Archive for November 21st, 2008
‘No standing only dancing’: Rennie Ellis opening @ National Gallery of Victoria (Federation Square)
October 30th 2008
A very social and lively crowd gathered at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square on the evening of 30th October to celebrate the life and work of the Australian social photographer Rennie Ellis.
After opening comments by the NGV Director Dr Gerard Vaughan there was a funny and erudite speech by Phillip Adams AO who had flown down from Sydney to open the exhibition. The crowd enjoyed the anecdotes about his relationship with Rennie and said he thought that dying was a good career move on Rennie’s behalf and that he would have loved the fact that he had a retrospective at the NGV. Adams observed that Ellis used to be everywhere, at every party and opening, using his astute eye to record and never to judge. Applause all round for a life well lived.
On entering the exhibition space viewers were treated to a simple but effective installation of his work, with overtones of the 1970’s – 1980s interior decor with yellow and white circle graphics and hanging fabric chandelier. The curatorial staff at the NGV (notably Susan van Wyk) have chosen over 200 works from an archive of over half a million images for the exhibition in a process that has taken over two and a half years.
As an immigrant arriving in Australia in 1986 I remember 397 Club that used to be at 397 Swanston Street. After every other place had closed this club attracted people from every walk of life: pimps, prostitutes, drag queens, faggots, lesbians, straights and druggies. Rennie was probably there recording the scene. We were there just for a good time. It was fun and this is what Ellis’ photography is. Not burdened by overarching conceptual ideas Ellis recorded what he saw insightfully, balancing social commentary and spatial organization in the construction of his images. The image ‘Girls’ Night Out, Prahran 1980’ is a pearler with the look on the woman’s face and neatly encapsulates the magic of his image making.
M Bunyan
Exhibition dates: October 31st – February 22nd 2009
“Cold Stream” by Cy Twombly 1966
Cy Twombly
“Cold Stream”
White wax pencil on canvas
1966
This painting reminds me of the drawings of Rudolf Steiner (see the exhibition ‘Joseph Beuys & Rudolf Steiner: Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition’ at The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne earlier this year) but here the performance of marking is pushed beyond the bounds of the spiritual by the ferocious attack of the artist – repeating the form but transgressing the boundaries of that form, disintegrating the ritual into the physical release of energy through the hand. One can almost see the maelstrom of the splitting of the atom in Twombly’s repeating performance threatening to destroy himself and the world around him.
M Bunyan
Rudolf Steiner. Blackboard Drawings, 1919-1924. Amazon new book.
“Coinciding with Cy Twombly’s eightieth birthday, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao will present the most important monographic exhibition that any Spanish institution has ever dedicated to this artist—one of the most influential of the latter half of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st—from October 28, 2008, to February 15, 2009, organized in collaboration with the Tate Modern in London.”
Text from artdaily.org
“Recording” by Louise Rippert
Louise Rippert
“Recording” (detail)
silver gilt thread, pencil on paper
2008
from the exhibition ‘Trace’
Deakin University Art Gallery present an exhibition by this Melbourne artist of new work.
“Favouring the use of archival, translucent, brittle and fine materials in her labour intensive and near devotional ‘manuscripts’ of stitching, pattern and perforation, Rippert creates mixed media works of the utmost delicacy … This is the first solo exhibition of Rippert’s work in a public institution and will present her past and recent work.”
Rippert’s work is extraordinary. Taking paper of every sort Rippert inscribes the surface: stitches, weaves, colours and indents the paper, making annotations that develop personal narrative. Delicate and insightful her work celebrates what it is to be human – to be lovers, to be a daughter, to dance, to record. Rippert uses repetition of form in grids and circles to achieve her archetypal works, touching the deepest patterns of our lives.
M Bunyan
Exhibition dates: 29th October – 6th December 2008
Deakin University Art Gallery
221, Burwood Highway
Burwood 3125
Opening Hours:
Tues – Friday 10 – 5pm
Saturday 1pm – 5pm
“Untitled” from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2008
M Bunyan
“The unclenching of the fisted palm
Nothing to attack or defend
Nothing to do right or wrong”
“Spire of the Dome, 1-52” from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2008
M Bunyan
