The Lorne Sculpture Award exhibition is on until November 8th.

http://artabase.net/exhibition/1943-lorne-sculpture-exhibition

Here are the winning works:

Geoffrey Ricardo, winner of the major $15,000 prize, the Great Ocean Road Sculpture Award sponsored by the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) with his 'Anno Domino' 2009

Jonathan Leahey's work 'Bullseye, 2009' was acquired to remain permanently in the Lorne streetscape as a joint sponsorship initiative from the Surf Coast Shire, The Myer Foundation and Lorne Sculpture Exhibition Inc. Photo: Ian McCrae

The Environment Award - sponsored by Billard Leece Partnership Roman Liebach -'ve come with the wind, 2009'. Photo: Ian McCrae

The Regional Artist Award - sponsored by Friends of Melaleuca, Anglesea Brigit Hiller - 'Into the Wind, 2009'

The Emerging Artist Award - sponsored by Cynthia and Jack Wynhoven Liz Walker, 'Junk Mail, 2009'. Photo: Ian McCrae

The Shopfront Award - sponsored by Tom & Marianne Latham and Peter & Mandy Matthews Susan Reddrop, 'Mirage, 2009'

In his first major Australian show since 2006, The Bricoleur, curated by Alex Baker, brings together an intriguing mix of Swallow’s well known, meticulously detailed, lifelike wooden sculptures (for example his classic table of hand-sculpted wooden fish Killing Time 2003-4) complimented by more permanent works in bronze.

A surprise collection of Swallow’s lesser-known watercolours, which were first surveyed by curator Steven Alderton in Ricky Swallow: Watercolours (Art Museum at the University of Queensland), are also included in the show.

The thing which grabs me about Swallow’s sculptures is his absolute mastery of contradiction in form.

When I look at the work of Renaissance masters, with life-like human forms in marble; I feel the weight of the marble, not the weight of the human body. With Swallow’s work, my perception is constantly torn between that of the depicted object and that of its material.

While looking at the back pack in Fig.2 (2009, pictured right), with its soft, material folds gently enveloping mysterious content, one can feel the heaviness of its contents, the lightness of its covering. This perception of weight makes no sense to a mind which reads the object’s texture of wood and knows the item should have an average dispersed weight equaling that of wood.

Likewise barnacles grow on what should be plastic balloons; two sets of fragile human bones hold hands in a too-late moment of intimacy – one which, made from annodised bronze, will - by contrast - last forever. The collection brought together in The Bricoleur reinforces Swallow’s engagement with the themes of permancence; to me suggesting the fraught value of art as an impossible attempt at permanence.

The Bricoleur is a must-experience opportunity to inspect Swallow’s incredible sculptural work in close detail.

http://artabase.net/exhibition/1837-ricky-swallow-the-bricoleur

Ricky Swallow (born 1974, San Remo, Victoria, Australia) currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA . He won the Contempora 5 award in 1999 and represented Australia at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Click on the following images for more detail.

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– Tusk 2007 (detail) patinated bronze, brass, edition of 3 plus 1 artist’s proof 50.0 x 105.0 x 6.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of the Prescott Family Foundation, 2008 © Ricky Swallow Photo: Fredrik Nilsen courtesy Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– History of holding 2007 Turkish Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) (1) 124.0 x 14.0 x 14.0 cm; (2) 16.0 x 106.0 x 19.0 cm Collection of the artist, Los Angeles © Ricky Swallow Photo: Fredrik Nilsen courtesy Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– History of holding 2007 (detail) Turkish Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) (1) 124.0 x 14.0 x 14.0 cm; (2) 16.0 x 106.0 x 19.0 cm Collection of the artist, Los Angeles © Ricky Swallow Photo: Fredrik Nilsen courtesy Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– Salad days c.2005 Jelutong (Dyera costulata), maple (Acer sp.) 102.0 x 102.0 x 23.8 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased with funds from the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2005 © Ricky Swallow Photo: Andy Keate courtesy Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– Flying on the ground is wrong 2006 bronze, artist’s proof 5/5 4.0 x 14.5 x 5.0 cm Collection of J. G. Miles QC, Auckland © Ricky Swallow Photo: Courtesy Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– Bowman’s record 2008 bronze 46.0 x 33.0 x 2.5 cm Collection of the artist, Los Angeles © Ricky Swallow Photo: Robert Wedemeyer courtesy Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– Caravan 2008 bronze, ed. 1/3 (1-2) 35.6 x 25.4 x 27.9 cm (each); (3) 30.5 x 22.9 x 25.4 cm; (1-3) (variable) (installation) Private collection, Auckland © Ricky Swallow Photo: Courtesy Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– One nation underground 2007 watercolour (a-j) 35.0 x 28.0 cm (each) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2008 © Ricky Swallow Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Ricky Swallow born Australia 1974, lived in England 2003–06, United States 2006– One nation underground 2007 (detail) watercolour (a-j) 35.0 x 28.0 cm (each) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2008 © Ricky Swallow Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

