Toyota Community Spirit Gallery presents
The Money Myth
living and surviving in a world ruled by uncontrolled development and consumerism
June 4 to August 27, 2008 Toyota Australia, 155 Bertie St, Port Melbourne Inquiries Ken Wong 0419 570 846 Gallery Hrs Thu & Fri 1-6pm or by appointment
toyota community spirit gallery The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery is an initiative of Toyota Community Spirit, Toyota Australia’s corporate citizenship program. Toyota Community Spirit develops partnerships that share Toyota’s skills, networks, expertise and other resources with the community. The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery aims to provide space for artists, especially emerging artists to show their work. The space is provided free of charge to exhibiting artists, no commission is charged on sales and Toyota provides an exhibition launch and develops a catalogue for each exhibition. The gallery has now shown works by over 300 artists. This project is mounted in consultation with the Hobsons Bay City Council and the City of Port Phillip.
TheMoneyMyth Exhibiting Artists Katka Adams Rena Littleson-Montenegro Peter Andrianakis Jesus Moreta Marika Borlase David O’Gradey Russell Brazier Geoffrey Ricardo Richard Butler Richard Rowlands Kerry Cannon Nina Sanadze Nic Drummond Cassandra Schultz Joshua Fartch Tamasin Simpkin Peter Forward Pamela Stadus Therese Gilligan Karsten Stier Wendy Grace Caitlin Street Andrew Green Marika Strohschnieder Mandy Gunn Anthony Tanner Peter Hannaford Anna Taylor Lis Johnson Andrew Trahair Daniel Kaplon Carmel Wallace Mehrdad Khataei Jason Waterhouse Josephine Kuperholz Anthea Williams Trisha Lambi Heather Winter Bonnie Lane Mina Young Curator
Ken Wong
Thanksto CatalogueEditing& Prepress GraphicDesign
Tania Blackwell, Hobsons Bay City Council Sharyn Dawson, City of Port Phillip Katarina Persic, Toyota Australia Watch Arts (watcharts.com.au) Sandra Kiriacos
IMAGES: mages (FRONT) Main image Trisha Lambi A Hard Place, Images from top , details from works by Katka Adams A little nest is warmer than a big nest, Rena Littleson-Montenegro Cope, Bonnie Lane All you need (part 2), Therese Gilligan Let it be Me, Joshua Fartch The Man and the trolley, Karsten Stier Retail Therapy. Inside page; Therese Gilligan Let it be Me (detail) This page; Strange News from Another Star # 6 (detail) by Mina Young The opinions and points of view expressed by participants through the artworks and artists statements in this exhibition and catalogue are those of the individual person or persons and are not intended to reflect the position of Toyota Australia.
KenWong Curator This exhibition is a significant milestone that marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Toyota Community Spirit Gallery. It is the 17th in a continuous program of exhibitions that has now shown the works of almost 350 artists, showcasing the diversity and strength of the artistic community and artistic practice both locally and nationally. In fact, this exhibition features 40 artists including 16 local artists from the cities of Port Phillip and Hobsons Bay, 17 guest artists from other areas of Victoria, 6 interstate artists from New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania and for the second time, an international guest artist in Mehrdad Khataei from Tehran in Iran. This is also the second time in the history of our program that artists have been asked to submit works to a specific theme. The response has been overwhelming with a record 109 applications, which is not only a strong indicator of the ever expanding reputation of the gallery program, but also speaks to the passion and conviction of the artistic voice in our community.
The Money Myth explores issues concerning the development of the modern industrial world, with a particular reference to the model of economic development and consumerism that has become more and more in recent decades, a global phenomenon. Since the dawn of the Age of Reason and mankind’s dominance over the environment through the development of science and technology, the philosophy that progress would produce a prosperous society for all has become a dominant force. Artists were asked to respond to the question; While the pursuit of wealth is a natural part of the human condition, has the unbridled development of consumerism and the “In a world relentless pursuit of the dollar (without regard for the human that seems or environmental cost), really to have delivered the prosperous socithat ety it promised?
lost its way,
silent inner-voice now more than ever, needs to be heard.”
I many ways I have to say, I find this enormously reassuring. In my now over 10 years in the visual arts industry it has been my experience that there are some aspects of modern artistic practice that have become so self referential that it has become a coded language that is nothing more than a mysterious irrelevance for the average person in their daily lives. The record number of submissions for this exhibition indicate to me that the vast majority of artists are interested in making intelligent and thoughtful work that is both relevant, intelligible and accessible to the average person and makes a real and substantial contribution to the issues that confront us all in everyday life.
The Community Spirit Gallery project is part of Toyota Community Spirit, Toyota Australia’s corporate citizenship program that is designed to engage with and actively participate in the communities in which it operates; to put something back that contributes to the health of the community. Beyond this admirable aspiration, it is my great pleasure and privilege to work with a company that has the wisdom and foresight to recognise that a healthy community is a community that allows the voices and opinions of all those that make up that community to be heard. Through this exhibition I believe they are not only doing that, but by providing an opportunity for the voice of the artist to be heard, they are giving voice to the conscience of society as a whole. In a world that seems to have lost its way, that silent inner-voice now more than ever, needs to be heard. Welcome to the Money Myth.
Ken Wong is the Director of Watch Arts, a Melbourne based contemporary arts consultancy. He has worked in the fine arts industry for over ten years in both commercial and community arts, curating and managing a host of projects including gallery and outdoor sculpture exhibitions.
Artists
To view artist page click on image
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Joshua Fartch
Peter Forward
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Katka Adams
Kerry Cannon
Wendy Grace
Daniel Kaplon
Peter Andrianakis
Nic Drummond
Andrew Green
Mehrdad Khataei
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Marika Borlase
Mandy Gunn
Josephine Kuperholz
Russell Brazier
Peter Hannaford
Trisha Lambi
Richard Butler
Therese Gilligan
Lis Johnson
Bonnie Lane
To view artist page click on image
Artists
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Rena LittlesonMontenegro
Nina Sanadze
Caitlin Street
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Carmel Wallace
Jesus Moreta
Cassandra Schultz
David O’Gradey
Tamasin Simpkin
Marika Anthony Strohschnieder Tanner
Jason Waterhouse
Anthea Williams
Geoffrey Ricardo
Pamela Stadus
Anna Taylor
Heather Winter
Background image: detail of Strange News from Another Star # 6 by Mina Young
Richard Rowlands
Karsten Stier
Andrew Trahair
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Mina Young
katkaAdams Guest (NSW)
I am interested in our relationship with animals, the environments we create, and how these keep shifting. Proverbs express our human experience producing irony, wit and humor, which I capture in the form of visual fables. Greed and vanity are human traits going back for millennia and words of wisdom have been passed down to us as warnings.
“Greed and vanity are human traits going back for millennia and
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words of wisdom have
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A Little Nest is Warmer Than a Big Nest Irish proverb Charcoal & pastel on paper, 2008 130 x 103cm $4000
Katka was born in Prague where she spent her early childhood. In 1968 when Czechoslovakia was invaded by Russia, she immigrated to Vienna and then to Melbourne before moving to Sydney where she graduated with a bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. She now lives and works in Clunes in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.
been passed down to us as warnings� These seem more relevant to our lives now than they were generations ago. This drawing works at a metaphorical level, creating hierarchies of meaning and allowing the viewer to create their own narratives.
