The Cell

GO NOW. 
You will be kicking yourself if you miss this. With the worlds worst hangover, I managed to have the best morning of my life. This work is amazing!


Brooke Andrews - The Cell
Sherman Foundation

16–20 Goodhope Street, Paddington

Sydney NSW 2021 Australia

ARTSPACE Biennale of Sydney

Chto Delat, Perestroika Songspiel, 2008

Before I go getting all worked up, let me just clarify what I'm about to talk about. Artspace is an awesome centre for contemporary art events, exhibitions, they have really cool studios and ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have impressive and exciting work. For the Biennale of Sydney, Artspace has played host to the fantastic, exciting, amazing Superdelux, with Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights becoming vibrant nights of performance art, DJs, Pechakucha and more. They also play host to a small part of the Biennale exhibition, this is what I would like to write about today.

When I made the trip down the hill to Artspace, I had already been to see the three other Biennale venues (I will write about them after a second visit). I had my hopes right up, I was sure Artspace, of all places would deliver the "wow" factor so far missing from the Biennale of Sydney.

It didn't.

I wish It had, because all I wanted to see this Biennale was work that moved me, that made me feel a passion for creating, for changing... for something at least. Artspace, for me, was the biggest let down of all. Three or four video works were all that filled the space. One as pictured, of a choir siniging powerful communist ideals in Russian. One a man wearing a donkey head, screaming on a stage, with a related documentary style series of videos. And finally one, wind blowing through sand, backed my small people moving around a screen. Maybe I missed something? Maybe because I had my hopes so far up, I didn't give the works a chance? Maybe video-art... just isn't ready for the art world?

Sydney has given me the sense that its really scraping the bottom of the barrel for artworks in this Biennale. They have spent big-money on a few key works and filled in the gaps with video, after video, after video.. after video and so on. So generally I'm not the biggest fan of anything 2D, I am a sculptor, I make things that are tangible, so then when it comes to video... I'm hard to please.

I don't think video-art has made it to the stage where painting/drawing etc is at. Video-art is such a baby, a tiny little baby in a world where other art forms have existed for millions of years. It hasn't had the time to develop historical richness, or to develop a distinct place in the world, it fits somewhere between tv, movie, videoclip and art.
This is another problem I have, generally, with video-art. We are so used to the technological incredibleness of big-budget movies, 3D movies like Avatar, how can video-art compete. Regular old film works when the story has an exciting plot ('Summer Tale' by Marcina Oliva Soto Cockatoo Island), but you never get the sense of  the time, effort and skill that went into the artwork, because you are immediately comparing it to things like Avatar. This makes it near-impossible for video work to give you the same wow factor, in the sense of skill, a sculpture or painting can. 

Of course then, there are works like AES+F's 9 screen surround "The Feast of Trimalchio" (Cockatoo Island)  which are sensational. All the quality and professional skill of a big-budget movie, mind blowing sounds and aesthetics and powerful conceptuality coming out of its ears.

I guess all I'm trying to get out is my immense disappointment in the video-work at Artspace this Biennale. The works there are not bad, as such, they are interesting pieces, but they don't grab hold of you like a successful artwork should.

Thats enough for now.

Samantha Jones

PechaKucha

Biennale of Sydney presents Superdeluxe @ Artspace

If the word PechaKucha means nothing to you, you need to get yourself down to Artspace Wooloomooloo, for some thursday night PechaKucha action! Not only is it free, its exciting, hilarious, surprisingly educational and completely insane. Simple, 20 slides, 20 seconds each. The presenter gives you a 6 1/2 minute snapshot of something they are passionate about.

For more on what pechakutcha is visit http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what

On May 20th Kelli and I headed down for the first of many Thursday night PechaKutcha. There was excitement in the air from the second we entered the room, tiny stools crowded around an empty stage and beautiful bar girls wrapped in kimono's (bar blades held in their waistband). The first presenter, who happened to be involved in the Biennale, gave an inspiring presentation on works from Biennale Artists, not in the Biennale. It was fabulous to see what artists like Cai Guo-Quian (who is responsible for the flipping cars on Cockatoo Island) have done.

Cai Guo-Quiang
Inopportune 2006

This one from AES+F (who have the 9screen surround piece also on Cockatoo Island) was brilliant.

AES+F
Neo Nazi Girl Hasidic Boy
From Europe-Europe series 2007-8

And as if that isn't enough... CRAIG SCHUFTAN then takes the stage, a producer from Triple J with the most amazing voice. I think from begining to end i could not help but laugh, this man is seriously funny... hilarious, intelligent... and awesome!! Not to mention his voice is really his voice! Its not something he just puts on for the radio! He really sounds like he sounds, so soothing, sexy and funny... in an *I know this voice, and I know when I hear this voice, it tells me something that makes me laugh uncontrollably*... "acceptable in the 80's"

It was a star-studded lineup, with Andrew Frost also taking the stage that night. Along with an educational and entertaining presentation about hip-hop in the third world, a couple of Artists plugging their current work or exhibition (creative-advertising). And a fellow sculptor from COFA with a poetry of words and images I just couldn't quite get after my 4th champagne - if only it had been on earlier.

