Tuesday 16 October 2012

Threefold


I just want to get to know you better, I just want you to get to know me better, 2012, video still, courtesy of the artists.

THREEFOLD

I just want to get to know you better, I just want you to get to know me better

Wednesday 24 October, 6 - 8pm


Tuesday 11 September 2012

Christopher Cipollone's First and Last Show


Current Projects is honoured to present

Christopher Cipollone's First and Last Show

Opening: 19 September, 6 - 8pm

Exhibition Dates: 19 September - 6 October

Liam O'Brien | Shooting Blanks | Closing


Last night we held an evening reception for our current exhibition - Liam O'Brien's Shooting Blanks. Thanks to all of the wonderful art viewers who came out to see the show and share a drink with us. We had a really super evening. Here are some social images from the night mixed up with a few images of the show...


Monday 13 August 2012

Liam O'Brien Interview


Next up in Current Projects’ series of solo exhibitions at Metro Arts this year is Liam O’Brien, a Brisbane-based emerging artist. Liam caught up with Current Projects’ curator for the exhibition, Richard Stride, for an interview to give you a little insight into the show.

RS: For those unfamiliar with your practice, what are the interests that drive it and how do you approach them? 

LO: I think this is something I'm still struggling to come to terms with myself. Looking back over thepast few years, the majority of my work could be summarised as a critical response to the aspectsof capitalism that impede personal freedoms - specifically in relation to the body. However, asmuch as this was based on my own personal experience, it was also a product of art school, in which I felt pressured into making work that, to a large extent, had social reform as its primaryobjective. However, since graduating I've been considering the function of art on a personaland social level. Whilst every expression is to a certain extent political, I don't think that art isthe most effective medium for seeking political change. In addition to this, given my own culturalperspective, I don't feel like I'm in a position to be telling anybody how to live. So now I'm trying todistance myself from making didactic or semiotically-driven work. I'm responding more to aspectsof my daily life, and using particular occurrences as the inception for new works. Obviously concepts and aesthetics are still important, but at this stage I'm focusing more ontrying to generate emotive and non-verbal responses for the audience. It’s not an easy transition though.

RS: So do you hope that by shifting the focus from language to the sensory or emotive when creating your work, the viewer’s response will similarly shift?

LO: Yes, that’s my intention. If I have one main criticism of contemporary art (based on my own engagements) it’s that a lot of work is either too conceptually or too aesthetically driven, and does nothing for me emotionally. This reason, along with those I listed above, are why I’m currently focusing on this type of engagement. If you reject language as the basis for understanding a work, it becomes about trying to communicate on a more subconscious level, and towards a more shared experience.

RS: In the roles you play in your performances, do you hope to explore issues that are broadlyrelevant to the everyday person, or are they a more personal or introspective process?
LO: In the past, my performances were about translating my personal responses to certain issues into a generic ‘everyman’ performing identity onto which people could potentially project themselves. In this way, I was attempting to address issues relating to broader social experience. However, I’m currently unsure of where I stand on the issue. Certainly, I am trying to reach people on the level of shared (emotive) experience, but whether I can position this experience in relation to specific issues (eg. employment or alcoholism) is uncertain. Whilst my work does come from personal responses to the outside world, my daily experience (presumably one of privilege) is potentially much different to many other peoples, so what right do I have to assume this ‘everyman’ role? I’m beginning to think that whilst it’s important for me to be aware of my responses to the outside world and use these as the inception for new works, it may not be as important to communicate what the response is actually in relation to. That way the audience can only respond to the performance on experiential terms.
RS: In some recent performances, you have invited the audience to re-enact your original performances. How does that fit into this process, and what are your motives for it?
LO: Here you’re referring to the participatory work that I presented at the 2012 Brisbane Emerging Art Festival. This work was an extension of my ‘Proposals’ series, which focused on the creative re-appropriation and repurposing of urban space for the individual. For B.E.A.F I wanted to expand the scale of the work from an individual to a more social level in order to see whether that increase would make the work more successful - successful in the sense of inviting people to experience what I had felt in carrying out the initial engagements, and the existence of that feeling as proof of a particular ideology at work. In the end it was a bit hit-and-miss, and only one of the engagements (involving flour) really communicated the intention. At this stage I’m not interested in pursuing this type of participatory practice.

