Final words.

Trying to adapt by Ric Stultz

AT the end of all this digital wandering through the web I've found it to be both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because there is so much out there, and frustrating because at times it was too much and time was always of the essence. My favourite way to go for a wander is definitely Stumble Upon it's like my internet tour guide. Knowing exactly what I like it takes me for a walk and points out all the more interesting sights or in this case sites. Just to make things more fun here is a little something it showed me the other day, an image by Ric Stultz, I feel this image is particularly poignant to our education in Web 2.0 - sometimes through out this class I felt a little like this.

The Internet and the environment

All this information about our world, earth maps and online communities has significantly changed the environmental movement. Recently a friend of a friend had organised a gathering for the 350 movement. Best explained in the following video of their mission and its evident success due to the internet:


As their site explains:

In order to unite the public, media, and our political leaders behind the 350 goal, we're harnessing the power of the internet to coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009.

Other similar sites include the Global Footprint Network with the premise that as the world's biggest environmental impacting species, human beings, need to understand the impact they are making in order to see the outcome. Using interactive quizzes and imagery this website is enlightening to say the least.

Interactive art.

I think one of the most interesting ideas I have come across in exploring the web has been what is called Internet art. It is art that is user based, meaning the visitor needs to act in order for art to be created. The first such encounter, and probably still my favourite, is the Jackson Pollock experience. It took me months to discover clicking makes it a much more colourful work. Then there are the more weird art projects, like the Sheep collection this site is kind of strange but it gives insight into how we all vary in our perceptions of the world. Personally I prefer to have a bit more interaction, I mean that is what Web 2.0 is all about. So sites like Neave offer more variety, and more distractions.
One that I find to be almost medative is called Tinygrow, its where you build your own imaginary garden or forest. Then ofcourse there are the basic drawring sites, that are fun for a short period but really don't entice a very long stay. My two faverotes are when you get to be Picasso and one where you get to be your own Painting self.

Repetition is a downward spiral

We all know that the reality of news coverage is that most news bulletins run through the same few monopolies of news organisations so I thought it interesting when I found these sites, Project Censored informing on the news that was not mentioned through the big agencies. Closely aligned to Media Freedom International based in the US, it covers everything from politics to Facebook.

I forget how often I simply type in my news source into the address bar, I take it for granted that I have this amazing research tool right at my finger tips. Countless times I have surfed through the familiar to me news sites and re-read a story so many times it feels like I was there. News has become repetitive, which is a huge problem, it implies laziness, there is more than one story out there. Sites like Project Censored are particularly good for this sort of reality check on what we read and listen to.

Assignment three.

The following two posts are pertaining to the Australian art website ArtInfo. The first is a short feature and the second is a review.

What is Fair in Art.

The trend of Art fairs has been a major contribution to the economy of Contemporary artists, galleries and dealers. It is important to not only maintain a holistic knowledge of the art world but also to make contact with it directly. Art fairs can act as the local and international communication platform informing the industry of trends and significant changes. It is for this reason one must maintain a shortlist of Fairs, ones that are of local relevance for access and ones that are of particular resonance on an international scale. Here are some suggestions.

Melbourne Art Fair has been an important part of not only the Australia’s art culture but also as the leader in the Asia pacific region. The art fair provides the opportunity to promote contemporary art and living artist. It, like many Art fairs around the world is an important event for the art community, facilitating Collector Programs, Curator Programs, Public Lecture, Forums Program, Arts Publications, Private Lounge and Guided Tours. Traditionally a biannual event, this year it had been forced to become an annual event to adequately manage the costs. Dates: August 4-8, 2010

The Armory Show, held in the world capital of art; New York City has been an international institution for eleven years. The Armory show is regarded as the world’s leading art fair; its success is measured in the consistent increase in size and range. This year it expanded to make room a new section dedicated to dealers specialising in modern works.
Dates: March 4-7, 2010

Closer to home The Beijing Art Fair is an exciting recent addition to the world art fairs. First started in 2006 it is currently a leading contemporary art fair in China today. Hosting 100 exclusive galleries from around the world it attracts thousands of distinguished critics, collectors, art lovers and artists. The fair’s counter part is the Contemporary Photography Fair, giving a unique perspective on China’s leading photographers. It is the first of it’s kind in Asia, playing an important role in the development of fine art photography in China.
Dates: April, 2010

Art Fair Tokyo has grown in popularity and participation since its debut in 2005. It features a large variety of genres of contemporary art, modern paintings, nihonga, Asian works of art and antiques.
Dates: April 2- 4, 2010

One of the more intriguing and possibly more popular events is the Affordable Art Fair as the name indicates it is a fair where art works are within a lower cost range. Starting in London in 1999, the popularity of this fair has expanded to cities like Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Australia’s Sydney and Melbourne.
Dates: Vary from city to city.

