Trouble November 2014

trouble

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S O T N S , I S T O R I A D E U H ST T T E E M Celebrate Culture at DMROS Open Studios, over three weekends in November.

1, 2 & 8, 9 & 15, 16 NOVEMBER 2014

www.dmropenstudios.com.au

FEATURES (05) COMICS FACE Ive Sorocuk (12) THE MADNESS OF ART Jim Kempner (14) DAVID ROSETZKY’S TRUE SELF

Social Work

(22) CURATING THE TABLE Inga Walton (32) NEW PASSPORTS,

NEW PHOTOGRAPHY

SPECIAL SALON FEATURE

Wow Factor

(40) NOVEMBER SALON Not Normal (53) PUNCTUATION Darby Hudson (54) HERI DONO:

MAKING FUN OF THE KING

THE GODS & THE PEOPLE

Naima Morelli

(66) GREETINGS FROM

BEYOND THE PALE Ben Laycock

COVER: David Rosetzky, Think of Yourself as Plural (detail) 2008 (still), single channel high definition digital video, colour, sound, 29 minutes, 27 seconds, edition 3 of 6. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. True Self: David Rosetzky Selected Works, a CCP and NETS Victoria touring exhibition, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) (WA), 15 November – 21 December 2014 - pica.org.au Issue 118: NOVEMBER 2014 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Trouble Magazine Pty Ltd. ISSN 1449-3926 CONTRIBUTORS Ive Sorocuk, Jim Kempner, Klare Lanson, Naima Morelli, Inga Walton, Ben Laycock, love.

Find our app at the AppStore follow us on issuu , twitter, subscribe at troublemag.com READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.

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The Dealer is Present Jim waits hours for a few minutes with America’s greatest performance artist.

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SOCIAL WORK

SOCIAL WORK

One of Australia’s finest artists, David Rosetzky creates intensely beautiful lens-based works exploring identity, subjectivity and relationships.

Increasingly, he collaborates with professionals from the fields of theatre, dance, film and sound. Drawing on fifteen years of practice, True Self: David Rosetzky Selected Works presents early portrait and longer duration videos, photographs, photo-collages and sculptures that reveal intimate relationships between the various aspects of his practice. It includes a major new video work, Half Brother (2013), commissioned

by CCP with support from Irene Sutton. The exhibition not only allows us to see the consistency of Rosetzky’s vision, but to engage with a trajectory in his video that moves from lo-fi, singular portraits through to cinematic, long-duration work.

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SOCIAL WORK Which member of your family influenced you the most?

David Rosetzky: It would be very difficult for me to distinguish any single family member as having more influence on me than another.

Do you think its ok to lie?

David: One could say that all art is a fiction of sorts, and therefore that lying is an essential part of art-making. So, yes I think it is more than OK to lie, it is necessary.

What does freedom mean to you?

David: Imagination.

Do you think things happen for a reason?

David: No. What beliefs do you have that you think will never change?

David: That we are always changing.

Do you believe in the supernatural?

David: I believe in the power of belief in the supernatural What do you think would be the best thing about being the opposite gender?

David: I often wonder how useful binary opposites are, particularly when thinking about gender.

How do you make important decisions?

David: I would say that I am generally a fairly intuitive person, but also try and look at things from a number of different perspectives before coming to a decision.

Have you ever been lost?

David: Often at the start of a project I will feel lost, and then have to follow a number of different leads or ideas before I find something that’s potentially worth pursuing. I think you have to take a leap of faith and try things out, even if you aren’t sure of exactly where it’s leading, because it’s often the things that don’t quite turn out as planned that end up becoming the most interesting and engaging. Being lost and finding unexpected outcomes can be a very rewarding process.

If I asked a good friend of yours what you were good at, what would they say?

David: Making things up.

Photo by Peter Rosetzky

True Self: David Rosetzky Selected Works Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) (WA), 15 November – 21 December 2014 - pica.org.au A CCP and NETS Victoria touring exhibition curated by Naomi Cass, Director and Kyla McFarlane, Associate Curator, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. The development, presentation, promotion and tour of this project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. The catalogue publication is made possible by support from the Gordon Darling Foundation - netsvictoria.org.au

IMAGES: David Rosetzky TITLE SPREAD Commune (detail) 2003, type C photographs mounted on composition board, flexilight, 120 x 290 x 450cm. Collection of Dr. Dick Quan, Sydney PREVIOUS SPREAD Think of Yourself as Plural 2008 (still), single channel high definition digital video, colour, sound, 29 minutes, 27 seconds, edition 3 of 6. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

THIS SPREAD Portrait of Cate Blanchett 2008 (still), single channel high definition digital video, colour, sound, 9 minutes, 56 seconds.

Courtesy the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Commissioned with funds provided by Ian Darling, 2008.

CURATING THE TABLE

Art of the Table NGV International

Inga Walton

As the year wanes, and thoughts turn to preparations for the Festive Season, an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (International) provides both insight, and possibly some inspiration, as to dining traditions, tableware and the foodie etiquette of centuries past.

