Tuesday, July 9, 2013

July exhibition interview (part 2) ::: Bonnie Hanlon

The July exhibitions by Bonnie Hanlon and Pia Johnson are two unique and personal approaches to contemplating our sense of self in the domestic setting.  Therefore I have decided to do this months exhibition interviews in two parts.  Part one is Pia's interview, part Two Bonnie's.  I thought it would be interesting to frame first questions very similarly, but as with the exhibition outcomes the endpoints are very different.

Bonnie Hanlon, 'Just my imagination (Running away with me)'. 2013. Embroidered Handkerchiefs.

JW - This months show's curitorally sit together very well.  In gallery 1 we have Pia Johnson's 'Finding Yourself at Home Alone' and in gallery 2 your show 'Hard on for Homewares'.  Both shows are exploring very personal spaces and ideas.  Can you tell us why some of the things you are putting out there in your show are making you a little nervous?

BH - There are two works in the show that I am a little nervous about, one work is pictured on the invitation- so I guess that's taken care of in a way, but I am still a little anxious about how that work will be received and the questions I may have to answer about it.

 I have written a blog post about where I was coming from with that work, a sort of 'didn't mean to be creepy, just wanted you to know I was thinking of you' type message, because the work is intended sweetly and I don't want it to be misconstrued.

The other work I'm getting anxious about showing is a figurative drawing titled "So I don't have to dream alone". This one is a two-fold concern for me because it is quite revealing- It's a nude self portrait on the one hand and on the other it is quite revealing emotionally. I think the latter is what is making me the most nervous, because it's not just my drawing that's being shown, it's a really personal and intimate scene that depicts my longing and my loneliness- and it has been a real challenge to allow myself to appear so vulnerable publicly.

 But aside from the social anxiety about being seen as a lonely-little-weirdo, I'm really looking forward to the show! 

JW - We are all looking forward to your show (and not just because we get to see you naked).
Do you usually come from such a personal place with your work?

BH - Ha! Don't get too excited, it's probably not what you think.

No, I haven't made work this personal before,I usually keep a pretty tight lid on revealing anything that makes me feel exposed or vulnerable.But it has been quite liberating- and a little daunting, not that every piece for the show reveals some great secret I've been holding, but unlike previous works that center around what I think, these works reveal more about how I think and how I feel.

Bonnie Hanlon, 'Seventeen Keys to find my way Home. 2013. Watercolour on paper. 76cm x 56 cm.

It's been a nice change to drop the bravado and allow my work to be more emotional, more nostalgic and sentimental. I've felt a real shift in my practice working towards this show, the work feels gentler somehow, calmer. Who knows, maybe that comes from opening up and making more personal work. 

JW - Being an interview about a show that opens really soon, I probably should ask; What is your practice and what is the medium of the work your showing?

BH - My practice is drawing based, although I am often seduced by a variety of media, and working in an art supply store really feeds that temptation. So I do a little painting and printmaking as well, but mostly I work in pencil and watercolour on paper.

Bonnie Hanlon, 'Unlocked #1'. 2013. Watercolour on wooden panel. 20 x 20cm


In the show I will have some watercolour works on wooden panels, I'm pretty excited to have found a way to do this and there will be a lot of Silverpoint drawings too.

I should probably explain what Silverpoint is for those who don't know. Silverpoint is drawing using a pencil like stylus with a silver nib that rubs off against the ground (traditionally a rabbit skin gesso) leaving behind a feint blueish grey mark that oxidises to a sepia tone over time.

Silverpoint's my new favourite thing, and now that I've found it I'll never let it go! It's a means of drawing that really suits the way I work and allows me to build up really fine, delicate marks, which is important to me because I like that really finicky, concentrated attention to detail. The ruler drawings for Span were a good example of the way I like to work, and I intend to revisit those works now that I've found silverpoint.

Bonnie Hanlon, 'Measurement across time II'. 2012. Watercolour and pencil on paper. 40 x 45cm.

There is also a work that is made from embroidered handkerchiefs (pictured on the invite). I agonised over including this work, because I'd always kept my craft-hobbies quite separate from my drawing practice, but in this case I felt it was important to bring this element to the show, because I find there's a real tenderness in needlecraft- and again, the process really suits that methodical, finicky way I like to work!