PeterAndrianakis Guest (VIC)
“ Mammon is the personification of the
evils of wealth
Mammon Plaster – to be cast in bronze, 2008 87 x 50 x 24cm $8000 (bronze)
Peter was born in Greece in 1947 and migrated to Australia in 1955. He was awarded a scholarship and obtained a Diploma of Youth Work, going on to work with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence. His lifelong fascination with art led him to studies at RMIT. He eventually became a Master Builder to finance his artwork, setting up his studio alongside his building business at 274 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy. Peter then established The Fitzroy Gallery at this site. This enabled him to pursue his art full time whilst providing a venue for other artists to show their work. The Fitzroy Gallery has also been a venue for plays, choral concerts and other musical events. Presently Peter is working as a full time artist, painting and sculpting, both on commission and in order to exhibit his work.
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and miserliness in this world. One hopes the community does not worship at his shrine.”
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MarikaBorlase Represented by Flinders Lane Gallery / Community of Hobsons Bay
This latest body of work turns my wry visual imagery toward an examination of contemporary culture and aspirations of fame, consumerism and societal pressures. In a context reminiscent of Rococo excess, these works mirror western society’s materialistic mania. Through the layering of images from different contexts
Destination - My dream Mc Mansion II Acrylic on Board, 2008 120 x 120cm $5000
“In a context reminiscent of Rococo excess, these works mirror western society’s
materialistic
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mania”
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Marika was born in Melbourne in 1967 to an Australian father and a Swedish mother. She studied art, completing a graduate Diploma of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1990. She took some time to travel overseas and participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions but also washed dishes, waited tables, worked in retail, sold real estate, lectured and taught art. In 1994 she had two works purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection and won the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship and set off to London to undertake a Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. There she won the Royal Over-Seas League Travel Scholarship, traveling to Barcelona and creating a body of work for two solo exhibitions - one in London and one in Edinburgh. Returning to Australia in 1999, she continues to pursue her own practice from her home and studio in Altona. Her works can be found in many major collections in Australia and the United Kingdom.
and time frames, I am investigating the terrain of collective culture. These works ask questions about the meaning of being an individual in a world bombarded with images of success and power from the subtly personal to the overtly commercial.
RussellBrazier Community of Port Phillip
My ongoing work is a physical manifestation of human emotion, expressed through form and gesture. This piece is a direct response to the bulldozing of four ornate, two-storey Victorian shops near where I live in Port Melbourne. The piece was made soon after the event, documented, then covered in a large plastic envelope, denoting the faceless, anonymous land speculator.
The Land Speculator 2003 Mixed media, 2003 159 x 70 x 37cm $1100
Russell was born in Melbourne in 1952 and began drawing from an early age. He made his first sculpture at fourteen years of age and was significantly influenced by the work of Henry Moore. He was apprenticed at the Melbourne College of Printing and Graphic Arts and was one of the last apprentices to be trained in the six hundred year old craft of hand-setting lead type from type cases. Between 1975-77 he lived overseas before returning to Australia where he worked in the newspaper industry for twenty-six years, much of it on night shift. In the late 1970’s he became involved with street poetry as well as pursuing freelance illustration and cartooning. He has been making sculpture consistently since 1988 working in a variety of materials including ceramics, copper, galvanized iron, steel and bronze. He has also recently returned to formal study and last year completed a Diploma of Visual Arts from CAE majoring in Sculpture. He works from a share studio complex in Collingwood and is currently exploring the relationship between printmaking and sculpture.
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“This piece is a direct response to the bulldozing of four ornate, two-storey Victorian shops near where I live”
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RichardButler Represented by Flinders Lane Gallery / Community of Hobsons Bay
Lucy [From the series ‘Living in the sacrifice zone’] Photograph, 2008 100 x 100cm $1000
This image is from a project harvesting old growth na“The myth that which features 500 portraits tive forests which are one of the worlds last untouched of people who are affected by can the development of the paper free carbon sinks. A beauticreate happiness ful mature old growth gum pulp industry in Tasmania. A massive chemical plant and prosperity is tree can be worth as much is being constructed in the as $50,000 in the hands of profoundly craftsmen. It is worth about Tamar Valley to create pa” per pulp from the harvested a dollar to a pulp mill. The title of this piece refers to the forests. The project of ‘mining forests’ has already and area of land immediately surrounding the mill where all life will cease profoundly altered the social and environmental health of the community in the reif there is a catastrophic event on the pulp mill site. This is the same area where thougion on many levels. The industry believes that the generation of wealth from forestry sands of people currently live. The myth practice is good, is needed and will create that money can create happiness and prosgreat wealth and happiness. This includes perity is profoundly incomplete.
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money
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Richard is a photographic artist who is principally engaged with recording the human condition in the early 21st century. He studied at the Tasmanian College for the Arts, before graduating from the Phillip Institute in 1984 and going on to study colour print making in the USA at Kodak in Rochester and Tartaro Colour Labs in Manhattan in 1986. In 1988 he assisted and consulted for artist Bea Maddock in a commission for the Bi Centenary of Australian Settlement. Over the past few years he has been researching digital print media and has also commenced showing his life long work as a photographer with two solo exhibitions at Frankston Arts Centre and Cube 37 Gallery and has a one man shows in Tasmania and Sydney in 2009.
incomplete
KerryCannon Represented by Ceramic Break Sculpture Park / Guest (NSW)
I’m hopelessly optimistic with a sincere desire to do something genteel. My first artworks were comics and the comic element is still strong in my compositions. Blockhead engineers have built their dam upside down resulting in the flooding of a town. One engineer has the brilliant idea evinced by a light on his head – instead of a broken dam we’ve created more wetlands for ducks! Uncontrolled consumerism has certainly affected this local society in a most unexpected way.
“One engineer has the brilliant idea ... instead of a broken dam we’ve created more
More wetlands for Ducks Bronze, paint, wood & electric light, 2004 56 x 80 x 80cm $9000
Kerry was born in 1958 in the USA where he took a degree in science and worked as a volunteer in Jamaica for two years before going on to complete his Masters in Finance at University of Colorado in Denver in 1987. He became a small business owner but moved to Australia in 1995 where he began working as a full time artist. In 2003 he opened the Ceramic Break Sculpture Park, located on a bushland property at Warialda in northern NSW. It has three galleries, a gift shop and a ‘Ceramic Break’ where people are encouraged to break ceramics to create an artwork in the bush.
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wetlands for ducks!”
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NicDrummond Guest (NSW)
After graduating from university with degree in Visual Art and undertaking a scholarship from the Queensland Art Gallery, Nic took time out to explore the adult world. Careers in the production of television and theatre gave way to a search for his particular path, which led towards landscape architecture and urban design. He is now an in-house artist for a large multi-disciplinary built environment company.
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Unknown Mixed media, 2007 63 x 54 x 8cm, NFS
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This is from a series of works that feature signs collected from people living on the street. The works were created in response to the social and economic inequity I see about me and make a statement about the social impact of the growing separation of wealth in developed countries such as Australia and the lack of care taken towards minority groups within our community, like the aged or those suffering mental illness, which often forces people onto the street through a lack of adequate government services to accommodate their needs. To me it is a sublime tragedy that people within our community are driven by desperation to display a sign
“To me it is a sublime tragedy that people within our community are driven by desperation to display a sign for the world to see that they are not surviving� or message for the world to see that they are not surviving. The harsh reality is that many within our community simply walk by these people ignoring their existence. Signs were collected from their creators after I shared with them my idea to make a statement about their situation. They were then asked if they wanted to participate in the process by selling me their sign for a figure of their determination. I did not negotiate the cost. I did not record their story – out of respect for them, my communication with the creators of the signs remained with them, in confidence, on the street.
