Artistspeak program 2008
Artistspeak is a weekly series of talks by emerging and
established artists, designers and craftspeople
sponsored by the School of Art, Architecture and Design. Local, national and
international speakers are included in the program which is available via web video
- watch and hear this event from your desktop in
Windows Media Player (.wmv) file format.
Program information
Study period 5 2008 (July-November)
- Weeks 1-3 (PDF file, 81kb)
- Weeks 4-6 (PDF file, 36kb)
- Weeks 7-9 (PDF file, 80kb)
- Week 10 - Jenny Watson
- Weeks 11-13 (PDF file, 78kb)
Study period 2 2008 (March-July)
- Weeks 2-5 (PDF file, 79kb)
- Week 6 - Moelyono
- Weeks 7-10 (PDF file, 77kb)
- Weeks 11-13 (PDF file, 100kb)
Download an artist's talk
Please note: some artists' talks outlined in the program are unavailable. To view wmv files using a Mac computer, you will need to download software such as Flip4Mac or VLC
Select an image to view in a larger screen
Kay Lawrence
|
Kay Lawrence is a textile artist working mainly in the medium of woven
tapestry. Her interests are focused on gender and cultural identity,
representation and place. In 2001 Lawrence was one of seven indigenous
and non-indigenous artists commissioned to develop a major collaborative
installation 'Weaving the Murray' by the Centenary of Federation, which
was launched at the Art Gallery of South Australia in January 2002 and
toured South Australia in 2002/3. In 2008 Lawrence presented the
exhibition This Everything Water
at the SASA Gallery, exploring the symbolic resonances and material
qualities of pearl shell. The work used the metaphorical connection of
pearl shell with water to allude to the consequences of misusing water
in a dry continent like Australia. Telos Press published a monograph on her work, 'Portfolio Collection: Kay Lawrence' in May 2002. Kay's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Francesca Da Rimini
| Francesca da Rimini is an artist and writer. She will talk about the social nature of knowledge and creativity. |
 |
Nicholas Folland
| The past is something to fictionalise.
In this world, it is instantly obvious that something is odd. Pot-bellied cut glass bowls float inverted and subdued on waxed credenzas, the slippery surface of effete display exposing the intoxicating delight of discrete bourgeoisie fetish. An alluring laboratory set, Encounter (2008), carries its contradictions boldly. An initial glance might suggest a confluence of science and alchemy, yet a lingering gaze slowly reveals a tender and elaborate sensuality of form that resists fact in favour of fiction. Confabulated, satirical and meticulously nuanced, Nicholas Folland's realm poses speculations for ratbag scientists, fringe dwellers, explorers and dreamers. (Alexie Glass, Director Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, October 2008) Visit Nicholas' website Nicholas' talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Jenny Watson
Christine Collins
|
'The eye is just a tough little organ, you can whack it with a
hammer. But the ear is a hole in the head, a hole full of delicate
flora and fauna that we spend a lifetime blowing out, then we go
deaf and die. The disembodied voice, it's like this vibrating
skeleton or some sort of phantom that's suddenly speaking that has
tremendous power over the human imagination, since we all
desperately want to hear the voice of god, right, or maybe the voice
of the devil.' (Gregory Whitehead) 'I was no more than a wayfaring stranger, taking much and giving little. True there were dinners, lunches, drinks...But they were at best token. I was the beneficiary of others' generosity. My tape recorder, as ubiquitous as the carpenters tool chest or the doctors black satchel, carried away valuables beyond price.' (Studs Turkel) Christine Collins speaks about speech (and other things). Collins completed her Honours degree at Sydney College of Art in 1999 and her Masters of Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2003, with the assistance of a Samstag Scholarship. Christine's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Gerry Wedd
|
Gerry Wedd is the recipient of the 2008 SALA monograph published by
Wakefield Press in association with Arts SA and SALA. His exhibition
Thong Cycle was recently on show at the Jam Factory Studio Works
Retail Gallery. 'In the late 1980s the young surfer and artist, Gerry
Wedd, came to the attention of Mambo Graphics, the iconoclastic
surf-wear company. With his sense of humour, his subject matter, his
encyclopedic knowledge of surfing culture, and his "scratch board" style
of drawing, Wedd found a spiritual home in Mambo and helped build the
developing Mambo ethic. But there's more to Gerry Wedd than Mambo.'
