Simon Terrill – Crowd Theory Adelaide: Victoria Square / Tarndanyangga (detail), 2013

By Peter Maddern

Simon Terrill’s Crowd Theory series started as a solution to a problem about how to capture a group of people’s reactions and connections to a particular place with which they have an attachment. His early works in Melbourne focused around apartment buildings, sports fields and the like, each bringing a combination of people often dwarfed by the physical structures behind, notable for their bright lights emanating.

At the end of February, citizens of Adelaide were encouraged to congregate near the Three Rivers Fountain in Victoria Square just at the moment it was about to undergo a transformation and Terrill, perched up on scaffolding at the southern end, would capture that gatherings interaction’s with the space in a form of performance art.

The result, Crowd Theory Adelaide – Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga, is now hanging in the Samstag Art Museum, the entity that commissioned the work.

Done for the first time by Terrill in three panels, Crowd Theory Adelaide is, if nothing else, a terrific, stunning capture of Adelaide in 2013, one that will stand the test of time. As a participant, seeing the whole carries very much more an impact than the involvement itself did. Careful inspection reveals audience members undertaking all kinds of behaviour, responding to Terrill’s urgings that the thoughts we held could be captured by the camera.

However, it is the lights that span out behind the fountain that really pack the image’s punch. The symmetry that Light bestowed upon our town is for all to see in its glory 175 years on – the Town Hall and Post Office towers straddling lines of traffic, one approaching, the other distancing itself from the core of the image, the fountain. The office buildings then seem to climb up from the valley of traffic.

Being able to also balance the red bunting in place (in the foreground) for the works then soon to commence with the lights of cars moving on at the rear was quite inspired (it otherwise being an eyesore.)

Like many contemporary images of their time, many may not give this work much thought. This would be an error as there is something, as I say, quite stunning and enchanting about Adelaide done up like this But in time, the significance of this (like other contemporary) images will grow – nostalgia and fascination will take root and Terrill’s image will be sure to become an iconic for one Adelaide.

We may also then be able to better answer whether a better image would have been before the Council work set in, to have seen Victoria in her pomp at the end of 50 years, especially if the renovations now underway finish up as the same sort of debacle as the Council’s work on Victoria Park.

Kryztoff Rating   4K

See our interview with Simon Terrill about this and his other work by CLICKING HERE

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Simon Terrill – Crowd Theory Adelaide: Victoria Square / Tarndanyangga (detail), 2013

THE KRYZTOFF INTERVIEWS – 2013

Throughout the year, Kryztoff interviews various performers, artists and commentators. This blog page now brings them all together, with the most recent posted first. Enjoy.

Simon Terrill – photographer of Crowd Theory Adelaide – Victoria Square. In late February as Victoria Square was in its first days of transformation, Melbourne photographer, Simon Terrill came to Adelaide to capture the square in the latest of his Crowd Theory works commissioned by the Samstag Art Museum. See the interview by clicking HERE. (Recorded March and released May 2013.)

Renato Musolino – Stand in actor for Barry Otto in the State Theatre’s production of The Kreuzter Sonata for the Adelaide Festival of Arts. After Otto fell ill, Musolino took up the massive challenge of performing the role with just days notice and in the end making it his own. See the interview by clicking HERE. (Recorded and released March 2012.)

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Claire Foord, an emerging Australian artist, celebrates in her work occurrences of transformation in a style which is unpredictable, liberated and exposed. Awards and grants have enabled Claire to exhibit her artwork abroad. For the past 12 months while based in Montreal, her work was selected for several international exhibitions including galleries in California, USA and Montreal, Canada, with invitations to exhibit in Germany and New York on the horizon. Her career has seen her as curator, exhibitor and instigator from group and solo shows to live art murals and community art involvement. Claire’s work is part of private collections in Australia, New York and Canada and is shown in visual arts collections at institutions in Montreal.

“I draw inspiration from my travels, be they locally, internationally or on a walk around the block. I often collect little items of inspiration while traveling or walking the street and many of these items can be found within my work both literally and metaphorically. I’m interested in change, growth and evolution. I am drawn to reflect in my works on occurrences of transformation…it intrigues me that something or someone may exist with a role to play or an intent and over time, over the course of events, through natural or manufactured means, it or they evolve and transform to serve as a new form, function or intent, even if defunct. Emotive and affecting my works evolve into a beautiful mess where residual lines and initial marks lay visible through the paintings surface. ” says Claire of her work.