JoshuaFartch Community of Port Phillip
I see myself as a landscape painter, I set out to capture the spirit or feeling of a place mixing both traditional and contemporary media. I feel my work reflects all of my travels and experiences, the background in this piece was taken in Paris where I felt the contrast between rich and poor and the decadant past was really strong. My personal ‘Money Myth’ debate is between an emerging existence as a visual artist and the need to make a living as a commercial artist. I presently spend my time split between these two worlds which collide in works like this one, where I’ve used the digital skills I’ve learnt in the commercial world with degrees of intuition, imagination and personal expression. For me this work says that amid the decay of greed we can neglect the world around us and time asks us to create a more sustainable way of life.
Josh was born and raised in Mount Gambier, country South Australia. After completing a Bachelor of Applied Art at Deakin University in Warrnambool, he travelled extensively around Australia and overseas. He has lived and worked in the UK and France and his career has crossed many different paths including teaching, nursing and visual/commercial artist. In 2005 he held a studio with Metro Arts in Brisbane. In 2006 he lived in the south of France, where he worked at the Musee Granet on an exhibition of paintings by Cezanne, before returning to Melbourne. He has recently taken up a studio in St Kilda at ‘Studio 106’.
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“...amid the decay of greed we can neglect the world around us and time asks us to create a more sustainable way of life.”
The Man and the Trolley Digital photography, 2008 80.4 x 63cm $800
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PeterForward Guest (VIC)
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Wish You Were Here Oil on arches paper, 2005 70 x 50cm $900
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Peter graduated from Melbourne State College in 1971 and has travelled and worked in Asia, the Middle East and Europe before working as a sessional lecturer in ceramics at Ballarat University and Artist in Residence at Geelong College. He has participated in various group exhibitions since 1985 and in recent years has held several solo shows entitled ‘Truth and Untruth’ based around his current body of work.
“We worry about the extra 10c on fuel. The third world has to cope with a 100% increase in the cost of grains &
cannot fill its belly”
My current theme arose as a direct result of my country’s involvement in the “war on terror’’. Economic rationalism and its myth that the “free market” could solve the world’s problems, decided policy in major Western “civilized societies”. Some of these had banded together to invade Iraq. The fact that the west was running out of oil and Iraq was oil rich struck me as too coincidental to be ignored. Here was a prize too tempting for the West to resist. To maintain our “way of life” we have expounded the “money myth”. Consumerism has become an uncontrollable monster. Unbridled economic rationalism has spawned a western military machine with enormous firepower that can unleash its wrath on unprotected nations for its own purposes. In my view, the “market” is driving the war in Iraq. It provides the expertise, the manpower and it provides the cash. Truth is now what the market decides is truth. The market controls the news we see. My images reflect a Kafkaesque world, which to me is surreal, but which our young assume is normal. We worry about the extra 10c on fuel to fill our cars. The third world has to cope with a 100% increase in the cost of grains and cannot fill its belly. My artworks are about our inability to comprehend what we have done. “There is absolutely no historical nuance that could in any way legitimize the US/ UK invasion of Iraq” - JeanPierre Lehmanm, prof. Intemational Political Economy, Intemational Business School IMD Lausanne Switzerland (see The Age April 8th 2008)
ThereseGilligan Represented by Gilligan Grant Gallery / Guest (VIC)
tension
futures
Let it be me Acrylic on board, 2007 110 x 82cm $2200
Therese was born in Melbourne and graduated with a Degree in Visual Art from The University of Melbourne. She then completed a Diploma of Theology before returning to Melbourne University to complete a Masters in Visual Art in 1998. Therese has participated in group and solo exhibitions since 1990 and is the author of numerous art education publications. Over the past several years she has been a gallery director and is presently co-director of Gilligan Grant Gallery in Collingwood. Her works are held in corporate collections including the BHP Billiton post 2000 collection, VicRoads and in private collections in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, New York, Washington and London.
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I am primarily interested in depicting the moment of bloom before the withering of experience. The point of purity and expectation before the chasm of a lived reality. I generally portray young women between 18 to 25 years who are fresh, their mind is hopeful, but they sense a rapid change approaching. I focus on capturing the dreamy optimistic bloom of the young girl just on the cusp of womanhood. I deliberately jollify my subjects with the use of story titles, text and images from ‘Girls Own’ books. Titles play a part in my work as they campily underscore the real virtues of the young women. There is no ambiguity about their present life; the subjects are winners – now. The mannered poses of the subjects heighten the effect of the young women’s’ strength and optimism in a contemporary ever changing world. The fresh application of paint on board creates a sense of purity, heightened by the minimal use of tone. The tension created comes from an ambiguity about the possible futures of these young women. Freshness and youthful energy are al“The ways counterbalanced by created comes the horrors of the grown up working world. Will from an they succumb to the “quarambiguity ter life crisis” of the twenty about the something’s who when they enter the work force possible become bored, listless and of confused. Will these young these young women accept the pressures of commercialism women” and productivity and being a foot soldier for the rest of their working life?
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WendyGrace Guest (VIC)
As the light unveiled my surroundings, the feral trolleys appeared. Standing quietly without purpose their presence spoke out loud of our condition. ‘Alone at last’ is an image symbolic of the race many of us take to embrace wealth and consumerism at the expense of the environment.
“This image is symbolic of the race many of us take to embrace wealth & consumerism at the expense of the environment”
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Alone at last Digital print, 2007 49 x 69cm $260
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Wendy was born in Melbourne and completed a Diploma of Visual Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction and her Honours at RMIT University. She has been involved in a number of group exhibitions and recently held a solo painting show at First Site Gallery. Her current paintings explore abstract textures and patterns encountered in nature whilst her photography attempts to provide a template of emotional thought with a universal resonance.
AndrewGreen Community of Hobsons Bay
The land in this picture, shot in 2003, is now a completed urban development. I was stuck by the improbability of this young family smiling and happy to be in a swimming pool, underwater. I wonder how many of them are now drowning in debt? As land is taken up further and further away from Melbourne for building, for many the ability to own a home is further and further out of reach as well – just like
many of them are
drowning in debt?”
“Is that a mirage Dad?” Analogue print, 2003 51 x 81cm $330
Andrew has been devoted to the image for over ten years and has worked as a staff and freelance photographer for various publications including The Age newspaper. His interest in visual arts has also expanded recently, exhibiting his photographic works in various group exhibitions and pursuing still life and drawing classes at Footscray Community Arts Centre. In the past two years he has been short-listed for the Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize, this year taking out the Local Artist Award. He is currently contemplating a return to formal studies in visual art and sculpture.
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“ I wonder how
the Greek myth of Tantalus and the low hanging fruit that remains forever out of reach. These fast growing areas often lack creditable public transport and amenities we all deserve: libraries, galleries, theatres etc that contribute to atmosphere, encourage reflection and thought. Instead fast food and plasmas proliferate to the detriment of us. All of us. It’s actually a negligent failure of planning.
