gallery36 vol 3 no 1 2011

Vo l.3 No.1 2011

2011 is on a roll!

Cover image: Alissa West Horses (Triptych) (Detail, one of three) Digital print on laminate 120 x 180cm

Editorial included in this publication reects the opinions of the contributing authors and does not necessarily represent the views of Gallery36. Copyright for submissions belong to the contributors unless otherwise specied.

Gallery36 | Auckland, New ZealandISSN 1179-8319www.gallery36.co.nz Editor: Selene SimcoxPh: 021 169 9084E: [email protected]

Talking to other people conrms for me that 2011 is denitely on a roll! This is a lot happening for a lot of people. So maybe the year of the Rabbit is going to be a good one. And it is ironic that I was helping a friend nd her run-away Rabbit on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Our rst issue out for 2011 is bursting at the seams and brings with it a couple new features: Up For Discussion, introducing critical discourse on all things art and art theory. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage our readers to respond to these articles, wether via email or our blog. The second feature: Making Destinations, introduces Arianne Goodwin from SmARTs. Arianne is a art career coach, author of Writing the Artist Statement: Revealing the True Spirit of Your work and creator of art career conference. Arianne will be sharing with us her secrets of a successful art career and inspiration SmARTipTMs.

Within these pages there is a lot going on. I am truly inspired by the motivation of my peers, especially when times have not been easy with economic struggles and what appears to be a lot of natural disasters going on. And I will not even comment on the weather in Auckland...

These last few months have been a time of new ventures for myself. I have had the pleasure of tutoring in both art making and bookbinding, working with Peter Lange to make clay works for The Deep End of the Mud Hole, a wonderfully collaborative exhibition with over 15 artists, soon to open at Corban Estate and are very pleased to say I am joining a printmaking group. I share all this with you because I have found a huge benet from being part of a arts community, in my case Corban Estate in Henderson. Being part of this community means that I have the pleasure of working with other artists, I have more opportunities made available to me and I am in a supportive environment that harbours creative activity. So if you get the opportunity, join some sort of arts group, and share your knowledge and learn from others. You will be amazed what you get to do.

Gallery36 is a not-for-prot organisation dedicated to showcasing emerging artists and photographers from around New Zealand and also Kiwi emerging artists and photographers working internationally.

The quarterly e-zine offers an opportunity for exposure to those still nding their feet in their career who are passionate about art and/or photography and the role it plays in our society and culture.

Gallery36 is dedicated to providing like-minded people with proles of emerging artists and photographers they will love to read about, packaged up in an easily accessible format that supports our planet by saving trees.

Here at Gallery36 we want YOU to be proled. Say what your work is about, what your passion is, and/or what inuence you want to leave behind. This is your opportunity to be showcased and put yourself out there!

If you are an artist or photographer who wants to be proled, please submit (Approx 300 words and up to 4 photos of your works (plus a photo of yourself, if you wish to), and email all this to [email protected]. Please remember to label your photos with the name, year of creation, medium and size.

Join our email database so you dont miss out on each publication. Just email me at [email protected] with join mailing list in the subject line.

So enjoy reading, and dont forget to share it with yourfriends!

Regards

Selene SimcoxEditor

Gallery36 | Vol 3. No. 1 2011

4There is a moment just before the curtain rises on the performance when the breath of the audience stops and the viewer waits with deafening anticipation. This moment holds terror mixed with hysteria and an unnatural stillness for the performer. Alissa Wests Typology is the performer. Behind the frivolous, exotic kitsch saturated with the text of dead Frenchmen is an eerie quiet. The performance unfolds gently as meaning is teased out of the masquerade.

Underpinning the performance in Wests installation is an element of the McCarthyesque1. She constructs the space framing and ordering hierarchies of traditionally accepted existence. Little Bleeders (Three Boys Talking), life sized male dolls with

their masks obstructing any view but forward and Herd, a taxidermy form of a lion cut in half and protruding from the walls as a metaphor for cultural constructs, reect substitutions of necessity and dialogue with the absurdity of existing power structures within the Western Art canon.

The fragmented, yet cohesive collection of artefacts nods toward the memento mori. Ophelia (Crocodile), Herd, Filth Badger and Otter are direct references to Western museological artefacts as a repository for the dead. Herd, Filth Badger and Otter are forms used by Taxidermists to mould the pelts of dead animals, Ophelia is a life sized female doll encased in a faux crocodile skin. The idea, here, of the collection is one of fetishising objects where they become a fantasy psychic reproduction

Alissa WestArtist E: [email protected]

Typology

Alissa West Herd 2010 Foam and interior paint 2 x 35 x 30 cm


of the object of desire fullment which could be seen as an integral part of Freuds death drive2, and a reminder of our own mortality, or the mortality of existing structures. These works are also a subversive retelling of Freuds primal sexual fantasies3, particularly the Oedipal fear of castration in the jaws of Ophelia (Crocodile).

The reference to historical depictions of the female Nude in Untitled Diptych (Cat), a mechanical, interactive toy cat tethered to the wall opposite an empty frame, Filth Badger and Otter could speak of the fragilised Lacanian Gaze4 that sexualises and fetishises the other. Not only do they recline in a submissive and available pose, they also reference the many animal names used to describe various parts of the female anatomy in popular culture.