RS: Where do you situate your art in regard to your actual performances and their video andphotographic documentation; or are you more inclined to see your practice holistically as artwithout concern for such distinctions?
LO: Whilst in the past I have presented the same action across multiple mediums, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that my practice is holistic. I think it has more to do with being inexperienced and trying to become a better practitioner. I’d definitely say that the majority of my practice is performative, but whether an action is most effectively expressed as a live performance, video or photograph is often difficult to determine – hence the production of multiple forms. It may be something that diminishes with practice, however I do like being able to chop-and-change. I guess you need to consider commodification as well, and whether you ever want your practice to be profitable.
RS: Where do you see your exhibition at Current Projects heading?
LO: The exhibition at Current Projects will be my first proper solo-show, and to a certain extent I’m feeling the pressure of that – of everything being on me and not wanting to disappoint. I want to use the opportunity to push my practice into areas that I’m not entirely comfortable with, and at this stage am planning on presenting a couple of more installation-based ideas. Overall, it definitely feels like a departure from my previous work. Whether it’ll pay off - I don’t know. I’m interested to see how people react.  
RS: Is there anything you would like the audience to bring to the experience of viewing your work atthis exhibition?
LO: No, not really. If people come that'll be good enough. If they take something away from it, that'll be better.



Thursday 26 July 2012

So where the bloody hell are you? | Interview with Clark Beaumont

In conjunction with their solo exhibition So where the bloody hell are you? Clark Beaumont talk collaboration,  performance, and the 'Aussie' identity with Katherine Dionysius from Current Projects.

KD: You’ve said that you work exclusively as Clark Beaumont – neither of you have pursued solo practices for a few years. What were your individual practices like before? What inspired you to start working collaboratively?

CB: Our individual practices explored similar themes to the ones we delve into now as a collaboration. We just function better together. Our individual practices often, in the past, seemed problematic, stunted and generally less interesting to us.

Our collaboration began in university, sparked and fuelled by our mutual interests in performance art, youtube, cinema and television. We instantly had great chemistry and through collaborating, we have been able to create a stimulating and supportive environment, allowing for both a friendship and artistic practice to develop.

KD: The first work you created together was Undress in 2010, a performance video work, in which you begin tied together from head to toe in a web of string, and proceed to untangle yourself throughout the duration of the work. In subsequent works like Clark Beaumont Self-Portrait you attempt to ‘become’ each other. Can you talk a bit about the significance of ‘becoming’ other characters (particularly Australian women) in So Where the bloody hell are you?  

CB: Within our works, we’re interested in exploring the multiple facets of our identities, as: females, Australians, individuals, as a duo, fellow collaborators, consumers, creators, etc.

In So Where the Bloody Hell are you? (SWTBHAY) we focus on the relationship between ourselves and the ‘Aussie’ identity that ‘iconic’ Australian films project to us (Australians) and internationally, as well as our relationship with film in general, as a strong informative tool that assists in the construction of these identities.

In SWTBHAY, similarly to in Clark Beaumont Self-Portrait, we utilise role reversal as a key form of personal critique and reflection. As a duo in SWTBHAY, we play multiple personas, presenting our identities as somewhat fluid and intangible. Through transformation and characterisation, we attempt to create and recreate ourselves simultaneously. Rather than creating another stereotype within our video, we wanted to allow room for a multiplicity of identities on an individual scale, as well as on a national one. We believe that in doing this, we can create something more complex and true, comparatively to the common portrayal.

KD: SWTBHAY differs from your previous works in that it doesn’t so much take ‘collaboration’ as a central theme – your previous works really focus on your relationship with each other, particularly Future Predictions, which plays out various hypothetical scenarios about how your partnership may eventually come to an end. Looking at your practice from the outside, it seems to me as though this work suppressed your fears and freed you to explore ideas of identity outside your relationship with each other. Is that how you see it? Or do you feel that you’re still unpacking ideas about your relationship?