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MandyGunn Guest (VIC)
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My work makes use of humble found materials that are familiar and mostly discarded as rubbish. The materials all carry their own history mostly reflective of every day life and the place in which this happens: daily routines of travelling to work, shopping, packaging, building, mining etc. The myth, strongly advocated through advertising and the corporate/ retail sector, that happiness and creativity are dependent on the spending of money and possessions is symptomatic of our all consuming society. We all need to look at the possibility of less being more.
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Flyover Country (detail) Found, cut steel from broken hill area, on board, 2003-4 3 pieces each 60x60cm $880 per piece
Mandy trained at Monash University and the Victorian College of the Arts where she completed a Masters degree in 2000. She is well known for her extensive use of recycled materials into cut and reassembled sculptural, installation and wall pieces. She has shown widely in Melbourne, Victoria and interstate over the past fifteen years and has work in many public collections. The recipient of various prizes, residencies and grants, Mandy has taught at RMIT since 1995. She currently lives in South Gippsland.
“We all need to
look at the possibility of
less being more�
PeterHannaford Guest (VIC)
The new technology has increased work hours instead of leisure in recent decades. Extra material possessions seem to have resulted in us being less happy – free market wealth generation keeps failing to ‘trickle down’ to large sections of society.
“Extra material
possessions seem to have resulted in us being less
The four horsemen of the economic apocalypse (pictured, oil sketch for finished work) Oil on board, 2008 105 x 85cm $1200
Peter was born in New South Wales in 1945 and became interested in art while in the navy, completing a correspondence course in drawing. After ten years of pursuing self-taught practice, he eventually completed a Diploma of Visual Arts and Graduate Diploma in 1980. He has continued his practice in various ways since that time, through exhibitions and also through his involvement in humanitarian causes and left wing politics in the production of banners, posters, leaflets and placards. His pursuit of art has been limited to some extent by long-term mental illness and in more recent years by being a carer 24/7, however he is moving into a phase where he hopes to return to more regular practice.
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happy”
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LisJohnson Community of Hobsons Bay
This coin is a slice from a log of hardwood, destined for the fireplace. While carving it I reflected on the way we have trashed our beautiful old growth forests in exchange for paltry amounts of money, wasting this valuable resource by turning the timber into woodchips. I was also thinking about currency, how it’s a token for an agreed but abstract value. I wondered about the use of the image of a tribal aboriginal man for the two-dollar coin, was it intended as a to-
ken of respect? Sometimes even when we intend to convey respect, it ends up feeling tokenistic. My carving is quite primitive but it still took many hours to make, and I enjoyed the contrast between the small value of the coin and the large amount of time and energy I was investing in it. I hope it makes us think about how we value things like tribal aboriginal culture, natural resources, and handmade objects.
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Priceless Natural Resource Number 2 Carved Hardwood log disc & oil, 2000 9.5cm diameter x 1.2cm $850
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Lis has been a full-time professional sculptor since 1992. She has formal training in art history, theory, research and practice, has taught sculpture at tertiary level and exhibited in numerous group, solo and selected exhibitions. She has been awarded several public art commissions and also completed numerous private commissions. Primarily a modeller and carver, Lis is a figurative sculptor who works with a wide range of contemporary and traditional media. Her broad range of practice has included work for architects and designers, museums and zoos, and the display, theatre and film industries. She works from her studio at Fundere Fine Arts Foundry and Studios in West Footscray.
“ I hope it makes us think about how we value things like aboriginal culture, natural resources & handmade objects”
DanielKaplon Community of Port Phillip
The montage of photographs I have selected from around the world for this work all have themes of the impact of consumerism, capitalism and economic development. Many of the messages display the concerns of the graffiti authors with a few counter-balancing their viewpoint. It highlights that this is a global problem and many people want action. There are some messages of hope, as I believe whilst this theme is a concern in today’s society, all is not lost and we have the means to provide a solution.
“There are some messages of hope;
all is not lost
... we have the means to provide a solution�
Daniel has been capturing slogan graffiti for the past six years. He has travelled the world, photographing how people are expressing themselves through the medium. From Buenos Aires to Hamburg, the thoughts of graffiti authors have been captured and preserved. Their messages of peace, politics, humour, the environment and agitation highlight the common global themes and their desire to be heard. The idea of capturing graffiterati comes from recording a point in time of the mood of global graffiti artists. It is a time capsule that can be traced back and used as a social indicator of a person, place or event. Daniel started exhibiting his photographs in 2007 and has been featured in the media on radio and in the newspaper. His passion for slogan graffiti has extended to fashion, when in 2006 he created his own clothing label, seven breaths. Daniel resides in Melbourne, Australia and travels extensively to photograph graffiti images.
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Economic rationalism social amnesia Mixed media , 2008 105 x 150cm $950
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MehrdadKhataei Guest (IRAN)
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The main characteristic of my recent works is the companionship of simple and ordinary elements, which at the same time convey the sense of complexity and nostalgia. These elements are influenced by my surrounding social and political situations. The reflection of these situations can also be experienced by the presence of empty spaces. The dance of these empty spaces in each composition - to inspire the mind and raise some questions - is similar to an unleashed attack of lunacy to penetrate and conquer the soul.
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Glass-Rooms 21 Chalcography (Etching, Mezzotint, Aquatint, DryPoint, A la Poupee) on Hand-Made 100% Cotton 400gr. Arch-Cardboard, 2008 56 x 76 cm US $2400
Mehrdad was born in Tabriz, Iran in 1976. He completed a Diploma at Tehran Fine Art High School before going on to graduate with a Masters in Fine Art from Tehran Azad University of Arts and Architecture. He has taught at various universities in Tehran since 1999 and exhibited his printmaking and drawings in several solo and group exhibitions, including the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
“These elements are influenced by my surrounding social and
political
situations�
Josephine Kuperholz Represented by Gallery 101 / Community of Port Phillip
Many of the photographic images I create reflect my concern for the environment and man’s impact upon it. These images are part of a body of work on endangered Australian insects titled ‘Blight’. The Museum of Victoria’s Entomology Department has allowed me to take photographs of the insects from their collection. The image ‘Thaumatoperla alpine’ is of a Victorian insect, commonly known as “Stonefly”. I have hand coloured and woven silver gelatin photographs of the “Stonefly” to create this image. The insect is endangered because their habitat is shrinking as man and his ever increasing ‘needs’ encroach upon and destroy their environment. This domination by mankind over
“The insect is
endangered because
the environment is doomed as it is killing off so many species, from insects up to the larger mammals. Photographs capture a moment in time. By weaving the same photographs into themselves, I have placed the ‘Thaumatoperla alpine’ into a non-moment: which is where they will soon be, if they become extinct.
‘Thaumatoperla Alpine’ commonly known as Stonefly. Threatened Hand coloured & woven silver gelatin photograph, 2007 105 x 80cm $2000
Josephine spent her childhood in Papua New Guinea. Most of this time was out in the bush where she and her sister often relied on their imaginations to entertain themselves. Art was very important from an early age. After boarding in Brisbane for six years, Josephine trained as a Kindergarten Teacher in Melbourne. She then travelled to Europe and South Africa where she met and married her husband Nathan. She, her husband and two children came back to Melbourne thirty years ago. Josephine graduated from Photography Studies College, Southbank in 1984 with a High Distinction and has been practicing as a photographic artist since then. Josephine has had numerous solo exhibitions and her work is held in many institutions throughout Australia.