Discussing the link between food and art in Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy (1999), Professor Carolyn Korsmeyer writes, “Certainly food does not qualify as a fine art; it does not have the right history, to make a complex point in shorthand. Culinary art can still be considered a minor or a decorative art, or perhaps a functional or applied art (for we should not minimise the fact that eating is a daily aspect of living in the most literal sense of that term)”.

But while food degrades, art endures, and the beautiful receptacles devised to contain and enhance the pleasures of the table fortunately remain to tell us about the cultural and aesthetic preoccupations that inspired their production.

Drawn principally from the NGV’s exceptional and diverse collection, with the addition of nearly twenty loans, Art of the Table (until 31 December, 2014) is the concept of Amanda Dunsmore, Curator of Decorative Arts & Antiquities, and Dr. Matthew Martin, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts. “We wanted to tap into the vibrant food culture in Melbourne and throughout Victoria, and marry this with the strength of the NGV’s decorative arts collections which are rich in historical objects relating to dining and social practices around food, its preparation and particularly its presentation”, Dunsmore says.

The earliest work in the exhibition is an Italian Spoon (c. 1450) of silver, agate and enamel from an era when diners brought their own utensils to a function, and these implements denoted the owner’s level of wealth and social position. The most contemporary work is a Cylinda-line tea and coffee set (c.1965) by Arne Jacobsen for the Danish firm of Stelton, which demonstrates how streamlined modern design emphasises functionality and mitigates the maintenance requirements of previous eras. Stainless steel gives a shiny metallic surface reminscent of silver, but without the tedium of constant polishing.

The entertaining and evocative tableaux belie the challenges faced by the curators in realising quite a complex project within the parameters of what the exhibition space, and the permanent collection itself, can support. “A major strength of the Decorative Arts collection is table wares of the eighteenth century, especially British material. This is really an accident of collecting. Most objects produced in ceramic, glass or metal ware which end up in a collection like the NGV’s are objects designed for dining.”

< The Netherlands, Holland/Germany, Serpent-stem goblet, (Flügelglas), (early 17th century), glass (façon de Venise), red and white threads, applied and pincered decoration, 28.3 x 10 cm (diameter), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1977

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< Nicola da Urbino (active c.1520-38), Jupiter and Semele, plate (c.1524), earthenware (maiolica), 2.9 x 27.1 cm (diameter). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1940.

“Given the abundance of material, the theme of dining practice seemed like a coherent story we could explore”, Martin explains. “The variety of display strategies employed in this show is a response to the limitations of the available space; fifteen identical glass cases in a row can be quite monotonous for the viewer. Introducing variety to create visual rhythm in the viewing experience is important. Another important consideration is the creation of atmosphere, if you can achieve that within a display, half the work of interpretation is done- you already have the viewer thinking along the lines you want, and they will see objects in a different way”.

Dunsmore and Martin worked closely with exhibition designers John Eccles and Katherine Horseman to achieve the desired presentation for the works in the show. “Even during installation we had to sacrifice a few works to fit the final displays. We worked very closely with our exhibition designers to conceptualise each case and the individual display requirements. The show is very theatrical and some of the design aspects took quite a lot of working out and time to install ... Overall, the installation of the show took a good month to six weeks”, Dunsmore relates. “The designers take the concept and then translate that into usable display fixtures. This involves considering all sorts of materials and techniques that can be used to make our ideas a workable, concrete reality”, Martin agrees. “They have to consider cost, the safety of the works on display, ease of fabrication and so on. This can be a time-consuming process – sourcing materials, trialling ideas – and expensive too; that’s one reason why only a few cases get selected for such treatment. It also needs to be a case and theme where the treatment actually adds something to the interpretation of the material”.

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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This attention to detail is amply demonstrated by a case devoted to cutlery and its evolution from the Renaissance to the very late seventeenth century. At this time the practice of acquiring sets of cutlery, to provide for guests’ use at a meal, as opposed to them bringing their own set, began to take hold in polite society. During the eighteenth century specialised forms of cutlery began to develop for eating and serving particular types of food. “A case full of knives and forks could be quite tedious, visually. But by introducing a display idea which is a bit unusual – a tablecloth being pulled off a table – you create visual interest, as it looks very different to the cases before and following it”, Martin contends. “You also create a bit of drama and a compelling way to present the objects. This is a dining table we are looking at, so everything in the case, even if they are of a form you might not be immediately familiar with, is something ... that you might find on a dining table”.