For West, the stage or gallery is the most important part of the performance. The gallery represents the legitimacy of the Western art institution. The artefacts within the installation perform beyond the limitations of the space often appearing in and out of the picture plane or, in some instances, the walls of the stage set or gallery. Of Horses

Alissa West Little Bleeders (Three Boys Talking) 2010 Life size dolls, masks and digital print (Frank Stella, 1959, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor) 1900mm x 1400mm x 1400mm

Alissa West Untitled (Horse Attacked By Lion) 2010 Digital prints, wooden frame and mdf board 1100mm x 520mm

6I was born in Auckland NZ, grew up in Bristol England and then moved to Wellington NZ. Graduated from Elam Art School, Auckland in 1992. Now living in Auckland I am focusing on my multimedia practice whilst writing songs for my band NEW HANG UPS. I have exhibited regularly over the past 21 years in various galleries including Test Strip Auckland, Fiat Lux Auckland, Studio Gallery Auckland, Artspace Auckland, Mary Newton Gallery Wellington, Hamish Mckay Wellington, The Dowse Wellington, Leslie Kreisler Gallery New Plymouth, and Tauranga Art Gallery Tauranga.

My current work is concerned with identifying the vague & unsure or reducing seemingly culturally robust signiers to these levels and offering this emotional fragility as tangible sculptural forms. Inspired by personal introspection, they

investigate the stereotypical or archetypal and how these can be unconsciously embodied in everyday events/outcomes and as covert personal or group narratives.Some of these works offer the familiar to suggest the unknown such as my paint covered leaves, which are named after various bat species, such as Acerdon Jubatus (The Gold Headed Bat) 2010.

Others act as analogies such as Cave Need (2010). Here a pile of bones sits outside a cave entrance, those that the creature within has tossed outside after it has nished devouring passing animals. It occurred to me that I dwell in a cave like studio and my presence

Jarad BryantArtist E: [email protected]: jaradbryant.com

Jarad Bryant Acerdon Jubatus (The Gold Headed Bat) 2010 Acrylic on leaf

is only seen by that which appears as art works or the bones that pile up outside, the rubbish I generate, marks I make etc.

Gullibles Travels (2007), like most of my web and dribble works


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2010

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Jarad Bryant Cave Need 2010 Mixed mediaJarad Bryant Gullibles Travels 2007 Acrylic on board

W: newhangups.co.nzW: reverbnation.com/newhangups

explores the mechanisms of personal coping, however would change however to and are often driven by the processes involved in constructing the work itself and so ultimately end up being personal metaphors. Some work however is purely process based.

Language and text is central to my work and is blatant in my dimensional word works such as White Peril, 2010.

My practice is never completely focused in only one mode of working. I have numerous lines of investigation operating, where I document or map my observations, or direct experience and presence (such as my Walking and Driving Drawings) or the presence and or traces of those around me. This can take the form of video and sound work or setting physical traps for people. This stems in part from my recognition of the similarities between rodents and humans.

On a more ethereal level, often my work is inspired or shown to me via dreams or visions, such as the following equation:

ENERGY Vs COMPLEXITY

HALFWAY THROUGH x 2

8There is a moment just before the curtain rises on the performance when the breath of the audience stops and the viewer waits with deafening anticipation. This moment holds terror mixed with hysteria and an unnatural stillness for the performer. Alissa Wests Typology is the performer. Behind the frivolous, exotic kitsch saturated with the text of dead Frenchmen is an eerie quiet. The performance unfolds gently as meaning is teased out of the masquerade.

Underpinning the performance in Wests installation is an element of the McCarthyesque1. She constructs the space framing and ordering hierarchies of traditionally accepted existence. Little Bleeders (Three Boys Talking), life sized male dolls with their masks obstructing any view but forward and Herd, a taxidermy form of a lion cut in half and protruding from the walls as a metaphor for cultural constructs, reect substitutions of necessity and dialogue with the absurdity of existing power structures within the Western Art canon.

The fragmented, yet cohesive collection of artefacts nods toward the memento mori. Ophelia (Crocodile), Herd, Filth Badger and Otter are direct references to Western museological artefacts as a repository for the dead. Herd, Filth Badger and Otter are forms used by Taxidermists to mould the pelts of dead animals, Ophelia is a life sized female doll encased in a faux crocodile skin. The idea, here, of the collection is one of fetishising objects where they become a fantasy psychic reproduction of the object of desire fullment which could be seen as an integral part of Freuds death drive2, and a reminder of our own mortality, or the mortality of existing structures. These works are also a subversive retelling of Freuds primal sexual fantasies3, particularly the Oedipal fear of castration in the jaws of Ophelia (Crocodile).

The reference to historical depictions of the female Nude in Untitled Diptych (Cat), a mechanical, interactive toy cat tethered to the wall opposite an empty frame, Filth Badger and Otter could speak of the fragilised Lacanian Gaze4 that sexualises and fetishises the other. Not only do they recline in

Alissa West Ophelia (Crocodile) 2010 Fabric, foam, wood and plastic 840mm x 930mm x 700mm

Alissa West Little Bleeders (Three Boys Talking) Detail with Filth Badger in background 2010


Kieran KeatArtist M: 021 110 0044E: [email protected]: kierankeat.blogspot.comKieran Keats art practice and personal history are both intimately intertwined. Its through this melding of both the personal and public that allows his ideas to form and opens the door for his work to be honest and sincere no matter how

uneasy or troubling the subject he is investigating.

To a certain extent all my works are autobiographical, a search for identity, reecting the milieu within which the artist himself circulates, and depicting the people and places that have

personal signicance (Watson. 2006. p.88).

Through his work, Kieran Keat gently approaches topics on social, class and family structure as well as the gender issues that exist within New Zealand. With his current practice

consisting mainly of photography or video pieces he is able to use his own experiences and up bringing as afoundation for his images. Choosing to either work with his immediate family/step family as subjects or opting to place himself in front of the camera in his more private performative-based works, Kieran approaches each work with a genuine longing to understand not only his subjects but also his place in the story.

