sydney biennale 08

One last gasp

2008-07-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you reading this blog, please be understanding about my spellin. I am actually an appalling typeest and have traded 10 words a minute at 100 percent accuracy for 100 wrods a minute at 10 percent accururuacy........you get the drift.

2008-06-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

So in summing up, I was glad I made the trip down if only for the Cockatoo Island venue, but I was extremely sad to see so much "old" work pulled together under an extremely tenuous curatorial rationale. Cetrainly not my fave uberartXhibition in the last few years.

I will sum up my feelings by describing one work:
at the MCA there was a room that you entered from the side and riht down one end there was a single artwork: a small photo of two glasses of liquid with the liquid on a slope. Not a particlularly interesting photo nut I suppose it makes you think how it is made.
According to the blurbit is by an artist from Budapest called Atilla Csorgo and this is a key early work from 1995 and it is foundational for all his later practice which "presents the reality of systems and phenomena that we do not normally admit"'.
Still wasn't sure of its relevance till i read that " it was not an illusion but created by spinning the table which the glasses were on and the camera". ..............................o!........................the round thing..............................that makes all the difference and makes sense of the whole room thing.................not.

Sorry cybernauts. Maybe I am an ART SNOB, but these are my thoughts.

2008-06-25T01:27:00.000-07:00

The selectione of works at MCA were not as dissapointing as those at the Art Gallery NSW< but still underwhelming. Again, the curatorial rationale was stretched thin with a photo of a ferris wheel being for me the lowest moment.

There were some highlihts though. I am a fan of Tracey Moffat and her new video with Gary Hillberg is another great work returning to her filmcutup technique. I also loved hte work by Tamy Ben-Tor. I was not familiar with this artost's work and this was a perfect example of discovery. Mairizio Cattelan's hanging horse sculpture was very popular with the schoolchildren as was the nail sculpture/painting by Natascha Sadr Haghighian.

2008-06-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Mark and I walked through Darly to the National Art School Cell Block Theatre to see a performance by the legend Joan Jonas. O dear. Sometimes work a la 1970 does not translate in these highly techno world. Mark described it as "performance in aspic.....a little rinky dink." There were some lovely moments but the whole was not a sum of its parts.

A founder of video and performance art, Joan Jonas was originally a sculptor who began to participate in experimental dance workshops and in 1968 held her first performance. Since then, her work has explored the transformation of the performing body through perception, space and media. Her use of masks and mirrors, as well as her adoption of different mythological and contemporary personas, point to her exploration of identity as fragmentary and contingent. Reading Dante (2008) is inspired by Dante’s early-fourteenth century Divine Comedy, incorporating elements from ‘Inferno’ and ‘Paradiso’. In this work, Jonas combines scenes from the woods of northern Canada, a performance in Italy, a modernist ruin built in a lava field in Mexico City and 1970s footage of deserted New York City streets. Unlike in Dante’s medieval universe, here we experience a world full of connections, and no person or place alone can represent heaven and hell; this is Jonas’s infernal paradise.

2008-06-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Feeling a tad fractured today after the night before. Shouldn't mix my drinks and bum so many ciggies!! Will I never learn.

Late start and off to a mate Mark Trevorrow's fab Macleay Street apartment for a squizz. Great view!! Great coffee!!

2008-06-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

2008-06-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Then off to Fatima's for a wonderful feast!!

2008-06-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Another Brisbane party girl (moved to Sydney).

2008-06-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

PARTY PEEPS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

2008-06-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

2008-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

2008-06-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

there were camera phones snapping aplenty as opening night goers enjoyed jewel mackenzie's installation.

2008-06-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

London artist Melanie Manchot's Security 2005 was very popular. Could it have been the buff bods stripping? o cynical moi!!

2008-06-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

Josh Burry came down from Brisbane for the party/opening. This is his work Inside/Outside 2007

2008-06-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

I had seen Kristof Kintera's Revolution 2005 at Palais de Tokyo in Paris and loved it so it was wonderful to see it in Australia. A sad little figure in the corner who suddenly bangs its head very loudly on the wall. Frightening and dynamic. If you want to see more of this exciting artist go to http://kristofkintera.com

2008-06-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

Rob Kelly from RawSpace in Brisbane had curated a show entitled Uprising and it opened at Horus and Deloris in Pyrmont. The lovely Jewel Mackenzie was in fine form.

