and innovative gallery that I found throughout my travels in Vietnam and if you are travelling there, it is well worth seeking out. Although the political climate is challenging, it is a very active artist-run space. I learnt one of its founders is renowned Vietnamese artist Dinh Q Le whose extraordinary Erasure installation at Sherman Gallery in 2011 was made in response to the debates about refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. Sàn Art’s current curator is Zoe Butt who worked as Assistant Curator in Contemporary Asian Art at Queensland Art Gallery and assisted in the development of the successful Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

Phan Quang - Space Limit Exhibition - San ArtPhan Quang at the opening of Space/Limit.

Phan Quang (b. 1976, Binh Dinh) currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. He studied Economics, graduating from University of Economics HCMC in 1999; subsequently working for various well-known photographers before starting his own commercial photographic studio ‘Stop & Go’ in 2004. Drawn to the power of photography as a medium that can both disturb and reflect ideas of truth, Phan Quang’s artistic practice today also encompasses sculpture, installation and video, often produced in close collaboration with local artisans and farmers in Bao Loc. His work was given solo feature at Galerie Quynh in Ho Chi Minh City in 2010, in addition to inclusion in recent group exhibitions hosted by the Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA and the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam in 2012; the Institute Francais of Cambodia and Kumho Museum of Art, South Korea in 2011. (From the San Art website)

The exhibition concluded last week but I hope this post, in some small way, helps to introduce Quang’s brilliant photography to a wider audience.

Space/Limit by Phan Quang
28 Feb – 25 April 2013
San Art, 3 Mê Linh Street, Dist. Bình Thạnh
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
www.san-art.org
Posted in Art, Artist, Arts, Exhibitions, Photo extravanganza, Photography, Sui Generis, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Finalists announced in Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Awards

Posted on 27 April, 2013 by

Queenscliff Art Award

The finalists in the Borough of Queenscliffe’s 150th Anniversary Art Awards have been announced. The judging panel deliberated over 200 pieces before selecting a short list of 50 for exhibition.

The finalists are:

Paul Barton, Violeta Capovska, Michelina J Di Mauro, Kathy Fahey, Peter Ferguson, Tarli Glover, Kate Gorringe-Smith, PJ (Peter John) Hickman, Anita Iacovella, Debra Jackson, Gabrielle Jones, Katherine Marmaras, Eleanor Millard, Christopher Scott, Judi Singleton, Bridgit Thomas, Pip Williams, Yvonne Boag, Patrick Brady, James Caffyn, John Druce, Deborah Fisher, Brett Jackson, David Jarman, Joshua McCrimmon, Glen Smith, Jan Stickland, Phil Sutter, Anne Tompson, Sisca Verwoert, Leigha White, Margie Balazic, Mark Cairns, Darin Frankpitt, Paul Ingham, John McClumpha, John Madsen, Soula Mantalvanos, Helen Martin, Jo Reitze, Stephen Singline, Keith Smith, Paul Snell, Dennis Sonogan, Anne Spudvilas, Susan Sutton, Joel Wolter.

There are three Awards categories and $6,000 in prize money on offer.

  • Open Art Acquisitive Award $5,000 (winner announced on Saturday 4 May, 2pm, Salt Contemporary Art)
  • Print Making Award $500 (winner announced on Saturday 4 May, 2pm, Salt Contemporary Art)
  • People’s Choice Award $500 (winner announced Sunday 19 May, 2.30pm, Seaview Gallery)

The Awards are being judged by Geoffrey Edwards, Director of Geelong Gallery; Susan McCulloch, writer, publisher and curator; and Anne Virgo, Director of the Australia Print Workshop in Melbourne.

According to Leanne Stein, Arts Officer at the Borough of Queenscliffe, the judges had a challenging tasks choosing from the submissions.

“The quality of the works submitted was very high and many fine works did not make the shortlist. Only 50 pieces have been selected for the exhibition and the Award winners will be chosen from these,” she says.

The works include oil and acrylic paintings, water colours and mixed media, as well as etchings, lithographs and digital works.

The public can learn about the artists’ processes and techniques in a  ‘Meet the Artists’ event to be held at Tussock Upstairs, Point Londsdale, at 2.30pm on Saturday 11 May.

The 150th Anniversary Art Awards and Exhibition is just one of the commemorative activities that will take place in 2013 as the Borough of Queenscliffe celebrates its 150 year anniversary.

Borough of Queenscliffe’s 150th Anniversary Art Awards exhibition
4 May to 19 May, 2013
Salt Contemporary Art, 33 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3988
Seaview Gallery, 86 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3645
Tussock Upstairs, 89 Point Lonsdale Road, Point Lonsdale. Ph: 0418 392 485
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