To a certain extent, Art of the Table also demonstrates the way in which some collections within an institution can compensate for others by filling the visual gap, as it were. The NGV does not, for example, have many historical paintings that depict aspects of dining, nor is it strong in immediately relevant images. Still Life With Fruit (c.1640-50) by Jan Davidszoon de Heem (160684), hangs in the 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery, alongside Willem Kalf’s Still Life with Glasses and Fruit (1663). Both works are referenced as part of the seventeenth century dining feature within the exhibition. From the 1640s, de Heem was the most important and influential still-life painter in the Netherlands. He invented a painting style known as pronkstilleven, or ‘sumptuous still life’, which was widely copied, though few could match de Heem’s technical brilliance. Kalf (1619-93), developed the banketjes or ‘little banquet pieces’ style of painting into a novel form of pronkstilleven by combining rich groupings of objects (gold and silver vessels, glass and Chinese porcelain) upon a table draped in damask or fine tapestry.

The establishment of seaborne trade routes to the Americas and to Asia in the sixteenth century saw a range of exotic new commodities enter Europe for the first time in significant quantities during the seventeenth century. Important amongst these was porcelain from China and Japan imported by the Dutch East India Company, which became enormously popular acquisitions for Europe’s wealthy elite. As demand exceeded the volume of imports, European ceramic manufacturers, especially in the Netherlands, began to produce tinglazed earthenware imitations of the imported porcelain. The town of Delft became synonymous with this style of tableware, the blue and white palette and fanciful decoration echoing the imported Ming and early Qing dynasty porcelain. Dutch and German glassmakers also produced imitations of the sophisticated glassware made in Italy, creating façon de Venise glass (glass in

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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< Italy, Faenza Plate (1519), earthenware (maiolica), 5.3 x 25.5 cm (diameter). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1940.

the Venetian manner). A superb example of this style, Serpent-stem goblet Flügelglas (early 17th century), is the type of delicate and refined vessel intended for use in formal banqueting situations, and immortalised by artists in paintings of sumptuous tableware and victuals.

The arrival of tea, coffee and chocolate in Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century prompted the development of new wares to serve and imbibe these beverages. All three were initially marketed as medicinal preparations and curiosities before becoming drinks of daily consumption.

Tea was imported from China and made its first appearance in England during the early 1660s. It was often promoted as having exceptional health-giving properties, and capable of curing innumerable ills. By the early eighteenth century, however, the taking of tea had developed into a highly fashionable pastime. The convivial repast of ‘afternoon tea’ is credited to Lady Anna Maria Stanhope, Duchess of Bedford (1783-1857), in the mid-1840s. As a means to refresh herself over the long afternoon before dressing for dinner, the Duchess began inviting her friends to join her for tea served with sandwiches and cakes.

Porcelain manufacturers responded to the growing popularity of this social ritual, adopted by numerous middle and upper class households, with new sets of tea ware and table accessories.

By the mid-seventeenth century coffee had been introduced to Britain from the Middle East, and by 1652 the first coffee house had opened in London. Chocolate made its way to Europe from South America in the early seventeenth century via the Spanish and Portuguese. In 1615, the custom of drinking chocolate was introduced at the French court by Anne of Austria (1601-66), daughter of the Spanish King Philip III (1578-1621), who had recently married Louis XIII (1601-43).

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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Like coffee, chocolate was consumed by a broader cross-section of society than tea, yet its popularity developed more slowly, possibly because it was more expensive than coffee and its preparation comparatively complex.

Writing under the pseudonym of Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, the French doctor and antiquary Jacob Spon (1647-85) compiled his Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé et du Chocolate: ouvrage également nécessaire aux Médecins, et à tous ceux qui aiment leur santé (A New and Curious Treatment of Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate: a work equally necessary for Doctors, and all who love their health) originally as a small treatise in 1671, which was revised and augmented as a book published at The Hague the year of Spon’s death from tuberculosis. The exhibition uses the frontispiece from a subsequent edition of the book, “The tea, coffee and chocolate case employs a period print as a backdrop which illustrates early eighteenth century stereotypes about the origins and consumption of these imported beverages. The imagery adds to the contextualisation of the objects, introduces a real period source, and invites the viewer to consider a time when these beverages were still exotic and not the everyday commodities we deem them today”, Martin asserts.

The exhibition marks the début of a recent acquisition, Travelling Chocolate Service (Nécessaire de voyage) (c. 1765), produced in France. Conservation work was carried out on the leather and silk interior of this delightful portable coffer, which is displayed in a designated cabinet on the South balcony. “This set, with its white Mennecy porcelain, is an excellent complement to our outstanding holdings of eighteenth century white porcelain by a range of early French factories. It also represents an important class of object that was not represented in the collection”, Martin remarks. “These sorts of travelling sets, assembled by Parisian luxury goods dealers known as Marchands-Mérciers, were important markers of status in eighteenth century France, as much for display as for use. They gathered into a single case the basic necessities that one could not contemplate doing without, no matter where one was. This set, with equipment for two to take chocolate and one to dine, talks about sociability and dining for the individual of rank and discernment”.

Dessert, a word derived from the French desservir (to clear the table), is the course hankered after by many a sweet-tooth. It developed out of the mediaeval practice of consuming spices, wafers and sweet wine as digestives at the end of a meal. In England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this ritualised conclusion to the formal dining developed into an elaborate presentation of delicacies that came to be known as the banquet. ‘Banquet’ had two meanings at this time, the first one is still in use today, a grand meal. The second meant a dessert course often eaten in a designated house or a temporary space, which was intended to delight the eye as much as the palate.