Colour Theory, at Urban Cow Studio, an exhibition of colour experimentation sees Claire taking reference from the neurological condition synesthesia and chromotherapy or colour therapy in a visual art representation which explores these phenomena together with basic principles of colour theory; the colour wheel, colour harmony & the context of how colours are used. The exhibition is a response to the generic and things that would habitually be deemed as void of colour. The works titles reveal painted responses to “the colour of rain”, “the colour of swagger” and “the colour of quirky” to name a few. Opening night sees a colour therapist providing a colour reading for exhibition goers.

Urban Cow Studio Gallery

11 Frome Street, Adelaide SA 5000

contact | 8232 6126 | Urban Cow

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By Peter Maddern

Shiver is the first solo exhibition of CCP graduate, Vera Ada, at the Light Gallery.

The exhibition of about 40 works has no particular theme but the things that seem to interest Vera are fairly clearly delineated. These include an attraction towards characters, who are often not only quirky but also struggling and stressed; their captures mostly being without them being aware of the camera’s presence.

She also revels in double exposures, notably Sylphid where a woman peering down at what maybe her mobile phone in a hallway is caught up in a swirling, combusting blaze of light.

Windows, particularly bus windows, are also well handled with Vera indulging optimally in the natural presence of poles and sills to construct the framework for the images, using these strained characters mentioned above to peer out or in (as the case maybe) to contrasting worlds, perhaps the forms of the worlds that are the subject of their contemplations.

Ada also enjoys forming street and domestic scenes where nature is contrasted against the human action. While without the overwhelming drama, these images have a sense of those done by Canadian Jeff Wall with Stray, Chores and Leftover the most interesting. Catch this emerging photographer til 3rd May.

Tetratologists Inc at Ladybeads on Unley Rd is somewhat of a world away from Shiver though that sensation may draw them together. Here prolific Kat Coppock has curated more than a dozen artists who have conjured all manner of scary monsters and imagery, from photos and drawing to objects and toys.

While the two dimensional works are not the highlight, children will love many of the figures that are at the same time cuddly but scary, fearsome yet floppy and deformed yet docile. Presenting them all in darkness, other than for the spot torch provided when you enter, adds nicely to the look and feel of it all. Highlights for me were Fletch Cuts’ Zombies of War, Nickas Serpantus’s Scary Hairy Faery (above) and Tiffany Hampton’s Pride and Vanity (below).

Zombies is a hand cut stencil of a soldier staring out at us emerging from a dark and occasionally blood splattered abyss. Scary Hairy features a locust / mouse cross, in a high rage straddling a stick locked away safely (thankfully) in a dusty, grey bird cage. While Pride and Vanity is a nice combination of a similarly disposed Tasmanian Devil type creature frothing at the mouth and ever so fearsome, yet it possesses qualities of a treasure you would like to take home with you, with bright rhinestones and glitter creating that confusion about its soul that the title of this work plays to so well.

Tetratologists Inc is on until 9th May.

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TeTRATOLOGISTS inc.

A NEW visual art show featuring;

Alphamanta, Ali Harmony Brown, Alyshia Emming, Amy Isabel-Doherty, Agota Sjostrom, Caitlin Millard, Casey Farrell, Gemma Killen, Genevieve Brandenburg, Haneen Martin, Imee Luz, Jess King, Joshua Smith, Kat Coppock, Lindsey Bryant, NicNic, Nickas Serpantius, Sam Althuizen, Sarah Kellett, Shane Haddy, Shaylee Leach, Tiff Hampton, Wes Todd. CURATED BY KAT COPPOCK

“Like a letter on the page the Monster signifies something other than itself; it is always a displacement, always inhabits the gap between the time of upheaval that created it and the moment into which it is received, to be born again…”
–J.J. Cohen

Monsters. Manifestations of the unknown. Fears, secrets, threats.

The second exhibition this year held by emerging artist and curator Kat Coppock, Tetratologists Inc. asks 22 artists to flex their artistic muscles and inquire into new media in their exploration into what it means to be monstrous.

Based around mythological figures, manifestations of pop-culture into the world of the real, or secrets buried deep within the self, the works presented here will be varied and completely unique.