All up PechaKutcha is a fucking MUST for everyone in Sydney. Its on at Artspace Wooloomooloo every Thursday night throughout the Biennale. AND ITS FREE!

Samantha Jones

Waterloo Wonderland

Waterloo is a little hub for good coffee, expensive meals and contemporary art. Commercial Galleries pretty-much line the streets, with "2 Danks st" squeezing 10 galleries into a trendy glass warehouse and other independent galleries littered around the area. Just down Young St, past the heritage listed sewage site, a hillsong church and a fresh food market, you come to GBK gallery and Breenspace.

Commercial Galleries are a scary place for an art student, they make me feel excited, sick and under-dressed all at once. Excited that one day our gallery and artwork might be as recognized or as influential as theirs. Sick from the stylish older women and men commenting on works, placing red dots on $10,000 worth of painting like its grocery shopping. You are lucky to get a single glance from anyone around, jeans torn at the bottom with paint wiped across the thighs and hair that is clearly cut in the kitchen with fabric scissors. Little do they know you plan on being the "next big thing" to hit sydney art scene. (well I wish)

The Galleries on Danks st represent a perfect balance of artwords, there is typical Aboriginal art, garden sculptures, "real" sculptures, photography, contemporary painting, jewelery, a little for everyone. Being as critical as I am, and having little knowledge of the art world. I thought a lot of the work was boring as bat-shit. But a couple of the Galleries really stood out.

Tanmaya Bingham - Levels of Tolerance

Brenda May Gallery
11 May - 6 June

www.brendamaygallery.com.au

"For this exhibition, ‘Levels of Tolerance’, I have developed a series of artworks about five couples and their levels of tolerance for one another. Each colour pencil and mixed media work provides an otherworldly portrait of one of these couples along with various icons that populate their universe.

The work is based on the assumption that the level of tolerance we have for our partner is determined by how we choose to perceive them. In investigating this idea, I met with each couple and talked with them at length about the dynamic of their relationship in order to gather material to translate into a visual form.

For some, the word “tolerance” evoked pejorative connotations; “If I am tolerating the other person then I would not be with them”. Others were aware that tolerance plays a role in their relationship. The different reactions to this theme have had an impact on how each relationship is depicted."

These paintings/drawings are exceptional. The figures are so lovely, some wearing feet as shoes, glove patterns as hands, suspenders for thighs. They are sexy paintings, they are skilled and precise. I am not a 2D person, I generally just don't get works missing that essential 3rd dimension. But these paintings are exciting, they are dreamy fantasy's of harsh realities. The works map out the life of the subjects, through symbolic metaphor, and draw you into a world that is both theirs and yours.

Wendy Teackle - Touching Dust

Stella Downer Fine Art

25 May - 19 June
www.stelladownerfineart.com.au

Wendy Teakel, besides having the cutest name, makes absolutely lovely sculpture. Made from cast bronze, fencing wire and sheeps wool, the sculptures are delicate, tough and delightfully, simply, exciting. Her paintings are also something to get excited about, they are raw and country, they have a native and natural feel which really reflects throughout her body of work.

Stella Downer Gallery had this amazing cool grandma feeling about it. I'm sure thats not exactly what they like to hear but it really works for them. Like imagine having Louise Bourgeois as your grandma... (we can all dream) that kind of cool. The gallery has a refined choice of Australian artists, like they aren't just the hottest thing on the scene, rather a really nice reflection of talent and contemporary creativity.

Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro-
Where We've Been, Where We're Going, Why?
GBK Gallery
6 May - 26 June

www.gbk.com.au

Ofcourse everyone already knows Claire and Sean, they have become Australian, particularly Sydney, art scene legends. This amazing team seem to be capable of anything, with works in the Biennale of Sydney, Venice Biennale, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, the list goes on. These guys are everywhere you look, and their work is always worth checking out, they never disappoint.

The current exhibit at GBK is little, when you compare it other works such as "not under my roof" from GOMA Brisbane(if you haven't seen their work, look-them-the-fuck-up). But these images are powerful and quirky, made from lego! yes made entirely of lego! they depict space ship explosions with the title of the work referencing what would have been Christa McAuliffe's space-lesson for the children of America.

Nike Savvas - Sliding Ladder

Breenspace
29 April - 5 June

www.breenspace.com

This is the kind of work that makes you re-think sculpture completely. It makes you think "why the fuck aren't I doing something like this?" Sliding Ladders is a vibrant, fresh take on sculpture of the future. The forms, created from pine planks and coloured wool, are dynamic, moving and changing. They are made with absolute skill and mathematical precision, taking the eye on a delightful, colouful journey of space. It makes you rethink the materials around you, imagining endless posibilities.
A Greek-Australian, living between London and Canberra Savvass studied at Sydney College of the Arts, and College of Fine Arts Sydney. It seems maybe COFA will teach me something... i like this.

Samantha Jones