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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< Italy, Venice, Covered bowl and stand (detail) (late 18th century), glass (applied decoration), 14 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, 1871.

Depending on the munificence of the host, such a course could incorporate a range of seasonal fruits, sweetmeats, syllabubs, suckets either ‘wet’ (fruit preserved in syrup), or ‘dry’ (fruit preserved in sugar and sometimes dried in the sun), comfits (seeds, spices and fruits coated in sugar), fancy biscuits and gingerbreads, jellies, and leach (strained almonds, new milk, spices and rosewater set with gelatin). The Italian writer and gastronomist Bartolomeo Sacchi, known as Platina (1421-81), rhapsodised about sugar in his treatise De honesta voluptate et valetudine (On honourable pleasure and health), (c. 1465). “By melting it, we make almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts, coriander, anise, cinnamon, and many other things into sweets. The quality of sugar then almost crosses over into the qualities of those things to which it clings in the preparation”, he observed.

The most impressive and costly aspect of the dessert course would be a display of fanciful decorations; in Italy trionfi da tavola (‘triumphs of the table’), or ‘subtleties’, as they were called in England. Architectonic sculptures made of sugar or marchpane (marzipan), and amusing table figures made of sugar, or sometimes candied sesame and honey paste, generally followed allegorical, mythological, or historical themes. Sugar modelling paste was made from powdered sugar tempered with a mucilage of gum tragacanth, and had been used by confectioners since the late mediaeval period. In England it was known as sugar plate or gum paste, while in France it was called pastillage.

Sugar was a compliant medium, but its ability to absorb moisture undoubtedly made these fragile and expensive sculptures highly perishable, and storing them presented a considerable challenge.

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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Trionfi da tavola could also take the form of precious metalwork objects like those made by Giulio Romano (1492-1546) for his patrons the Gonzaga family of Mantua, and Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) whose famous Saltcellar (1540-43) was made for Francis I of France (1494 -1547). Once porcelain manufacturing had developed in Europe, porcelain figures gradually replaced their earlier sugar paste counterparts as table decorations. Turkish woman, sweetmeat dish (c. 1755) depicts an aristocratic woman, dressed as an exotic Turkish lady, and holding a large scallop shell that forms a small sweetmeat dish. Made by Derby, The four continents, figures (c. 1770), shows the development of these table decorations into something more durable. Today’s lavish wedding and themed specialty cakes replete with intricate sugar decorations remind us of these ‘edible art’ fantasies born of the Renaissance imagination.

By the eighteenth century when the display of the dessert course had reached its most extravagant expression, many of the same dishes and sugared confectioneries were just as popular, but had increased in sophistication and were not as labour-intensive to make. The proliferation of professional confectioners made hosting a large function easier on household preparation for those who could afford to outsource. Sweet courses were presented in shallow dishes, tazzas for elevation, tureens for stewed fruits, and pyramidal stands for candied and fresh fruits. The Venetian Covered Bowl and Stand (late 18th century) hints at its possible contents, the top decorated with a glass lemon with the leaf still attached.

The most fashionable sweet dish of the second half of the eighteenth century were known as ‘ices’, frozen confections that came in a large range of flavours and were made either as liqueurs glacées (a type of granita), or neiges (a sweeter version of modern ice-cream). A Wedgwood Ice pail (c. 1790) and a later Ice cream pail (c. 1810) by Derby give us some indication how ‘ices’ were stored and served.

Typically, the pail contains an inner bowl in which the ice-cream would have been placed. The vessel would have then been packed with ice below the liner, and in the top of the deep lid, in order to stop the contents from melting.

The occasions for dining in the grand style increased during the Regency Period (1811-20) in Britain, prompting ever-more ostentatious table displays to impress invited guests. Previously, lighting had been restricted to candlesticks or table candelabra, but in the early nineteenth century the glass chandelier, a multi-branched candelabra suspended from the ceiling, made its appearance.

The geometric faceting of the drops and prisms- a feature of glass during this period- served to magnify the flickering light of the candles, aided by the highly refractive nature of the English lead crystal.

Curating the Table / Inga Walton

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Chandelier (c. 1810) would have been commissioned for the dining room of a grand country house or public building. The flamboyant celestial-themed design, with fine ormolu mounts featuring a woman’s face at the centre of a sunburst, and surrounded by starbursts, indicate that it would have been made by one of the leading manufacturers in England.

The placement of the starbursts in between the candles maximised the effect of sparkling light, and would have served to amplify the impact of other fine objects on the table, such as silver and gold vessels. The the play of light generated by the chandelier would have also enhanced both the array of glittering jewellery and the beautiful clothes adorning the assembled guests, making for a truly opulent evening. The curators have envisaged an Alice In Wonderland scenario, whereby the chandelier looms over a slanted chequerboard floor. A blue and white Miniature tea service (c. 1785), made by the Caughley Porcelain Manufactory in Shropshire, rests on a diminutive table.

