Kurt Bosecke
Michael Carney
Shane Cook
Dave Court
Matthew Fortrose
Hari Koutlakis
Kate Kurucz
Loren Orsillo
Brianna Speight
Henry Jock Walker
10 artists working on Kaurna Country Curated by Dave Court
This work was made on the unceded land of the Kaurna people, and presented on the land of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
photo of Dave Court by Emmaline Zanelli
This exhibition (Eastbound March 2024 at Backwoods Gallery) is kind of a follow up to a show that we put on almost exactly a year ago in Adelaide (Southbound March 2023, in a gallery upstairs at our shared studio). This was a collection of artwork by 21 artists working on Kaurna country in Adelaide, South Australia.
This was a fun time, great party and I think a good snapshot of the sections of South Australia’s visual arts that I’m connected to.
For the sequel to this exhibition I wanted to bring together a tighter and more cohesive collection of artworks. Part of this was also needing to fit all the artworks in the back of my ute to drive them across to the big smoke Naarm/Melbourne.
For this exhibition I’ve selected 10 artists that I think are making exciting and interesting work, aestheticallty, conceptually, technically, materially.
In putting together the pieces for this show, and in conversations with the artists as they were making the work, we were thinking about ideas of things in pairs and the qualities that things in pairs can create
- balance, tension, harmony, opposition, contrast, metaxisI hope that looking at these works through this kind of lens helps to unlock some interesting ways to see, and something extra to think about.
There are a lot of different pairings that can be explored in these artworks, within individual artworks, by creating new pairings of work from different artists, by comparing different artist practices holistically.
Media and materiality is something that I play with a lot in my work and probably why I’m drawn to the kind of material tension that is present in almost everyone’s work in the show. Plastic/concrete, steel/rubber, 2D/3D, painterly/flat, juicy/sterile, hand drawn/ machine made.
Form/Function is part of Henry Jock Walker re-purposing wetsuits into paintings, and Matt Fortrose using playground softfall inside of his hard concrete and steel sculptures.
Life/death is the big one I guess, touched on in this show by Loren Orsillo and Brianna Speight, sharing some similar ideas but approaching from very different directionsrepresentation/abstraction. Both using photography as well but approaching this medium at different ends of a spectrum of digital/analogue, Loren developing medium format film photos of textural abstraction and Brianna layering up dynamic digital photographs.
Michael Carney, Hari Koutlakis and myself all play with a balance and tension of digital/ physical with our work as well. Hari and I worked together to produce some lasercut acrylic versions of his graphic paintings, contrasting his usual approach to painting which is extremely analogue. Michael and my work are using AI generated imagery as a part of our process, him to generate landscape and me to generate abstract imagery based on other abstract objects I created.
Kate Kurucz also plays with figuration/abstraction in her work for the show, creating a narrative of the mysterious twins/strangers enemies/friends in her Bald Man Eclipse - and more abstract exploration of the fleshy viscerality that is possible with oil paint. I can see a tension of 2D/3D in this kind of figurative painting as well, especially with the materials of oil paint on copper that Kate uses to represent depth, light, contour and character on a flat surface.
Shane Cook explores a duality and tension of cultures, existing in two worlds by nature of his identity as a Wullli Wulli and Koa man, living life in contemporary ‘Australia’ while maintaining connection to Country and Culture.
Kurt Bosecke is one of my favourite painters, his practice explores ideas of fantasy/ reality, history/fiction, figuration/abstraction, planned/intuitive. In this context I think it’s also worth mentioning his partnership with Henry Jock Walker, they have been working together for almost 10 years, Henry mentoring Kurt since high school and helping him to develop his practice and build relationships with a lot of other artists. I’m sure Henry would say Kurt has had a massive influence on his work and practice as well.
There are a infinitely more connections that can be drawn out, but I hope this ramble has been a useful bit of context for the show, and helpful in maybe unlocking some different ways to engage with the objects that these wonderful people have made.
Dave
MICHAEL CARNEY
Using the Ochre I was gifted by my family (adopted by Traditional Owner Buckskin family) I spent a quiet morning grinding it down on my mother’s front porch
Traditionally, ochre would’ve been ground down and broken into pigment using a stone, which over time would create circular, grinding grooves from the friction of one stone grinding the pigment into the other
Using a brick I found in my backyard and one of the pots from my kitchen, I used similar techniques to break down the ochre.
On my country, Wulli Wulli country in Central eastern Queensland okay comes in many different colours are used to tell stories through rock art and body painting, through applying ochre on top of the skin.
Colonisation impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in devastating ways. Cultural practices such as Lore, Dance, Song and language were all classed as illegal practices, and people who participated were aggressively punished.
The devastating impacts of these practices being forcibly removed from many nations can still be seen today in everyday life - drugs and alcohol is one of the leading causes for the ongoing trauma to aboriginal people.
Not being able to participate in cultural practice spiritually impacts generations.
Painting with the ochre I was gifted from my family connects me to my ancestors. By participating in contemporary art, I pay respects to those who created art and used pigments to celebrate their identity.
Walking in two worlds, connecting with my country and community, and also living in a western world is no small task when responsibilities sometimes don’t lead in the same direction as what social norms are expected of me.
Finding your way back home to connect while also maintaining a household and supporting my daughter in a state that is far far away from home is not taught.