Gerry
Wedd Thong Cycle by Mark Thomson Visit Gerry's blog Gerry's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Johnnie Dady
| 'Sculpture is the interrelationship between
material things and their meaning for us in the world. Sculpture shifts
the state of things. Creating sculpture involves predicting a state, or
condition or form, that viewers will expect and instead offering
another, to create a tension between the expected and actual. Sculpture
is about catalysing an object's state to produce a new state. Johnnie
Dady's approach can thus be summarised. He juxtaposes the inherent and
potential meanings of objects by shifting their states, by finding a
point at which they can become something unexpected. Instead of
representing a drama, to which we can all relate and which predisposes
closure, Dady portrays a moment of relationship between things, a moment
of potential, leaving issues open. At the point where ideas germinate,
there is scope for interest. Johnnie Dady completed a BA (Hons) in
sculpture at Maidstone College of Art in 1983 and an Master of Visual
Arts at the University of SA in 1996. He moved to Australia in 1987 and
has taught sculpture and drawing at Adelaide Central School of Art since
1992.' (Shifting the weight Chris Reid) Visit Johnnie's website Johnnie's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Irmina van Niele
| Born in 1949, I grew up in Amsterdam. I spent
my adolescence in Paris and London and in 1973 came to Australia. After
bringing up three children I obtained a first class honours degree in
visual art, and in 2006 successfully completed my Doctoral Thesis
Ambivalent Belonging. My art practice includes gallery and public
work in sculpture, installation and textiles. The broad focus of my
research is on the human experience of belonging, in relation to
geographical, linguistic and cultural dislocation. There is a strong
autobiographical aspect to my work, that deals with the meanings
attached to the experience of being in and out of place, and memories of
city spaces, traversed in the past, re-imagined in the present.
Transience versus attachment, and loss as presence, continue to be
central questions in my work. Irmina's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Lily Hibberd
| 'Lily Hibberd is a visual artist who works with
painting, photography and installation. She has held eleven solo
exhibitions since 1998, in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. After completing
a Bachelor of Fine Art at Monash University, Caulfield in 1993, she
undertook further studies at the Victorian College of the Arts,
Melbourne, graduating with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art (1999) and
Master of Fine Art (2001). Recent solo exhibitions include: I want to
break free, Karen Woodbury Gallery (2006); Dangerous Liaisons, Linden
Centre for Contemporary Arts, St Kilda (2005); Paint Tin Fantasias, The
Farm, Brisbane (2004); and Blinded by the Light, exhibited at the Perth
Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth; Bus Gallery, Melbourne, and Karen
Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne (2003-04).' -
bio Her exhibition Endless Summer: Sunglasses and the spectacle of vision will be at the Experimental Art Foundation from 28 August to 27 September. Visit Lily's website Lily's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Mark Kimber
| The compelling force that drives my work is
finding a situation where the play of light, form and landscape converge
in time and space to create an elusive and ephemeral piece of theatre.
This work stems from a 25-year fascination to photograph the urban
landscape in which I grew up. Spaces while abuzz with activity and
perhaps welcoming during the day are, by night deserted and conversely
unsettling. Images with the appearance of a film or stage set, the
backgrounds reduced to graphic and carefully lit, cut-out forms. Camera
time stretches beyond the moment-by-moment time in which we see, to a
world of compressed time and unworldly colours glowing with a light only
photography can see. Mark will exhibit his new body of work Edgeland at STILLS Gallery, Sydney, October 2008. Mark's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Darren Siwes
| 'To date, the artist's signature style has been that of physically inscribing himself into the landscape as a ghostly or real Indigenous presence, and in moving beyond this to the landscape of the mind, the imaginary, Siwes is charting new territory. He is also moving into the private sphere and, as dramaturge rather than subject, explores restrictive bourgeois ideas of colour. Ideas many prefer to keep behind closed doors.' (excerpt from 'Mum, I want to be Brown' by Catherine Speck, 2006) |
 |
Brigid Noone
|
A strong influence in my own work is a notion of attempting to make
sense of my internal and external world, including such themes as
vulnerability, awkwardness, desire, love and home. These have comprised
some of the dominant areas of interest in my work, with undertones of
political and broader social reach. At this stage in my research the two
central concepts that are appearing are vulnerability and intimacy. Visit Brigid's website |
 |
Andy Petrusevics
| 'Painter, performance artist, video artist, Andy Petrusevics has
been making his anachronistic brand of ideological observation and
commentary under the e tag for many years... The works are littered with
references to the TV aesthetics of B-grade 60s sci-fi, dada-esque
typologies and contemporary psychological machinations...Yet there
remains something abiding about his take on the dumb forces of power:
absurd, banal and funny' (EAF).
His exhibition e belief is at the Experimental Art
Foundation until 16 August. |
 |
senVoodoo
|
Sydney based senVoodoo (AñA Wojak and Fiona McGregor) will discuss their
practice before the opening of their show 'Arterial' at the Experimental Art
Foundation on 12 June. Arterial is a work about loss and mourning that uses
the primal medium of blood. The opening will include a live performance at
6pm, and the exhibition will continue until 21 June. senVoodoo's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Annalise Rees
|
'While my practice is largely sculpture and installation
based, I am interested in how drawing can physically occupy the spaces we
inhabit. I think of drawing in both two and three dimensional terms, as
something which can generate place, as well as being representational of it. I am interested in how place affects our sense of self. Place being
somewhere we travel to as well as something we carry with us from one
geographical location to another. In this sense I refer to place as a term
used to locate and categorize particular spaces in relation to our
emotional, intellectual and physical responses or interactions with them.'
