Artists alive
by Vincent Ciccarello
UniSA is well-represented at this month’s South Australian Living
Artists (SALA) Festival, with undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates
and an academic displaying an impressive array of paintings, prints,
glass, textiles and other media in three separate exhibitions.
Between Two Wor(l)ds at the South Australian School of Art (SASA) gallery reveals themes in the recent work of UniSA’s Olga Sankey, a senior lecturer at SASA, and Milan Milojevic, head of the Tasmanian School of Art’s printmaking studio.
Sankey is concerned with the way stories are pieced together from different points of view and, in particular, the communication gaps which come from errors in translation and interpretation. Natural Selection (pictured) consists of three images, each made up of two panels. On the right side of each panel is a jumble of lines - overlapped stencil shapes - while the left side of each features one third of the marks that make up the words of a dictionary definition of "relativity".
"Sometimes a slight variation in colour is all that differentiates the same image or text each time it’s printed from the same matrix, just as a mere change in expression can transform a text when read out loud," Sankey said.
The exhibition is on until August 20 at the SASA Gallery.
In site, On sight marks the relocation of SASA from Underdale to new purpose-built facilities at City West as the start of a "new tradition" of collaborative student exhibitions. Third year SASA student and exhibiting artist, Cathy Sarles, said in addition to finding new audiences within the University, In site, On sight showcases the next generation of professional artists and their wide-ranging concerns to the general public.
"By inviting the public onto the University grounds to view student work within a university environment, we reflect our public face to the community at large," she said.
Among the 24 exhibitors are glass artists Elyssa Freeth and Julia Thomas, painters David Sprod and Ros Matson, and photographer Lara Merrington.
The exhibition is on until August 18 in five foyers of SASA’s Dorrit Black building in George St, Adelaide.
Still Vague might seem an unusual title for an art exhibition but, as exhibitor and coordinator Helen Nieuwendijk explained, the Liverpool St Studios Gallery show follows on from last year’s postgraduate SALA exhibition, Vague.
"The title nicely sums up, in part, the feelings behind the ideas and the progression of making an artwork through research," Nieuwendijk said. "It takes a long time often for these things to gestate and come together. Sometimes the clarity of ideas only comes some months or even years after an artwork has been created and you look in hindsight and suddenly ‘get it’."
The exhibitors include SASA masters and doctoral candidates and postgraduate researchers.
"For undergraduate students or other members of the community visiting this show, it will provide information on the marriage between research and the visual arts and crafts," Nieuwendijk said.
The exhibition is on until August 20 at Liverpool Street Gallery, Liverpool St, Adelaide.