2008-06-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

Francis Alÿs Choques, 2005–06 Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

There were some works which I enjoyed including the small video works high on the wall by Francis Alys. Also Rebecca Horn. I had seen a huge reprospective of her work in Berlin, but not this one, and I thought it captured her oeuvre. I am a great fan of Fischli and Weiss but these were not their best in my opinion, but then I have been very lucky in that I saw a large show of theirs in teh Tate Modern in London.

There seemed to be quite a contingent of Arte Povera artists as well as early works by Carolee Shneeman and Bruce Naumann. Nedko Solakov hired local students to paint the entry hall of the gallery black and then white over that etc etc etc. I thought it added something a bit different to the show, but the ladies at the desk hated it.

2008-06-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Peter Fischli / David Weiss The First Blush of Morningfrom the Equilibres series, 1984

The Gallery of NSW component of the Biennale08 illustrates all that can go wrong with a themed show in my opinion. With the title revolutions - forms that turn it seems that

all the art had to be in this bit was round or moving round to be in it. O yes, and preferably the artist be DEAD!

I only started travelling in the last few years, but have managed to pack in Biennales in Venice (3) Shanghai, Sao Paulo as well as Documenta, Munster and a great deal of art in between, and one of the joys of a Biennale is to discover new, contemporary, cutting edge art which I choose to love or hate, but importantly to be challenged.

One of the problems I had with Documenta 2007 was that so much of the art was old: historical contextualisation or something, BUT, in Sydney, there is Duchamp's wheel for f&%$ks sake. I know it is round, but surely we don't need to go back that far to get the show "rolling". And throw in Jean Tinguely, Joseph bloody Beuys, Yves Klein for good measure.

2008-06-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

AND then it was off to the Gallery of New South Wales. HOW DISAPPIONTING!!!
I can't believe how bad this section was. I was sooooooo upset I will have to have a rest before I comment. Suffice to say, I SEE DEAD PEOPLE.

2008-06-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

UP EARLYISH and first stop ARTSPACE. There were 8 works including this video.

Marcellvs L. spree, 2007
Courtesy the artist and carlier l gebauer, Berlin

Marcellvs L.’s videos focus the lens on small, often unobserved, events, and his works seem to slow down time. A rope suspended in water that slowly moves with the swell, leaves blown by the wind, or a man walking down a street, are all captured with a prolonged gaze that foregrounds details usually gone unseen.
Marcellvs L.’s work is an extension of temporality itself, shifting our attention away from narrative to the experience of a palpable staging of time. In spree (2007), a building seems still – yet, after a moment of viewing, it appears to be slightly moving. The title of the artwork reveals that the gentle bobbing movement of the recorded image is caused by the fact that it was filmed from a houseboat on the River Spree, never pictured. It is a vertiginous dialogue between two architectural forms – the houseboat and the house on the river.

2008-06-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Then it was back on the ferry and back to the hotel and pizza and a beer and cable and feet up in preparation for a big day Saturday. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz z

2008-06-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

Emily Sundblad is an artist, curator, singer, actress and co-founder of the artists’ project and gallery Reena Spaulings Fine Art in New York. The gallery operates as an ongoing performance project and vehicle for her exploration of the multi-faceted production of art. Sundblad has curated a film program as her artwork for the Biennale. She is showing two films she has made with fellow artist and collaborator Amy Granat (Gun and Cake, both from 2007), as well as two hard-to find films that have been influential in her artistic practice: Daddy by Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint Phalle (1973), and Les Maîtres Fous by Jean Rouch (1955). Sundblad will also present one-time screenings of the PBS documentary American Experience: Mary Pickford (2005, USA, 90 mins), Ecstasy of the Angels (1972, Japan, 70 mins), a documentary about the radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing titled Asylum (1972, UK, 95 mins), and a selection of short performance clips.

2008-06-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

Venezuelan and Spanish artist Javier Téllez’s works investigate notions of normality and pathology, power and exclusion, both in contemporary society and through its cultural history. In his exploration of marginalised segments of society, such as the mentally ill or illegal immigrants, Téllez also reveals the structures put in place to curb or control them. His artistic work is characterised by site-specific and unorthodox collaborations. For the Sydney Biennale, One Flew Over the Void (Bala perdida) is a video of his collaboration with a Mexican psychiatric hospital. The performance event Téllez organised with inSite San Diego shows a gathering of the patients, dressed in costumes and animal masks, to witness and celebrate David Smith, the world-record-breaking human cannonball, launching himself across the Mexico–USA border.

