2014
JOHN FRIES
AWARD
COVER IMAGE: JUZ KITSON, Changing Skin (detail), 2013.
2014
JOHN FRIES
AWARD
CURATED BY SEBASTIAN GOLDSPINK 9 AUGUST – 6 SEPTEMBER 2014 UNSW GALLERIES Opened by Alexie Glass-Kantor Executive Director, Artspace ABDUL ABDULLAH JUSTIN BALMAIN ELLA BARCLAY TIM BRUNIGES OMAR CHOWDHURY JULIAN DAY GEORGE EGERTON-WARBURTON MARC ETHERINGTON HAMISHI FARAH HEATH FRANCO SAMUEL HODGE ANNA HORNE JUZ KITSON ANNA KRISTENSEN BRIDIE LUNNEY DANIEL MCKEWEN BERYLINE MUNG RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN ALAIR PAMBEGAN KATE SCARDIFIELD MARILYN SCHNEIDER JACQUI SHELTON JASON WING
THE CEO
I have a great deal of admiration for artists. Not only are they extraordinarily courageous – exposing their ideas and creativity to the world – but they pursue their passions with complete commitment. Emerging artists are particularly vulnerable, as the beginning of an artistic career is often a struggle for balance between professional recognition and financial reward. The John Fries Award, now in its fifth year, seeks to provide a platform that addresses both of these issues. On the one hand, it delivers a significant financial injection to each year’s winner. Previous winners have used the funds to participate in residencies, to travel, or simply to cover expenses so that they can spend more time in the studio. These are all equally important to the development of a career in the arts. On the other hand, the award provides each finalist with opportunities to have their work reviewed by curators, industry professionals and the wider creative community through the judging process and exhibition. It also provides opportunities for artists to share their creative and professional experiences through talks and workshops associated with the exhibition. In this way, the award reflects the spirit of John Fries, a man of great generosity, energy and integrity. As a Viscopy board member he altruistically provided his time and notable financial and corporate expertise to the organisation. As you will see in the pages of this catalogue, our 2014 finalists are all ambitious to develop and define their practices, and many will go on to shape the face of contemporary art in Australia. Their creativity deserves our attention, but also requires protection in the form of copyright. Copyright Agency | Viscopy actively supports artists’ rights to earn money from licensing and resales of their work. I would like thank this year’s judges: Alexie Glass-Kantor, Jess Olivieri, Megan Cope, Kath Fries and Sebastian Goldspink. All of them have applied their considerable professional expertise, humour and enthusiasm to the task of selecting this year’s finalists and winner. I would also like to thank our 2015 venue partner UNSW Galleries. This new partnership has given the John Fries Award the opportunity to emerge in a completely new way, and the support of Felicity Fenner and her team has been paramount in making this year’s award one of its most successful. Year on year, I am amazed at the quality and diversity of works in the finalists’ exhibition and it continually challenges my perception of what is possible in an award format. I commend the work of all of the John Fries Award finalists to you and am sure you will find the art as engaging and intriguing as I do.
