Tuesday 4 saw the opening of Great Brits - The New Alchemists at the UTS Gallery, another exhibition showcasing emerging British talent, curated by London's Design Museum with Paul Smith, originally hosted by "Sir Paul" at the Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile last year, with much fanfare, and now being toured by the British Council. According to the press release the six designers "share a passion for experimentation with new materials and manufacturing technologies and for exploring the transformative - or alchemical - possibilities of design. Great Brits explores the development of a raw, surreal design aesthetic that transforms base objects or materials and commonplace typologies in unexpected ways." The standout work in a somewhat underwhelming show are Julia Lohmann's "dismembered cow carcass lounges" (my description), and Mathias Megyeri's amusing security railings. One influential Australian design thinker has commented (anonymously alas) that this is "product design trying to be gallery art and succeeding in being a self-indulgent wank". I don't entirely agree, however if one views product design as a discipline aimed at industrial production, then the one-off experimental nature if some of this work could be a problem.
It's interesting to compare Great Brits - The New Alchemists with Object Gallery's rather more sedate annual New Design 2006 show. According to the press release: "This popular exhibition introduces the most outstanding design graduates in the country, working across product design, textiles, fashion, ceramics, glass and furniture." All the work shown is excellent as you'd expect, but in comparison to the messy, noisy, experimental Brits, it seems timid, well-mannered, a little conservative. A subjective opinion of course, and not a crticisism of the quality of the work. Standout for me is Janice Vitkovsky's (ANU) award-winning cast glass piece Moment when the darkness, 2006. Also well worth a look is Poetica in the Project Space upstairs.
Wednesday 5, to Mori Gallery for Susan Norrie's haunting new 'Work in progress 2005/6'. This silent, black and white film, projected really huge on one wall of the main space, begins with an image of a nuclear explosion, and progresses to an almost elegiac meditation in and around the Aboriginal tent Embassy in Canberra. A restless, roaming camera pans and glides, revealing flapping canvas, drifting smoke, distant figures, the stark white architecture of the old parliament buildings. The artist's statement talks of the concept of a "Black Mist", which are the words apparently used by Aborgines to describe the fallout from the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 50s and 60s. Norrie's work stands out from so much humdrum screen-based work, although I find it hard to articulate just what is so special about it. For me her pieces have the quality of almost dream-like 'nocturnes', saturated with sadness and melancholy, a kind of grieving for the human condition.
Thursday 6 to GrantPirrie for the new Judy Watson show - impressive works, though rather decorative for my austere taste in painting. However Judy Watson's curved, etched zinc wall at the Melbourne Museum is my absolute number 1 favourite piece of environmental art in Australia, and she is one of the 8 Indigenous artists whose work will be incorporated into the fabric of the 'Rue de l'Université building', one of the four buldings that make up the of the soon-to-be opened Musée du Quai Branly (MQB) in Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel. The other artists are Gulumbu Yunupingu, John Mawurndjul, Paddy Bedford, Lena Nyadbi, Ningura Napurrula, Tommy Watson and the late Michael Riley.
More on MQB soon.
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