SCOPE is the largest and most global art fair in the world featuring emerging contemporary art with 7 markets worldwide. Through a unique program of solo and thematic group shows presented alongside museum-quality exhibitions, collector tours, screenings, and special events. It is held in 4 different locations within the USA, namely Hamptons, New York and Miami. Outside of the states it takes place in London and Basel.
Dates: Vary from city to city.

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair is a leading US art fair dedicated solely to contemporary art. Held annually in New York and Miami, PULSE bridges the gap between main and alternative fairs and provides participating galleries with a platform to present new works to a strong and growing audience of collectors, art professionals and art lovers.
Dates: March 4-7, 2010 New York City

The Bricoleur, Ricky Swallow – A review.

Killing Time, Ricky Swallow. Source: Ricky Swallow website photo: Karl Schwerdtfeger

The National Gallery of Victoria is currently hosting The Bricoleur, Ricky Swallow’s first major exhibition in Australia since 2006. Curated by Alex Baker the exhibition includes Swallow’s sculptures of crafted wood and bronze as well as the artist’s lesser-known watercolour series. Swallow is an Australian Artist who currently resides in California. His Killing Time (2003-04) piece (pictured), which features as the final masterpiece in this exhibition, was tremendously popular in the 2005 Venice Binnale, and was arguably his the turning point of his professional career.

The exhibition touches on several themes of the body, both of human and animal forms and the ideas of death as well as exploring the idea of permanence through objects. These themes do not however illicit a morbid mood or sadness associated with such ideas, rather the works united in this space seem to communicate with each other and the audience creating a relationship between the existing and the portrayed memory. Juxtaposed into a continuous story of the artist’s own thoughts and memories, the exhibition ends with the pieces Salad days (2005) and Killing time the later depicts a kitchen table with a bounty of fish and crustaceans it stylistically resembles classic paintings of 17th Century still life. As has been sited by a number of critics this work is a reproduction of the Swallow family kitchen table of the artist’s youth in San Remo, Victoria. The work is ubiquitous with autobiographical reference. It not only represents an object from Swallow’s past, but also the profession of his father, a fisherman.

Overall the exhibition is successful in its presentation, as the artist works directly with the curators. Swallow’s meticulous nature is clearly evident in the illumination of the works, revealing fine distinction of form and texture. This exploration of texture is spell binding as the formal qualities of the object are thrown off by the illusion of softness. Representation of cloth items, balloons and the human body is hyper real. One cannot help but feel the weight of the object is one which is being depicted rather than that of it s true form of wood.

In fact the sensual qualities of the works are spell binding, as one feels the urge to touch the seemingly frozen in time objects. As one makes their way through the space, this kind of tension builds. The Killing time piece had people approaching it from all sides and waiving their hands and fingers over it in a manner too close for comfort. As one NGV staff member said, there is a lot of monitoring of this exhibition as people consistently comment on the desire to touch these objects.
Before entering into the final gallery space Swallow has arranged Caravan (2008) a newer work consisting of his barnacle-encrusted balloons executed in finely brushed, golden, glowing bronze. Like the wood sculptures the viewers perception of the real form is challenged by the representation in bronze. Another set of works in this space is the wall pieces of bronze castings of found archery targets. The physical forms of the holes made by the arrows resemble the barnacles of the Caravan piece.

The Bricoleur offers viewers a number of thematic avenues for exploration. Primarily however it is a display of master craftsman ship and an important aesthetic experience.

Is that a photo booth? Is that a changing room? No, it's art.

Moving Galleries exhibitions have reignited Melbourne’s unique cultural identity.
A project engaging public transport commuters in art and poetry en route to their everyday tasks can be hailed as a success. Founded on a philosophy of accessible art, the initiative started in 2006 as inspired by similar projects in London and New York. The current exhibition, Transformation due to end in December, exhibits eighteen Artworks and twenty-three Poems across forty trains.

The Transformation exhibition documents some of Melbourne’s installation art, such as the works found in Melbourne Next Wave Festival and the Melbourne City Council Laneway Commission. As the art is no longer on show in the streets, the photographic records now displayed as decals on the train faced a challenge in conveying these works in a cogent manner.

