Autumn 2018 - Platform Gallery · Wales, National Portrait Gallery, National Library of Australia,...
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Autumn 2018 4 Platform Gallery
Transcript of Autumn 2018 - Platform Gallery · Wales, National Portrait Gallery, National Library of Australia,...
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4Platform Gallery
2 K E L L Y H E Y L E N : B Y O N A J A N Z E N
Editorial
A year ago, when we were planning and researching and setting things in motion for the gallery, we devised a little tagline which summarised what we were aspiring to: craft, design, culture.
The craft and design bits are obvious: we are a craft and design gallery, with an emphasis on the handmade, and on art forms that are not often shown in traditional galleries. Strong, consistent design underpins everything we do, from the internal layout of our space, to how we present ourselves online, to this very zine in your hands. But what about that third word – culture?
From the beginning, I wanted Platform to be a space which not only showcases beautiful, thoughtful, provocative art, but a place where creative people can gather to learn, share, connect, celebrate and be inspired.
We’re now in the beginning stages of implementing that ‘culture’ part of our mission. In 2018 we will have four regular (and free) events each month: an exhibition opening, of course, but also a zine making night, a crafternoon, and a feminist book club, where we gather to discuss feminism in all its fictional and theoretical literary forms.
We’ll be adding more events as we go – from workshops to coincide with exhibitions, to film nights, to larger events in the future. A gallery is not a museum – it’s an ever-changing space where culture happens. On page 9 of this zine is calendar of events for the next three months. I hope you can join us, and I look forward to celebrating creativity and community with you.
Kelly HeylenCurator
Kell
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ator
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Public Stoning of a Pedophile
Priest
A D A M J A M E S KS H O W # 1 0
“Art should be a mirror to society, it shouldn’t just be about beautiful imagery. Art should make people think.”
“What struck me most about these priests was the lack of remorse they showed for the victims,” says Wentworth Falls artist Adam James K. “I was listening to testimony from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and I was inspired to take action, to make sure that society never forgets the pain that has been inflicted on these children.”
Over the past four years, Adam has created more than 300 artworks that focus on the victims’ pain and the lifelong consequences they have suffered, after being abused by priests and ignored by the church.
The exhibition at Platform includes mixed media, painting, drawing, sculpture and video, with Adam performing a live piece on opening night, chillingly recounting priests’ own words from the Royal Commission, where their hypocrisy and lack of compassion was on full display.
“I’ve used elements that represent the church’s wealth, such as gold, glitter, and rhinestones, to surround the images of the children’s pain; highlighting the hypocrisies of the institution,” says Adam.
A renowned photographer who has captured some of the most iconic moments in history, Adam re-trained as a visual artist more than 10 years ago, after realising he could never completely capture with photography the raw emotion he wanted his images to portray.
“Art should be a mirror to society, it shouldn’t just be about beautiful imagery. Art should make people think. It should make them confront themselves and make them become better people,” says Adam. “With this work I want to make sure that society doesn’t forget.”
Adam James K’s work is in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Portrait Gallery, National Library of Australia, Monash Gallery of Art, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Tweed River Regional Gallery, and The Museum for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles, USA.
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S H O W # 1 0
Antidepressant Mary (2016)
Charcoal, acrylic, pill packaging, glitter, rhinestones on board
44 cm x 44 cm
A D A M J A M E S K
P U B L I C S T O N I N G O F A P E D O P H I L E P R I E S T
Pedo (2016)
Oil and aerosol on board
120 x 100 cm
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Zine Baby5 : 3 0 — 8 : 3 0 P M
Our monthly zine making night. Bring whatever you need to make, write, draw, cut, paste and create your own little DIY publication.
Sunday Crafternoon2 : 0 0 —5 : 0 0 P M
BYO craft project for a lovely afternoon in the gallery with fellow crafters.
Feminist Book Club5 : 3 0 —8 : 0 0 P M
Come along to our monthly get-together where we discuss feminism in all its fictional and theoretical literary forms – check Facebook for each month’s book.