Art of the Table concludes on the North balcony with something of an NGV collection favourite, a silver Epergne (1762-63) made by the London firm of Thomas Pitts. An epergne usually formed the centrepiece of the table, and the hanging baskets would have been filled with seasonal fresh fruit, nuts or perhaps a range of sugared confectioneries. This example is a masterpiece of silver smithing, and represents one of the most delightful manifestations of the mid-eighteenth century Rococo taste for chinoiserie. It is a fanciful representation of a Chinese garden pavilion, the apex crowned with a pineapple, considered to be an exotic fruit in the eighteenth century, and a symbol of welcome and hospitality. Bon appétit.

• Art of the Table Decorative Arts Passage, Second Floor, NGV (International), 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (VIC), until 31 December 2014 - ngv.vic.gov.au < ’Regency extravagance’ display case: England, Chandelier (c.1810), glass, gilt-bronze, metal, 139.3 x 77.4 x 77.4 cm (overall).

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1962. Caughley Porcelain Manufactory, Shropshire (England, c 1771-99), Miniature tea service (c. 1785), (9 pieces) porcelain (soft-paste). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gift of Mrs Colin Templeton, 1942. The Colin Templeton Collection. Photo by Inga Walton.

Inga Walton is a writer and arts consultant based in Melbourne who contributes to numerous Australian and international publications. She has submitted copy, of an increasingly verbose nature, to Trouble since 2008. She is under the impression that readers are not morons with a short attention span, and would like to know lots of things.

november salon special new passports, new photography 15 November 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8 February 2015 Art Gallery of Western Australia

THIS SPREAD Tony ALBERT, No place 2 2009, chromogenic print, 80 x 80 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the TomorrowFund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2010.

NEXT SPREAD Tarryn GILL and Pilar MATA DUPONT, Bride of the north 2009, inkjet print, 128 x 174 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the TomorrowFund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2010.

november salon special new passports, new photography 15 November 2014 – 8 February 2015 Art Gallery of Western Australia

PREVIOUS SPREAD Gary LEE, Jesse 2011. Lambda Print on Hahnemuhle Paper, 52 x 70 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.

THIS SPREAD Petrina HICKS, Jackson and Tiger 2005, Lightjet print, 111 x 119cm, edition of 8. Courtesy: the artist. new passports, new photography, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Cultural Centre, Perth (WA), 15 November 2014 – 8 February 2015 - artgallery.wa.gov.au

november salon

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PREVIOUS SPREAD Peter BREW-BEVAN, War Hero 2013, digital print. National Photographic Portrait Prize 2014: A National Portrait Gallery Touring Exhibition, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Ovens Street Wangaratta (VIC), 25 October - 14 December 2014 - wangaratta.vic.gov.au THIS SPREAD 1. Tracey MOFFATT, Something More # 3 1989. Cibachrome photograph. AlburyCity Collection.

Commissioned by Albury Regional Gallery with funds from Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council, Aboriginal Arts Committee of the Australia Council, the Exhibitions Development Fund of the Regional Galleries Association of New South Wales and the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts. TRACEY MOFFATT: photography and film from the AlburyCity Collection, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Deerubbin Centre -1st Floor, 300 George Street, Windsor (NSW), 17 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 December - hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au 2. Valentina PALONEN, Tanglefoot 2014. Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change, Incinerator Gallery, 180 Holmes Road Moonee, Ponds (VIC), until 30 November 3024 incineratorgallery.com.au

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3. Merric BOYD, Australia 1888-1959, Jug 1923, earthenware, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gift of Don McCrae, 1991 © Merric Boyd. Outer Circle: The Boyds and the Murrumbeena Artists, Level 3, NGV Australia, Federation Square Melbourne (VIC), 17 October – 1 March 2015 - ngv.vic.gov.au 4. Sandra HILL, Home-maker #8 The Flip-side 2012, oil on linen, 91 x 76 cm. Private collection. Courtesy of the artist and Mossenson Galleries, Perth. & NEXT SPREAD Søren DAHLGAARD performing as ‘The Dough Warrior’ at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Image courtesy Søren Dahlgaard & Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask, Tarrawarra Museum of Art. Healesville (VIC), until 16 November 2014 - twma.com.au

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5. David STEPHENSON, Madonna degli Angeli, Torino 1993, from the series Domes 1993-2005, chromogenic print, 56.0 x 56.0cm.

Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, courtesy of the artist, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney and Bett Gallery, Hobart Transcendence â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Photographs by David Stephenson, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Horseshoe Bend, Swan Hill (VIC), until 23 November - swanhillart.com 6. Matthew BARNEY (born San Francisco 1967; lives and works in New York City) River of Fundament: Khu, 2014. Production still from the film River of Fundament. Cinematographer: David Regen.