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their habitat is shrinking as man & his ever increasing ‘needs’ encroach upon & destroy their environment”
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TrishaLambi Represented by Paddington Contemporary Fine Art Gallery / Guest (QLD)
History repeatedly demonstrates that, as intelligent as we humans are, we are still unable to comprehend the valuable lesson in the demise of previously ‘advanced’ civilizations. This painting is a metaphor for the mindless consumerism which is rapidly devouring us – in our endless greed and avarice, we seem to be unable or unwilling to face the inevitable conclusion of the destruction of our way of life as we know it. If we don’t curb our plundering of the planet’s resources in the short term then we will certainly find ourselves in ‘a hard place’, bereft of comfort and terrifyingly aware of our naked vulnerability in a hostile environment.
“If we don’t curb our plundering of the planet’s
resources
in the short term then we will certainly find ourselves in a
hard place”
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A Hard Place Oil on Linen, 2007 90 x 120cm $3600
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It has always been Trisha’s dream to be an artist; her earliest memory is of drawing for her great aunts while her brothers and sisters were running amok outside. The birth of her son in 1996 provided the catalyst for her when she gave up work and began to paint in earnest while caring for her two young children. She turned professional in 2003 and was invited to participate in the Fourth Edition of the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy. Since then she has exhibited locally, interstate, and internationally, and in 2006 was invited to join the Australian del-
egation of fourteen artists to the 2006 Guangzhou International Art Fair in China. The delegation was curated by Fergus Tam and was endorsed by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade). One of her pieces exhibited was selected by the Guangzhou International Art Fair Committee to represent Australia in all the promotional material for the event. Trisha is represented by galleries in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Wollongong and in private collections in Australia, Spain, Germany, Ireland, China, Canada and the United States.
BonnieLane Guest (VIC)
All You Need (Part 2) C Type Photographs, Edition of 10, 2008 39 x 59cm each $ 250 each
“These photographs acknowledge the phenomenon of
consumerism & the amount of waste that occurs in our culture”
These photographs are taken of my site-specific installation ‘All You Need’ that was created for the Moreland Sculpture Show 2008. The photographs are what now remain of the ephemeral work, which gained the non-acquisitive award at the outdoor exhibition. By collecting discarded and unwanted household objects found on the streets of Moreland City, a cosy and homely lounge room was replicated in an outdoor open space. These photographs acknowledge the phenomenon of consumerism and the amount of waste that occurs in our culture. The work shows sympathy for these discarded objects and an appreciation of what you really need in order to feel comfortable rather than pure “want”.
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Bonnie is an emerging artist based in Melbourne. Since completing her Bachelor of Fine Art at Victorian College of the Arts in 2007 she has produced two solo exhibitions in Melbourne and was one of the nineteen artists chosen to exhibit in the 2008 Moreland Sculpture Show, taking out the non-acquisitive Award for Ephemeral Work. In 2006 she was one of the organisers and exhibitors in “PARKED!!” a student run group exhibition in Collingwood Underground Arts Park, which collected the Fringe Festival Award for Visual Arts. In 2007 she participated in the 46th Do It exhibition an ongoing international art project initiated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and was one of the Wallara Traveling Scholarship finalists, also winning the National Gallery Women’s Association Undergraduate Encouragement Award at the VCA school of Art Graduate Exhibition. Bonnie has forthcoming exhibitions at Bus and Blindside Galleries, is currently working on curating an exhibition and also hopes to do an international artist residency in 2009.
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RenaLittlesonMontenegro Guest (VIC)
This painting explores consumerism, branding and advertising (or brainwashing). It takes on the look of a vintage ad, with large hand painted type and a technicolour look. The title of the painting, “Cope”, is an obvious word play on the famous cola brand, accompanied by the tag line “When life gets tough”, which work together to reflect how brands and advertising seem to become associated with and take on ownership of every aspect
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Cope Acrylic on canvas, 2008 122 x 92cm $1500
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Rena completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts at Deakin University in 2004 and held her first solo exhibition that year at Bright Space in St Kilda. Her main specialty is photo realistic acrylic painting, dominantly portraiture. However, after working in retail and completing a post graduate course in graphic design at RMIT in 2007, she has also become more interested in typography, packaging, design and consumerism, with a fondness for 50s advertising. She now works as Lead Designer for a Web 2.0 company.
“... Brands and advertising seem to become associated with and take on ownership of every aspect of our lives, even our emotions” of our lives, even our emotions. Certain brands are supposed to make us “happier” and “cooler” than other brands. This painting asks the viewer to question the advertising that they are being bought into.
JesusMoreta Guest (VIC)
Economy and Consumerism come from the same hand. “Destroy in order to construct”; “Contaminate in order to find solutions”. International meetings where they discuss globalisation, poverty, terrorism and world issues produce a pile of signed documents and agreements, but never reach global solutions. The economy depends on the oppression of poor countries, which leads to the corruption, and exploitation of their resources. The pursuit of wealth and happiness has a disregard for the effect caused on others or on the environment.
Jesus was born in Otavalo, Ecuador in 1973, into a culture immersed in art and music, but never had the opportunity or privilege of formal art classes. When he was twenty-six years old he discovered that he had a passion and natural ability to create sculptures. His chosen medium was paper mache. He later also began experimenting and working with a mixed medium of metal and recycled materials. Jesus discovered that with paper and recycled materials it is possible to create original and
My Uncle Sam Acrylic and oil on board, 2008 86 x 66cm $3800
intricate forms. Much of his creativity comes from his ancestral culture and heritage, mixed with inspiration from modern day life. He has recently begun to diversify and explore other mediums of artistic expression - one of those being painting. Jesus has regular solo and collective exhibitions, and is a highly known and respected artist in his home country of Ecuador. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia.
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“The pursuit of wealth & happiness has a disregard for the effect caused on others or on the environment”
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DavidO'Gradey Guest (VIC)
My earlier works dealt with ordinary, everyday subjects, observing, pondering our relationship to our surroundings, questioning, peering behind the veneer. For several years now I have been directing my efforts in an attempt to convey my environmental concerns through paint and words. I paint in response to my despair at how the many greed-motivated, short-term profiteers, who, with complete disregard for the future, seem hell-bent on destroying our beautiful home, Mother Earth.
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The mindless concept of endless growth No.2 Oil on canvas, 2008 76 x102cm $875
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David has been involved in the arts industry most of his working life, acquiring and honing skills over many years with practical “on the job” experience and by absorbing the heritage of art history. His work has included many years in the film industry, engaged in scenic art and prop work through to art direction. He has also exhibited in many group shows and held two solo shows, painted murals, art directed museum projects, and been involved in illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and wood carving (including hand carved wording along the seawall for City of Port Phillip).
“I paint in response to my despair at how the many shortterm profiteers seem hell-bent on destroying our beautiful home, Mother Earth”
GeoffreyRicardo Represented by Australian Galleries / Community of Hobsons Bay
Geoff studied printmaking at the Chisolm Institute of Technology and graduated from Monash University, obtaining the Graduate Diploma in Fine Art Printmaking. In both 1986 and 1988 he was awarded the Mornington Peninsula Arts Council Aquisitive Print Prize, and in 1989, the City of Doncaster Aquisitive Print Prize. He has regular solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth and has participated in numerous
group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. His paintings, prints and sculptures are represented at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Tasmania, the Holmes A’Court Collection in Western Australia, and other regional galleries and institutions. His work is also in many private collections throughout Australia.