The work of Kierans The Pleasure of Finding Things Out series attempts to capture the stories of those that exist in a space between ordinary and extraordinary. Each moment depicted is located within the genre of performance, yet these private moments become a vehicle to address themes of

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normality, family and desires of belonging and understanding. Kieran illustrates his consideration, respect and admiration for the people he shoots by not using strangers. The genuine aspect comes from private relationships and stories he is trying to understand and deliver to the viewer.

His self-portrait series investigates the use of the body as a site for art, a site to be considered a vehicle for ideas through looking at self-obsession, the self-constructed and adornment, as well as the performance that is contained within the work. Each image provokes an audience to reect upon the conventions and limitations within contemporary society regarding the presentation of the male nude, not that of the naked male. The images in the series refer to the artistic expression of nudity using the arts as a legitimiser, not that of everyday nakedness.

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1. & 2. Kieran Keat The Pleasure of Finding Things Out 2010 Medium format c-type print 1219mm x 1219mm3. Kieran Keat Self Portrait (Tarp) 2010 Photographic print 762mm x 1219mm4. Kieran Keat Untitled (In the blue corner) 2010 C-type prin 1219mm x 1219mm5. Kieran Keat Will Bathroom 2010 Medium format c-type print 1219mm x 1219mm


Rik WilsonArtist E: [email protected]

Rik Wilson nds interesting plays in the odd and disparate components found within suburbia; components which are unied by their banality and lack of novelty. At best these elements are rarely considered and more often than not dismissed as nothing out of the ordinary. The everyday lies outside all areas of knowledge while applying to all of them at the same time. My role as artist is to use objects and materials of ordinary existence as a symbolic reference to the common human condition. His work provokes viewers to analyse their preconceived

Rik Wilson Whitford Avenue (from Free To A Good Home series) 2010 Digital Photography 10 mega pixel 10cm x 10cm

beliefs surrounding objects of the everyday. The richness of his work lies in its sensual yet conceptual, literal yet metaphorical, poetic and yet down to earth nature.

Wilsons previous works outsourced found objects from his suburban environment. These works were translated into photography and presented as readymade sculptures. The selection process of outsourced material continues to be based on the reoccurrence or alternatively the absence, by the length and potency of stimuli and how an object can be registered seemingly

unconsciously. His work also explores the amorphous and ambiguous boundaries found within suburbia.

Born in 1983 in Auckland, Wilson graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 2010. He is currently in the rst year of his Masters degree at the Elam School of Fine Arts.

Rik Wilson Suburbia Aint What It Seems 2010 Digital Photography 10

megapixels 59.46 x 84.09 cm

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Rik Wilson Four 2010 Digital moving image (1.15 minutes)

Rik Wilson Handball 2010 Digital moving image (10 minutes)

Rik Wilson Watermelon (Ball series) 2010 Readymade sculpture 15cm diameter


Catherine Polman

Artist E: [email protected] the maker of sculptural assemblages I am not initially concerned about the outcome of my open-ended explorations. Instead I work to expose characteristics of materials that are at once familiar but not immediately recognisable. Through the process of constructing or deconstructing I eliminate the function of a material or object, choosing how far to take the chosen intervention method. The resulting artefacts are modest but have an arresting potential that entices the viewer.

Technical competence articulated through the use of materials and skills is largely tangential. There is something organic to the way these works grow and expand. They evidence deskilled methods absent of rareed art media and techniques, while showcase common media and problem solving. Deskilling has brought about sculpture that is modest and paired down, but it still inspires, disrupts and challenges. As a deskilled artist my work extracts value from

Catherine Polman You Just Cant Find Square Cake Tins Any More, 2010 PVA, tin, 233 x 12mm, 240 x 15mm

Catherine Polman Found in Grange Road, Mt Eden, 2010 found post, paper clay, 150 x 150 x 1010mm

Catherine Polman Sealed In Freshness, 2010 plastic, tin, variable dimensionsCatherine Polman Packer 2, 2010 polystyrene, PVA, 52 x 54 x 50mm

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Catherine Polman Circles, 2010 Glad pressn seal 440 x 90mm

discarded objects, destroyed labour and humble materials, awarding them a new life. Redeemed materials have simple qualities, and I expose these through the interventions that I execute.

My practice has an authenticity that is revealed through materials and unrened technique. It is sustained through a continued fascination with the common and with destroyed labour. I impart my delight of working with these everyday materials, imbibing the pieces with my hand. I hold originating links and endeavour to expose indelible elements, encouraging the audience to be observant of the familiar.


Selene SimcoxArtist

M: 021 169 9084E: [email protected]: selenesimcox.wordpress.comW: selenesimcox.carbonmade.com

I did not know that I wanted to be an artist. I left school, fell into graphic design and I thought that was it. But the universe had more in store. It was not until a life-changing event led me to painting full time for nine solid months. All I knew then was that

I loved paint and I loved painting. I wanted to do it all the time. I was like a once virgin who found the joys of love making. Before I even knew the reality of archival paint, I was collecting paint off the side of the road and out of the dump. I was in love with the

viscosity of house paint and was painting anything I could get my hands on; I was not interested in the conventional support. My artist-heros spirit, Jackson Pollock owed through me, using spontaneity and intuition as my means of expression.