http://artabase.net/exhibition/1837-ricky-swallow-the-bricoleur

Kahn has been an international leader in contextualising auditory practices within twentieth century arts theory. Currently a recipient of a Creative Capital and Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant, he writes on sound and electromagnetism with an emphasis on the avant-garde and experimentalism in their relation to science and technology.

The ‘Occasional Lecture Series’ national tour travels to five Australian capital cities to promote the AMA and Australian arts of sound to a broad range of arts communities. This lecture tour will give our visual, music, film and performing arts industries the opportunity to directly engage with Kahn, one of the most significant sound arts theorists in the past 25 years. Through a wide range of contexts including curated film screenings, exhibitions, academic conferences and performance evenings, the tour provides important networking and professional development opportunities for Australian practitioners.

Douglas Kahn states “I am honored by the efforts of AMA and ANAT and I have gone into overtime to do justice to this opportunity. I will be presenting several new talks with an underlying thesis I have been researching and developing for several years, one that rewrites the history of communications technologies in terms of nature in order to account for artistic and musical activities from the 1960s to the present.”

“…The Arts of Sound in Australia enjoy a vibrant, active and rather underground scene. Many Australian sound arts practitioners are held in high international regard, yet they are relatively unknown in Australia’s contemporary arts sector. Siting an editorial focus on the Arts of Sound within the AMA counters this predicament and further contextualises these sound art practices within the wider contemporary arts arena.” Comments Sarah Last, ANAT’s Embracing Sound Program Manager.

The lecture tour will culminate in Melbourne, with Kahn featuring as one of the high calibre international presenters at ANAT’s Super Human: Revolution of the Species curatorial masterclass, and a keynote speaker at Re:live, the Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology. Following Kahn’s keynote ANAT and AMA will be hosting a post publication party for the November 09 Sound Art issue of Art Monthly Australia, ensuring the resonance of Australian arts of sound will continue its reverberation around the globe.

National Tour Dates

PERTH: 30-31st October – 2009 THNMF Conference and keynote address.
Hosted by PICA, TURA, Edith Cowan University.

BRISBANE: 5-8th November – Wireless Imagination, Lecture series, exhibition and screening program. Hosted by the State Library of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology.

CANBERRA: 17th November – Lecture.
Hosted by the National Film and Sound Archive.

SYDNEY: 19th November – Lecture.
Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art.

MELBOURNE: 25-26th November – Super Human: Revolution of the Species masterclass.
Hosted by ANAT in association with ACMI.

MELBOURNE: 27th November - Keynote address at Re:live Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, and ANAT/AMA publication party for conference delegates.
Hosted by ANAT, AMA, and Re:live.

For more information visit www.anat.org.au/

This project has been made possible with the assistance of; Art Monthly Australia, Australia Council for the Arts, Tura, ECU, The Edge, State Library of Queensland, Queensland Government, Queensland Univerity of Technology, National Film and Sound Archive, Musuem of Contemporary Art and Sound Travellers.

The AMA November Sound Art edition and complementary DVD was made possible from funding support from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. The lecture series was also supported by Australia Council’s Visual Arts Board International Strategies Review.

If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to grab one of the last copies of the hardcover Len Lye book which accompanies the show. Only 400 were made, and less than a hundred remained last week.

