2005
2005
Open letter
Curator Binghui Huangfu of the Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney, has selected work by artists of (mostly) South East Asian descent - Dadang Christanto, Emil Goh, Selina Ou, Vienna Parreno; Krzysztof Osinski, George Poonkhin Khut & John Tonkin, Melissa Ramos, Koky Saly, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, My Le Thi - for an exhibition exploring the realities of leaving one home to live somewhere very different and how this affects their individual practice and the cultures of both their original place and their new place of abode. The generation of artists coming to the fore in the early years of the 21st century in Australia includes a number of people of South East Asian background, a notable change from a decade before. This creates both a new dynamic among them and changes the shape of contemporary Australian culture. The exhibition is an 'open letter' back to South East Asia and Australia.
CURATOR: Binghui Huangfu
ARTISTS: Dadang Christanto, Emil Goh, Selina Ou, Vienna Parreno with Krzysztof Osinski, George Poonkhin Khut with John Tonkin, Melissa Ramos, Koky Saly, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, My Le Thi
TOUR: The exhibition toured from 2005 to 2006, from Sydney to Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur.
Bangkok: 5 - 31 August 2005, National Gallery
Manila: 5 October - 5 November 2005, Metropolitan Museum
Kuala Lumpur: 14 February - 16 April 2006, National Art Gallery
Un Wrapped: Australian Fashion and Textile Design
Unwrapped: Australian Fashion and Textiles Design was an exhibition featuring contemporary fashion and textile works by over 20 contemporary designers from across Australia. Unwrapped included a wide range of media including wild kangaroo fur, hand-printed textiles and clothing, wool creations and collaborative artwork combining printed Aboriginal designs with hand quilting. Visitor comments from the exhibition in Singapore included ‘I feel so inspired! Thanks!!’ and ‘Wonderful pieces of work, flabbergasted.’
Curator: Meredith Rowe
Artists: Margaret Ainscow, Breathlesselfh, Billabong, Beauty of Nature, Sarah Crowest, Ernabella Arts Inc, Andrea Geisler, Lorinda Grant, Gwendolynne, Akira Isogawa, Easton Pearson, Julie Ryder, Sara Lindsay, Rosemary O’Rouke, Kerry Pryor, S!X, Tiwi Design and Stewart Russell, Utopia/Brahma Tirta Sari Studio, Vixen Australia, Ilka White, Liz Williamson, Zimmermann
Partner: Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo
Tour: Bendigo, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, Singapore (2003-2005)
Akira Isogawa: Printemps–Été
Curator Katie Somerville of the National Gallery of Victoria has worked with Japanese-born Australian designer Akira Isogawa to create an exhibition of recent work that shows how Isogawa's work is inspired and developed as well as the finished objects. Displayed on cut-out oversized dolls, a key element of the design is the influence of origami, but reinvented anew.
Curator: Katie Somerville
Artist: Akira Isogawa
Partner: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Tour: Melbourne, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai (2005-2007)
The impact of this solo exhibition by a leading Australian artist, in this case Japanese-born but Australian (tertiary) educated fashion designer Akira Isogawa, was multiform: a beautiful and creative show that revealed the artist’s thinking, a show of a leading internationally recognised designer, and the revelation of how a creative person from one strong and influential culture like Japan can find greater freedom to explore both his heritage and his new surroundings, in those new surroundings. The exhibition focused on the creative process that Isogawa embarked upon over a five month period in the lead up to the presentation of his spring/summer collection in Paris in 2004. This elusive process, which is not usually accessible to the public, was revealed through a range of objects, working drawings, sounds, images and completed garments, something acknowledged by visitors at various venues. Said one commentator in Singapore: ‘It’s brilliant to see Akira Isogawa’s work and also his thought/work processes throughout the whole collection’. And a reviewer in Manila wrote ‘a cursory look at the exhibit is simply inexcusable, because Isogawa’s works require a thorough study… It is well worth the time of anyone seriously pursuing a career in design’ (C. Mendez Legaspi, Business Mirror, 20 January 2006).