Things we have a limited conception of scare us. To associate with this fear, we coagulate it. Shape it from a metaphysical concept into a physical object we can see, influence, or battle. We demonize our insecurities in the hopes of driving them back into the cupboard, or bury them in the earth. We give them shape, form, and colour. We give them a name, a sense of power, so that by fighting them we may retain our own power.

From glass work and projection art to watercolour and glow-in-the-dark hand carved figurines, here are both the cute and the challenging, and ultimately bound to disturb you in the fuzziest of ways.

This exhibition features multidimensional works by 22 local emerging artists as they bring their deepest fears and secrets to life.

Teratologists Inc. opens on 9^th April at 6pm, and concludes on 9^th May, 2013.

LADYBEADS GALLERY

62 UNLEY ROAD, UNLEY

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A Rare Bear

By Peter Maddern

It is perhaps easy to be somewhat underwhelmed by the Turner from the Tate exhibition on at the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of the 2013 Adelaide Festival of Arts. Indeed, local media identity, Peter Goers, described it as ‘boring’.

And for those seeking a wall to wall, ‘greatest hits collection’, it may also be that way but two means of appreciating the 100+ works now on show til mid May may assist in gaining greater appreciation and pleasure from the exhibition, one of the only almost generational visits that Turner’s works on this scale make to Australia.

The first comes from the designs of the Tate itself which specify that any exhibition of JMW Turner must speak foremost to presenting his progression as an artist. That chronological approach is certainly useful as one witnesses the development of his early craft based around a strong to desire to match then exceed the reputations of masters that had gone before. It is, for example, a most extraordinary display of immodesty to demand, as Turner’s will did, that his emulations of Claude Lorrain’s masterpieces should hang alongside the originals at London’s National Gallery. But remarkably, he got away with it.

Battle of Trafalgar

A second approach to appreciating the exhibition is not to view it chronologically but rather to attempt to weave one’s way through it according to the various passions, views and eccentricities of a man, who, even for an artist, was decidedly odd.

In this regard, the manner in which he led his life is instructive. His best friend and house servant for many years was his father with whom he bonded strongly after the death of their sister / daughter and the subsequent madness, incarceration and death of their mother / wife. Yet, Turner also sustained a long tern relationship with a widow (Sarah Danby) whom he got settled nearby and sired two children but incredibly this was never known until after his death.

Indeed, as unhappy his relationship with his mother must have been some have speculated it was this horror that sub-consciously speaks to his tumultuous skies and seas. Turner once stated that his ‘first duty in life was to his mother.’

The Fighting Temereire

The young Joseph was also no looker; short, with jockey legs, a beak nose and not one to focus obsessively on personal hygiene.  It seems also he did not try to make up for this with generosity of spirit to others, especially towards his various lovers, who despite their devotion to him were (along with his issue through them) treated in an at best stingy manner. He was raised in gritty, grimy parts of London, which though very close geographically to the wealthy and royalty were for its residents otherwise a world away. While courting royal patronage, he also secured backers (such as Walter Fawkes) who were deeply loathing of the English status quo. He travelled alone, kept no diaries and eschewed working with assistants in his studio.

So, Turner though recognised by the Royal Academy at the age of just 26 spent a life in secret and mostly alone, balancing artistic expression between the need for an income and his desire to make statements, not just about his skill but about his times as well.

While JMW Turner may be regarded as a master landscape painter, it is on the sea that the history of Britain at this time is best recounted and where arguably his greatest works are focused. For this was the era of on-going Napoleonic wars, Nelson’s England and the arrival of the industrial revolution. While the idylls of the Lake District and Venice may have sold well, it was the tumult of his seascapes where his bravery as a painter and social commentator shine through.

The ruling elites of any society like to wash over quickly the reality and consequences of their decisions, good and bad, focusing on the heroic outcomes when they occur. Turner would have little of this and so his depictions of the defeat of the French (eg The Battle of Trafalgar – 1823-4 – see above) were not marked by triumph but devastating and apocalyptic imagery of those who died horribly in the battles. In A Disaster At Sea – 1835 we see not England’s boast of how, unlike its European neighbours and of course the Americans, it had risen above slavery across the empire but the human cost of its repatriation policies for criminals to colonies – here a vessel full of women bound for New South Wales was lost in sight of land by a captain more worried about his insurance that his cargo.