JW - It's interesting that you mention there is an obsessive undertone to your concepts as well as your techniques.   I'm very interested to see how this is going to come together in your show.

So tell us about the exhibition title.  Where the hell did 'Hard On for Homewares'  come from?

BH - Ha! I like to think of it as a knack for focusing my energies... But obsessive my be more apt.

I like word play, and short punchy terms, so Hard-on for Homewares seemed like an efficient term to use to describe my desire and excitement for Trinkets, furnishings and anything I can use to feather my nest. The term has pretty strong sexual overtones, but so does the nesting process, it all comes down to biological drives I suppose, so it seemed a fitting title for all of the themes in play in the show.
JW - What do you hope people experience when they check out your show?
BH - I just really hope that people who come to see the show can share an intimate space with the work, that they can sense a kind of longing, a comfort and a nostalgia that they can relate to.
Bonnie Hanlon, 'Tiny Keys unlock big dreams' (series) Silverpoint on Wooden Pannel. 12 x 10cm
Bonnie Hanlon's Exhibition, 'Hard-on for Homewares' at Stockroom runs from the 13th July until the 4th of August.


Sunday, July 7, 2013

July exhibition interview (part 1) ::: Pia Johnson


The July exhibitions by Pia Johnson and Bonnie Hanlon are two unique and personal approaches to contemplating our sense of self in the domestic setting.  Therefore I have decided to do this months exhibition interviews in two parts.  Part one is Pia's interview, part Two Bonnie's.  I thought it would be interesting to frame first questions very similarly, but as with the exhibition outcomes the endpoints are very different.
Pia Johnson 'finding yourself alone #6' - 2012 - digital c-type print
JW - 'Finding yourself at home alone' is a deeply personal and intimate body of work, using yourself as subject.  Can you tell us about what its like to exhibit such intimate self portraits in such a public forum as stockroom, and are you nervous? 

PJ - When exhibiting any new work, I think it’s natural to be nervous. Finding Yourself at Home Alone is the first series of self-portraits I have exhibited, so that adds another layer of ‘putting yourself out there’, which is always a bit scary.

However, I don’t find the prospect of exhibiting images of myself that daunting, as the self-portrait element is integral to the concepts underlying the work.

I wanted to explore portraiture in a cinematic and constructed way. Using myself in the frame meant I could have more time, and take more liberties at experimenting with perspective, the body and light. The work grew out of using the environment I had at hand, and contemplating the way we inhabit our home and the everyday.

Pia Johnson 'finding yourself alone #1' - 2012 - digital c-type print

I think that the vulnerability of exhibiting this series comes from the intimate nature of the emotional landscape portrayed in the work – something I haven’t revealed before.

JW - For me it seems that photography is an ideal medium to portray vulnerability and intimacy as it captures a moment in time.

You mention that by using yourself as subject, you have more time to take liberties with experimentation.  Are your images captured by chance as moments in time or carefully crafted orchestrated scenes?

PJ - Yes by using myself as a subject I actually got to ‘play’ more than I would usually do taking someone else’s portrait.

The photographs are both part chance and part crafted composition.
I took a lot of time to work out how I wanted to take a scene, where the furniture should go, where I should go, if I should be doing anything, what the mood should be etc etc. A few scenes I storyboarded, others I took inspiration from other photographs – including portraits by Erwin Olaf, Todd Hido, Samantha Everton, Kanako Sasaki and Moyra Davey.

Kanako Sasaki
Todd Hido

However, the actual taking of the photos had an element of chance to it; I didn’t use an assistant or someone to take the photographs but instead used the in-built camera timer or my remote to take the shot. Therefore there was a lot of back and forth, retaking and reframing, refocusing or changing settings etc. And each time this would happen there would be subtle changes or alternatively bigger changes to the photograph.

Pia Johnson 'finding yourself alone #3' - 2012 - digital c-type print

JW - So you are one of the rare ones who make a full time living from your photography.  Can you tell us about your commercial photography?

