5th March 2012 - Festival Of Arts - Exhibition Reviews

Exhibition Reviews

What better time to be out and about than during the Adelaide Festival of Art with Beck Graeber. Here are some of my thoughts of what is being exhibited.

Parallel Collisions – The Art Gallery of South Australia12th Adelaide Biennialof Australian Art

This exhibition investigates emerging ideas, how they converge and alter, then transform into something else over time. The various premises are explored through a variety of mediums and materials, along with the use of processes or research from past imagery, art history, literature and cinema in order to re-imagine the past and transform it into and parallel with the present or possibly even the future. In essence this exhibition considers the temporary nature of the present as it collides with the past.

Although the exhibition and the premise thereof were both of interest, it was new media artists such as Daniel Crooks and Shaun Gladwell that held particular interest in relation to this course.

AES+F: Allegoria Sacra - The Art Gallery of South Australia introduces the Australian premiere of Allegoria Sacra which has been created by the internationally renowned artist collective AES+F. This impressive video work is essentially a digital painting which aims to seduce and mesmerize the viewer with its visual and aural magnificence. Allegoria Sacra has been motivated and named after a painting created by the Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, which is thought to signify purgatory a waiting place for all souls to remain until the Last Judgment. The modern interpretation portrayed by the AES+F as a place of waiting for those suspended in time and place is an international airport which represents the contemporary metaphor for purgatory.

The execution of this video installation is clever and fascinating to watch as we view a group of strangers who although connected by a desire to move from one world to another are oddly detached, self-absorbed and lack a passion for life. The haunting music only proves to intensify the prolonged sense of waiting as they all listen simultaneously for flight announcements and gaze at departure boards with anticipation of information about delays and departures. Stereotypes are explored in order to question contemporary values of civilization, as signs of capitalism and aspirations of a consumer society are rife. The parable becomes progressively more intricate and challenging to resolve as it enters a dream sequence with the rational becoming increasingly illusive.

Pat Brassington, A Heartbeat Away 2011-12 - This particular work held a somewhat gorish fascination for me, although I was strangly drawn to the work it undoutedly had a very disturbing voyeuristic and somewhat paedophilic vibe, which was elluded to by the content and the way it was portrayed.

Marco Fusinato's, Imperical Distortion 2012 - I found this particular exhibition oddly fascinating, yet loud and irritating at the same time. Although this type of work is not really my cup-o-tea, I do appreciate the concept. The room was filled with  a large fluorescent lighting installation that had the addtion of an audio concept which was triggered by audience participation when the viewer clapped their hands. The sudden bombardment of sound was very overwhelming and shocked, even though you were expecting it to happen.

Tim Silver, 'Untitled' (Object; Cedar, Timbermate, Woodfiller.) 2011-12 - This was a fascinate work which portrayed the premise of decay. The work consisted of a life-sized human form constructed from clay positioned in the middle of the space and was then surrounded by large photographic prints that depicted the various stages of decay. Confronting and effective piece.

*Overall the 'Parallel Collision' Exhibition was very interesting. As much as there were peceices I found fascinating, there were other that held no appeal at all and some of which I was unsure. However the fact that all of them had us engaging in comversation would indicate some level of artistic success.

Deadly: in-between heaven and hell (28 February - 8 April 2012)

Tandanya NACI and Adelaide Festival

This latest collection of newly commissioned works being exhibited at Tandanya are part of a major exhibition by leading Australian Aboriginal artists, comprised of six independent artists and two collectives. This ambitious exhibition hovers between a 'dystopian nightmare and utopian dream' and will display innovative and conceptually rigorous works created from a variety of practices which span from found objects, fibre, painting, glass through to installation and moving image. The concept of 'Heaven on Earth'. For many Indigenous people, is the divine world which has been shaped by their ancestral creators. There is a great emphasis placed on the experience of self and community being in harmony with their connection to country and culture. However this position is at odds with the legacies of incursion and assimilation, abuse and the often painful realities of personal and collective displacement, which could only be considered a 'living hell'. The premise of the in-between is undoubtedly unsettling and often uneasy, but still ring with an unbending resilience and the promise of hope by investigating and suggesting new ways to belong in order to effect critical change.

I was particularly interested in the work by artist Julie Gough, Observance 2011-12, video and sculptural installation. The work was a video installation that was shot in Tebrikunna in the northern part of Tasmania, which is in the homeland of the artist. The work is an interesting combination of video footage, including audio and text, along with a sculptural element, which appeared to be native plants adding an extra dimension to the video installation, giving it more depth and as a result made the audience feel more inclusive as though they were part of the experience. The text within the work shifted between English and an Indigenous language, giving the impression that the focus of the premise referred to the invasion of the white man and the impact 'Colonisation' had on the environment.
 
Adelaide as a Foriegn Country (Crown Plaza -Fringe Festival Art Exhibition)

Benoit Auberger is a French Photographer that has developed his own special love affair with South Australia after a year long trip in 2011. Auberger’s photographic works draw inspiration from the emotion in the moment. He enjoys capturing stillness and movement simultaneously, the moments that have potential to be great images. It is his aim is to share his own interpretation of his environment and bring it to life within the images he creates, in order to reveal and contemplate on the beauty and complexities of life and the human experience within our environment.

Sadly the venue had not display the works to be seen in their best light. They were poorly lit and seemed to blend into the background. The images themselves were a pleasant snapshot in the moment of time, a memory, a glimpse of their possible potential.

Sadly we had wanted to attend Rod Taylors exhibition 'New Works', but unfortunately the Hill Smith Gallery where the works are being displayed is not open on a Monday. (Note To self.) However we will endevour to return in the next few days as the works are in line with wha we are investigating in this current class.