Exhibition Afterword

The exhibition of my Devices project last Saturday night went much better than I could have imagined.

The show opened at 6pm with the official screening of the slideshow just after 7pm. The first screening was set to music and afterwards the images looped silently. There were a total of 69 images in the show, 17 of which were displayed on the Ida Nowhere walls. Fellow Australian and talented singer/ songwriter Waywardbreed performed in the Ida Nowhere basement which added to the fantastic atmosphere of the evening.

It was very well attended, much more so than I had anticipated. I enjoyed speaking with many, many people about their ideas, getting feedback and hearing anecdotes about things they had observed. For me, it was really important that I get feedback from people. I not only wanted to present the work, I wanted to hear from people what they thought about the ideas surrounding it. I wanted to know what other people thought about how owning these devices and being constantly 'on' affects us. Afterwards I made notes from what people shared with me and I also had a book where people could write down their ideas and comments.

I enjoyed myself so much that I didn't leave Ida Nowhere until around 11pm and that was only because the hunger pangs forced me too (I was too busy to enjoy the Vokü though I heard it was indeed tasty). Overall, I was very happy with the evening and the feedback I received and I'm already thinking about ways I can take the ideas behind it further.

Here are a few images taken during the preparations and during the evening:

Image by Edgar Maximillian Khandzratyan

Image by Edgar Maximillian Khandzratyan

Image by Edgar Maximillian Khandzratyan

Image by Edgar Maximillian Khandzratyan

Image by Edgar Maximillian Khandzratyan

Image by Steven Conway

I have more that I want to share about this project but for now this will have to do as this evening I head to Poland (a short 1.5 hour train ride away) to dance my feet off at the Woodstock festival. I only have one week left before I head back to Brisbane and I intend to make the most of it.

Final Preparations

Mette with phone, from Devices 2010.

It's raining outside, but it makes a nice reprieve from the heat of the last few days. Berlin is hot, hotter than usual, and the Berliner's aren't used to it like Brisbanite's. Most haven't considered the possibility of purchasing a pedestal fan let alone install air-conditioning. It makes things sticky, it makes my mind slower, but I balance that out with copious amounts of hot black tea. I am sensitive to caffiene so it works wonders and I have a silly theory that drinking the hot liquid makes me feel cooler on the outside.

I am in the final stages of preparing my exhibition that opens this Saturday. It is a one night only show, to be honest, I hadn't actually considered having a longer show. I consider the exhibition to be more like an event where I can share my ideas and encourage debate.

Ida Nowhere is an artist run project space. Most Saturday's they have musicians or experimental projects taking place there. They serve a Vokü - a home-cooked meal, usually vegan, available for a small donation - and have a casually run bar with very cheap beverages. The furniture is charming old and worn but very comfortable vintage couches, tables and chairs. The space is free, the artists that run it very relaxed and helpful, and I have full control over how I present my show. This is really exciting. It's the first solo show I've presented outside of a gallery and completely on my own and I'm really enjoying the autonomy and challenge of it.

I am also excited that during the evening Australian musician Waywardbreed will be performing in the basement of Ida Nowhere. So it's going to be quite an evening.

Today I finalized the slideshow that I will be projecting on the night. It took me a lot longer than I expected and I did a lot of experimenting with slide length, transitions and image order, treating the show as a creative piece in itself. I didn't want it to end up looking like a high school slideshow you find on YouTube. Music choice was also critical and I'm still not 100% sure I've made the right decision. Conceptually I think it would be better to leave the show 'silent' as the project deals in part with how we use music to escape from the world but aesthetically music can enhance the overall feeling I am trying to evoke with the images.

Initially I'd planned only to project images but with so much wall space available I ended up printing 17 images to hang. I am glad I did. I was so excited to pick up the prints from the lab yesterday. I had a friend come along with me to help carry them home and it was a fantastic feeling to see the images for the first time as large prints and have someone to share that moment with. I can't wait to see the images on the wall. I am generally highly critical of my prints, inspecting every part to make sure there is the right amount of detail present. In this series I deliberately wanted to destroy some of the detail in the blacks and highlights and while the traditional purist in me scowled a little for not doing things 'the right way' the conceptual artist was jumping up and down in excitement.