However, if you miss out on the hardcover version, the same book (minus the special ACMI intro) will be printed again in paperback by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Zealand, who house the Len Lye Foundation Collection and Archives.

This wonderful book combines beautiful, full-colour, high resolution images with texts by several art historians. Lye’s contribution to film practice, his difficult placement as a surrealist in modern art history, his contribution to photography through photogram portraits, his use of colour in a Chromophobic art world, and the importance of his kinetic sculptures are all addressed by international specialists familiar with his work: curators Tyler Cann and Alessio Cavallaro, filmmaker Roger Horrocks (author of Lye’s biography), Wystan Curnow, Guy Brett, Evan Webb and Tessa Laird.

Apart from the high quality, easily read and astutely referenced texts, what you also get out of this book is the ability to take your time scrutinising Lye’s art work in detail. His lesser known drawings, paintings and photography accompany high-resolution stills of his films. Production materials and techniques are also covered.

Particularly interesting for me is the short lexicon at the back, which defines Lye-originating terms like ‘Old Brain’ (Lye’s term for a collective form of the unconscious contained within the genetic code and the evolutionarily older reaches of the brain governing the body), and ‘Body English’ (which is an archaic colloquial term referring to the movements people make when trying to influence an object, such as a ball, from afar. Lye used this term to describe the tension and awareness of the body created by this empathic response as it informed the making of his work, and viewer’s responses to it).

The book will make an excellent addition to Fine Art and Art History libraries, although a different, upcoming book-DVD combo which will be available through ACMI in the near future, might be a more favourable purchase for fans of Lye’s moving-image work in particular.

Len Lye can be ordered online for $59.95 AUD at through the ACMI Store.

Len Lye Book
http://www.acmi.net.au/lenlye_catalogue.htm

Len Lye exhibition at ACMI
http://artabase.net/exhibition/1670-len-lye

ACMI
http://artabase.net/gallery/145-australian-centre-for-the-moving-image

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
http://artabase.net/gallery/1182-govett-brewster-art-gallery

Len Lye
Edited by Tyler Cann and Wystan Curnow
Published: 2009
Publisher: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Foundation
184pp; colour hardback
ISBN 978 1 920805 27 2
AU$59.95 (inc. GST)

]]> http://blog.artabase.net/?feed=rss2&p=1168 http://blog.artabase.net/?p=1161 http://blog.artabase.net/?p=1161#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:51:09 +0000 admin http://blog.artabase.net/?p=1161 Creative Commons has launched its fifth annual fundraising campaign, this time hoping to achieve half a million dollars to assist in its development of alternative copyright licenses.

Artist Shepard Fairey is helping the cause with a remixed CC logo design which you can buy on the fundraiser’s official Tshirt.

Shepard Fairey is well known for using Cultural Artifacts in his graphic design work, mostly due to his infamous Obama “Hope” poster last year. Controversially, he has sued other artists for reusing his own work, so its good to see him supporting the CC bandwagon now.

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/18166

Any small business which invests in an artwork priced above $1,000 before the end of 2009 can apply to receive a 50% rebate.

The scheme is designed to encourage businesses to invest in new plant and equipment, however the Tax Office has recognized the value of Art as an investment, nominating Art as one of the assets for which the tax break may apply.

This effectively means that small business operators can build up an art investment portfolio by investing in artworks at half their retail price, while also improving the aesthetic appeal of their workplace environment.

Business owners should speak to their accountants for more information, and in the meantime they can begin their search for art investments here.

http://artabase.net/exhibition/1922-rough-cut

Oki Sato (Canadian, born 1977) nendo (Japan, est. 2002) Cabbage Chair. 2007 Pleated paper, roll: 36 x 20" (91.4 x 50.8 cm); open: 29 x 33" (73.7 x 83.8 cm)

Lenticular Printing, if you are not familiar with it, is the process by which a still image appears to move, as the angle from which it is seen changes. Those of you who were around in the Eighties might recall the daggy little plastic rulers you got from McDonalds, and as you flipped them each way the picture changed. Megan’s work employs a very sophisticated adoption of that technique. I haven’t seen the results in real life, but even the digital reproductions are gorgeous.