PJ –Well that isn't exactly the whole truth, I still do a little bit of PR work to pay the bills. My commercial photography has grown over the last few years. Specialising in taking portraits of artists and performance, my clients include the Australian National Academy of Music, the Arts Centre, Malthouse Theatre, Strut and Fret Production Company and many independent organisations and companies such as Fraught Outfit, Hayloft Project, Melinda Hetzel & Co, Peepshow Inc and more.
Pia Johnson 'Fraught outfit : Persona'

JW - I'm curious as to how you maintain the balance between your commercial photography and your art practice?  

PJ - Finding a balance can be tricky. I don't have any system or strategy, it just is. My artistic projects have a much longer time frame than my commercial work, therefore I can have a number of projects on the go at one time. And I'm quite driven and love working, so I am always keen to be working, thinking about new work and ideas and what the next project may be. I've more recently also merged the two where I become an artistic associate on theatre projects, taking photos and looking at the bigger conceptual nature of the work, as well as collaborating with theatre artists to produce photographs.
JW - Wow, being an artistic associate sounds like an exiting new direction.  Tell me more about these collaborations with theatre artists.

PJ - I know – very exciting! I’ve worked with theatre artists and performance for a few years now. Plus when I first started out I assisted one of the best performance photographers in the country: Jeff Busby.

The great part about the new direction however is my role isn’t just about documenting the performance (usually in the final dress run for example). I now can be part of the whole process, working on conceptual development, narrative and the visual dramaturgy of the piece.

A relationship I have had for a few years now is with Melinda Hetzel, with her own company Melinda Hetzel & Co and previous company Peepshow Inc.  I recently worked on the development of her new show Fly By Night at the Arts Centre Melbourne. With this show I photographed a number of rehearsals and showings, and have also given feedback and provided inspiration material for Melinda to engage with. Currently we are working on a project about motherhood together, which will most likely have a photographic outcome.
Another recent collaboration was with the latest Melbourne Theatre Company Neon Festival show On the Bodily Education of Young Girls presented by Fraught Outfit. Working with director Adena Jacobs on the project started from its inception right through the audition and rehearsal period.

Pia Johnson, 'Melinda Hetzel & Co - Fly by Night showing' Art Centre Melbourne

As a photographer it’s a very unique role to play within a theatre project, but the essence of the role is very similar to a dramaturg or artistic associate in theatre terms. I hope to pursue this type of collaboration more as it is a much deeper engagement with the arts and performance, that is very satisfying for me.

JW - Im going to let the cat out of the bag now....

You did not go to ART SCHOOL!

I have to admit, it is rare that we show self taught or in the art snob lingo, 'un-trained' artists.  Has this has affected your practice; in terms of being taken seriously and being accepted by the artist and gallery community?

PJ - Ha ha … Correct, I didn’t. Perhaps one day I will. I did however do a degree that combined both art theory and practice, and so have a genuine understanding, appreciation and capacity to engage with art, and even talk the ‘lingo’… LOL.

So no it hasn’t affected my practice, it’s probably enriched it, as my references and research go much further beyond photography and visual arts. In terms of being taken seriously or being accepted into the community, I can’t really say. I don’t have gallery representation, and most of my shows have been independently organised, but my work has been bought by private collectors as well as been acquired into a public collection, so I figure that’s serious.

JW - I'm glad to hear that.  I would be worried if you felt curators and gallerists we're looking for a BFA after your name rather than looking at the merit of your work.

Your exhibition opens at Stockroom on the 13 July.  What do you hope people experience when they check out your show?

PJ - Hmm good question. I hope people find something within the work that makes them think about their own lives.

Pia Johnson 'finding yourself alone #4' - 2012 - digital c-type print
Pia Johnson's Exhibition, 'Finding yourself alone at home' at Stockroom runs from the 13th July until the 4th of August.



Friday, June 14, 2013

Stockroom Photo Diary - Little Bursts of light

After a week of grey days, the sun is out and the light is pure.

This weeks photo diary looks at bursts of light and reflection.

Jason Waterhouse, Mercedes Benz (detail), 2012,  Pencil and Oil pastel on paper

Elle Mucke,  Sue Buchanan & Eli Giannini

Niel Malone & Anne Ronjat

Anne Ronjat

Vintage Lab Ware



David Waters, Untitled (detail), Blue stone and glass

Gregory Bonesara and Valentin Tinc

Phil Elson

Elaine Miles

Stephan Gevers

Page 33 Oil burners

Friday, June 7, 2013

june exhibition ::: kent wilson + catherine shields

The slippery lines that mark out boundaries between categories come under scrutiny in the two solo shows presented for June at Stockroom Gallery.