A film by Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler. Produced by Matthew Barney and Laurenz Foundation. Written and directed by Matthew Barney. Music composed and directed by Jonathan Bepler. Image Courtesy Gladstone Gallery and MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. MATTHEW BARNEY: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT, MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Main Road, Berriedale (TAS), November 22, 2014 to April 13, 2015 - mona.net.au

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november salon

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PREVIOUS SPREAD E. RATNAM-KEESE, Regeneration I 2013, composite paper drypoint print, 53 x 76cm. Image courtesy the artist. Photo Jeremy Dillon. E. RatnamKeese: Regeneration, Manningham Art Gallery Manningham City Square (MC²), Doncaster Road, Doncaster (VIC), until 15 November 2014 - manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery THIS PAGE 7. Hardy LOHSE, from ‘Certified Australian’, ANCA Gallery, Rosevear Place Dickson (ACT), until 9 November 2014 - anca.net.au

Heri Dono Making fun of the king, the gods and the people

INTERVIEW Naima Morelli

Heri Dono was standing in front of his studio window looking typically casual and comfortable. He wore his hair in a pigtail, a grey t-shirt, mimetic pants and Crocs, and was slowly sipping Java tea from a winged pot of his own creation.

Behind him was a series of smiling heads dangling on wires, alongside a group of animalistic figures with their tongues sticking out. An army of winged half human-half machines was hanging from the ceiling. I was doing my best to remain nonchalant whilst sitting among a group of dinosaurs with the faces of dictators. I wondered, was Heri Dono’s studio an accurate reconstruction of Heri Dono’s mind? It was as if all these mocking characters had materialised into real space direct from the artist’s fervid imagination.

Heri Dono had recently returned from an exhibition in Vaduz, Lichtenstein, when I met him. His fellow artists had joked that I was more likely to meet him at some crazy art exhibition on the other side of the word, than I was in the streets of Yogyakarta. Being the total opposite of snobbish, Heri was amused to hear that feedback. The first motivation for his travels, as he explained, was curiosity, and the need to bring home worldy impressions to add to his aesthetic. “I’m deeply inspired by traditional culture, especially by shadow puppets, glass painting and textiles techniques. At the same time, I draw from international modern and contemporary artists like Joan Mirò, Paul Klee and Gauguin.”

According to Heri, if you are Indonesian there is no need to go to Europe for new stimuli: “In a diverse country like Indonesia an artist can get very different influences from the archipelago’s cultures. Balinese traditions are dramatically different from those of North Sumatra, Borneo or Papua. Indonesia is extremely plural. During the regime of Suharto, from 1967 through to 1998, we had the so called ‘Javanisation’. During that time the culture from Java has been propounded over the others. At that time there was only one channel on TV, and the shadow puppet performances had a fundamental role in education. As a reaction to that, in 1986 I created Wayang Legenda, featuring stories from Bataknese and other Indonesian regions that have been neglected.”

Photos by Naima Morelli

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Traditionally shadow puppets have stories from the Ramayana or Mahabharata, but in Wayang Legenda your main focus was on social issues.

In this sense you introduced an element of novelty. Do you see contemporary art as continuation of tradition or as a comment on tradition?

Heri Dono: I think contemporary artists should be allowed to criticise traditional art. Tradition does not always suit the expressive needs of younger generations.

Sometimes it can be a burden that doesn’t allow the creation of something new.

Often, people try to pigeonhole art and look for a clear distinction between artistic disciplines. The beauty of shadow puppets is that you have visual art, theatre, handicraft, performance, music – all these different disciplines – working together.

Obviously with Wayang Legenda I didn’t want to make an exoticist collage mixing Javanese culture with Balinese culture. I rather wanted to get to the core, to the basic pattern, and create from there. In Indonesia there are many problems to solve, and art can represent a tool to inform people. It is the artist’s responsibility to spread awareness, and I think knowledge is aesthetic in its own right.

“He comes in the middle of the night and makes fun of the king, the gods and the people.”

And that’s one thing that you have always pursued with your art. Do you see other artists sharing your same concerns?

H.D. The problem is that nowadays artists are no longer interested in social and political issues. They are all about the market. In cities like Berlin often artists make art for art’s sake. At the same time in Europe there are a lot of problems. Artists should take responsibility to think not just for themselves, but to contribute to society and connect with life. After all, it wasn’t such a long time ago that Picasso made Guernica, to remind people of fascism.

My impression is that in Indonesia a political role for artists is particularly important, considering its turbulent recent past.

H.D. Yes, in Indonesia we didn’t have a democratic government until 1998. It’s only a very short time since we can consider ourselves free. Before that there was a lot of police interrogation going on and often exhibitions would close before the opening. Now the situation is different, but because of that new freedom, many artists have given up on social and political issues. I think it’s better if we don’t see the enemy as a particular person, but as the system that is no good for people. We can criticize through parody. The Indonesian way is about being humorous and to make jokes about everything. Even in shadow puppetry there is the character of the Joker. He comes in the middle of the night and makes fun of the king, the gods and the people.