Atmospheric Optics X, 2009 from Atmospheric Optics Lenticular 101 x 90cm, edition of 5 + 2 AP

How did you come to the lenticular process, and how long have you been producing works like this?
I have been making Lenticular prints since 2007. I first came to use the process as I had a concept for a series that could only be realized satisfactorily as a lenticular print. This was for a series of disappearing islands that were inspired by accounts of early Antarctic explorers who reported new lands, only to discover later that they were mirages. Since then I have utilised the same process for other images that deal with transient visual and physiological phenomena, such as auroras and afterimages.

Does the combination of materials (e.g. digital print, UV inks on polypropylene) have a known shelf life? Can you estimate how long the works can be preserved for?
I cannot be certain as the process is relatively new, but as far as I know the printers who prepare the work use products which are more light stable than many digital inks but which are not as archival, perhaps, as materials specially designed for the most stringent museum requirements.

Regarding the Lenticular process: How large are the works, and how fine is the detail (resolution) of the lenticular frames (if I can call them that).
The prints range in size: small (approx. A3); medium (approx. A2); and large (900 mm x 1200 mm is the largest size I have printed to. The lens increases in size relative to the print size, from 75lpi for the smallest prints to 30 lpi for the largest prints. Larger prints can be made but this is at the expense of image quality.

How many layers/images?
The maximum number of layers I have worked with is five.

Are you selling multiple prints?
The editions are up to 5

How many works are in the show?
There were 16 images in the exhibition Fleet Light.

Were you inspired by other artists working in this field?
There are very few artists working with this medium. Two years ago I was only aware of one New Zealand artist Julainne Sumich, but since then I have discovered that a few Australian artists, including Robyn Stacey, make lenticular prints from time to time.

Who are your favourite artists?
My taste in art is wide ranging, historically, stylistically, and materially. However I like the cleverness of Cornelia Parker’s work, especially her use of titles to extend the conceptual scope of her sculptures; the prolonged and varied engagement with Place inherent in Roni Horn’s work; the unique graphic ability of Denys Watkins; the surreal fantasy of Bill Hammond; the monks of Zurbaran monumentalized by a low viewpoint; Narelle Jubelin’s insistence on the potency of the minute, and the ambient paintings for a Parisian ballroom by Josep Maria Sert … to name but a few.

Atmospheric Optics XI, 2009 from Atmospheric Optics Lenticular 90 x 90cm, edition of 5 + 2 AP

Megan Jenkinson is represented by
Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand

Download the Fleet Light Press Release
The Catalogue text for Fleet Light provides excellent insight into her work.
http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/jenkinson/index.php?obj_id=about&nav=0

The Journal is Australasia’s principal refereed art-history journal. It is published by the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand - Australasia’s professional body for art historians - and the IMA.

HOW TO ORDER The Journal retails at $20. If you are in Australia, we will send you a post-free copy if you order directly from us. INDIVIDUALS: Post a cheque (Book Orders, PO Box 2176, Fortitude Valley BC QLD 4006) or phone through your credit-card details (7 3252 5750). ORGANISATIONS: Fax your order form (7 3252 5072), or email your address (ima@ima.org.au) and we’ll invoice you. SPECIAL OFFER: For $5 more we’ll throw in a copy of the previous issue, Post-Medium. TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE JOURNAL: email the Art Association (Carolyn.Wood-roe@uts.edu.au).

Originally published on otto.

The Palace of Versailles, the 17th and 18th century home of Marie Antoinette and the rest of the French Royal Family, is now a sparkling showcase of royal French style and décor. The last thing one expects to see when visiting the château is contemporary art, but that is exactly what Veilhan Versailles, an exhibit of artist Xavier Veilhan’s work at the palace, offers from September 13 – December 13, 2009. The crisp modernity of Veilhan’s pieces are sharply contrasted by their posh and extravagant surroundings, and make for an overwhelmingly successful exhibit.

Le Gisant Youri Gagarine

Le Carrosse

Le Mobile

Les Architectes -- Tadao Ando

by Jean Lin

More pics at otto. otto architecture + design provides daily news, inspiration and original perspectives to the online design and architecture community. www.otto-otto.com