Then there is The Fighting Temeraire – 1838 (see above) where Turner neatly both ushers in the industrial revolution and predicts the mess it would cause to those in the cities through air pollution. Here The Temeraire is being tugged away for the last time. The yacht is beautifully presented in pristine condition, sails neatly folded, its masts standing on high while an ugly, black, sooting tug boat does the honours. The setting is not as may be expected, at sunset for the departing war veteran, but rather at sunrise – the glory days of Nelson and that England were now being taken away in a new dawn.

As for his eccentricities, it is not hard to see how Turner may have been respected but he was not loved. His works too often, while not political rallying calls to arms, tore away at the veneer of respectability and no doubt this cost him much of the royal patronage he craved. His famous efforts on ‘varnishing days’ at the annual Royal Academy exhibitions, which he saw as invitations to better, show up or even mock the efforts of rivals, must have infuriated his peers. But throughout his career, as much as he was revered many sustained a lifelong criticism of his work for its coarse techniques and those yellows and that when used to depict sunsets even now make you want to squint.

Through it all, the odd little loner held his nerve and did art his way creating a new view of the world at that time and ushering in the approaches of the impressionists of thirty or so years later and even, some say, the expressionists of a century beyond.

Accordingly Turner from the Tate delivers on showing the vagaries and genius of the man. None to that time had attempted to show the elements in such stunning states of suspended animation, especially the ‘sublime’ ones where nature towers so omnipotently over the flailing and egos of mere mortals. His ability to capture light and its emotional impact have stood the test of time and his extraordinary life’s work accordingly will always fascinate.

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100 rocks by Tom Borgas

By Peter Maddern

The annual Helpmann Academy Graduate exhibition, on again at the Drill Hall at the Parade Grounds, show cases the very best of Adelaide’s student artists. Also as per usual, there is an eclectic collection on display with everything from photographs and moving pictures to large installations, ceramics and glass.

Rightfully, much attention has been focused on Kate Kurucz’s luscious and traditional portrait, mischievously entitled Casual Friday. The colours are absorbing and the work stands somewhat in contrast to many of the modern and grungy styles adopted elsewhere in the show.

Also of interest with the brush are Ellie Noir’s works, especially her Myself As Alice where a cowering frightened Alice is seen squeezed into a very confined space. Her mastery of the human form is very evident and her work is accomplished. Kurucz’s other work Pleasuredome Palindrome, (partial below) (again a delicious name) is homage to self-indulgence and its therapeutic effects on our psyche.

A favourite from last year, Carly Snoswell, is back with her plastic loop ties, this time (in Untitled – left) as intensely spun balls in all manner of colours that seem to be exploding apart as you view them. The magic in her work is the shock one gets from seeing what constitutes her seemingly simple figures.

There is also something alluring to Tom Borgas’ 100 Rocks (above) that are presented, precisely, as cross-sections in graduating sizes and shades of purples to reds. A no doubt unintended impact it may have is to conjure up finely cooked pieces of prime beef or lamb.

Sure to amuse is Victor Waclawik’s Footstool (with accompanying Armchair), both done in black rubber and imitation leather – the former with the soles of feet protruding, the latter with arms doing similarly.

There are also a number of objects whose creators have obviously revelled in the creative process as much as the outcomes. The useful exhibition catalogue confirms that for us and the works of Russell O’Brien, Lucy Palmer and Kel Chester are well worth pausing at to study on this count.

Pleasuredome Palindrome by Kate Kurucz (partial)

On that reference source, the catalogue provides most valuable guidance for viewers as it includes the individual artists’ statements that do no end of good to explain what has been attempted and thus what it is we should look at in their work and how well they have achieved their aims. The arrogance of ‘art is what is what I have called it and it is for you to interpret it’ is thankfully put on hold in this environment.

I am uncertain whether this year’s exhibition matches that of last year’s which was somewhat of a stand out with more than a few of those artists already making a name for themselves out in the real world. And perhaps that is best how we regard this exhibition. It is that final moment for the student artists between the constraints and support of the educational institution and its teaching methods and requirements and that first day beyond when full freedom of expression is allowed in a dog eat dog world.