Working with a variety of media, paint is the most prominent medium I use. I enjoy the materialist properties of paint, the varying degrees of translucency and especially the viscosity of house paint. Paint has always been my intuitive choice when it came to creating because of its tactile and uid nature. I feel at home with it, and it acts as a good translator between myself and the nished artwork. An important part for me is the language of paint, and how this language is perceived and expressed, purely through its inherent materialistic properties. I do not place a necessity on the work to be read

Selene Simcox Progress I, II, III Installation 2010 Acrylic on vinly

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in one set way as I wish to leave the viewer to his or her reading.

Art school has been one of the best experiences of my life. It taught me all that theoretical stuff you get to learn at art school, but most of all, it has nurtured my passion to paint, and my understanding of painting in contemporary society. Through art school, although I remained quite loyal to paint, I experimented with different approaches to painting including the creation of mixed media paintings. My work is largely abstract and inuenced by the likes of Albert Oehlen, Gerhard Richter, Judy Millar, Alexis Harding, Angela de la Cruz,

Christina Popovici, Dale Frank, Cy Twombly, and lately Glen Moust, Fabian Marcaccio, Kazoo Shiraga and Matthew Ritchie. I think I could continue this list but the important inuences are for the rst four listed.

My current work reects the ideas of Process Art, where the emphasis of the work is on production. Artists shifted emphasis and interest away from the art object as a nished product, they grew increasingly interested in the activity of making art transforming artists labor into a form of performance (Molesworth, 2003, p. 101).

There are workman-like approaches in my work, rules and boundaries evolve like a fairytale or narrative around the development of each artwork. These rules and boundaries are given form by measurement, time and props that provide the framework for creativity to move through. The vinyl surface allows for the uid movement of painting-as-performance. The paint is moved with a squeegee, tracing the artists performance, stripping painting back to the barest moment, leaving a mark that becomes the only evidence that the artist has been there.

The labour of time, measurement

and rules challenge the notion of traditional artwork: permanence and the monetary value of a traditional support. Instead I choose to work with vinyl and Duraseal where the relationship with non-permanence dominates the substructure. There is a negotiation between the interstitial nature of the Duraseal and the support, where the process of applying paint to surface leaves a metaphorical space between for the artist to perform.

Selene Simcox Progress I (Detail) 2010 Acrylic on vinly

Manthel van Reijn Studio

Banklink House | 12 NormanbyRoad | Mt Eden | Auckland Entrance through Normanby Road Foyer or the Edwin Street Carpark

21 February 11 March 2011

OPEN STUDIO: Monday 7 March Thursday 10 March, 10am 6pm

EXHIBITION OPENING: Friday 11 March,

5.30 7.30pm

presents

Selene Simcoxin Residence


Born in New Plymouth, Karley is a self taught artist living in Auckland. Karley works across a range of disciplines including painting, sculpture and taxidermy.

In July 2010 Karley had her rst solo exhibition, Interviews with Escapists, at the Depot Artspace in Auckland. Through a series of

interviews, Karley was exploring peoples personal experiences and opinions on escapism. She then translated the interviews into bold abstract works. Karleys interpretation of the interviews focused on the emotion, the feeling and the place the interviewee desires to be. Her

interpretation looks almost like a fantasy place, the place people might think of when they want to escape.

Karley is interested in blending visual languages and exploring how colour and abstract forms can cross-reference each other and how it is perceived by the audience. Colour plays a big role in Karleys paintings. Her use of colour isnt to confuse the viewer but to embellish the sometimes

Karley Fever Brian 2009 Taxidermy rabbit, glass 220 x 130mm

Karley Feaver

ArtistM: 021 828 226E: [email protected]: karleyfeaver.comW: karleyfeaver.wordpress.com

Karley Fever Robert 2010 Taxidermy rabbit, polyester, carbon bre rod L280 x H210 x D140mm

Karley Fever Rochelle, Artist 2010 Acrylic on board 16 pieces at 290x290mm each

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dark topic of escapism and the way it can be interpreted.

Karley is also interested in escapisms relationship with nature and how it affects us. For Karley, the story behind the art, as well as the process of making it, is just as important as the nished piece.

Through her exploration of taxidermy techniques, Karley fragments this practice by introducing representations of humans in the form of dolls. Karleys works offer a vision of a world where fantasy and reality merge into innite possibilities, uncertainty, and wonder. She is exploring the idea that humans have the ability to visualise and imagine escape fantasies; however animals are thought to only live day to day, in the moment. This makes us ask the question, are animals able to imagine escape fantasies like humans?

Karley is currently working on new pieces for a solo show in 2012 which will include both her paintings and taxidermy.

Karleys works are held in private collections in the UK, Australia, Russia and New Zealand.

Karley Fever Lloyd, Homeless 2010 cardboard, acrylic and vinyl on board 1200 x 1200mm

Karley Fever Willow 2010 Found doll, taxidermy sparrow & rabbit ears, rabbit fur L140 x H270 x D120mm


Jun AritaJapanese Pop Artist, Graphic Designer, Character Designer, IllustratorM: 021 165 7969 E: [email protected]: junarita.com

Jun Arita is from Osaka, Japan and he has lived in New Zealand since 2007 working as a Japanese Pop Artist, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Character Designer.

The week after he arrived in New Zealand, he entered the Glassons Design T-shirt competition for The Breast Cancer Research Trust. He won the competition and his T-shirt was sold at Glassons in January 2008.

Jun has collaborated with Tiki Taane on his CD album booklet and T-shirt in 2009. In July 2010 he was one of three artists selected to do a live painting for Red Bull Stereopticon. He painted for hours whilst his artwork was being videotaped and projected against a wall at the Britomart. Last December Jun was asked to paint a mural at Auckland University for Red Bull NZ.