H A P P E N I N G S
Autumn 2018 Happenings
February
3 + 4 W O R K S H O P Weaving workshop with Chrissie Powell
9 E X H I B I T I O N Public Stoning of a Pedophile Priest — Adam James K
1 5 C O M M U N I T Y Feminist Book Club
1 8 C O M M U N I T Y Sunday Craftanoon
March
8 C O M M U N I T Y Zine Baby
1 5 C O M M U N I T Y Feminist Book Club
1 6 E X H I B I T I O N Imaginary Albums Group Show
2 5 C O M M U N I T Y Sunday Craftanoon
April
5 C O M M U N I T Y Zine Baby
7 E V E N T Live n Local
1 3 E X H I B I T I O N Yum/Yuk — Nina GrØdahl
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2 2 C O M M U N I T Y Sunday Craftanoon
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ImaginaryAlbums
G R O U P S H O WS H O W # 1 1
“These are the albums we wish existed; the uncanny cultural signifiers of our collective vinyl-addled fancies.”
“Back in the day when you shelled out for an album, you’d slip off the cover and on your first listen, you’d devour the liner notes, so you knew more than anyone else atschool. Good times,” says Amanda Kaye, curator and contributing writer for the group show, Imaginary Albums.
“This exhibition is a collaboration between writers and artists, born of an affectionate nostalgia for those heady days. Imaginary albums are the albums that don’t existbut should, sprung from the fertile imaginations of writers and artists in the BlueMountains.”
To bring this exhibition together, Amanda invited 10 writers and 10 artists to a fireplace gathering to explore ideas and concepts, listen to old LPs and read delicious liner notes of days gone by. Pair ups between writers and artists flowed naturally from this process, and then the creative work began.
Each imaginary album begins with the writer, who crafts the story of the work. Sometimes using a real artist and sometimes inventing musos from the ground up, the writer invents the tracks and the back-story, before passing the creative baton to the graphic designer or artist, who designs the cover art.
“The work you’ll see in the gallery will be the album covers and sleeve notes developed from this process,” says Amanda. “There’ll be a gramophone and a stack of LPs in the gallery for you to come and play, too.”
Imaginary Albums coincides with two major music events happening in the region: the Blue Mountains Music Festival on 16-18 March, celebrating folk, blues and roots; and the Live and Local Music Festival on 7 April, featuring local musicians in surprising venues across Katoomba, including here at Platform Gallery.
This exhibition has been generously sponsored by Mark and Nina Lipscombe of Cottontail Press – a boutique letterpress, fine art and photographic printing studio here in the Blue Mountains.
—cottontailpress.com
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Exhibition catalogue
1. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL MUZAK Various artistsImagined by writer, Jo Chipperfield and graphic artist, Hannah Surtees
The first and last album produced by the eccentric but wealthy Otis Thyssen-Krupp, Now that is what I call muzak is a love-letter to the audio genre that just won’t leave us alone.
2. OBJECTIFIED CORRECTIFIED Various artistsImagined by writer, Kelly Heylen and artist, Kevina-Jo Smith
A kick-arse group of feminist fatales rewrite the songs of their respective eras, correcting decades of musical misogyny.
3. I TOLD HER TWICE Julie London and the Redd HerringsImagined by writer, Solange Kershaw and artist, Bec Waterstone
A jazzy, pulp-fiction whodunit, I Told Her Twice is the brainchild of bebop alto sax player Vi Redd, aka Lady Soul. It is the only LP in history to feature musical arrangements by master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
4. THE CRIMSON CLAWS OF THE PANTHER AT MIDNIGHT Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone Imagined by writer, Stephen Davis and artist, Julie Paterson
Dario Argento’s 1978 lost cinematic masterpiece The Crimson Claws of the Panther at Midnight is rediscovered, and with it, a lost Giallo soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is finally released with modest, Italianate fanfare and the soft creaking of piano pedals.
5. THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE - A SYMPHONY IN 26 MOVEMENTS Every member of a supergroup ever Imagined by writer, Ginger Stephen Neal and artist, Damian Castaldi
A supergroup of 70s prog rockers get together by a lava lake for a really, really long gig. I mean, reeaally long.
Each album is sold as a front and back framed set, in a limited edition print run of 10.
I M A G I N A R Y A L B U M S G R O U P S H O W
6. LIVE FROM A FITZROY LOUNGE ROOM Helen Garner and the Hopeful Earthlings Imagined by writer, Manda Kaye and artist, Leia Sidery
Revered Australian writer Helen Garner writes fearlessly about murder, injustice, despair, hope and having scary enemas in Thailand. Every second Thursday she takes time out to play with her family (and the odd blow-in) in a not-half-bad ukulele blues band.
7. LA SUBVERTA Pinch-Arse Opera Imagined by writer, J-L Heylen and graphic designer, Kim Allen
Popular opera arias as you’ve never heard them before, presented by trans, intersex, gender-fluid, and queer performers in the vocal range of their chosen gender identity.