But as always, there is much to admire and be fascinated by with Samela Harris’ Art For The Looking essay in the catalogue a most useful starting point for appreciating the works within.

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Georges Seurat - La-Seine à Courbevoie

By Peter Maddern

With the presence of the Impressionists on the art landscape finally secured by the early 1880s, the Post Impressionist movement was devised by two up and coming French artists who sort to redefine how the ‘impressionist’ style should be delivered. The two, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, devised two major shifts in the impressionist method – the first was to eschew the drive to produce their paintings in situ, as an immediate response to the scene and the light and the sensation of the view. Instead, sketches and studies may be quickly prepared in the summer but the big, exacting work would be undertaken during the long winter months thereafter.

The second change was to take a ‘scientific’ approach to how colour would be delivered to the viewer. This involved abandoning mixing paints on the palette in favour of the application of dabs of ‘pure’ colour arranged so that the interaction of adjoining contrasts would produce a third tone for the viewer.

This style, sometimes referred to as ‘dot’ painting by the ‘pointillists’ (the proponents preferred to called it ‘divisionalism’) , in fact failed to deliver on its theoretical thrill but that did not stop an alternative form of impressionism growing that has stood the test of time. For while the science failed, what was delivered were paintings of scenes that appear to shimmer, especially from the effect of warm summer sun, or vibrate before one’s eyes, notably of depictions of water, whether of the sea or rivers.

Radiance – The Post Impressionists at the National Gallery of Victoria is an excellent review of this movement. By no means the largest exhibition ever staged (and that is no bad thing), but the nature of the Post Impressionist movement is that this exhibition more than nicely covers its players and stages until World War I brought it all to a close.

Georges Seurat - A Sunday on the grande jatte

The exhibition greets you with a Seurat masterpiece, The Seine at Courbevoie (1885) (above) which not only makes plain the style of the post-impressionist movement but firmly places this painter as the first amongst the pack.  Practicalities, of course, deny us his and the greatest work of the movement, Sunday on La Grande Jatte, (left) a six square metre tribute to not only style but geometry that awaits patrons at the Chicago Art Institute as they enter there, but Seine, on  a much smaller scale, gives you the idea – the river; a sea of blue, green and white dabs vibrating for the viewer as it flows, grass; light and dark strips depending on the shadow and distant housing shimmering in the summer heat all composed in a rather rigid, geometrical form epitomised by the slim and proper woman in the foreground with her parasol and small dog.

Another characteristic of the Post-Impressionist movement was the political glue of ‘anarchy’ that held advocates together. Then anarchy referred not to violent, nihilistic rebellion but rather dismay about government and a belief the future lay in a harmonious relationship between industrial progress and the natural world. Accordingly, many of the works depict these forces co-habiting together in beautiful settings. Signac, Maximilien Luce and Camille Pissarro works are the stand outs in this regard with the Pissarro double of Flock of Sheep (1888) and Delafolie Brickworks at Éragny (1886) the crème de a la crème.

Achille Lauge - Portrait of Madame Astre 1892

Perhaps the most challenging for the movement’s artists and surprising for patrons are the last works presented, the portraits done in this most challenging style. Two works by Achille Laugé, the portraits of Madame Astre (1892) (left) and Alice Séthe (1888) are particularly arresting. The former, that failed to attract much critical interest in its time, is a two metre work (that makes it no doubt larger than the subject herself) is a masterful working of the dot / division style. The subject is in a white dress that blends in with the wall behind her but Laugé works the canvas with just two colours to incorporate not only her but the folds of her garments and the shifting shadows and tones of the light around and behind her.

While the advent of World War I officially ended the Post Impressionist movement, it is probably true to say it was in serious decline as many as twenty years before and just ten years after the first meeting of Seurat and Signac in Paris that kicked it all off. Seurat himself died in 1892 at the age of just 31 and many other disciples drifted away from that time as the rigours of the ‘scientific’ technique overwhelmed them and they sought the freedom to create their own aesthetic beyond this movement’s strictures.

Attempts to shift the building blocks of the movement from the ‘pure’ colours of red, blue and green were also not as successful, with the nightscapes of city scenes somewhat unhappy to the eye and the lengthening of the dabs enjoying only marginally greater success. The advent of Van Gogh’s work and then the likes of Picasso quickly highlighted that this movement had little more to say, especially as its academic foundations had failed to deliver on their promise, even if the resulting canvases were nonetheless highly full of merit.