Kent Wilson constructs ambiguous instruments from stone and wood for his exhibition in Gallery One. Under banners charged with associations of collective representation, traditional materials are worked into symbolic totems that slide between forms of equipment, weapon and artifact. not dissimilar is an urgent embrace of earthly matter in the service of cultural engagement and open speculation.

Winner of the inaugural Stockroom Prize for Honours students at La Trobe University, Catherine Shields explores the cultural, legal and physical boundaries of geographic spaces for her exhibition in Gallery Two. In Relation to- is an investigation into territories of negotiation between the psychological, the sexual and the social. Using walking as process the artist attempts to recast memory into the static space of the gallery.



kent wilson - catherine shields from stockroom on Vimeo.

OPENING SATURDAY 08 JUNE, 4:30 - 7pm at stockroom
08 June to 07 July 2013

Music by - Atoms for Peace
line

Sunday, May 26, 2013

An interview with Kent Wilson

Words by Jason Waterhouse

Artist, writer, curator and good mate, Kent Wilson's exhibition 'not dissimilar' is opening at Stockroom on the 8th June 2013.  

We had a chat about all things Kent.   



Kent Wilson, 'pollinate'

JW  - So in this interview I'm going to get straight to the point;  Kent Wilson you’re driving me nuts.  You have a show that opens in two weeks and you’re still making work, in fact you’re not even close to being finished (and I know this show is not your only yesterday deadline).  I can’t even begin to understand how you work like this.  It’s a polar opposite to how I operate. Can you please enlighten me as to how you’re not hemorrhaging with stress?

KW - Well, there's two aspects to this really. Firstly, I'm really just a very standard example of an emerging artist in contemporary Australia. In order to be an artist I juggle a variety of other part-time jobs and activities. All of these compete for my attention and keep me barely alive below the poverty line. But I simply cannot live without making art - it's a fundamental and insatiable need, not a choice. And I feel privileged and grateful to have the good fortune to be able to do what I do, so I'm generally of a positive and happy disposition. Even when I have 16 deadlines due in the one month.

Secondly, I am actually way more stressed than you would know from my calm demeanour. But some stress is a natural component of life and I don't like to hemorrhage it, as you say, because everyone else has their own stresses too and if I bleed my stress out into the atmosphere then that just infects the environment with additional negative vibes, soaking other people in my own issues.  I'm very aware that I'm really only a nodal point of interconnected relationships. The best I can do is manage the inflow and outflow of information, conjuring objects from materials at hand with as much deliberation as can be afforded at any given moment of the day. If there are good ideas driving the work, the art will make itself using you as an instrument.


Kent wanted to use this web sourced image of Rapunzel using a tool. I'm not sure why.

I should also point out that there are a few elements to this show: one is actually completed, one has commenced (and is looking killer!) and one is all planned out but not yet begun. And then there are periphery considerations of further works that may or may not make it in. None of this will make you any more relaxed about it. Such is the joy you signed on for as a gallery director, Jason. 


Next.

JW - Ok, I’m not convinced, but as always with you Kent I need to give the benefit of the doubt and trust that so far (against all probability) you have pulled each project off.  You’re clearly a genius, or a pure ass engineer, I will let the public decide.  

So tell the good public what to expect from this show that only partly exists, which opens on Thursday 6th June in TWO WEEKS time.

KW - Your caps lock, shift uppercase expression of the timeframe clearly reveals your own stress. Which in turn, makes me a little more stressed. You’re bleeding on me and now I'm stained.

Haha! This IS fun.

Also, thank you for the viscerally toned nomination of ass engineer. I notice that if I'm not a wanker, then I'm a skilled proctological craftsman. Either way, they are semi-viable Freudian references for the working machinations of an artist. Only semi-viable mind you.

And you're totally right allowing an audience to decide about the work. An artist can imbue an artwork with as much meaning as they like, but in the end the viewer decides the meaning. Always. Until anyone actually looks at art it is alway only ever partially complete.