8. THE LAST OPERA Opera AustraliaImagined by writer, Craig Billingham and graphic artist, Judith Martinez
The artists were somewhere above the Pacific Ocean at the time of printing and couldn’t get their blurb to us - but rest assured, it’s going to be fantastic.
9. A NICE HAIRCUT - THE BEST OF WITCHES WART Witches WartImagined by writer, Mark O’Flynn and graphic artist, Heath Killen
A nostalgic head-banging best-of album from the seminal 80’s punk outfit, Witches Wart. Every track is a hit, and they all hit harder than a skinhead off his chops on acid in a mosh pit wall of death.
10. UNFINISHED MUSIC NO.4: THREE PHASE PEACE – Yoko Ono with Delia Derbyshire and Else Marie PadeImagined by writer, Stuart Buchanan and graphic artist, Ben Tankard
In 1968 and 1969, Japanese artist Yoko Ono created three avant-garde albums with John Lennon known as the “Unfinished Music” series. This imaginary fourth volume sees Ono continuing the series, working with two electronic music pioneers - Danish experimentalist Else Marie Pade and Delia Derbyshire from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
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Yum/Yuk
N I N A G R ¯ D A H LS H O W # 1 1
Y U M / Y U K
S H O W # 1 0
“Originally I thought my fascination with the abject was intellectual, but the more I work with it, the more I realise it’s personal; a way of processing old pain and trauma.”
A wall of saliva-dripping tongues and a yoga mat made of human hair might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of art, but emerging Blue Mountains artist Nina GrØdahl is on a mission to put the abject front and centre.
“I want to provide a tactile experience in which the audience is shaken back into their body and into their present emotion,” says Nina. “My process involves exploring what I find jarring or confronting, and magnifying it to a scale where the only option is to experience it.”
“The title Yum/Yuk is my way of explaining what das unheimliche (the uncanny) means to me. The work both attracts and repels; you are disgusted but can’t look away. I hope that the audience will feel both pleased and unsettled when looking at my exhibition.”
“I have worked with the uncanny for some time in my art practice, stemming from my fascination with hair and its immediate repulsiveness as soon as it comes off the body. The abject came into my practice more recently and is now at the forefront of my mind after a recent residency in Berlin.”
“Originally I thought my fascination with this subject was intellectual, but the more I work with it, the more I realise it’s an unfurling of the personal; a way of processing old pain and trauma.”
“My work is reminiscent of the human body, evoking skin folds, warmth, moisture and hair. This intention here is to be purposely uncomfortable, and in seeking out comfort from such an ambivalent place, allowing ourselves to tap into our own strength.”
Yum/Yuk is visceral, disgusting, beautiful exhibition, designed to provoke thought and reflection. You are invited to touch, feel, connect - and perhaps discover.
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Das Lecken Zimmer (detail) 2017
Silicone, silicone pigment, wood
Image by Nina Grødahl
N I N A G R ¯ D A H L
Y U M / Y U K
Artist Nina Grødahl at her exhibition opening in Berlin
Image by Carsten Iltsche
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M A K E R S P O T L I G H T
M A K E R S P O T L I G H T : L E S L E Y T A R L I N G T O N
Lesley Tarlington
“I love the touch of clay. I love its honesty and the way it keeps you company during and after the making. It waits in the studio for me, and holds an excitement and magic ability all of its own.”
“One day my big sister and I dug up some clay in our backyard. I made a little pot, she took it to school and it was fired. When she brought it home, I could see that magic had happened. I was hooked from that very moment,” says Wentworth Falls ceramicist Lesley Tarlington.
That love of clay took Lesley to the National Art School to pursue her passion.
“I love the touch of clay. I love its honesty and the way it keeps you company during and after the making. It waits in the studio for me, and holds an excitement and magic ability all of its own.”
Lesley uses many different materials, techniques and glazes, and Platform carries her beautiful kiln and pit-fired black stoneware range.
Pit firing, or raku, is when you take the work out of the kiln and place it straight into a pit with a range of combustible materials like wood and dried leaves, which burn at a lower temperature than the kiln. The smoke in the pit creates beautiful colours and lustres, which makes each piece entirely unique.
“Since meeting clay as a kid in my backyard we have made many pots and sculptures together. Pots as big as myself, and as small as my fingernail,” says Lesley.
“Clay never fails to surprise and delight me in what it asks me to do, and what I ask it to do. Throughout my life clay has been a comfort, an inspiration, a meditation, and a goofy friend.”
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