I'm also finishing my artist 'statement', clarifying and refining what I want to communicate about the work. I have pages and pages of notes, image references and quotations and cutting it down to a simple, coherent statement is taking time. It's also difficult as the effect our devices have on our lives is such a debatable topic- there are so many obvious benefits that to be standing up and being the voice that says there may be a darker side to these things is a little bit scary. I am finding that the more I think about the relationship we have with our devices the more it seems to tie into a lot of fundamental themes such as alienation, freedom and, ultimately, the search for meaning.

For now, I've still got thirty-nine hours left to prepare, and plenty more tea.

"Art may be practiced in one way or another, so that it reinforces the ego in its likes and dislikes, or so that it opens that mind to the world outside, and outside inside."

-John Cage

Busily preparing for my show and about to run out the door to go check the test prints for it and do a personal shoot. Will be updating with more information soon. For now, here is one of my favourite images from the upcoming show:

I hope you also enjoyed the quote, I have been researching musician John Cage's ideas as I find them relevant to part of what I'm trying to achieve in this project.

You are invited

Finally! As some of you know, late last year I photographed a new body of work. Previously somewhat elusive about it I am excited to finally announce the exhibition of this work at Ida Nowhere here in Berlin.

The Devices project aims to encourage debate about the effect our personal devices - phones, cameras, laptops, mp3’s - have on our relationships with other people and our external environment. No one can deny that we live in an age of access and are more closely connected to each other then ever before but this project aims to look at how these devices also cause disconnection and a shallower experience of our external world.

The show will be a combination of printed images and a digital projection.

The exhibition runs for one night only at Ida Nowhere, Donaustrasse 79, Berlin from 6pm-10pm. Official opening and screening is at 7pm.Hope to see you there!

Well Hung

This week is National Youth Week and I'm lucky enough to still be considered in that category. Some of my new work will be on display in the Well Hung exhibition organised by Vegas Spray. The exhibition is in King George Square and runs from 2pm - 7pm.

The complete artist list:

Angus Whelan, Nicola Morton, Felix Melchner, James Lyall, Yuki Nakano, Emma Bertoldi, Ella Peile, Lionel Jackman, Lucinda Wolber, Adelaide Short, Haylee Lee, Daniel Ford, Bettina Walsh, Rachel Marsden (me!), Alicia Williams, Emily Parker,Travis Dewan, Holly Leonardson, Alithea Josaphine, Ellen Stapleton, Tammy Law, Visual Monkeys.

Viewfinder Exhibition tonight

The Second annual Viewfinder exhibition opens tonight at Nine Lives Gallery in Fortitude Valley. I love the community feel of this show, the fact that works don't have artists names on them, how everything is smaller than a 6x4, that it is open for all to submit and that all works have to be film based. What results is a gallery filled with hundreds of tiny images all mixed in together almost like a real live Flickr site where viewers can pick and choose what they like. Works are very affordable at just $10 each which, you might realize, barely covers the cost of the prints. However, I just love to be a part of it so I've submitted five of my Polaroid images.

These images were taken in 2008 and are part of a larger series of Polaroid's that explore chance and synchronicity in the everyday. I guess at the time I was questioning what it means to exist and wondered about fate vs. chaos and the possibility that magic (or that feeling of it) could exist. I never showed the series because I never found the answers but when I recently came across it again while going through my archives I was quite surprised by the darkness and sombre mood in a lot of images. They are certainly a reflection of the soul-searching I was doing at the time and while I didn't see it at the time I think the process of creating the images answered a lot of questions I had. I think this is a series that I will be returning to and expanding on.

The works are 5x4inches in size (including the white Polaroid edge) and will only be at the above price at the Nine Lives Gallery. However, I am making another five signed copies of each available for only $20 per print and only until the end of April. Contact me for further information.

