Billy Gruner - Five Walls Projects. from Chantal Wynter on Vimeo.
Monday, 4 March 2013
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Chelsea HOPPER - "Dead Tired"
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Images courtesy of artist and Bruce Gallery
http://www.bruce.org.au/
http://www.chelseahopper.com/
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| "Beached" |
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| "Pooped" |
Images courtesy of artist and Bruce Gallery
The latest exhibition at BruceGallery by artist Chelsea Hopper gives us insight into the practice of
sunbathing by seniors. What comes to mind is contemporary version of The Sunbaker
by Max Dupain.
Random individuals are
photographed on various beaches throughout Perth tanning on towels oblivious to
their surroundings. Enlarged postcards of retirement in its glorious form.
Hopper has used the out-dated mode of film in an SLR camera. She had the images
printed and then Hooper enlarged them herself.
One image titled "Pooped" is of a man who is
lying facedown under a tree on a beach, fully clothed taking a rest from the
world. He looks to be a tourist that is lost and stranded and is exhausted
falls onto the sand. Another image titled "Beached" depicts a woman with a floral swimsuit,
facedown on a towel with her belongings for the day beside her. It could be her
only solace between looking after grandchildren and cooking for the husband.
Hopper has creatively
depicted this genre of people, not the grey nomads but the over sun-kissed
retirees, busking in all their glory.
Until the 17th of
November, 2012
http://www.bruce.org.au/
http://www.chelseahopper.com/
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Daniel AGDAG - "Sets for a Film l’ll never make"
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Empire Building
Image courtesy of artist and Off the Kerb Gallery
The Wait
Image Courtesy of artist and Off the Kerb Gallery
Image courtesy of artist and Off the Kerb Gallery
Image Courtesy of artist and Off the Kerb Gallery
This latest exhibition at Off the Kerb Gallery is the first solo show for artist Daniel Agdag.
The title of the show adeptly
describes the thread of each of these five intricately made works. As you walk
into the gallery, you could mistakenly have entered a curiosity shop blended
with the fantasia of writer Ronald Dahl and the surrealism of director Tim
Burton.
At first greeted by the most
robust and largest of the works is Amalgamated,
a setting of an historical building site with warped nuances only viewed after
further investigation. It looks to be a scene from a New York street or busy
metropolis. All complete with a W class tram morphed with American cable cars.
Created with cardboard that has been manipulated, rolled, flatten, cut and
moulded. The attention to detail is spectacular and to think such a heavy laded
piece could be light in weight boggles the mind. The architecture of the work
is brilliantly composed and obviously researched.
The other works stand in
glass domes presented on plinths pertaining to museum kept artefacts of a distant
era. The
Wait is the most delicate of the pieces, which resembles an old hot air
balloon warped slightly with the experimental makings of a machine. The glass
dome protects this prototype with its transparent and delicate balloon as
though it will deflate at any given moment if an insect would land on its
surface.
These small sets expose the viewer
to the artists imagined industrial estate. Far from the modern unsavoury
factories and large corrugated sheds. A small wonderland of obscurities.
Until 9th of
November
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Craig COLE – "Concrete Hermits"
Craig Cole
Courtesy of the artist
This latest solo exhibition
by artist Craig Cole is a set of polished concrete pieces that have been illustrated
with oil paint. Each piece has a scene of an infamous character of Footscray
set among the familiar urban landscape. The detail is impressive with each
block of concrete standing at 10 x 30 cms. The pieces are well curated, framed
on custom made shelves positioned at eye level giving each room to breathe.
Cole has obviously made
himself familiar with these characters over a period of time. Each are
oblivious to his attention and continue with their daily lives which may
involve collecting trollies, asking for a cigarette to a passer-by or waiting
for a bus. These are the people who are unaccounted for that is, outside mainstream
society. They exist by other means of distribution and are more familiar to
their community than say you or me.
Cole has executed their
existence skilfully. A photographic snapshot of people on the peripheral of
society. Using their own ways of survival instinctive of the human spirit. They
may limp, wear clothes that are irregular, scream when it’s not appropriate or
simply feed pigeons for pleasure when they can’t afford food for themselves.
The raw and complicated painted on polished cold concrete gives warmth and a
sense of direction of each piece.
On until the 10th
of June.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Benjamin ARMSTRONG – ‘Conjurers’
Benjamin Armstrong’s works are dramatically
imposing in the gallery of Tolarno Galleries.
Five wooden structures depicting various root
vegetables standing at the height of over two meters glare down at you little
ignorant and pompous human. The day of the genetically modified vegetable has
arrived. Carrots and parsnips are now viewed as edifices reaching up from the
soil for power and strength creating a vegetable kingdom.
The sculptures look to made of constructed plywood
and then carved into a shape of a vegetable. The roots have been burnt giving a
darker colour in comparison to the lighter wood. The roots resemble long tentacles
or limbs to move with. These sculptures are accompanied by three large framed
watercolour images.
The exhibition seemed to be telling an untold
story of a mythical battle possibly using the vegetable as a metaphor. The watercolors
depict scenes of wild oceans and light bursting through layers of organic
matter. It seemed to be images reflecting a conflict or an environmental event.
On until the 28th of May.
Toby POLA – ‘life sux then you die’
This first solo show by artist Toby Pola has
taken a page of Australian skate culture as inspiration for these set of
sculptures. Life size objects that are made out of balsa wood and then painted
in gouache. The raw and rogue artist picked up were a young Ricky Swallow left
off. This artist is in his own element, which is refreshing and original. Skate
clothes such as t-shirts, hoddies and caps in dispersed between plaster casts
(balsa wood made) that are reflective of the 1980’s.
Life Be In It was a carved piece made
into a hanging t-shirt with the painted iconic inflated Norm sitting in a chair
watching television. No more needs to be said. There was also Suffer cunt
which was a plaster cast with graffiti written over it with various familiar texts.
The feelings of freedom, stupidity and youth injected with humor.
Overall, this exhibition didn’t need explanation
as the objects themselves were clear in its context. The pieces were reflective
of a genre and had a subtle reminiscence.
Exhibition has ended but look out for future work.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Claire LAMBE – "LazyBoy"
Courtesy Sarah Scout, Melbourne
This
exhibition explores the manifestations of fornication. I felt l was sifting
through the remains of scattered innuendo and constructed unfinished works that
leaves you with an open interpretation of things to come (no pun intended).
Candy Barr is a set of glass mirrored
squares constructed in a manner of steps ripe for a saucy disco move. The
mirror ball has been replaced with a bolder and brighter substitute. The
reflection of different angles and warped fantasies reflect back at you.
How
can such simple constructions be construed into a sexual connotation?
Ladies’ Evening is a pair of gold lycra jeans
which are half stuffed. The work lies on the floor with the empty legs as discarded
fabric. The work lies exhausted and in need of some rest. A propped plastic
sheet leans on an opposing wall held by brackets. The plastic sheet has a whole
cut through in the shape of a circle where any number of objects could be
inserted.
The
artist statement written by Nat Thomas was a refreshing read. The statement
reflected on writing and modes of artist publicity, our ideas of galleries
while incorporating the aspects of the exhibition. A brazen statement complimenting an equally fabulously indecent,
suggestive and uncouth exhibition. Franco Cozzo could learn a lot from Lambe’s work.
Until
26APR
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