MURRAY ST LEGER CEO Copyright Agency|Viscopy
JOHN FRIES
The John Fries Memorial Prize, now known as the John Fries Award, was established in 2009 to honour the formative influence John Fries had on the development of Viscopy. John had been a Viscopy Director and the organisation’s Honorary Treasurer for five years until his tragic and unexpected death. As an accountant, who had extensive experience in the corporate environment, John’s contributions to the Viscopy board were anchored in his realistic and forward-looking attitude. He possessed a true empathy with the financial challenges that face artists. John was born in India in 1943 and migrated to Sydney with his family in 1947. At school, John’s ambitious nature became apparent in his studies and competitive team sports, especially rugby and rowing. John’s love of physical activities extended to skiing, hiking, kayaking and cycling. Even in retirement, he was meticulous about recording and improving his personal best times and distances. John began his career in finance as a commercial trainee with BHP, whilst gaining an Honours Degree in Commerce from UNSW. John met his future wife Vivienne when travelling to the United States in 1970. John and Vivienne had many adventures together, working and travelling in the US and UK. They toured Europe in a green VW Kombi van, which they affectionately named ‘The Flea’. It was a cherished vehicle, despite its numerous breakdowns. In 1974 they returned to Australia, married and had two daughters, Vanessa and Katherine. The family moved to London in 1984, where John was appointed International Treasurer for TNT. The family embraced the city’s arts and culture and took advantage of their proximity to Europe. In 1988 they returned to Sydney, where John continued to build his career and encouraged Vivienne’s university studies and charity work in Sri Lanka. John was then the National Finance Director for Vodafone and saw the company through its initial growth spurt as the mobile phone industry gathered momentum in the years 1993-2000. On retirement, John became involved in fundraising for Rotary’s international projects and became a pro-bono independent director for Viscopy and the NSW division of Australian Red Cross. His commitment to the humanitarian principles of the Red Cross led to his appointment as NSW Chairman in 2007. John’s unexpected and tragic death in 2009 deeply affected his family, friends and colleagues. John was awarded a posthumous Red Cross Distinguished Service Award, and Viscopy established this award. The Fries family works closely with Copyright Agency | Viscopy on the John Fries Award, commemorating John’s generosity and his pragmatic approach to supporting his family, friends and colleagues in developing their skills, exploring opportunities and pursuing their dreams.
KATH FRIES, 2014 Chair, John Fries Award Committee
THE GALLERIES
UNSW Galleries is proud to be partnering with Copyright Agency | Viscopy to present the 2014 John Fries Award. In its short five-year history, the John Fries Award has established itself not just as a significant fixture on the visual arts calendar, but as a leading showcase for new and experimental work by emerging artists from across Australia. Congratulations to the 23 finalists who have been shortlisted for the 2014 award. This year’s exhibition includes a range of ideas and media, from painting, threedimensional works and installation, to digital, time-based and performance practice. As Australia’s leading faculty of art and design, we have followed with interest and admiration the award’s evolution. Each year the calibre of entries sets a new standard: it’s rewarding in 2014 to see such a diversity of contemporary art presented in the context of this exciting exhibition. Especial thanks to Viscopy board member Kath Fries, John Fries Award Producer Tristan Chant and Guest Curator Sebastian Goldspink for their combined vision and effort in bringing to UNSW Galleries this thoughtful and engaging exhibition.
FELICITY FENNER Director UNSW Galleries
THE CURATOR
‘The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel’ William Gibson, Neuromancer 1984 The term ‘digital native’ loosely applies to a generation that grew up with the digital technology that flourished in the late 20th Century. Unlike the generation that immediately preceded it, this generation was raised with interactive digital technology and the ubiquity of the internet. The non-digital native generation was defined by information sources such as television, which offered a distinct type of asymmetrical communication – a one-way feed from broadcasters, which provided little opportunity to feedback or generate user response. With the advent of new technologies, users were able to manipulate the platform through coding and have a seemingly endless source of information and imagery. For the majority of finalists in this year’s John Fries Award, digital technology and the limitless resources of the internet have been a constant. What is interesting in considering this group of artists is how present or absent technology is in their work. What is also interesting is how their increased ability to travel both virtually and physically, compared to the generation of artists before them, has influenced their work and how the subject of their focus has remained firmly rooted in ideas of ‘home’. These artists all work at once within and outside a frame. They consider space and its limitations and
