this is the voice of re:mote induction.Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Face Up - October 2nd 2003 - January 4th 2004 - i mentioned this exhibit in summary before, but i've got the booklet in front of me now. an exhibit of australian contemporary art in the hamburger bahnfor museum in berlin.
the first work anyone visiting the museum during this period will come across is that by callum morton. which transforms the two entrance ways to the museum into two giant shark mouths. the nose and upper jaw forming a canopy, the lower forming a passageway for the visitor to enter into. the next piece is the one in the foyer of the musuem, a hot air balloon by james angus - entitled shangri-la. the booklet photo shows this raised a distance of the ground, which is higher than that it was sitting at when we were there. in fact i was amused to see a gentleman chased off by security for giving the balloon a prod, which sent it gently swinging about the entrance way!
by the side of the balloon is a glass case, filled with the small sculptures of fiona hall's cell culture exhibit. sculptures of glass, metal, pvc and beads in vitrine to represent a series of abstracted images of australian animals. going from the front desk through the cloak room area to the main halls we pass simryn gill's photo exhibit. a wall covered by photographs by the singapore born artist, each showing the living spaces of 260 homes across the malaysian peninsula. capturing a sense of this environment, but also displaying the contrasts and similarities between the various rooms.
from there we enter the sandman exhibit, by patricia piccinini, which i had particularly mentioned previously. from there a couple of small rooms exhibit a couple of photo exhibits. the first is rosemary laing's burning ayer series. here there were a selection of the full series - the first picture showing a stack of furniture in the red dessert plain, the last showing the scorched ash makes or the remains, the selection between showing a range of stages from the conflagration. colour wise these were quite striking images, creating a certain mood - though the full series would have most likely have been too much. the work of darren siwes struck as being based on a base concept that could easily have been generated by someone with a knowledge of photo shop. taking pictures from various locations and superimposing a spectral image of the man himself over each of them. in terms of quality of picture, they are well enough done, though they are ultimately more about the message of the indigenous man against a percieved background.
on the next floor up were a series of the busts by ah xian, which again were previously mentioned. through the door into a sprawling gallery space we find a number of exhibits and short film works. from robert macpherson's domination of one room with home made signs - illustrating the range of ways we think we can tame and shape nature. to callum morton's huge tower blocks, which are striking to a degree, but not nearly as effective as the looping sample he has with it. a voice is heard saying "help, please help me", though it sounds like a distressed child it is aparently from the original version of the film the fly. this voice permeates the entire floor and is particularly unsettling.
on the top floor there are a couple of pieces. mikala dwyer's installation dominates, but unfortunately comes across as an oversized clutter, which didn't really interest me. it seemed some people glanced at this before turning round, meaning they probably missed david rosetzky's 3 channel DVD installation. untouchable shows 3 sets of 2 characters, moving focus from one set to the next we explore dialogues about hard they find it to communicate with each other. culminating at the end of each sequence with the same three characters dancing, while being ignored by their "partner". the dialogue shifts with each sequence, so that someone else gets a new set of lines, and the meaning changes. striking and with a fun element to it as well.
the first work anyone visiting the museum during this period will come across is that by callum morton. which transforms the two entrance ways to the museum into two giant shark mouths. the nose and upper jaw forming a canopy, the lower forming a passageway for the visitor to enter into. the next piece is the one in the foyer of the musuem, a hot air balloon by james angus - entitled shangri-la. the booklet photo shows this raised a distance of the ground, which is higher than that it was sitting at when we were there. in fact i was amused to see a gentleman chased off by security for giving the balloon a prod, which sent it gently swinging about the entrance way!
by the side of the balloon is a glass case, filled with the small sculptures of fiona hall's cell culture exhibit. sculptures of glass, metal, pvc and beads in vitrine to represent a series of abstracted images of australian animals. going from the front desk through the cloak room area to the main halls we pass simryn gill's photo exhibit. a wall covered by photographs by the singapore born artist, each showing the living spaces of 260 homes across the malaysian peninsula. capturing a sense of this environment, but also displaying the contrasts and similarities between the various rooms.
from there we enter the sandman exhibit, by patricia piccinini, which i had particularly mentioned previously. from there a couple of small rooms exhibit a couple of photo exhibits. the first is rosemary laing's burning ayer series. here there were a selection of the full series - the first picture showing a stack of furniture in the red dessert plain, the last showing the scorched ash makes or the remains, the selection between showing a range of stages from the conflagration. colour wise these were quite striking images, creating a certain mood - though the full series would have most likely have been too much. the work of darren siwes struck as being based on a base concept that could easily have been generated by someone with a knowledge of photo shop. taking pictures from various locations and superimposing a spectral image of the man himself over each of them. in terms of quality of picture, they are well enough done, though they are ultimately more about the message of the indigenous man against a percieved background.
on the next floor up were a series of the busts by ah xian, which again were previously mentioned. through the door into a sprawling gallery space we find a number of exhibits and short film works. from robert macpherson's domination of one room with home made signs - illustrating the range of ways we think we can tame and shape nature. to callum morton's huge tower blocks, which are striking to a degree, but not nearly as effective as the looping sample he has with it. a voice is heard saying "help, please help me", though it sounds like a distressed child it is aparently from the original version of the film the fly. this voice permeates the entire floor and is particularly unsettling.
on the top floor there are a couple of pieces. mikala dwyer's installation dominates, but unfortunately comes across as an oversized clutter, which didn't really interest me. it seemed some people glanced at this before turning round, meaning they probably missed david rosetzky's 3 channel DVD installation. untouchable shows 3 sets of 2 characters, moving focus from one set to the next we explore dialogues about hard they find it to communicate with each other. culminating at the end of each sequence with the same three characters dancing, while being ignored by their "partner". the dialogue shifts with each sequence, so that someone else gets a new set of lines, and the meaning changes. striking and with a fun element to it as well.
Comments:
Post a Comment