Heri Dono / Naima Morelli

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Your work is emblematic for this parodic character that is quintessential to many Indonesians.

H.D. When I exhibit my work, the Indonesian public understands the irony very quickly. It’s like graffiti or slang language. In this sense visual art communicates quicker than the news on newspapers or television. In football, when the player wants to attack, he throws the ball in another direction. It’s the same when it comes to current affairs in Indonesia. If there’s the urgency of talking about corruption, be sure the media will talk about something completely irrelevant, just to distract people. It has always been like that.

When you exhibit your work abroad it can assume different meanings. A foreign audience that is not informed about Indonesian history and politics may read your work very differently. How do you deal with misunderstandings or alternative interpretations?

H.D. I feel that the political and social problems Indonesia faces are similar to those in other countries. That’s why I like to use objects and symbols close to my Indonesian culture and mix them with influences from abroad. (Heri indicates a series of small statues squatting on a shelf). For example that one is Basquiat, this other one is Beyus, Beethoven ... This is a series of twenty artists making poo. You know, sometimes the great ideas comes when you’re in the toilet! (laughs) Being an artist seems to be much fun for you!

H.D. It is. Sometimes people think of objects just as simple objects. It’s up to the artist to change the perception of things. Like when I went to Germany – it was an island in the North Sea – they had a lot of signs like ‘don’t drink this water’, ‘don’t poo in the garden’. So I made a sculpture called the golden shit. It was a dog making poo. When I exhibited it in China, Chinese people associated it to the horoscope. So again, another perception that I didn’t mean to include in my work. Misunderstandings are interesting for me because they are tied to perception.

What about you comics background? I know you were an eager reader of comic books …

H.D. As an art student in Yogyakarta I came into contact with the work of Walt Disney, Hanna-Barbera and local comics like Panjia Comics, Kompasicon, Metukaren and many others. At first my art was solely inspired by masters like Paul Klee, Picasso, Mirò, Gaughin, then I started looking also at comics and cartoon figures. The connection with comic books is not direct, but the colours, the fun and the joy that I try to put in my work come directly from comics. You know, in cartoons no one ever dies! Even if they fall down from the fiftieth floor, they just splat on the floor and come back to normal after someone pumps them with an inflation pump. In animation even a drop of water can smile, chairs can run, everything has soul!

Heri Dono / Naima Morelli

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In Java people believe in animism, believing that stones and trees have a soul.

What I do is combining the concept of animism with animation. At that time my teacher didn’t understand my research. For them I should have drawn just from other painters’ work, or limit myself to paint the Bourboudour Temple.

You actually started as a painter. When did you start making installations?

H.D. I started to make paintings in 1977 when I was seventeen years old. I moved in Yogyakarta in 1980 to study art, because the academy was very good.

During the first semester we had to make five hundred sketches of typical places in Yogya, like the traditional market, the cemetery, the Chinese temple. And in the second semester we had to sketch five hundred objects from imagination. As the saying goes: ‘You’ must know your enemy from the front and from the back.’

My education at the academy in Yogya was extremely traditional. In 1984 I told my teacher that, for me, the medium of painting was over.

“In animation even a drop of water can smile, chairs can run, everything has soul!”

I started making installations, even though we didn’t have a word for that back then. What had really pushed forward the boundaries of contemporary art in Indonesia in the seventies was the New Visual Art Movement, along with an artist collective called PIPA, an anagram meaning ‘questioning about art’. They were the first to question the identity of Indonesian Art. They asked themselves if we were just followers of what has been done in the West, or if we had something new to say. They inspired me to became an artist and enrol in Yogyakarta’s art academy. I don’t have a certificate from the art academy though, because three months before finishing I dropped out. My parents were pretty upset because after seven years of studying …

Why did you take this decision?

H.D. At that time I was reading a book about Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, and I was inspired by his moral consistency. I felt that I absorbed the knowledge I needed. I didn’t need a certificate. It really didn’t mean anything to me. Everybody thought I was crazy, but I felt ready to start as an artist. At that time there were few galleries in Jakarta and they were all very commercial, showing paintings with flowers and landscapes. Rich artists would invite the ministers to their exhibition and appear on television. One time my mother said: ‘Why don’t you make paintings with flowers, so the Minister of Culture can say nice things about your work?’

Heri Dono / Naima Morelli

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Of course I couldn’t care less. At that time I was often exhibiting in public spaces, like Bentara Budaya or the French Cultural Centre, or the independent space, Cemeti Gallery. I was artistically free from the beginning, but there was a period when artists working with social and political material in Indonesia could get in trouble.

When did you start travelling?

H.D. In 1990 I went overseas for the first time. I went to Switzerland first and I stayed in an orphanage for six months. During that time I met with some artists, I visited museums and galleries. I was invited there by the Director of the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, who I met in Bali, and I had some friends there as well. I sold my work in the Ethnology Museum and I travelled to Czechoslovakia, Italy and France.

