Lucreccia QUINTANILLA - "Discoteca Galaxias"

I interviewed Lucreccia Quintanilla for her past exhibition "Discoteca Galaxias" at No No Gallery.  Enjoy.

Q1. I was interested in the connection of your previous show at Techno Park and this show at No no gallery. The cellophane from the ceilings and cables where also at Techno Park, are you continuing a theme?

This year I have been looking at the party, or the event as an aesthetic space. Thinking of the dancing, the music and all that preparations that take place before the party.  

Having been involved in organising music events and many a party in some ways I am indirectly drawing a parallel to the setting up of an art show.  

Q2. Tell me about the video work showing the people dancing. It looked to me to be a recording from the 1980's showing the spontaneity of street dancing in a disco environment. 

That video is from the 90's actually. Its been filmed using 80's equipment which gives it that look.  Oh and the hair do's are very 80's.  

The video is of a party in Jocoro El Salvador which is a small town in El Salvador.  One thing about the video is that the dancing is first class, cumbia meets break dancing.  

I spent a great part of my childhood in Jocoro with my grandmother.  I have a pretty strong connection to Latin American music and now and then I find myself searching for it on youtube which is how I found this video.  I automatically recognised the whole aesthetic of the place the decoration and even the colour of the walls the whole thing was familiar to me. 

Q3. The music that was playing sounded like it was being heard outside a venue and the bass thumped through ,was this reflecting the past present of a discoteca? 

It is somehow comforting to me to hear runaway bass coming out of a distant party.  There are a lot of theories about the appeal of the bass frequency for example that it echoes the Big Bang that created our planet.  That it reflects of our own heartbeat.  I love to dance to bass heavy music and when I DJ it is the music that get the dance floor going. So perhaps in some ways to me adding it to the installation as a sound element makes complete sense somehow.  I think that my personal identification with it comes from trying to get to sleep during family gatherings when after a few warm up drinks somebody would turn on the music in the lounge room to get the party started!

Q4. Your green foam that you added to the existing brickwork between the two spaces, was this to connect the two..Were the gouache and collage on paper peices remanents of the event or are they conceptual dance moves on paper ?

I am glad you read the collages that way because I was trying to make the process of constructing them as improvisational as possible.  Which is how one dances really. I wanted to give them the least thought in terms of composition as possible.  

As for the brick foam,  yes I was thinking of how to bring that crumbling brick wall into participation so I decided to fill some of the gaps with the florist foam bricks which are a perfect brick size.  They are green which aesthetically fitted the collages and the installation work.  It was great how people felt compelled to poke their fingers into the squishy foam.  And it was not just children who could not help themselves,  there were plenty of adult sized finger marks in there as well! 

Q5. Will your next exhibition be site specific and continue with this theme?

 I am trying to work away from the static party...But I think that responding to the space in which I work is always going to be important to me.

http://lucrecciaquintanilla.tumblr.com/

http://rodarodasoundsystem.blogspot.com/

http://nonogallery.org/

Tom NICHOLSON -"Drawings and correspondence"

I really enjoy the space of Anna Schwartz for its shape and high ceilings. It also works having no natural light only what comes through the front entrance.

The new works by Tom Nicholson are well viewed in this space. A cave is required to display these pieces. I needed to do a few laps of the gallery to comprehend these artworks. They look to me to be large paper varying in size of silhouettes rubbed into black charcoal.  The figures are primitive and reminiscent of aboriginal rock art. The artist repeated the motif throughout the pictures. You could call it Contemporary Rock art, which excludes the surface of rock and ochers. At first impression, l was unsure of its significance due to the material and location.

After some contemplation and a read of the catalogue, l had a better understanding of these images. It seemed that this was the result of research that the artist undertook. The correspondence that the artist alluded to as part of the title seemed necessary to draw the whole work together. I did want to read more of the catalogue as it was like a diary of process that resulted in a visual end. The historical Melbourne aboriginal  and colonial reference really draws me to the research rather than the actual pieces.

I did find the the correspondence in the catalogue a little fragmented. I also found that l was disconnected from the artwork. I felt as though the artist was representing the work as though it was a extinct ancient culture. That said,  Nicholson did acknowledge the Wurundjeri people and the struggle that still exists today. I think ultimately the images where a result of his research but the substance of work could be found in the correspondence. 

Well worth a look and be sure to pick up a catalogue.

http://www.tomn.net/

http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/

Street Art - FOOTSCRAY

In the past month, l haven’t had the chance to do my regular gallery hops. I have however, discovered the slow evolution of street art in my own neighbourhood. There has always been great graffiti along the Western Suburban train lines. In the past few months, the streets of Footscray are slowly transforming with stencils, paste-ups and sprays. It’s refreshing to see although the street cleaners remove it quickly. Unless you’re like Baby Gorilla who chooses elevated positions for her work. It does depend where you go and seems the main streets are unpopular with street cleaners. Like Lego man who has chosen quite an obvious wall that crosses the main street and seems untouched…thankfully.

The most recent contribution to the street art scene is these stickers l have noticed on electricity boxes. They are A5 size and have actually been hand drawn with black felt pens. The subject is the most fascinating, as they are portraits of local people you see around the streets. That being the woman who lies under the ATM machine asking for money. There is also the old guy who hangs outside the Hong Kong BBQ restaurant asking for cigarettes. Or the AC/DC dude on his electric scooter. These stickers are simply portraits of the characters around Footscray. It looks to be the same artist who also uses the stickers against existing graffiti, which is quite clever.

So if you’re ever in the area, just look a little bit closer at the streetscape particularly near the Footscray Market. You will no doubt bump into a character.    

You can see more on the below link.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1058861@N21/