freedoms, and regard the viewer as an active participant in exchange. They are bold, passionate, specific and organic in their approach. They also come from a plethora of locations and backgrounds across Australia. They are charged broadly with the act of communicating in a time in which communication has undergone arguably its most significant development since the advent of the printing press. It is in this climate that these artists ‘emerge’, a climate of uncertainty and opportunity. The gulf between the analogue and the digital is captured in the work of Daniel McKewen. His installation Zarathustra’s Cave uses digital technology to remove the figures and dialogue from an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, a historical reediting of the analogue that leaves only a laugh track to break up the starkness of the show’s central location – the couch – a symbol of passive consumption staring blankly into the void. Similarly, Justin Balmain’s Close uses Japanese idiograms known as emoji and text-to-voice software to recreate a break up scene from the pre-television form of cinema. Woody Allen’s iconic dialogue manipulated in a cold monotone and coloured by duelling emojis that depict a range of emotions most familiar to the aforementioned digital natives. Cinema is also a focus for the works of Mark Etherington and Abdul Abdullah. Etherington’s Darjeeling Limited depicts a scene from Wes Anderson’s film of the same name whilst Abdullah’s work, You See
THE CURATOR
Monsters, clads a Muslim figure in a mask from the film franchise Planet of the Apes. Abdullah seeks to challenge the xenophobic portrait of young Muslim people post 9/11. He examines the reduction of the youths to the ‘other’, a feared savage, lacking the civility of westerners, challenging the use of a primate-like depiction that is a wellworn path of propaganda. This against a climate of events such as the Arab Spring, which was fuelled and sustained by social media in opposition to the short-sightedness and resistance of the world’s traditional media. The spectre of the internet is immediately present in the works of Heath Franco and Hamishi Farah. Franco’s ZIXKATZ is a tribute of sorts to the proliferation of online cat memes that dominate the feeds of social media. He seeks to mimic and lampoon the waterfall of content constantly gushing towards the viewer in competition for the currency of the 21st Century: attention. His work reflects the pace and energy of hyper-information with a firm sense that in its abundance rests absence. Farah’s work Apologies depicts a stream of
“THIS APPROPRIATION IS REFLECTIVE OF A CREATIVE CULTURAL CLIMATE THAT INFLUENCES MANY OF THE ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION – A REPACKAGING AND RECYCLING OF FOUND IMAGERY.”
corporate stock apology tweets sent to the artist for minor complaints on social media. The form of the oversized t-shirt references this flow of information cascading towards the viewer but also a childhood spent in suburban Melbourne yearning for imported hip-hop infused, African American cultural signifiers such as oversized white baggy t-shirts. The artist wrestles with his attempts to get in touch with his Somali background through the closest compatible cultural portal. Samuel Hodge and Anna Kristensen’s works also have their origins in the internet but use the medium specifically as a pool of starting points for investigation. In Desert Window, Kristensen repurposes a found internet image and reconstructs a metaphorical and literal frame. This appropriation is reflective of a creative cultural climate that influences many of the artists in the exhibition, a repackaging and recycling of found imagery. Hodge’s Dumb and Dumber re-presents the media mug shot images of two hapless Australian thieves who went on a mini crime spree in middle America disguised only with roughly drawn texta markings on their faces. In this work, Hodge reimagines the men with markings made with high-end Chanel makeup products; the initial images serving as a distant source for an altogether different view. This act of reimagining the digital image through the use of contrasting analogue film also relates to the work of Ella Barclay. Barclay uses thoroughly 20th