And from there you never stopped!

H.D. That’s right! I read a lot of art books, so I travel to see the works in person. Muslims call it Hajj. Museums are my Mecca. Also here in Yogya I go often to Prambanan Temple and to the zoo. They’re both so inspiring!

When I travel I’m more interested in the local situation, rather than just the art exhibitions, because you know, it’s always the same people!

One last question. Many of your statues have wings. Do wings have a particular meaning for you?

H.D. That’s true, I did a lot of installations based on the concept of flying.

Many statues look like angels. Angels, for me, have no religious connotations.

Rather, they are symbols of inspiration and freedom. My first flying figure was inspired by Flash Gordon. He arrived on the moon before Neil Armstrong! For me that means imagination is faster than reality.

Heri Dono has been a leading figure in Indonesian art since the early 1980s and is now one of the most prominent contemporary South-East Asian artists.

He is represented by Rossi & Rossi - rossirossi.com

Naima Morelli is a freelance ar ts writer and journalist with a particular interest in contemporary ar t from Italy, the Asia Pacific region and art in a global context. She is also an independent curator focusing on Italian, Indonesian and Australian emerging ar tists. At the moment she is working on a book about contemporary ar t in Indonesia.

Ben Laycock

GREETINGS FROM BEYOND THE PALE PART 3 – NYIRIPI

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A friend of a friend of mine has a friend living with the blackfellas in a tiny outstation way out west of Yuendemu, the unofficial capital of the Walpiri Nation, 300 kilometres of bone jarring corrugations North-West of Alice. I cadge a ride to Yuendumu with some young fellas returning from a night on the town. In the middle of nowhere we meet another carload heading the other way. Our driver hands his fancy black Akubra across to the fella going in to town, who pops it on his head and cracks a big grin.

It’s a long wait for a ride to Nyiripi. Eventually a Pentecostal Preacherman saves me from the dust and the flies. He appears, at first blush, to be a rather unconvincing preacher: a small black man with a squeaky voice and a shifty look in his eye, who has forsaken his heathen ways and set off with zeal to find fresh converts amongst the unsuspecting pagans of Nyiripi. Most recently he had been attempting to ply his trade in Yuendemu where the burghers of the town had told him to “bugger off”, along with any other undesirables found skulking about the place. Luckily, for us outsiders Nyiripi is far more accommodating. As a consequence the community has a floating population of misfits and ne’er-dowells in addition to the ever-shifting population of locals, loath to give up their nomadic ways. Quite the contrary, with the aid of the ubiquitous Toyota they seem to be constantly on the move.

The nominal population of around 150 can plummet to less than 50 at the drop of a hat, or swell to 300 at rumours of impending cultural activities. In a bygone era of wilful ignorance this peripatetic existence was quaintly described as ‘going walkabout’, when in actual fact these people are fulfilling strict cultural obligations relating to ‘the law of the land’ that cannot be spoken of to the uninitiated. The only sedentary residents seem to be Paul and Claire, the two white administrators, who have chosen this far-flung outpost out of a deep and abiding fascination with Walpiri culture, combined with a love of the great outdoors.

At the end of a long, dusty, bumpy, sandy track we stumble from the vehicle, weary from the journey, and find ourselves surrounded by curious onlookers; a circle of blank black faces. My travelling companion is rubbing his hands with barely concealed glee at so many fresh souls. I am also rather chuffed to have found myself so far from the madding crowd, amongst authentic indigenous people still practicing the ways of their forefathers and foremothers (and soon to become God-fearing Pentecosts if my little friend has his way).

< BoreTrack by Kdliss - Own work.

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Greetings From / Ben Laycock

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: Ben Laycock, Civilization (detail) 2005, oil on canvas, 60 x 120cm.

THIS SPREAD: Black View 1995, gouache on paper, 50 x 50cm.

Nyiripi is an outstation. Way back in the late 1800s, all the blackfellas were rounded up and put in what can only be described as concentration camps, while their land was overrun with hoofed beasts. As you can imagine, the blackfellas found the situation less than satisfactory. Apart from the obvious grievance of their lack of freedom, they were also mightily pissed off at being lumped in with every other clan from miles around, as anyone can understand who has an intractable issue with their neighbours that has gone on for several generations.

The Walpiri spent many sorrowful years pining for their homelands. By the time they were eventually allowed to return they had become all too familiar with the wicked ways of the white man, and now preferred to do their hunting and gathering in the supermarket.

IN THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE your intrepid wayfarer gets a ‘skin name’ and meets a Zen Buddhist, while our Preacherman gets ‘the bum’s rush’. http://binsblog.wordpress.com/

Ben Laycock grew up in the country on the outskirts of Melbourne, surrounded by bush.

He began drawing the natural world around him from a very early age. He has travelled extensively throughout Australia, seeking to capture the essence of this vast empty land.

In between journeys he lives in a handmade house in the bush at Barkers Creek in central Victoria - benlaycock.com.au

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