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Jun has held exhibitions both nationally and internationally. He has been showing his original artworks in Amsterdam and his last show in Auckland was at Te Karanga Gallery for First Thursdays in which proceeds beneted charity Children On The Edge.

Merging Japanese pop art and street art, Juns artwork is full of colour and his fun, quirky and sometimes cheeky characters are all a part of his bubbly, playful and friendly personality. He seeks to bring smiles, courage and energy to his audiences and feels that when his art makes people happy, he nds meaning to continue creating new works. Jun Arita Japanese Woman 2008 Acrylic

Jun Arita Red Bull Stereopticon 2010 - Painted live

Jun Arita 4 Square Man 2009 Black pen on canvas 950 x 695cm


Bobbie GrayArtist M: 027 669 6001E: [email protected]: artworkbybobbie.com

Ever since I can remember I have been creating art; sandcastle masterpieces, sculpting mini monuments in Grannys potting shed, portraits of my many pets, pastry pice de rsistance for the tops of Mums pies, and murals on the garden fence. I would paint on pretty much anything I could get my hands on - and not a lot has changed in that respect.

I grew up in Tauranga where my inspiration was mainly drawn from the beautiful white sandy beaches and stunning sunsets. My oil paintings portray my own colourful abstract take on the landscape. I started selling these works in local cafes straight out of school.

I now reside in Auckland, and have recently put down the brushes in exchange for spray cans and stencils. Rescuing a box of old vinyl records destined for the skip and stencilling them back to life began my latest series of work: recycled record art. The appeal of stencils is in the ability to take an idea or an image from anywhere and then recreate it on any surface.

I nd myself intensely drawn to the process of making and creating things. I love seeing my art transform from start to nish with imaginative ideas

and random inspirations. I nd just as much joy in the creative process as I do in the nished product.

This series has so far seen a successful solo exhibition Wax On Wax Off at 7th Chamber Gallery in August, selection for the rst Pink Noise group art show in October, and selection as a feature artist for the First Thursdays re-launch at Te Karanga Gallery in December. Bobbie G Records can be found in cafes and galleries in Auckland and Christchurch.

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1. Bobbie Gray Erykah Badu Spary paint 12 vinyl record2. Bobbie Gray Tiki Spary paint 12 vinyl record3. Bobbie Gray Beauty Spary paint 12 vinyl record4. Bobbie Gray 10c Tiki Spary paint 12 vinyl record

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Marie OcklefordArtist E: [email protected]: facebook/muzflamingo

I began painting amingos after a trip to the Andes in Bolivia. There I saw these graceful pink birds in an extremely cold and hostile environment. It was an amazing sight and something that has really stuck with me. I also paint other birds from time to time, especially native New Zealand birds. I make jewellery using my paintings and drawings of birds. I live in the Waitakere Ranges and get much of my inspiration from the birds and bush around my home, along with the graffiti art that surrounds my world.

Marie Ockleford Land of the Long Neck Bird 2009 Spray paint, acrylics and vivid 600x900mm

Marie Ockleford Freedom of Speech 2010 Spray paint and acrylics 500x700mm

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Collaboration with David Grace for Tiger Translate East Meets West 2010 Spray paint

and acrylics 3 x 1.5 meters

Marie Ockleford Muz Flamingo 2010 Spray paint and acrylics

Lang EaArtist E: [email protected]: langeagallery.comMy work reects social, political, current events and happenings, it is personal but universal... open and honest. I hope to inspire my audience to generate and promote... a public dialogue.

Ever since I can remember, Ive always liked to draw. My rst memories were after my family had arrived in New Zealand as refugees when I was eight years old, everything before that was a blur. I was a child trapped in a war zone, born 6

Lang Ea The Coming Of Darkness 3: The Red Series 2010 Oil on canvas with ink drawings

Below: Lang Ea The Coming Of Darkness 4: The Red Series 2010 Oil on canvas with ink drawings

Lang Ea The Coming Of Darkness 2: The Red Series 2010 Oil on canvas

with ink drawings26

months before the Cambodian war.

While growing up in New Zealand, my parents had told me stories of what had happened, however I could not remember or relate to any of it.

Now that I am an adult, I understand that subconsciously - I do remember, my memories have resurfaced themselves within my work. ie The Coming Of Darkness - which had started with the Yellow Series - 7 paintings from 2003 - 2006, have continued on to my current work: Red series (2009 -2010).

The gures in the paintings are from a relief sculpture carved on the walls of Angkor Wat - the Ancient Kingdom of Cambodia. It was captured during my intrepid journey back to Cambodia in early 2000.

My Sculpture, Installation and DVD work all have the same desire to explore and understand the questions I have had since I was a child ...

Lang Ea The Coming Of Darkness 1: The Red Series 2010 Oil on canvas with ink drawings


Anna StarrArtist

M: 0272125194E: [email protected]: annastarrphotography.com

Anna Starr is an emerging contemporary artist and photographer. She specialises in analog photography, working with 35mm, medium format and large format cameras; and thrives on the risk and challenge that comes with photographing in different physical environments. Dark room processing and hand printing from lm is a consistent practice and notions of wonder and the phantasmal are hinted throughout her works.