Maybe I should just answer your damn question huh? In this show you will see the trace material elements of my thoughts on human beings grappling with their relationship to nature and nature's 'products'. In my estimation, humans are naked apes who pull stuff out of the ground, rip bits off of trees and concoct assemblages of these materials as extensions of their physical selves to interact with the world. Somehow we've become deluded into thinking these materials are separate from us and the world too is separate from us. But the cars we drive run on liquidised sunshine stored in ancient forest below the ground and computers function on bits of sand and melted rocks. Our instruments are us, and they are also the world itself. They are tools which we sometimes use as weapons and sometimes use for ceremony. In this show you'll see material expressions of these ideas.


Kent Wilson - work in progress

JW - The exploration of the balance between our living within, and pilfering of the planet we live on is a poignant and broad concept for an artist to explore.  And its a question not to be taken lightly, serious subject, in which its seriously hard to stay neutral (or at least leave the viewer to make their own mind).  As you know, I cant stand preachy art, and in this I am not alone.

So tell me about the title, 'not dissimilar'.  You’re not just making the same old hippy greenie shit I hope.

KW - That's really important to me actually. I don't like to make preachy art. I much prefer to be ambiguous and allow the viewer some freedom to determine their own meaning. If they want to. They can also just enjoy the shapes, the colours, the materials. That's fine too. I like art that is captivating visually, or sensorially, and if you're into it you also have an opportunity to find meanings and concepts lurking around like shadows.

But, you know, we do pilfer the planet. That's what we are. It's how we do it that often requires considered assessment. We will always reconfigure materials to suit certain ends. I do it in my art. Sometimes in my work I quite consciously choose plywood or pine plantation woods bought from large chain store, big box consumer churches of capitalism to reference our machinic approach to harvesting natural resources. We can't hate on ourselves, we can only adapt, evolve and make better choices.

The show is called not dissimilar because it reflects my approach to art making in general. It's not cool, or intellectually acceptable, to say that art is a metaphor. Some people think that's too easy a way to describe art. That's true, to a degree, but art IS a metaphor ... to a degree. All language is a code that attempts to translate an idea so that someone else can understand that idea. Art is a language too. A code of materials designed to translate ideas. The language (whether words or things) is the metaphor. These words you're reading aren't my ideas, they are symbols I punch on this keyboard in letters of a, t, e, r and so on. But when you read them, you reconstitute them into sounds and then you conjure the concepts into meaning in your head. Hopefully those concepts mirror the ideas I have in my head as closely as possible. Art is just another set of symbols.

The term not dissimilar is curious to me. If you think of an object, or an idea, you could say that on one end of a spectrum you have things that are similar to it. Down the other end of the spectrum you have things that are dissimilar (not similar) to it. But then there is a zone of things that are not the same, but also not not the same. These things are not dissimilar. It's a quirk of language, a double negative, but it lives in an ambiguous zone of relation. In this show there are a selection of artworks that I hope live in that ambiguous zone of relation. Both to each other, and also to the things they reference.

Kent Wilson - flag detail
So for example, I have had some flags made. They're made exactly the same way as national flags are made - by a company who specialises in making them, using the same dimensions, the same style and the same colours. There's four flags and they look for all intents and purposes as flags of African or Caribbean countries (this was unintended, but welcomed). They are not the same as national flags, but they're also ... not dissimilar. I'm also making some sculptures that look like javelins or spears. The same principle applies with them. But also, the javelins are not dissimilar to the flags. This is where it gets interesting to me. The way artworks begin to have relations with each other. Everything is networked.

JW - Over coffee at Stockroom I have had some very passionate debates over the concept of originality. In black and white terms, I sit it the cynical (surprise, surprise) there is no purely original idea camp. Does this mean your pitching a tent next door to me?  No Greys in this answer Mr Wilson.

KW - Well, sorry Jason, I'm afraid I'm camping elsewhere. There are original ideas, to my reckoning. They're very few and very far between though. And I certainly don't claim to be a creator of them ... yet. At best, I'm assembling contemporary ideas and materials into new configurations. But I'd have to say people like Duchamp, Picasso and Cage were originators. You could get all Platonic and say they tapped into universal ideas that already existed and get the credit for bringing them to the broader public. Still, they moved tectonic plates, culturally speaking.

JW - Yeah they did.  Near on 100 years ago.  In this day and age of world wide connection, I question if a truly unique and original idea is possible.  Sure we can adapt existing stuff into a unique state, but its all derivative.  