Dinosaur Designs
In contrast to a solo painting exhibition by a leading, older Indigenous artist like Dorothy Napangardi was the show of inner Sydney designers Dinosaur Designs. A very successful design group formed by the three artists named, they work with unusual materials – often coloured resins – making simple and distinctive sculptural objects for people’s wear and domestic use. This exhibition yielded impressive attendance figures, particularly in Taiwan where they recorded 12,415 visitors in three weeks. One comment in the visitor book stated: ‘I never realised that polyester resin could be the medium for making elegant and stylish jewellery until I saw Dinosaur Designs.’
Curator: Brian Parkes
Artists: Louise Olsen, Stephen Ormandy, Liane Rossler
Partner: Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design, Sydney
Tour: Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore (2004-2005)
I Thought I Knew but I was Wrong: New Video Art from Australia
I thought I knew but I was wrong: New Video Art from Australia explores the impact of video art on Australian contemporary art over the past five years. Showcasing a diverse selection of video works, the exhibition introduces audiences to the ways in which Australian artists are using video to explore ideas of identity, lifestyle and society within the context of a diverse and multifaceted arts culture. Disparate in subject matter and style, the works in this exhibition share a common urge to communicate something immediate and relevant to their audience. I thought I knew but I was wrong is a snapshot of the range and breadth of Australian contemporary visual culture - from the slick to the lo-fi, the luxurious to the raw, and the comic to the confessional.
Curators: Alexie Glass, Sarah Tutton
Artists: Guy Benfield, Philip Brophy, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Daniel Crooks, DAMP, Destiny Deacon, Virginia Fraser, Shaun Gladwell, Lyndal Jones, The Kingpins, Marcus Lyall, James Lynch, Tracey Moffatt, TV Moore, Patricia Piccinini, David Rosetzky, Ivan Sen, Monika Tichacek, Craig Walsh
Partner: Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne
Exhibition dates & venues:
Bangkok, July-August 2004, Chulalongkorn University
Singapore, October-November 2004, NAFA
Seoul, February-March 2005, Ssamzie Space
I thought I knew but I was wrong presents the work of nineteen artists in three interconnected screening programs: Persona, Play and Space. These programs are intended as fluid groupings through which the viewer is able to engage with the works and the broad themes of identity, representation and the constructed environment. The exhibition includes work by both internationally renowned artists such as Tracey Moffatt, Patricia Piccinini and Destiny Deacon, as well as younger artists such as David Rosetzky and Shaun Gladwell, who have only begun to exhibit internationally over the past few years. The exhibition also includes works by Ivan Sen, Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Marcus Lyall, artists who are known primarily for their work in the film and television sector. Sen won considerable international acclaim for his film Beneath Clouds, while Lyall's multi-screen works have been used as part of stadium concert tours by U2, Oasis and the Rolling Stones. Courtin-Wilson has worked extensively in documentary film with the Australian multicultural network, SBS.
Supernatural Artificial
Presented for Asialink’s Australia Japan Visual Arts Partnerships Program 2002-2004
Presenting the work of nine leading Australian artists working in photography and video, Supernatural Artificial was a highly charged and moody exhibition that uncovered the un-natural and theatrical in contemporary photographic practice. For a major exhibition of Australian photography to be shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography was a coup, and very well received by the Tokyo audience. It attracted 25 print media articles, with a circulation of nearly 200 million people, and the Museum reported ‘we had so many visitors in comparison with our usual data…. We’d like to have more interchange between the Australian and Japanese art scene’ and indeed this laid the way for the next exhibition there, with the work of Destiny Deacon (see 2006). Due to the overwhelming response achieved in Japan, Supernatural Artifical then toured five other countries, including selected works being exhibited at the 2006 Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Curator: Natalie King
Artists: Pat Brassington, Cherine Fahd, Eliza Hutchison, Tracey Moffatt, David Noonan and Simon Trevaks, Darren Siwes, Darren Sylvester, Monika Tichacek, Anne Zahalka
Partner: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
Tour: Tokyo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Hanoi, Singapore (2005-2006)