CB: We’re pretty natural in our creative process and so we trusted our need for introspection in Future Predictions. It was a cathartic endeavour created at a time of uncertainty as collaborators, as we both looked into the future, facing the end of our shared degree, concerned with how much longer this good thing could last. The artwork was developed on the premise that through living out these potential traumatic ‘breakups’ we would be able to, therefore, free ourselves of any genuine concerns, as, in a strange way, we would already have lived out those realities - like ticking an item off of a checklist and being able to move on.

SWTBHAY, on the other hand, was inspired by our recent time travelling overseas. Travelling is such an overwhelming experience that opens you up to the world and provides you with a better vantage point to consider life’s bigger questions. Travelling also makes you more aware of your nationality: you, as an Australian.

We’re interested in the Australian identity, how it’s constructed and how we may or may not identify with it. In this artwork, we do, therefore, take the main focus away from our relationship. However, the artwork’s disjointed narrative does lend itself to bleed throughs between the characters’ identities and we like to think that sometimes we’re interacting with each other even though only one of us is actually on screen.

Our natural creative process allows us to make whatever feels right at the time. The work we’re making at the moment is less epic, monumental and national; we are bringing it back down to a simmer and getting a little introspective once again.

KD: Your practice seems to have become more elaborate, work by work – from simple gestures of untangling (Undress 2010) or tracing each other’s shadows (Crossing Over 2010) to more scripted performances using costumes and props in the work you produced for BEAF earlier this year. SWTBHAY – perhaps your most ambitious work yet – uses a green screen to insert your own footage into existing films. Was this an intentional progression? What’s next?

CB: Video editing has become a crucial component to our practice, as previously our collaboration was predominantly focused upon the performance using video only as a source for documentation. Our early works, Undress and Crossing Over were predominantly about the physical and our relationship, using the camera only for documentation purposes. As our collaboration progressed, we have found editing our footage more and more appealing, as it allowed for greater perimeters to our performances. The video editing process provides us with the power to manipulate our image and actions even further, inserting ourselves into the digital world, and enabling us to explore key ideas within our collaboration such as escapism, duality, identity, and kinship on the big screen. Video has also become a powerful source of reflection and critique for us, allowing for a newfound awareness of our bodies – how they perform and interact – to develop.

Who knows what comes next! We don’t.

Monday 16 July 2012

So where the bloody hell are you?


25 July 2012, 6 - 8pm


Current Projects presents recent video work by Brisbane emerging artist duo Clark Beaumont, in which the artists unpack the 'Aussie' identity and construct new narratives for both themselves and the audience. Originally created for SafARI 2012 in Sydney, So where the bloody hell are you? 'premieres' in Brisbane as the second instalment of Current Projects' Pear shaped series - a number of one-night exhibitions that present work by collaborative pairs.


Image: Clark Beaumont, So where the bloody hell are you? 2012, video still, courtesy the artists.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Rachel Maclean opening night...


Last night we celebrated the opening of Rachel Maclean's The Lion and The Unicorn. It was a great night of art viewing and frivolity. We had a fantastic turn out of wonderful art lovers and received lots of feedback about the work. We'll be sure to pass it on to Rachel, who due to geographic impediments, couldn't be here for the show! Here are some social snaps from the evening.

If you missed the opening, the show will remain open until July 14. We are open Wednesday to Friday 11 - 4.30 and Saturday 2 - 5. Don't miss this great show!

Monday 18 June 2012

The Lion and The Unicorn | Rachel Maclean

The Lion and the Unicorn | Rachel Maclean
Opening Wednesday 4 July, 6 – 8pm
4 July - 14 July 2012

Current Projects presents a solo exhibition of video works by Glasgow artist Rachel Maclean. The exhibition examines Scottish identity in relation to history, mythology and popular culture.

Please join us for the exhibition opening on Wednesday 4 July, 6  - 8pm.

The Lion and the Unicorn is Rachel’s first Australian exhibition. The exhibition will be open for viewing from 4 - 14 July.

Image: The Lion and The Unicorn 2012, digital print, courtesy the artist.