“The images have to stand on their own. All of this work is ephemeral It just isn’t there anymore, so the image itself stands in for the original work. So you’ve got a synthesis of two works – the original artwork itself and the photograph of the artwork” Jessie Doring Moving Galleries’ Project Manager explains in an interview with street press magazine Trouble (Issue 62 October 2009).

Works like CITYtalking by Astra Howard, envisage the city as a web of creative communication. Her talking booth, moving through the laneways of Melbourne, encouraged passers by to participate in the work through a chat, their conversation then becomes part of the exhibition on the LED screen affixed to the outside of the booth. The work potentially involves those who don’t necessarily partake in the arts as it is placed outside of the usual parameters of exhibiting spaces. In the context of the Moving Galleries project it heightens the awareness of commuters to their street surroundings, and perhaps increases the likelihood of their participation in such projects.

The aim to bring about a wider audience for what is arguably a niche community of participating bodies is yet another step in the theories of modern Museology. A more egalitarian approach to the sphere of art appreciation is taking place through this project. Public space installations have acted as inspirational treats through out the Melbourne Laneways in the past, but their hidden and ephemeral nature limits the audience to a select few. Moving Galleries is increasing the exposure of art by the use of non-traditional spaces, it is not a revolutionary concept but it is an effective one.

Other works include Robbie Rowlands’ The Upholsterer an image from an instillation in the Depot exhibition. This work challenges viewer’s perceptions of the normal as he pulls the house to pieces; simply by pulling on what seems to be a thread, like those on a sealed envelope or a pack of smarties. The nature of photography acts as documentary testament to the last stages of the life of this house, how it is then destroyed is up to the imagination of the viewer. In this case it is up to the imagination of the passenger, in some cases an unlikely viewer, encouraged to let himself be carried away by the art as he is by the train ride.

The Moving Galleries projects can also be followed via Twitter and Facebook.

The Melbourne Stenci Festival - Review

The Melbourne Stencil Festival - The Underground

The Melbourne Stencil Festival is an annual event, which has been running since 2004. It rides on the coat tails of popular street artists like Ha-Ha, whose works are always a part of the exhibition and deservingly so. Time and again Ha-Ha has contributed complex composition pieces, with a depth exhibiting not only his curious and well-read nature but also a deeply Australian identity. His iconic image of Ned Kelly, without the helmet, featured in this year’s Award Exhibition held at the Yarra Sculpture Space. The works of Drewfunk during opening night had also eloquently carried over both the grassroots aspect of street art, namely aerosol to surface method without the filter of stencils, and the unique cultural styles of Melbourne.

The Festival’s other location was The Underground - a converted car park in Harmsworth Street, Collingwood - it held a film night, workshops and a charity auction at the end of the show.

This year the Underground projects and exhibition has given the festival a new energy. The curator Anna Briers has aptly captured the spirit of the street, which was lacking in the Gallery space. As an evolving space, it filled up during the course of the festival and at its peak it exhibited unanimously the works of new as well as established artists ranging from stencils on canvas and found objects, to sculpture, installations and projections. At its peak, The Underground, successfully carried across the egalitarian aspect of street art and its liberal communication with the public, in a non-obtrusive harmony.

The entire space was consumed with an eclectic array of experiences. Interstate artists Ololo contributed to the show by painting a van. A cubby house structure in one corner with a projection by the artist Elva Carri, acted as a kind of intimate and private space, where parents often found their child who had run off. The size of the location made it possible to get lost in the happenings of one area and be completely unaware of a different project on the other side of the car park. This worked well however, as visitors got a perpetual feeling of activity.

The Underground adequately highlighted the need to remain true to the art form from which the festival stems. The Street Art aspect is undermined somewhat in the Gallery space when some of the exhibiting artists admit to having never painted on the streets, arguably the true home of Melbourne’s stencil art. This aspect is important, as the street is the first point of contact, there the works are politicised, criticised and admired within the context of their competition to the signs of consumerism. They exist outside it, which by no fault of the Festival, they cannot do in the Gallery where they are the commodities.

End.

Introduction

The assignment is made in part for ArtInfo. This website contains, reviews, news items on art and artist profiles. The content is very interesting to art enthusiasts however the site is lacking in terms of links; it does however contain some multimedia, which works really well for the site.
Therefore for the purpose of this assignment and in regards to how I think this website should be improved my articles contain links, but are written for the audience of ArtInfo. This does not warrant a new site, just some improvements on the old.

There will now be two stories as two separate posts for two sections of the site, namely Articles and Reviews