Century technology in her reworking of electroluminescent panels. The technology inherent in the panels dates back to 1938 but has the initial appearance of cutting edge digital forms. Like Abdullah and Farah, Jason Wing’s work looks at identity in reference to contemporary ‘Australianness’. Wing’s interest has consistently focused on the legacy of his Aboriginal and Chinese heritage, often through the repositioning of everyday materials. In Xucun Village, Wing embellishes the literal building block of Australian suburban identity, the house brick, adorning and elevating it with gold leaf. This contrast in materiality acknowledges the symbolic importance of materials used in creating works, a symbolism that extends the impact of the base quality of the object beyond its day-to-day use. Juz Kitson’s work also examines the meaning inherent in materials. Her work combines ornate porcelain pieces crafted in Jingdezhen, China with found organic objects such as bone, fur and husks foraged in the environment of Hill End, New South Wales. At the heart of her practice, as with Wing’s and many other artists in the exhibition, is an examination of place. Her works refer directly to Australia but do so by stepping outside its borders and looking from a distant perspective. Her work appears beautiful on initial viewing but a deeper inspection reveals the elements of the whole that derive from death and decay. This examination of place is present strongly in the work of Alair Pambegan,
Omar Chowdhury and Beryline Mung. Pambegan’s Flying Fox Story Place is a visual depiction of an ancestral story of a sacred totemic site called Kalben, a site for initiation and ritual, which is central to the artist’s identity. Chowdhury’s Torsions I, II, explores similarity and cultural difference through the central location of Dhaka, Bangladesh by comparing and contrasting the rhythms and movements of a Hindu and Shia Muslim festival. The two feeds place the viewer in the midst of transcendence through movement and voice. The spiritual importance of place is also present in Mung’s work Lolly Creek, a depiction of her country in and around Frog Hollow and Texas Downs in remote Western Australia. Her work affirms the centrality of place in ancestral descent. The exhibition has a depth of threedimensional works that enable the viewer to walk in space and consider ideas from a multitude of literal and conceptual angles. As with Jason Wing’s work, Anna Horne utilises egalitarian materials in her creation of the work Crystallised. The sculpture, comprised of small, black domestic bathroom tiles, contains a prefabricated flaw in the corner of the work. It directly references human proportions, slightly taller than average height, imploring the viewer to consider the work in a physically different manner. George EgertonWarburton’s sculptural work also draws on domestic materiality in the form of suspended dinner plates. The scale of the exhibition space is a
“THE EXHIBITION HAS A DEPTH OF THREEDIMENSIONAL WORKS THAT ENABLE THE VIEWER TO WALK IN SPACE AND CONSIDER IDEAS FROM A MULTITUDE OF LITERAL AND CONCEPTUAL ANGLES.”
THE CURATOR
direct influence on the installation of Marilyn Schneider and Julian Day’s work. Both artists have a history of investigating architecture and creating works that reflect space’s influence on its inhabitants. These works, as with Horne’s sculpture, consider the vertical and act as conceptual pillars to support meaning. In contrast to the investigation of the vertical, Kate Scardifeld and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran present works that occupy the horizontal. Nithiyendran’s Adam seemingly collapses under its own weight into the ground whilst Scardifield’s Garland sympathetically oozes off its plinth and onto the gallery floor. Both works are rooted in an examination of the corporal. Jacqui Shelton further investigates space through her video installation Framing Everyday Negotiations: Never Confuse Movement With Action. The actions of the on-screen ‘performer’ resolved in a sandbagged barrier that acts both as a physical impediment to the viewer and as a focus point for considering everyday movement and actions that are often overlooked. Bridie Lunney also considers space and performance through her installation This Endless Becoming, the physical installation becoming a set for a durational performance that alludes to theatricality whilst subverting the architectural norms of the white cube. Lastly, standing outside the physical confines of the gallery, Tim Bruniges’ Mirrors recreates 1930’s structures built
by the British military to amplify the sound of approaching enemy aircraft. By placing two of these structures opposite each other, the artist creates a loop, where sound moves back and forth, allowing direct communication in a swirling sonic field. This attempt to connect whilst surrounded by an abundance of static is allegorical to the motivations and concerns of many of the artists present in this exhibition, an attempt to communicate in a world that is increasingly filled with competing voices and new technologies. These artists enter a world foretold by science fiction writer William Gibson – a world where the sky itself is made up of static – their artistic roles and responses as unique as their backgrounds and motivations.