Monday 30 April 2012

Passages


Curated by Brooke Ferguson
Opening Wednesday 2 May, 6–8pm
2 May – 19 May 2012

Passages brings together a selection of Brisbane based artists who make text-based artworks, including zines, catalogue essays and ephemera that engage the spaces of visual art and critical writing. It will investigate how text and language have been used to open up the possibilities for making and discussing art practice. This project explores a range of the ways that text can be used as a graphic/creative form – as well as a space for critical reflection and observation in art practice. It will highlight how a range of Brisbane artists approach the relationship between language as signification, language as critical response, and the hybrid spaces between these sites of connection. This project wants to foreground how this approach to art making can be a productive and exciting space of creative and critical activity in the age of digital media. 

Image: Journal page by Alice Lang. Courtesy the artist.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Has the Brisbane ARI bubble burst?

The IMA is hosting a panel discussion on the topic of 'the rise and fall' of Brisbane artist-run initiatives. Current Projects' very own Brooke Ferguson will be a part of the panel, alongside Chris Bennie, Rachel Haynes and Grant Stevens. If you're interested in the Brisbane ARI scene come to the IMA on Thursday 26 April at 6pm. It promises to be an intriguing discussion!

Thursday 12 April 2012

One-night edition: On Hiatus | Catherine or Kate

Catherine or Kate, Weathercam Performance Still, 2011, courtesy the artist(s)


On Hiatus | Catherine or Kate

Pear shaped: one-night edition
Wednesday 18 April, 6-8pm

On Hiatus marks the first of our Pear shaped: one-night editions by collaborating artists.

Catherine or Kate, the artist(s) formerly known as Catherine Sagin (née Fiona Mail) have been working together for four years. Having undergone more name-changes than a high school garage band trying to hook their first paid gig, the duo have shown a blatant disregard for branding consistency and instead have opted to keep internet search engines on their toes. These restless naming revisions are part of the duo’s broader strategy for deliberately disrupting the distinctions between individual and shared performative identities. By constantly reframing and refocusing the dynamics of their partnership, Catherine or Kate also engage in an ongoing reassessment of the popular paradigms of creative collaboration, and the basic tenets upon which these collaborations are founded. (Text: Marianne Templeton)

Pirrin's opening night - all smiles!


Pirrin's show HE MADE THE GROUND RESOUND WITH HIS FALL finishes up this weekend, so if you haven't seen it yet, get your skates on! There are exhibition images on our website HERE

In the meantime, here are some images from opening night:

Wednesday 28 March 2012

HE MADE THE GROUND RESOUND WITH HIS FALL




Please join us for the opening of 
HE MADE THE GROUND RESOUND WITH HIS FALL
New work by Pirrin Francis

Wednesday 4 April, 6 - 8pm
Studio 3.5 Metro Arts 109 Edward Street, Brisbane.


Francis’ recent practice is concerned with how unconventional narrative structures can be used to portray events, places and characters within a realm where reality and imagination overlap. Working predominantly with video and digital media, presented in elaborately staged installations, she deconstructs and disrupts traditional narratives to create an intersection of fact and fiction.

Exhibition runs 28 March - 14 April



Lefety Levity Exhibtion



Last Wednesday evening we held the first of our one-night exhibitions with Sally Chicken and her show Lefety Levity. Here are a few social images from the night:


Thanks to those that came along! For more exhibition images visit the exhibition page on our website, HERE.

Monday 12 March 2012

Lefety Levity



Current Projects invites you to Lefety Levity, a one-night exhibition by Sally Chicken.

Sally’s practice investigates the relationship between humans and animals and how these relationships change between cultures. Her practice is influenced by her own experiences of living in, and moving between, urban and rural environments. Lefety Levity examines the types of communication, including slippages in understanding, that occur between humans and ‘man’s best friend.’ 

One night only - Wednesday the 21st of March between 6 and 8pm.





Saturday 10 March 2012

Katrin Strobel opening night...


Check out these images from the opening night of our current show, Katrin Strobel's FROM/TO (AUS). The exhibition will run until March 16. If you couldn't make the opening be sure to visit us in Studio 3.5, level 3, Metro Arts. Our opening hours are 11 - 4.30 Monday to Friday, and 11 - 2 Saturday. Closed Sundays.


For more images of this exhibition please visit HERE.