Hang on, I think were saying the same thing, your cups just more full than mine.

Ok, so taking a few steps back. 16 deadlines. I know you well but here’s a question for the wider public.  What are these other hats you ware that make the balance between your art and wider existence so tenuous, and people, the big reveal - Kent was a corporate jock in a previous life. How did you get from there to here?

JW - Yes, it's true. Out of school I did a commerce degree and then went into retail. At 24 I was flying to Perth and Sydney to train people twice my age in how to conduct good customer service. I had no idea about art. I studied economics and marketing and strategic management. I'd never done art in my life, not even at primary school. But while I was a corporate desk monkey I was playing in a band, making short films, designing graphics for fun, teaching myself how to use software to make animations and filling dozens of notebooks with ideas and drawings. I assumed I missed the boat with creative stuff and I'd have to accept it was just a hobby to pursue. After a few years I found I was being creative all night - often until 3 or 4am - and then dragging my reluctant arse to work in the morning. The longer this went on, the more miserable I became. It became obvious that I was compelled to be creative so I needed to give myself over to it or risk dying with regrets and having a heart attack way before my time. So I applied to art school and here we are.

I do lots of other things besides my own art. Some of them I do to pay the rent, like proofreading high school textbooks and online resources. Some of them help pay the rent as a happy side-benefit but they primarily serve to advance my art, like teaching, writing and curating. Only recently have the last two activities resulted in any revenue outcomes. I really love teaching and find that to be a great companion to art making. I feel obliged to engage with teaching because it took me so long to figure out what I wanted to do. I'd like to have a hand in helping anyone interested in art to fulfill their passion for it. I had some amazing teachers at art school and some pretty lame ones. The ones who were passionate, knowledgeable, energetic and generous have armed me very well to do what I do. I've seen dozens of wide-eyed students be unmotivated and unstimulated by shit teachers and shit systemic issues and it's a waste of talent and energy. The more people curious about the world and creatively engaged with it, the better for all of us. Being around that inspires and motivates me to work my arse off. 

I consider all the creative outputs I do - teaching, writing, dancing, walking, sound, curating - to be parts of the intricately woven fabric of my work.


Kent Wilson - work in progess

JW - I could go into rants about the state of Arts education, but for the sake of the public I won’t. There’s only so much of our ideas the people can cope with in one read Kent. Just be a firecracker teacher and make sure those young minds question every thing you and everyone else tells them.

As a emerging artist near on a couple of decades senior to most of your recently graduating peers you must have reasonably clear ideas and motivations for pursuing art beyond just a compulsion. What do you see as the roll of the visual arts in contemporary society?

KW – At the moment I see it as rather sadly under appreciated. At Monash I teach students about visual language and the sort of areas we cover include car culture, architectural influence on urban design, the psychology of geography, the power of advertising imagery, gender representation and a whole swathe of issues that are critically important to understanding our place in the world. Visual art provides an incredibly valuable way to analyse and interpret the world around us. It incorporates an awareness of how things are made, how objects relate to each to other, how behaviours influence others and how power structures work.

I had a fairly high-end education where I was schooled at the finest grammar schools in Australia and at a prestige international-standard university. I came out of that without ever having contact with the ideas and skill sets I’ve been exposed to in visual art. Art should be a fundamental aspect of early education. The biggest misunderstanding here is that art is for artists, and that artists are those people who know how to draw realistically. That’s patently wrong. Some of the most artistic people I know are CPAs, motor mechanics and inventory controllers. But they don’t even know that they think like artists. My contention is that if they were exposed to the ideas inherent in visual language and art early in their education, they would be even better armed to do what they do and do it well.

Art transcends all cultural structures. It exists in tribal communities, in capitalist societies and in socialist utopian communes. It is inherently a driving inner urge and finds outlets in film, in advertising, in cars, in tabletops, in shoes, in cooking, in politics and potentially any form of human activity. From that point of view, we should have a better understanding of it. It can be used for both good and evil and knowing how, why and to whom this is done is critically important.


Kent Wilson, 'cell'



Kent Wilson's 'not dissimilar' exhibition launch is on the 8th June at 4.30pm and runs until the 7th July 2013.