When I work in the darkroom I feel a real sense of both permanence and vulnerability with the image, I love the risk involved and the process of creating images by hand. Process is really important to me, how the work came to be. Its not about a moment in time its about what it takes to materialize a transitory vision. I came to photography through lm, and to lm through dance. The transition was very natural and I think these

Anna Star Vestige of Wonder #1, #2, and #3 2010 405 x 405 mm C-type print (Printed from 35mm lm, Taken with the Mini Diana Lomography camera)

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Anna Star Wayfarer #1 2009 Silver gelatin print on ber-based paper 765 mm x 865 mm (Printed from 5 x 4 inch lm, Taken with Synar large format camera)

modes of creating somehow inform each-other when I work. Thats just the way I dream-up ideas. Elam was a place for me to learn how to channel my ideas and energies effectively; to bring depth and a kind of simplied complexity to my work.

I took time away from study in 2007 to travel to Israel. I will go back there someday, and explore other countries too, but right now I am enjoying living and working in New Zealand. There are many opportunities here that I want to take part in.

Inspirations come to me from many areas, including fashion, lm, dance, art, literature and religion. My works often present constructions of imagined scenes, and explore notions of wonder and discovery.

As a photographer who loves working with fabric I am constantly sifting through fashion magazines for inspiration. Some of my best ideas have come to me in this way. I love fashion that has sculptural qualities and I think there is a cross-over between fashion photography and ne art photography. I would love to work in this grey area, between fashion and art. I think thats exciting.

Anna Star Through The Looking Glass 2009 C-type print 594 841 mm

(Printed from 35mm lm, Taken with Nikonos underwater camera)

Anna Star Shoes 2009 305 x 305 mm C-type

print (Printed from 35mm lm, Taken with a Nikonos underwater

camera)


7 venues: Live art, performance, music and craft market on

K Road, Auckland

First Thursdays, a K Road art and performance event

is on

Thursday 3 March 2011

The 2 December relaunch was a tremendous success

and First Thursdays is bringing it back in an

exciting evening across 7 venues with visual art, performances, spoken

word, craft, zines and live music.

First Thursdays6-9pm Thursday,

3 March 2011Free and open to the

public

Karangahape Road - Pitt Street to Queen Street &

Cross StreetParticipating venues

at St Kevins Arcade, La Gonda Arcade, Te Karanga

Gallery, Verona, Revel Cafe, Iron Bank and

Cross Street

Whats on

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Whats on

First Thursdays was founded by Cleo Barnett, who brought this international night of art, performance and markets concept from her hometown of Seattle to Auckland in December 2009. Since then First Thursdays has thrown 4 successful events with the last event drawing a crowd of 2000 art enthusiasts, music lovers, community leaders and creatives to K Road.

Art brings the community together and First Thursdays is the co-creation of this creative industries community , said Cleo who from the start has advocated a collaborative and community-focused approach for First Thursdays.

Last December attendees were given a map as a guide to help them explore the various events of the evening including a craft market, zine library, an art exhibition of emerging artists, and live performances at Ironbank. All this was complemented with interpretive dancers, DJs, live art, and an on-street drum band. The crowd loved it.

I want people to discover First Thursdays for themselves, see and meet emerging and established artists, buy the best of craft, and nd out whats on throughout the night including that element of surprise, said Cleo.


The dirty secret is that, for the majority of artists, using only one stream of income, like gallery representation, is never going to be enough.

Even up to a few years ago, nding one or two incredible galleries was a viable way to go. These days, however, everything is changing so fast. Daily, if not hourly, the online universe keeps speeding up, and artists need a new game plan where galleries become part of a larger strategy.

If you really think about, in a gallery you are one of many artists so the gallery can only spend so much time with you, and can only offer you a show once every 12 to 18 months. For another, galleries come and go like New England weather. This has always been true, and unfortunately, in the past three years this has been happening more and more.

Depending just on galleries is like putting all your eggs in one basket and then deliberately inging it to the ground.

So, whats an artist to do?

My recommendation... diversify. Create multiple streams of income, so when one is down, you have others to count on.

Bridging the Gap BetweenMaking Art & Making a Living

Making D

estinationsBy Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D.Easier said than done, I understand. First you need to know what options are even available, right?

What if you didnt have to gure that out by yourself... what would that be worth in terms of time saved, frustration and confusion eliminated?

What if there was one place where you could learn exactly what you needed to learn about how to diversify which streams of income?

The key, of course, is that you have to know and understand your different options before you can assess if that option ts your art, or your art career goals.

How different would it feel if you knew exactly how to sell your art to corporations?

Or how to sell your art on that amazing virtual universe called Second Life? What if you knew How to License Your Art effectively?

And what if someone even told you the specic steps to nailing a sale no guessing, no worrying if you are speaking appropriately to a potential collector or buyer?

What shift would happen over here on the Making A Living side of this bridge if you knew how to recognize a non-traditional opportunity and were all set to respond immediately to something called Vertical Markets?

Connie Mettler of Art Fair Inisders, and one of the 13 speakers for this years smARTist professional development conference for visual artists, told me about an artist who had a thriving business that went belly up in this economy. On a whim, he decided to try an Art Fair and see what happened. A couple years later and hes ying, says he hasnt had this much fun in years and hes selling art. What would change for you if you knew how to do that too?

Not to mention how many artists have websites that they have spent a good deal of time and money on, and see zero return for their efforts wouldnt it feel amazing to turn that around? To learn exactly how to use your website as an art-marketing machine and still keep the allure and aura that so many visual ne artists worry will disappear if they appear too commercial?

And what about the Art Print Market do you even know enough about it to make a decision? What if you had all the information you needed, including how to identify the best place for giclee prints to be made?

And then, theres the whole question about how to price your art so it sells. I have a speaker coming this year who has been

researching literally everything out there on pricing and I promise what shes going to give is the equivalent of a graduate level presentation on pricing your art.