2008-06-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Another mate from Brisbane Riachard Bell is in the Biennale with a new work Scratch an Aussie (2008). IT IS BLOODY FANTASTIC!
For the Biennale of Sydney, Bell has created a new video installation in which prominent Australians are psychoanalysed by the artist, who charades as a black Sigmund Freud.

2008-06-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

The upper leve was quite different to the lower level and had a great view.

2008-06-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Coctatoo Island is huge and there are 35 artists featured, but after exploring the lower level I was having a beer and a sit down and seriously wondered if I had the legs to walk up to the top level. I had been "on the road"for hours and i was f*%^#%d. But I got to chatting with the man in charge of the masterplanning of the future of the island, and after telling him about the Arsenale and various venues he should visit around the world, he offred me a lift up the hill in the electric golf buggy.
THANK YOU PHILLIP!!!! It was well worth it.

2008-06-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Internationale (1999) is Philipsz’s version of the historical call to action of revolutionary groups worldwide. Originally composed to celebrate the workers involved in the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, the song came to represent communism. In this work the anthem is transformed from rallying cry to a soft, solitary, a cappella voice, broadcast from one solitary speaker and the voice haunts the Turbine Hall on Cockatoo Island.

2008-06-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

Shaun Gladwell was ...........................................................typically Shaun Gladwell although i sorta wanted the bicycle installation bit did something. But it fitted into the revolution vibe I guess.

2008-06-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

William Kentridge did not disapoint!!! Both his works were wonderful.

2008-06-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Lara Favaretto's collection of whooshing cyliners which blew up little party favours was fun. There was an element of danger from afar as you hoped the cyclinders wouldn't explode, but when you realised the purpose, it was so silly it was a release.

2008-06-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Many Brisbane peeps will know and love the work of artist Nalini Malani from her work at APT over the years> This work The tables have turned, a shadow play (2008) was on its own in a gorgeous round building close to the water.

2008-06-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Vernon Ah Kee had 2 works in this section of the Biennale, this one entitled Born in this skin

2008-06-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

There was a whole dilapidated smelly damp ruin of a building devoted to Mike Parr. The building itself was described to me as "evil"and it was a perfect? setting for the works. As I left, a lovely biennale kiddy asked me if i was alright and upon my enquiring why she replied "it's all a bit disturbing". I explained I was fine and it was really what I expected of Mike Parr.

2008-06-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

2008-06-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

2008-06-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Venice has the Arsenale,Sydney has incredible Cockatoo Island. They are as different as is possible, but Cockatoo Island is an inspired venue.

2008-06-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

Then it was on to a gorgeous old ferry and off to Cockatoo Island for more art.

2008-06-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

First stop Pier2/3 where the building is so fab it is hard to drag yourself away from the wonderful timber structure. There are 3 works here and my favourite was The Murder of Crows sound installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. It was at times haunitng, funny, soft, loud, and the sound quality in that vast space was wonderful. You sat on chairs and were surrounded by speakers on chairs as well as above and further away. The ultimate in SURROUND SOUND. This configuration is described in the catalogue as a "minimalist flock".

2008-06-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

Staying at the shabby chic Altamont Hotel on Darlinghurst Road spitting distance fromt he coke sign.....fab!! dropped bags off and straight on to the biennale08 artventure.

2008-06-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Up early and off to a fog bound brisbane airport. Go so bored waiting in teh Qantas Club Lounge I tok a photo of myself and my new haircut but managed to crop out the hair.
Eventually got on the plane and sitting a few seats ahead of me in ECONOMY was our Kev07's wife looking tres fab in a wonderful grey patchy coat.

2008-06-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

IT"S ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An exhibition by the Australian artist Mike Parr, which includes a film showing a live chicken being decapitated, has prompted a complaint to the RSPCA and a visit from police.
The film is being screened in a derelict building on Cockatoo Island as part of this year's Biennale of Sydney, which opens today. It is one of 17 works by Parr included in a confronting show called Mirror/Arse, which documents his "most daring and demanding" performances and explores "trauma and subjectivity".