Annalise's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Mark Siebert
|
Mark Siebert
will bring us up to date with his busy studio practice as he prepares for a
show with Greenaway Art Gallery later in the year. 'Maybe in this spectacle, In Mark's museum, the fans storm the stage. The
Museum was invented in the same year as the guillotine (Georges Bataille).
Could this be an attempt to reclaim something from our enculturation by the
popular media?... It could be an affirmation of autonomy, or a revolt
against cloned experience... Or it could be Serious Fun?' (Paul Hoban,
SASA lecturer 2005) |
 |
Gosia Wlodarczak
|
Gosia Wlodarczak's exhibition
Cinderella II - The
Dreamer in the SASA Gallery is a hybrid of drawing with
interaction and performance, installation, video and sound. It represents a
further investigation of issues addressed in the installations: Living Edge
(2006) and Skin of The Wall (2006). |
 |
Bridget Currie
|
Bridget Currie graduated from the South Australian School of Art (now the School
of Art, Architecture and Design) in 2001 and
since then has had an active independent art practice grounded in sculpture. As
one of the founding members of Downtown Art space, she has been involved in
artist-run activities throughout Australia and is a strong advocate for DIY and
grassroots artist networks. Bridget has exhibited widely at a national level and
has just returned from a seven month residency at the CCA Kitakyushu, Japan. Her
work featured in the exhibition Years
without magic at the SASA gallery in 2007. |
 |
Professor Yin Xiaofeng
|
Professor Yin Xiaofeng is an artist and academic from North East Normal
University Changchun, Jilin, and is one of China's most highly regarded artists.
Professor Yin undertook a four-week studio residency in the Sculpture and Installation Studio at the South Australian School of Art (now the School of Art, Architecture and Design). |
 |
Janet Laurence
|
'Sydney artist, Janet Laurence, is today best known for her site-specific
installations. Often referred to as the "architects' artist", Davina
Jackson, editor of Architecture Australia has suggested she is "a
serious candidate for the title of Australia's leading public artist".
Her works are amongst the most accessible and public of any artist in
Australia.' |
 |
Moelyono
|
Moelyono was born in the city of Tulungagung, East Java, but went to
Jogjakarta, Central Java, in the 1980s to study painting at the Institute of
Indonesian Arts (Institut Seri Rupa Indonesia). Soon after completing his study
in Jogjakarta he went to Jakarta to work in a number of jobs in the
advertisement industry. However, he decided to return to his hometown to become
'a community-based artist' working with the children of fishermen in Brunbun
village, near Tulunggagung and other places in Indonesia. |
 |
Andrew Best
|
Best's artwork is a personal take on the possibilities of
contemporary life. In oil paintings, collage, and sculptures in
painted concrete, Best creates a densely nuanced and
self-referencing pop landscape, invoking questions of time, process,
ontology, nature and magic. Best's multidisciplinary practice
include both community and gallery-based projects, ranging from the
exacting mimetic handmade weeds of Paradise; the international
artist's community 5000 Houses, the magical, drug-fueled
jungle/hamburger restaurant Knox, Pauline - an imposing ten by five
metre reproduction of the video game Donkey Kong, and other projects
in which 'the mundane just momentarily becomes fantastic'. Visit Andrew's website Andrew's talk (.wmv file format) |
 |
Satsuki Tanaka
Satsuki's talk (.wmv file format)
Ann Linnemann
|
In my studio, I design and produce short series of functional tableware in
porcelain, stoneware and earthenware. I also work with sculptural vessels
embodied with elements of the human form, movement and body language. The
sculptures reference my fascination with different cultures, the human body and
mind. My studio and gallery is in Copenhagen. |
 |
Michael Kutschbach
|
Kutschbach's purposefully articulated ornamentation, which refutes the
romantic claim of an artwork's originality in its repetitive structure and
anchoring in the everyday, reveals the historical division between art and
design as questionable, if not altogether negligent misinterpretation. Kutschbach consciously mixes art and design.
He plays with suggestive causal interrelationships that are potentially simply a
matter of analogies and confronts the consciously critical questions regarding
the difference between art and a real object with ideas for the design or
aesthetic optimization of our living environment. (Dorothea Jendricke,
Catalogue essay for 'crash test at seth's arc' Greenaway Art Gallery Adelaide,
2007) Visit Michael's website |
 |