SEBASTIAN GOLDSPINK Guest Curator
THE FINALISTS
JO H N F R IES MEMOR IAL P R IZE 201 3 | 2
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THE ARTWORKS
1. KATE SCARDIFIELD, Garland (objects and new artefacts) (detail), 2014, fabric, thread, rubber, rope, acrylic, timber, video, dimensions variable. © Kate Scardifield/Licensed by Viscopy. 2. JUSTIN BALMAIN, Close, 2013-14, 2-channel video with audio, 2:45min each. © Justin Balmain/Licensed by Viscopy. Photo: Susannah Wimberley. 3. SAMUEL HODGE, Dumb & Dumber, 2013, photographic, 102 x 152cm. © Samuel Hodge/Licensed by Viscopy. 4. JUZ KITSON, Changing Skin, 2013, Jingdezhen porcelain, Southern ice porcelain, paraffin wax, horse hair and Chinese silk, 590 x 140 x 120cm adapted to fit a given space. © Juz Kitson/Licensed by Viscopy. Juz Kitson is represented by GAG projects and Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide. 5. JASON WING, Xucun Village, 2013, brick and gold leaf, 300 x 300cm overall. © Jason Wing/Licensed by Viscopy. 6. JACQUI SHELTON, Framing everyday negotiations: never confuse movement with action, 2013, single channel video and sandbag wall, 17:57mins, dimensions variable. © Jacqui Shelton/Licensed by Viscopy. 7. ELLA BARCLAY, Be Still, I’m Thinking V-IX, 2013-14, electroluminescent panel, polycarbonate, acrylic, indelible ink, copper wire, electricity, individual panels 60 x 42cm. © Ella Barclay/Licensed by Viscopy. 8. RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN, Adam (Prolapsed Head), 2014, red terracotta, white earthenware, glaze, ceramic underglaze pencil and gold, 75 x 56 x 35cm. © Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran/Licensed by Viscopy. Image courtesy of the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney. Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is represented by Gallery 9, Sydney. 9. GEORGE EGERTON-WARBURTON, Suspending the dishes to spite the soap company, 2014, dishes, leftovers, wire, texta, dimensions variable. © George Egerton-Warburton/Licensed by Viscopy. 10. HAMISHI FARAH, Apologies, 2014, digital print on cotton tailored t-shirt, dimensions variable. © Hamish Farah/Licensed by Viscopy. 11. ALAIR PAMBEGAN, Flying Fox Story Place, 2013, acrylic and ochre on canvas, 120 x 100cm. © Alair Pambegan/Licensed by Viscopy. 12. ANNA HORNE, Crystallised, 2012, tiles, grout, polystyrene, 180 x 25 x 25cm. © Anna Horne/Licensed by Viscopy.
13. MARC ETHERINGTON, Darjeeling limited, 2014, acrylic on plywood, 50 x 70cm. © Marc Etherington/Licensed by Viscopy. 14. HEATH FRANCO, ZIXKATZ (still), 2013, HD digital video (still), colour, stereo audio, 03:12mins, 16:9. © Heath Franco/Licensed by Viscopy. Heath Franco is represented by Galerie Pompom, Sydney. 15. BRIDIE LUNNEY, This Endless Becoming (James Lunney and Lily Paskas), 2013, sculptural installation with performance, dimensions variable. © Bridie Lunney/Licensed by Viscopy. 16. MARILYN SCHNEIDER, Broadening the horizons of your dreams (A discreet sense of luxury), 2014, laser-cut vinyl applied to Perspex, custom-made synthetic teak mat, Eco wood decking, 100 x 50 x 30cm. © Marilyn Schneider/ Licensed by Viscopy. Photo: docQment 17. DANIEL MCKEWEN, Zarathustra’s Cave, 2013/14, single-channel 1080p video installation with 5.1 channel surround sound, infinite loop, variable dimensions. © Daniel McKewen/Licensed by Viscopy. Originally commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for NEW14. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Daniel McKewen is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Photo: Andrew Curtis. 18. JULIAN DAY, Requiem, 2012, sculptural installation (found objects, sound), dimensions variable. © Julian Day/Licensed by Viscopy. Photo: Emily Sandrussi 19. ANNA KRISTENSEN, Desert Window, 2014, stainless steel, oil on stretched linen, 168 x 169cm. © Anna Kristensen/Licensed by Viscopy. Anna Kristensen is represented by Gallery9, Sydney and Station, Melbourne. 20. BERYLINE MUNG, Lolly Creek, 2013, natural ochre and pigment on canvas, 120 x 120cm. © Beryline Mung/Licensed by Viscopy. 21. OMAR CHOWDHURY, Torsions I, II (still), 2014, 1 channel, 2.5K ProRes (1080p24 MOV), 1.78:1, colour, dual mono, 106:24mins. © Omar Chowdhury/Licensed by Viscopy. 22. TIM BRUNIGES, Mirrors, 2014, concrete, wood, microphones, speakers, dimensions variable, sound infinite. © Tim Bruniges/Licensed by Viscopy. Photo: Andrew Grantham 23. ABDUL ABDULLAH, You see monsters, 2014, Type C print, 155 x 110cm. © Abdul Abdullah/Licensed by Viscopy. Abdul Abdullah is represented by Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne.
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