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Small change Oil on canvas, 2005 152 x 209cm $7000
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RichardRowlands Community of Hobsons Bay
This is about the true place of things and the balance of issues. A homage to the tree which once had life. What is its value and how this can transform. Firstly, this tree was valued for its beauty, its shade and its fruit and leaves. Its ability to mark boundaries, wind breaking and view blocking potential. It could have been a meeting place, a sacred site, a lovers tryst. Was the boundary crossed when the tree was logged for commercial purposes? I am drawing attention to the damage and restoring the space. But what has returned – the books are stacked like
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Of all the books I’ve read, I still want my tree back Photograph, 2007 84 x 59.5cm $600
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Richard is a former resident of Altona but now lives in Wyndham City where he was involved with Wyndham City Council for three years as the artist representing the community on committees selecting artworks for the City of Wyndham. This includes the selection of an annual work from the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award. He has been studying sculpture at RMIT for the past seven years, graduating with his Masters in 2007. He has also travelled to New York, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia to study art and visit museums and local galleries. He has been published in catalogues and local newspapers and also appeared on Channel 31 art show in 2003 when he was part of the group that won First Prize for a Visual Art Award at Melbourne Fringe Festival.
“This tree was valued for its beauty, its shade & its fruit & leaves. Was the boundary crossed when the tree was logged for commercial purposes? lumber or firewood. I am returning the book to its home – not the library, but to the forest.
NinaSanadze Community of Port Phillip
“The beautiful, pregnant young aboriginal woman represents the hope & the promise of the future”
nature, that in turn represents western culture. Her pregnant figure is painted in acrylics as if she is almost transparent, ghost-like. This signifies her fragility, the urban dreaming and the surreal circumstance in which she and her peoples find themselves. The title of the work is taken from the random graffiti on the couch, which was photographed while awaiting rubbish collection in one of the back alleys of St Kilda.
Child of the Sun Mixed Media, 2008 74 x 110cm, $1500
Nina was born in Georgia in the former USSR in 1976, completing an Honours Degree in Book Illustrating and Design in Moscow and migrating to Australia in 1996. Her visual arts practice covers a wide range of disciplines. Nina has won awards as children’s book illustrator as well as theatre set and costume designer. In the last couple of years Nina has been working to establish her fine art practice as a portrait artist, capturing many faces of local community and conducting workshops. She has also initiated and conducted community art projects and is currently preparing for her second solo exhibition using a new mixed media and cast resin technique she is developing.
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I was inspired to create this work on 13.02.08, when Australia said ‘Sorry’ to the Indigenous peoples of Australia. The portrait of the beautiful, pregnant young aboriginal woman represents the hope and the promise of the future. With one of her hands she is holding and protecting her unborn child. The other hand is as if about to extend, offering us the baby, the future. The woman is juxtaposed against an urban environment that is alien to her
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CassandraSchultz Guest (QLD)
Cassandra has exhibited within Australia and internationally. Her visual arts practice is informed by extensive photographic arts training and experience in theatre production and design. She employs practical and highly developed skills in creating diverse expressive work along humanitarian and activist themes across a number of disciplines and mediums.
“Nurture and renewal tasks are often considered ‘acts of love’ attracting little or no financial reward”
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Love me tender Hand stitched small denomination banknotes from thePhilippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Embroidery thread & childs mannequin, 2003 75 x 50 x 50cm, NFS
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This work was made during the 2 years I was resident in Singapore. There are close to 140,000 foreign domestic workers in Singapore at the present time. Approximately 1 in 7 families employ a woman from overseas to work in their home. However indispensable domestic labour may be to the functioning of the economy, its financial value is difficult to calculate as it is conducted within the personal and intimate sphere. Nurture and renewal tasks are often considered ‘acts of love’ attracting little or no financial reward. Unable to meet the costs of raising and educating their families in their countries of origin, women from poorer nations like the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka often leave their own children behind to perform these ‘acts of love’ as foreign domestic workers in the homes of other families in wealthier nations. Mothers may be parted from their children for many years, their mothering replaced by financial remittances to provide opportunities for their children left behind. These concerns are addressed in my artwork ‘Love me Tender’ in which I hand stitched together small denomination banknotes from those poorer nations in the form of a child’s dress. These notes express the absent mother’s labour of love through her sacrifice and insufficient financial reward.
TamasinSimpkin Community of Port Phillip
Through my video installation I wanted to use simple repetition to explore the bland and oppressive nature of a society focused on commercialism. Made of a tower of televisions and using footage I filmed by simply placing a video camera at the bottom of a trolley, I show three parallel shopping experiences, each in a ‘mega store’, the hallmark of commercialism. The images at first seem erratic but patterns emerge as the purchases are placed in the trolleys and the trolleys spin from one aisle to the next. Here is an everyday occurrence turned
into a disturbing synchronized dance, the unnerving feeling of the piece amplified by the speeding up of the footage and then its reversal. In this second half of the piece I wanted to give the viewer a hint of freedom, the suffocating presence of the belongings that fill the screen disappearing before their very eyes. Only there is no escape, and instead of freedom you’re pulled back into the commercial merry go round; forever searching for that ‘special something’ to make you feel good.
Shop, Shop, Shop Video installation, 2008 122 x 61x 48cm $100 (video only)
Tamasin recently received a Degree with Distinction from Deakin University at the completion of a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts – Media Arts, majoring in film and video and photography. Having gone to university for the sole purpose of studying film, she soon found herself mixing with painters, actors, photographers and dancers, opening up possibilities for collaboration and cross-media works which immediately caught her imagination. Since then she has been filling notebooks with countless sketches and ideas for works ranging from film narratives to sculptural photography, abstract installations to online interactive games, abstract video works to live performance pieces. Now that she’s finished her degree she’s looking forward to taking the time to make as many of those ideas as possible a reality.
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“... instead of freedom you’re pulled back into the commercial merry go round; forever searching for that ‘special something’.”
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PamelaStadus Represented by Axia Modern Art Gallery / Community of Port Phillip
I am interested in the metaphorical associations of glass and exploring these in my visual statements. In this work I have used shards of glass to make a Cathedral-like structure which references the lofty splendour of Gothic Cathedrals when walls of coloured glass told wonderful religious stories to the congregation. I have chosen shattered glass to represent the present day dysfunctional morality and distrust of the church as evident in the current investigations into
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Shattered Place of Worship Glass, 2008 40 x 30 x 20cm $1100
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“I have chosen shattered glass to represent the present day dysfunctional morality & distrust” paedophilia. ‘Shattered Place of Worship’ is very appealing and ethereal yet sharp and dangerous when handled.
Pam is an artist who works principally with glass in a sculptural context. She took her Diploma in Art and Craft from Melbourne University, a Graduate Diploma in 1980 and her Masters in Art in 1993. She has exhibited widely across Australia including five solo shows and has completed numerous commissions for clients including Crown Casino, Neometro Architecture, Guild Theatre and Moreland City Council. She has also designed a host of industry awards including the Housing Industry Awards, Interior Designex Awards and the Channel Seven Peoples Choice Awards. Her works are held in public and private collections including Regional Galleries as well as Monash University Art Gallery and Wheaton Village, New Jersey, USA. Pamela lives and works in Melbourne from her studio space at Fundere Studios in West Footscray and is currently a PhD candidate, practicing artist and arts educator, and a Member of the Board at Craft Victoria.