A sign hung at the entrance to Parr's show in the island's former sailors' quarters warned visitors that the work was not suitable for anyone under 18.
But one visitor was so disturbed by the footage of the chicken being killed that a call was made to the RSPCA, which contacted NSW Police.
Responding to the complaint, several officers from the Water Police visited Cockatoo Island yesterday, viewed Parr's exhibit and asked for the warning sign to be upgraded to include more details of the show's contents.

2008-06-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

pac king my bags, getting my hair cut, checking out the biennale guides. So little time, so much art. I am a little over the word revolution after all the angst at Documenta and Munster and Venice last year, but here goes. This is a quote from the curator:

The impulse to revolt. Revolving, rotating, mirroring, repeating, reversing, turning upside down or inside out, changing perspectives. I imagine the 16th Biennale of Sydney as a constellation of historical and contemporary works of art that celebrate and explore these dynamics, both in art and life. Through installations, performances, films, texts, an evolving online venue, conversations and other events, Revolutions - Forms That Turn articulates the agency embedded in forms that express our desire for change. Such literal and formal devices are charted for their broader aesthetic, psychological, radical and political perspectives.

In politics, ‘revolution' is a term often considered obsolete, ominous and associated with violence - abrupt and sudden change is seen as impossible or dangerous. Revolution is defined as the collapse of revolt into institutionalised new orders. We are told that change can only occur as a series of micro-changes or through evolution, not revolution. The idea of revolution has become a lifestyle choice, co-opted into the latest software upgrade.

Carolyn Christov-BakargievArtistic Director, 2008 Biennale of Sydney

2008-06-18T02:42:00.000-07:00

dear cybernauts. Thanks for your comments. I particluarly liked this one : I had to get the babelfish to translate, but i assume the gist of it is that you are a great fan of conceptual art.

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2008-06-17T18:15:00.000-07:00

From the photos of those who bravely go before me, I better pack a raincoat!!

2008-06-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

Some of Brisbane's finest artpeeps are doing it hard with art art and more art!!

2008-06-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

SUSAN PHILIPSZ The Lost Reflection

IT HAS BEGUN!!! the buzz has started.

I can't wait to get down there. Go to http://artlife.blogspot.com/ fro an interesting conversation on the Ai Wei Wei project.

One of my favourite works at the 2007 Sculpture Project in Meunster Germany was Susan Philipz's work The Lost Reflection. It will be interesting to see how it translates to a new location.

2008-06-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

Image: Vernon Ah Kee, see me (detail), 2006, acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas, 3 parts 177 x 240 cm each. Courtesy Artbank, Sydney. Photo: Vernon Ah Kee and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

I am very excited to see the Vernon Ah Kee is IN the Biennale. Vernon and I go to uni together and I am a great fan.

[quote from BOS website]
Vernon Ah Kee’ s conceptual text pieces, videos, photographs and drawings are a critique of Australian popular culture from the perspective of the Aboriginal experience of contemporary life.
Vernon Ah Kee will exhibit 12 charcoal and pastel drawings on canvas that continue his series of portraits of his family.The focus of each subject is their ‘gaze’ – the way they look back at the viewer.
Ah Kee’s drawings respond to the history of romantic and exoticised portraiture of ‘primitives’ and effectively reposition the Aboriginal in Australia from an ‘othered thing’ anchored in museum and scientific records to a contemporary people inhabiting real and current spaces and time.

2008-06-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Joan Jonas, living legend legend

Counting the sleeps!!. I fly out next Friday and I have only four days in Sydney and so I will need all my planning skills and a comfy pair of shoes to make the most of it. Have already booked in for a performance by Joan Jonas:
"A founding figure of video and performance art, Joan Jonas was originally a sculptor who began to participate in experimental dance workshops. She held her first performance in 1968. Since then, Jonas has explored the transformation of the performing body through perception, space and media, by using masks and mirrors, as well as different mythological and contemporary persona. Reading Dante is inspired by Dante’s early-fourteenth- century Divine Comedy, incorporating elements from ‘Inferno’ and ‘Paradiso’. Jonas is premiering this new work in two performances for the Sydney Biennale."

Go to http://www.bos2008.com/ for heaps of stuff and stay tuned.

watch this space!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

I have decided to go see the Sydney Biennale and catch the gorgeous jewel mackenzie's Sydney show at the same time.........June 20 ish. So watch this space for updates prior and tales from during.