Chantal WYNTER and Craig COLE - 57 Irving Street

This is the second instalment of my project at 57 Irving Street which is in collaboration with Craig Cole, also a local Footscray artist.

I have continued to use text in each of the four windows. Every individual poster has common statements used by the various characters throughout Footscray.

We are all familiar with the recognizable faces in Footscray such as Nick, the Olympic Doughnut man, Kevin at the coffee shop, Franco Cozzo, the gang at Footscray’s Best and so on. We are exploring the infamous characters that can be seen and heard daily around Footscray. We have approached this through a comic book theme, which embodies these daily remarks and observations.

These posters are designed to encourage the passer by question the greater community known as Footscray.  

Anne KUCERA – “Alone I Keep the Wolves at Bay”

Walking into Trocadero Art Space in Gallery 1, I’m drawn towards a corner with black and white checkers beginning at the floor and working up towards the ceiling. They are half completed and gives you the feeling that you could either disappear towards the ceiling or floor.  A small white chest of draws sits there and on top of that sits a hard covered book. Don’t be fooled by the picturesque scene for here begins the nightmares.

An Abstract Nightmare is the name of this first piece. Open the book and a paper pop up scene of a woman appears and she is either drowning or being sucked into the whirlpool of checker squares. The size of this piece is a little larger than A3. The way the chequered pieces are crafted gives you the feeling of movement and a spiralling effect to an underworld that lives under the checkers.

The largest of the pop up books is named The Clearing (seen in image above). Open the book and your presented with a forest of trees and in the clearing sits a wolf facing a seated person on their knees. A standoff or as the title of the show suggests, alone l keep the wolves at bay. Each leaf of each tree has been individually cut and placed on each trunk. The stare between the wolf and person is intense that you forget this is paper. The structure of the pop up book is clever and for some of us, takes awhile to figure out its construction.

The artist Kucera is sitting the gallery as she is also the treasurer of this artist run space. She tells me that these artworks are small pixels of her nightmares and dreams. Being slightly insomniac, she has built these scenes from her mind and dreams. Kucera has been working on this show for eight months. She taught herself how to build these paper wonderlands. 

For me, pop up books reminds us all of our childhood and the surprise of what each page will present. In this exhibition, as you approach each book your excitement builds. You read the title of the book in the anticipation of the image that you will be greeted with. The exception here is that you’re not a child but an adult with fears, apprehensions and failures. These adult pop up books capture these emotions in a strangely fairytale way.

Kucera has exceptional attention to detail and has beautifully mastered these pop up books which makes for a successful and compelling exhibition.

On until 13th August. 

www.trocaderoartspace.com.au

Kristin McIVER – “Statement Pieces”

I admit that l am bit of a text fanatic. Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer comes to mind. My mother has questioned how text based artwork is considered “art” and not a piece of literature in a book where its tradition is based. I believe it’s the way you present the text, which distinguishes art from literature. Like any form of material used, nothing is sacred when it comes to artwork, especially in this conceptual climate. 

I first saw McIver’s work in a group show so l was looking forward to viewing her solo exhibition at James Makin Gallery. The title of the show best describes this group of neon lit words. Interestingly, the mostly single words have different titles which add an extra element to the works. You have to take a step back when viewing these and view them individually. We are bombarded daily with neon signs and you can easily switch on your “tune out” button.

McIver has transformed a word to make us not only think of the meaning but to put it into a context by visually adding small elements. An example of this is “Wishlist”. The word “wish” has been repeated three times in a vertical line. Simple and uncomplicated.  There is also the piece “Changes”. The word “change” is written in a neon white light and flashes on and off.

I also enjoyed two pieces that use not only the neon signage but external materials to enhance meaning. The first being “A Questionable Choice” which was a neon sign in a box with the letters half made. The reflection of the sign on the floor completes the word. The other favourite was “The Good Life II” which was the word “good life” written in neon white with plastic black chains falling from the ceiling over the text.

I feel these works questions our consumer mentality and notions of desirability in a developed country such as Australia. Each piece are all concepts that as humans we relate to whether we encompass it or not. These pieces have a culturally and classless motif, that is people in the same economic and social background would find a connection to these artworks. Go and see.

Until 27^th of August

http://www.kristinmciver.com/

http://www.jamesmakingallery.com/