KarstenStier Represented by Gallery112 / Guest (VIC)
“Retail Therapy” is a homage to our love/hate relationship with all things shopping and consumerism. Beginning with the consumer handing out their credit card in the foreground, and ending with a shopkeeper’s open hands in the background. One to collect the card, and the other with a slot in the palm where the money should go. The contemporary shopping experience has taken over where the Hunter/Gatherer has left off…
shopping
experience has taken over where the Hunter/ Gatherer has left off…”
Karsten has been an artist all his life and has exhibited widely since his mid twenties both nationally and internationally including Frankfurt, Hamburg and New York. His works are held in various private collections throughout Australia, Europe, and Japan. He currently lives in Port Fairy, Victoria.
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“The contemporary
Retail Therapy Oil on canvas, 2007 92 x 135cm $4000
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CaitlinStreet Guest (TAS)
Last year on an airline flight, I looked down and noticed a similarity between our constructed environment and the patterns used in traditional Western Desert Aboriginal art. Aboriginal ‘Western Desert’ art is painted from an aerial perspective, and has been for thousands of years. Geoffrey Bardon, catalyst for the Papunya Tula art movement, described such paintings as “geo/spiritual maps”, images that convey ‘creation’ stories exploring how
“ I looked down at the terra-forming occurring 30,000 ft below, at the objects
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of our ‘creation’, & wondered what stories they tell about us?”
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We must be Dreaming #8 Gylcee print, 2007 55cm x 33cm, NFS
Caitlin’s arts practice has emerged from more than twenty years of commercial photography for national and international clients. In 2002 she began exhibiting, and in 2004 she entered the Victorian College of the Arts studying for a Graduate Diploma of Visual Art. She was awarded a scholarship position to study for her Masters in 2005, when she won the ANZ Visual Arts Fellowship Award. In 2007 she won the Montalto Sculpture Prize with collaborator Tony Adams. She works with a variety of media and her works often explore the transience of knowledge and perception.
physical landforms, structures, and the creatures that inhabit them, came into being. I looked down at the terra-forming occurring 30,000 ft below, at the objects of our ‘creation’, and wondered what stories they tell about us? I also wonder what stories future generations will create as a means of explaining some of the shapes and forms we are building now?
Marika Strohschnieder Community of Port Phillip
My current work makes use of found objects; things that have either been discarded or that may otherwise be considered quite ordinary or worthless. I am particularly interested in using my skills and experience as a jeweller in drawing out a new use so that an unexpected preciousness in these materials is revealed through recontextualising them. Through this process, a collection of used bottle caps are able to take
on a new form as jewel-like elements in a striking neckpiece; a handful of simple key tags are made into a bracelet and an apparently worthless and otherwise obsolete icing set can be transformed into an alluring, interchangeable ring set. Far Right: small change (bracelet) Aluminium, paper, nylon, 2007 Dimensions variable, POA Left: Happy Birthday (interchangeable ring set) Brass, plated brass, 2007 Dimensions variable, POA
Re-fund (neckpiece) Aluminium, plastic, nylon, 2006 Dimensions variable, NFS
Marika lives in Williamstown, but was born in Germany where her creative career started as a stone sculptor. She was apprenticed to stonemason Uwe Bernhard, from 1986 – 1989, where she learnt to appreciate the discipline required of a craftsperson and artist. She then undertook formal study in the field of art conservation and has worked as a conservator in five countries and in a diverse range of organisations – including at the Metropolitan Museum, New York and currently at the National Gallery of Victoria. Parallel with her work as a conservator, she has continued her artistic practice principally as a jeweller and sculptor although she also paints and draws. Since training with jewellers in New York and Australia she has pursued an interest in exploring the limits of jewellery/wearable art.
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“I am interested in drawing out a new use so that an unexpected preciousness in these materials is revealed”
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AnthonyTanner Guest (VIC)
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The Corruption of Nature Oil on canvas, 2007 38.5 x 34cm, $285
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Anthony is an emerging environmental artist based in Melbourne who has exhibited in Victoria and interstate. Originally from Albury, he completed a Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management while working for an environmental organization, before moving to Melbourne in 2006. This experience has given him a broad understanding of Australia’s natural environment, along with the problems it faces. He is currently studying his final year of a Diploma of Arts (Visual) at Victoria University, while concurrently completing a duel Diploma of Sustainability at the National Centre for Sustainability. Last year Anthony was Highly Commended in the Victoria University Art Prize, for his sociopolitical photograph ‘Unplugged’, which dealt with issues associated with the disconnection from the natural world. The knowledge gained from his studies has directly affected Anthony’s artistic practice, and most of his work deals with the contemporary environmental issues, along with how consumerism and capitalistic societies influence our natural world.
My studies for a duel Diploma in both Visual Arts and Sustainability have led me to an art practice that comments on the disregard and lack of respect shown towards the natural environment by humanity. From the over development of contemporary society, through to the manufactured epidemic of escalating consumerism; whole societies are often ignorant towards the state of our natural milieu, blinded purely by the desire for class distinction and the urgency for capitalistic gain. This particular painting tries to visually depict the hellish conditions constructed by the invention of money on the natural environment, as humans have now become a force strong enough to manipulate nature itself. This manipulation and neglect towards nature can be seen through “Whole the continual manifestationof societies are ignorant towards my main figure, resembling that the state of our of Mother NaThe backmilieu, ture. ground porblinded purely by trays a dense industrial skydesire” line, where the impact of over consumption has polluted the entire oeuvre. The warnings of a bleak future cannot be any clearer; they have even been spelt out to the masses in black and white.
natural
AnnaTaylor Guest (VIC)
These fragile objects represent fossil-like molluscs and symbolise the extinction of many species in that they address the pressure of rampant development and its consequences to date. They are also little creations symbolising the beauty of nature, a beautiful complex environment that has hope if we heed the advice and act. It is clear that market forces cannot continue to dominate and this work, while celebrating the beauty of nature, exposes the threat of unchecked industrial and economic development.
“These are little creations symbolising the beauty of nature, a beautiful complex environment that has hope if we heed the advice and act�
Anna has worked for many years in community development, financial counselling and teaching but more recently her visual art practice has become a focus in her life. She studied for a Diploma in Visual art in 2000 and in 2007 completed her Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of RMIT. More and more, her professional work is arts related and her aim is to be able to devote herself to her practice full-time.
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Extinction Knitted wire, 2008 Dimensions variable $75 each
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AndrewTrahair Represented by Anne Runhardt Fine Art / Community of Port Phillip
Andrew graduated from Victoria College Prahran with a BA in Fine Arts (painting) in 1989. He exhibited regularly in Melbourne and Sydney before travelling overseas, where he lived and worked in Paris and Amsterdam. He also travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia and developed a strong interest in the art of local communities and cross-cultural concerns expressed through art. His most recent exhibition of paintings was held in April at Gallery Forty-five Downstairs, and he is currently studying a Masters of Art Therapy at La Trobe University.