This year, at the smARTist Conference, there was one speaker for each of these 8 streams of income, plus four more, each one invested in your success.

Speaking of success, serious professionals know that education and a level of professional awareness of their eld as it changes from year to year, is essential. Artists who come to a professional development, art-career conference are making a statement that they value the making a living side of their art career in the same way they value making art.

And, honestly, if you dont, who will?

Like any other self-respecting professional, you have to engage in ongoing education not just for the skill of level of your art production as critical as that is, you have to value and respect your art enough to make sure it sells, because selling your art is the ultimate honor where it goes and lives with a buyer or collector and can engage, inspire, or simply exude beauty it can fulll its destiny!

Next step: Visit http://smartist.com/live-telesummit/2011-live/ to check out the Home Study Edition of the smARTist Telesummit 2011.

We record and transcribe all 16 sessions of the core materialexactly as it rolled out during the 7-day January conferenceso you can listen, download, print out and read about a dozen different ways to sell your art.

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estinations

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iscussion

Much of Andy Warhols life work, specically his death and disaster series, addresses concepts of trauma and alienation in the modern human condition. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook create immediate

Repetition and subject selection in Warhols Death and Disaster period and how it links to the modern media and social networking.

by Rachael McKinnon

intimacy, yet simultaneously perpetuate alienation. Warhol felt divorced from his society and yet was deeply moved and confronted by it, every day. Herein lies the impact of Warhols Death and Disaster works, and the impetus for their creation. Our fears, fantasies and desires are constructs of the increasing collective trauma created by our sense of alienation. Warhols use of repetition causes meaning to emerge, not retreat from, an image. His portraits became memento mori for Warhol and the sitters. They were also extensions of the way he sought to surround himself with celebrities - although he connected deeply with few. The users of Twitter and Facebook accumulate relationships in a similar fashion. In the Death and Disaster works, Warhol reaffirms his obsession with fame and his fear of death. His subject selection, seemingly banal repetition and adherence to popularised images (media snap-shots, news cut-outs) bridges the

gap between ourselves, reality and the inevitability of time. A hashtag search on Twitter, for the latest celebrity gossip, or news of deaths and disasters can unveil similar voyeuristic repetitions.

Warhols repetitions in the disaster series are more than merely simulacrum, they serve to introduce us to the horric real dormant behind a seemingly at surface (Foster 46). Foster describes Warhols repetition as a need to, screen the real understood as traumatic but in doing so it, points to the real and the real ruptures the screen of repetition (Foster 42). This idea is evidenced in Five Deaths Seventeen Times in Black and White, 1963, where we see chaotic repetitions of an overturned car covering mangled bodies. Initially, one may view the image from top to bottom as though reading a narrative story, only to discover what the title disturbingly states; We are looking at the death of ve individuals over and over again. We are reminded of the inherent voyeurism of viewing the image, and as we begin to comprehend the unconscious unease this


Repeat/Retweet

Andy Warhol Orange Disaster #5 1963 Acrylic and silkscreen enamel on canvas 106 x 81 1/2 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, Harry N. Abrams Family Collection 74.2118. 2009 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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iscussionbrings, the reality of the image ruptures the surface, and the trauma of death is exposed. Foster expounds the idea that Warhol is traumatised by the images he sees and the reality that they mask, and describes Warhols desire to be a machine as pointing, less to a blank subject than to a shocked one (Foster 39). Warhols own words reect the truth in this idea, as he describes some of his motivation towards the disaster series, The people that you know they want to do things and they never do things and they disappear so quickly, and then theyre killed or something (Warhol quoted by Rosenblum 53). He appears to be perpetually grieving the anonymous deaths within humanity, mourning those that society does not, and the banal nature of the repetitions reect his desire not to care for them, to empty them of their pathetic impact. Stephen Koch believes Warhol, carried with him his very own lost age. Warhols now was a romanticism that exuded, like some philosophic vapour trail, a kind of pathos. (Koch). Warhol was capturing the essence of these lives, in order to evade the transience of time, which was something which deeply

disturbed him, believing his own close call with death split his life into, a momentous Before and After and his second opportunity for life, Under certain conditions [...] could and would be cancelled. (Koch). The loss of lives into the ether of history without public recognition could in some way be circumvented if these images of every day tragedy could be transmuted into objects of high art.

Users of Twitter and Facebook have made experiences of death and disaster collective, instead of individualistic, as experienced by Warhol. These social networks have enabled anonymous individuals to carve out meaning for themselves in a global society. The anonymous lives that Warhol mourned will no longer be anonymous in the Twitter universe. The very act of re-tweeting a message is like creating a textual simulacrum. In the context of death or disaster, the act of re-tweeting a message of some atrocity occurring in the world can emphasise the connectedness between social network users and, sometimes, the futility in their disconnectedness. In the same way that Warhol duplicated the image of a suicide, a tragic plane accident or an empty electric chair, Twitter or Facebook users share, over and over again, pieces of digital information to both reect their trauma, create action

or absolve themselves of action. The key benet to Warhols Death and Disaster pieces is their visual impact. The old clich about a picture painting a thousand words holds true in the works of Warhol: the impact of a picture can be deeply profound. The risk with social networking is that 140 character information parcels could be truly emptied of meaning. These networks could become information machines, a distinct parallel of the criticism often lodged against the art of Andy Warhol. Anyone who has read the comments section of a dramatic online news item and discovered words of jest and triviality can understand the danger of information being emptied of meaning through repetition. Art and exhibitions, rather than glamorising their content, imbue it with necessary gravitas - and this is what Warhol did. He may have appeared cavalier in his treatment, but in fact this reected an unvocalised trauma at the death and disaster in America. Warhol immortalised others whilst immortalising himself, but after his own brush with death he turned almost exclusively to the production of portraits suggesting that he was too far gone in his obsession with his own mortality to give attention

Up For D

iscussionto the deaths of others.