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By Peter Maddern

The annual National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Prize’s finalists are on display at the Flinders Uni Art Museum in the State Library til 17^th February. Not sure how often this exhibition comes to Adelaide, this is the first I can remember, but the exhibition should be considered a must for all those keen on the genre.

Given the range of portraits on display, the contest itself, as well as the exhibition, raises issues about what constitutes a good or great portrait. At one end are those images that may be seen to be notable for the access afforded the photographer of their well-known subject. At the other, are pictures of somewhat anonymous folk, often children, just going about their lives. Is it the composition of the image, the moment captured or just the photo’s arresting impact on the viewer?

There is, of course, no real reason why it can’t be all of these things but despite the claims of the organisers that there are no fixed criteria about short list selection each year seems to produce a very similar dispersal of images across the various types. However, what cannot be assessed in such an exhibition is the uniqueness of an image of a subject in the context of the whole of the images taken then (for example the moment the guard is let down and a real insight is captured) or of a more extended subject matter. It is perhaps for this reason that most if not all of this year’s finalists have a very clear sense of composed structure to them rather than spontaneity.

This year’s winner is Rod McNicol’s image of Jack Charles, a man possessed of a ‘colourful life’. It is certainly a wonderful composition with an almost grey tone about it, with Jack’s ensign white vest highlighting his explosion of white hair against a dark grey background. He is also wearing a thinly hooped blue and white skivvy that also picks up the faint horizontal lines of the rear wall.

Also of note in the composition end of the scale are Dr Hassan Rahim in Andrew Campbell’s The Chess Player; a study of study as he contemplates a chess board with reminders of those dark days fleeing Idi Amin’s Uganda behind him, and Peter West’s Tami, a brilliant surge of reds, the subject’s Tami Jakobson’s favourite colour we are told, with lots of diagonals playing themselves across the image.

On the access front, Jeffrey Smart in his Tuscany sun room (by David Tacon) and Margaret Olley in her Paddington Studio by John McRae are important historical images. The former had just put away the paints and easels for the last time and the latter shortly after her image was taken entered the great studio in the sky. Both present expressions of pride while acknowledging their frail states. Both also sit forward in the composition with the photographer ensuring there are pronounced depths beyond alluding to their creative lives well lived behind them.

George Mifsud’s Emmanuel at bedtime (see image above – portion) is the best of the kids’ images with the composition reminding strongly of a Rembrandt painting while Dale Neill’s Farewell my son appears to be the strongest in the decisive moment category.

Adelaide photographer Alex Frayne also delivers an excellent black and white capture of a 70 year old diver on the Glenelg jetty, surrounded by those of the generation who normally indulge in such antics.

Elsewhere, at the Light Gallery, is Ghoti 15 (pronounced Fish 15), the bi-annual exhibition of students of the Centre of Creative Photography. This exhibition includes much more than just portraits and it is perhaps, if nothing else, interesting to see what captures the imagination of the current students of the CCP. One thing of note is the trend to attempt to produce images as if they were made from lesser technology of days long gone by.

Lauren Brauer’s Cassette Photo-gram (pictured nearby) is the best of the exhibition with nine old music cassettes captured as if by an x-ray light. Elysha Glaser does a nice capture of the Mortlock Wing at the Library – old school library walls now making a comeback in our photographic consciousness as their utility in the modern world declines. Tim Allan’s Tate Modern is a tribute to patience, capturing brilliant light and shadows on two patrons as they walk away in the great hall that greets patrons at London’s Tate Modern. Just how he was so fortunate to get an image with just two people in it there is a mystery given usual attendances but well done to Tim for it and his working of it.

On the portrait side and in somewhat of a contrast to the razzamatazz of the National Portrait Prize are two images by Heidi Johns. One, Look me in the eye is of a shirtless teenage boy, cross legged looking at us in a very symmetrical composition. The other is Riley, a younger girl with freckles set off to the right of centre of the photo. Both, in their simple style, black and white without much other post production, draw your gaze in and the subjects give you an insight into their mix of innocence and worldliness even at their young age.

Do try to visit before the exhibition closes on 25^th January. The Light Gallery is located on Richmond Rd.

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