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Queen of the Netherlands (Veerpont) Oil on canvas, 2007 183 x 183cm $12500
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“The recent dredging of Port Phillip Bay serves as an illustration of the increased demand for our natural resources”
The recent dredging of Port Phillip Bay serves as an illustration of the increased demand for Australia`s natural resources by overseas manufacturers, and our own growing demand for the goods made by these countries. To maintain this recent economic prosperity we need to increase shipping in Port Phillip Bay and this is leading us to cause extensive environmental damage. The federal and state governments have proven themselves unable to respond to the concerns of the local communities of Port Phillip Bay that the dredg-
ing of the bay will cause irreparable damage to fragile marine life. The Queen of the Netherlands is the Dutch owned dredge commissioned by the state government to deepen the shipping channel in Port Phillip Bay. She is a symbol of economic development, prosperity and financial gain for employers, workers and tax collectors. She is also a symbol of our government’s insensitivity to the concerns of local communities who feel that the environment is more important than maximizing profits.
CarmelWallace Represented by Gallery 101 / Community of Hobsons Bay
I feel a close connection to Hobsons Bay as both my grandmother and great-grandmother were born in Williamstown, and my great-grandfather ran the ferries, The Black Eagle and The Geebung for 32 years, between Williamstown and St Kilda.. I now live in the coastal town and port of Portland in Victoria, and often walk the spectacular wild beaches of the south west coast, collecting ‘junk’ from the tide-lines as I go. What I collect tells me so much, not only about this particular environment, but also about the greater world environment that produces and discards waste that circulates in the ocean currents before ending up on these beaches. Much of what I find is plastic, an oil-based product symbolic of rampant consumerism at the heart of modern culture. These works are from my ‘Red Sea’ body of work that addresses not only marine pollution but also global warming, the most frightening outcome of unbridled industrial development.
“Much of what I find is
plastic, an
oil-based product symbolic of rampant consumerism at the heart of modern
Red Sea 10 Beach-found plastic cray-pot collars & cable ties, 2007 162 x 197 x 10cm, POA
After completing an Arts degree and Diploma of Education at La Trobe University, Carmel went on to earn an Honours degree at Deakin University, and subsequently completed her PhD in 1998. Her work is primarily concerned with place and particularly the coastal sites around her home, exploring the human need to experience a connection with the landscape, striving for an all-embracing understanding of the places where we live. Her work has been exhibited in New York and London, and selected for numerous national exhibitions including The Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW. Awards include the 2008 Regional Arts Victoria Contemporary Cultural Development RAVE Award. She has had a number of solo exhibitions and her work has been acquired for collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, and the State Library of Victoria.
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culture”
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JasonWaterhouse Guest (VIC)
Extraction Forceum 205/65 R15 and mixed media, 2008 73 x 55 x 55cm $1200
ex.trac.tion
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noun
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1 the action of taking out something, esp. using effort or force : mineral extraction | a dental extraction. Jason graduated a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture at Monash University and completed his Honours year at Victorian College of the Arts in 1999. As well as several solo shows, Jason has exhibited in numerous group and prize exhibitions, winning awards including the Moreland Sculpture Prize, runner up in the Yering Station Sculpture Prize and the Young Sculptors Prize at Sculpture by the Sea. He has also curated three major exhibitions including “Motor� this year as part of The Contempora Festival of Sculpture at Docklands. He currently teaches sculpture, life drawing and 3D studies at Swinburne University, and lives and works on a rural property in central Victoria.
AntheaWilliams Guest (VIC)
Anthea completed a Post Graduate Diploma in fine art at Monash University Gippsland in 1986, returning there to complete her Masters in 1999. She has travelled widely including Israel and Rome in 1984 and New York, Cuba, Mexico and San Francisco in 2005. She has also exhibited internationally in the USA at the Soho Chelsea International Art Competition and been the recipient of grants and awards including the Janet Holmes a Court Artist Grant in 2007. Her works are held in public and private collections throughout Australia.
“My art practice comments on
consumerism & questions obsolescence�
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After twenty years of continuous art production, my favourite place for materials is still the local tip. My art practice comments on consumerism and questions obsolescence. Waste products from the rural/industrial Latrobe Valley in Gippsland, Victoria are my primary materials and recently I have incorporated crushed scarred 44 gallon drums along with other scrap steel revealing a history of their use and or abuse.
Blue Crash, 44 gallon drums & scrap steel, 2007 124 x 170 x 103cm $5200
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HeatherWinter Community of Port Phillip
Drawing on narrative I take the “big stories” and the act of telling stories to task. How do we make known the hidden story? How do we write the small personal story into the large social and political issues? How do we ensure that the human tale is not swept away by the master narratives? Ideals of giving your life for your Country, where each day you wake up and know that today you must fight for justice, often at the hands of oppression imposed by land clearing, removing shanty towns which are always someone’s home or through removal of people from their land to have them experience so-
cial and economic exclusion. Dispossession. These images form part of a small story, narratives, words many I have heard in my 15 years of working with the Ngarinyin Aboriginal people of the North West Kimberley. How can you understand their story? To focus on small parts of the human existence, your experiences can frame empathy. Even marriage separations can fast-track feelings of empathy as one has the potential to loose everything. A sense of belonging can quickly disappear as everything is taken away. It is through the small story that we can nurture empathy.
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He said, “To belong we have to look after Country and Kin.” Metallic type C print, 2008 162 x 81cm $3900
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“To focus on small parts of the human existence, your experiences can frame empathy”
Heather completed her Masters of Fine Arts at Victorian College of the Arts in 1991 and has exhibited with Robert Lindsay Gallery Melbourne before being invited to live and work overseas in 2002 at the invitation of the Austrian Arts Council, Bunderskanzlerampt. Her work recently won the Environmental Award at the Centre of Contemporary Photography Melbourne. With exhibition experience nationally and internationally her work has featured in solo exhibitions in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Vienna, Thailand and Paris. Recent International projecs include featuring in the exhibition project CONTEXT at ARTstation, Vienna. In June she will be the plenary speaker with two Ngarinyin artists with whom she has worked with for fifteen years at the 6th World Archaeological Congress Dublin Ireland. She is currently engaged in PhD research project at Melbourne University on the photogaphic archive of German Antropologist Andreas Lommel who in the 1930’s docummented Ngarinyin people.
MinaYoung Community of Port Phillip
In my art practice, I employ the languages of fashion, advertising and cinema to create fabricated episodes through the digital manipulation of analogue photographs. The work is contextualized by the broader themes of globalisation and consumerism. These deliberately constructed images suggest a moment of narrative, the scenarios being activated only by the viewer’s imagination. No commodities are being pitched and no narrative scripts fix the subject into a pre-determined place. The
staged and digitally manipulated artifice employed serves no other purpose than to exist in itself. The female heroines featured inhabit fantastic dreamscapes that signify the surreal nature of dream and trance, exploring the phenomena of déjà vu. Peculiar but everyday objects linger as remnants from other realms. Scale and light are digitally amplified, collapsing the distinction between sensorial memory and the viewer’s distorted perception of recall.
“The work is contextualized by the broader themes of globalisation & consumerism... No commodities are being pitched & no narrative scripts fix the subject into a pre-determined place”
Mina was born in Brisbane but lives and works in Melbourne, and has recently graduated with a Masters in Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has produced four solo exhibitions of her works, most recently in 2007 at Metro 5 Gallery. She has also completed public art commissions, received numerous awards and grants and appeared in group exhibitions throughout Australia.
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Strange News from Another Star Digital print on acrylic with high gloss finish, 2007 100 x 300cm $3500
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