Warhols Marilyns reveal how society can divorce an individuals identity from their public image and public persona. Warhol painted his Marilyns shortly after her suicide (Shafrazi 14), suggesting this series of portraits should be situated in his Death and Disaster collection more rather than among his portraits. Warhol proved that identity and image are inextricably linked and so the physical death of the individual does not suggest the death of their image - with which, ultimately, the masses have a much stronger relationship. Any apparent shock a society feels in face of such a celebrity catastrophe is a reection of the death of the fantasy that surrounds them. Gossip magazines, websites, and entertainment news sources all indicate an apparent sense of entitlement held by the mass-public towards celebrity gures. As if by lauding the celebrity (such as Marilyn Monroe) with their fantasies and favour, they have earned a right to possess that individuals image. Warhols The Six Marilyns 1962, is often referred to as Marilyn Six-Pack, something that can be bought and owned in bulk. Warhol, actively transformed the mass medias interplay between the

public and the private self into a purely aesthetic phenomenon (Whiting 159) which links to this idea that the mass public reduce the celebritys identity to a commodity entitlement, something that can be acquired not appreciated. Yet the timing of his Marilyn portraits after her death critiques the fact that in the occurrence of actual physical death, the publics fantasies can still sustain a constructed identity. Warhol juxtaposed the most famous [...] images of every day life (Rosenblum 53), this is not just relevant to his Coca Cola bottles, or Brillo pads, but distinctly to his images of anonymous deaths, and wrecks, such as, 1947 White, 18 duplicated images of a models body sprawled on the roof of a car after she jumped from the Empire State Building. Because this young mode l did not have a public identity and a social body constructed by mass fantasies and desires, her death was immediate and complete. Societys shock was minimal, yet Warhols was profound. This is how images bridge the gap between our unconscious feelings towards the death and disaster that occurs in the world, and a manifest image in the realm of high art. By

making a choice to transform these horrors into ne art Warhol is acknowledging the dead, and preventing them from dissolving in history. Warhol acknowledges the life of the individual as of equal value to the glamorised celebrity, as the celebritys image is merely a Hollywood construct, the same way his high art images

Andy Warhol 1947 White 1963 Silkscreen ink and graphic on linen 121 x 78 inches. Collection The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.


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iscussion

of death and disaster are his own constructs.

Warhols view that anonymous lives were as interesting as those of celebrities meant his art was equalising. It t in with the upper echelons of the art world as high-art, and yet it was the art of the masses. Inspired by his work in the commercial art world, and embracing concepts of celebrity voyeurism and mass consumerism, it was accessible to everyone. Some of the criticism regarding a lack of meaning in Warhols work may have come from, as Steven Watson suggests, the fact that, [h]e didnt appear to lter reality as it registered on his radar, but, continues Watson, of course he did. He framed. You were in the frame or you were not. (Watson xiv). There is a parallel between this and the way users follow others on Twitter. They are creating the frame for their world, and within that, meaning can be construed. Yet, Twitter can still be a social leveller. Everyones words are potentially as valuable as those of anyone else. The often mundane subject selection of Warhols early works reect this idea. With regards to his Brillo boxes, Gluck [his friend] returned with several boxes with elegant designs, but Warhol was visibly disappointed. No, he wanted something more

ordinary for his commonist art. (Watson 127). The real issue in modern social networking is ensuring that it empowers the information which is repeated and does not further alienate individuals from their reality. The Wikileaks videos, recent images of protests in Egypt, and RIP messages, for celebrities and non-celebrities alike, that make their way around cyberspace are the life that Warhols art imitated. Warhol memorialised the deaths of people unknown; Twitter and Facebook have the capacity to do the same.

Images transcend the temporal and physical space between separate individuals, separate eras and separate modes of thinking. In this way they function invaluably in conveying and perhaps mending the sensations of trauma and alienation prevalent in contemporary society. With a focus on Warhols Death and Disaster images, we can develop an understanding of the artists own sense of traumatic shock in the face of our complacent acceptance of the horror of death and the inevitability of time. However, Warhol does not openly acknowledge this to be the spur behind the series, rather attributing it to a desire to not care and not feel. The repetitions, and apparent banality serves

to reveal the real to expose the horror and to guide the viewer towards a deeper understanding of their unconscious mind. Through this the viewer is able to better connect with their society, that they have so long been alienated from. Modern social networking is the new pop art. It is a non-hierarchical leveller that privileges no one. Through its use, messages, images and information can be shared but they are still framed. This is how everyone creates meaning in an increasingly separatist world.

References:Foster, H. Death In America. October 75. Winter (1996). 36-59. 75. 8, September 2007. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-2870%28199624%2975%3C36%3ADIA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U Koch, S. Andy Warhol, 1928-1987. Artform April. 2003Rosenblum, R. Andy Warhols One-dimensional Art: 1956-1966. Andy Warhol: A Retrospective. Ed. Kynaston McShine. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 39-62. Shafrazi, T. (Ed.) Andy Warhol Portraits. London: Phaidon Press Limited. 2007Watson, S. Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. New York: Pantheon Books. 2003Whiting, C. A Taste for Pop art, Gender and Consumer Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1997

gallery36 vol 3 no 1 2011

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