Seven Weeks. Seven Images.

To celebrate the upcoming exhibition of my Archimedes' Field work I am pleased to be releasing seven never before seen images taken over the course of that weekend. One image will be released online - on my blog and webpage - every week during the lead up to the exhibition with the final one released the day after the opening.

It was little known by anyone that in addition to the medium format film and digital images, I also shot Polaroid's. In contrast to the high quality of the original images these Polaroids, reproduced as prints, are soft, grainy and otherwise technically flawed. This lo-fi approach enhances the dream-like feel of the field- almost as though my original vision was scooped directly out of my unconscious brain and placed onto paper in all it's unrefined and messy glory. I love this and especially like the way they compliment and add to the original images and video work.

With the release of each image I will also be providing additional insight into how Archimedes' Field came to be and the thought processes behind it.

The first of the Polaroid prints are going as gifts to collectors and some very special people in my life (often these people are one and the same). The rest will be made available for collecting as they are released. If you would like to acquire one of these Polaroids (or any image from the series) please e-mail me. The Polaroid's are available in two small limited edition sizes:

| 8x8inch - 30 only | 5x5inch - 30 only (+2 artist prints of each size)

But, of course, you will want to see them first so please do return soon.

Archimedes' Field opens at the QCP on the 18th July 5-8pm. I shall be very pleased if you would attend.

Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition

Another image from my Archimedes' Field series is in the limelight.  Archimedes' Field - The First Night (above) was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the finalists in the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize.

The Churchie National Emerging art prize is a well known art award in Australia and garners a lot of attention from the public so I am excited to have an image in it.  I'm not in it to win it but rather to have my work seen and just to be involved.  I also love these type of exhibitions as a viewer because there is a broad variety of art to look at and it is always interesting to see what other emerging artists are doing.  

Last year Dew, also from the Archimedes' Field series, was a finalist in the Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship.  You can view the whole series here.

The exhibition is open from Thursday 28th May until Sunday 31st May at Morris Hall, Churchie, Oaklands Pde, East Brisbane.

To find out more about the Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition and the exhibition opening hours click here

'The First Night' can be purchased unframed here

Exhibition Afterword

Image from 'Aposelene' by Rebecca Smith

What can I say? I just love Rebecca's work. I love how it was presented. I love small, intimate works and her work is a very intimate portrait of her teenaged sister. The title 'Aposelene' means the point at which a satellite orbiting the moon is furthest away from the object it orbits.

Darryl Hewson opened the event which also featured five other artists in various stages of their careers. Darryl Hewson summed up her work beautifully expressing that the work for him was about how you can think you know someone so well but in reality you can never totally know them and perhaps in a way you don't know them at all. (He phrased it much better than I could).

If you get the chance to see the work at the Queensland Centre for Photography pay attention to the order of the images, the pairings etc. Everything is deliberate and poetic.

Peter Wilson's work Chasing Storms was in the small yet welcoming gallery space at the back. I loved the way it was displayed. The images were printed on Silver rag paper in varying sizes and displayed in informal layers. Being in such a small room it was easy to become totally immersed in his vision. He is another artist whose works are visual poems.

Also showing were artists Ben Ali Ong, Deborah Paauwe, Mark Kimber and Terry Young.

Websites:

Rebecca Smith

Peter Wilson

Deborah Paauwe

View Finder

I have submitted four polaroids and one print from a polaroid to tonight's exhibition: ViewFinder.  It is quite an unusual exhibition as anyone can submit provided their images are film based and no larger than 6x4inches.  Each image sells for $10 and the artists name is only displayed on the back of the print.

With almost 500 images in the exhibition I'm sure it is going to be a visual feast and something I'm excited to be a part of.  I'm looking forwarding to collecting a few images as well.

The exhibition is at Nine Lives Gallery, 330 Brunswick st, Fortitude Valley.

It runs until 4pm Sunday.