Melbourne's Other Art Fair

I hope they run this event again in Melbourne.  As I understand it, Sydney has held it twice. The opportunity to exchange minds with a large group of visual artists all under the one roof was too good to miss.  I attended on both Saturday and Sunday, the first day was to take in the whole event and with 100 artists exhibiting it was a little overwhelming. On Sunday I focused more on the marketing aspect, that is; how each artist had presented their work in the space they'd paid for ($400 per metre - average space 5 metres).  Also I looked at their promotional material, business cards, flyers, booklets etc.

It was a totally rewarding experience getting feedback from artists about participating in such an event.  Many were first-timers, some had come from Sydney, Adelaide, WA, even New Zealand.  Most appeared happy with their experience and said they would do it again.  A few felt rather differently about it, most notably those whose work was more conceptual.  One artist said she felt that a fair was the wrong context for her work.  Others weren't entirely happy about the location of their "stall".  Whilst artists can choose what size stall they are prepared to pay for, the event is curated.

The location of the fair at The Facility in Kensington drew a mixed reaction as some artists thought is was too remote from the Melbourne CBD.  Then again is was close to public transport.  Some artists were a little disappointed with the attendances but this was the first time the event was staged in Melbourne. 

As you might expect, the art which seemed to sell he best was what I call corporate art, slick, colourful all surface and as one conceptual artist said to me, "I can't do slick".  Nor can I.

One artist summed up the experience very succinctly.  "You have to be clear about your objectives when you participate in an art fair.  You also have to be realistic".  She, herself, was not using the fair for sales purposes as she is already well established.  So promotion was her key objective.  Others said it was a valuable experience for networking purposes and getting feedback from the public about their work.

OK, so lets to the mathematics.  About 100 artists paying an average $2000 for their space which included business cards featuring an image of the artist's work and a saarchiart web address/ artist name.  So nearly all artists brought along their own cards.  So that's $200,000 for 4 days yet the organisers still charged entry fees for the public.  And not even a complimentary free drink for the artists on opening night.

I have this image of a milking shed containing artists, not cows.

Travel And Thought

One of my favourite authors writing about one of my favourite artists, I couldn't resist this.  "Journeys are the midwifes of thought", argues Alain De Botton.  Introspections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape.   

Edward Hopper, "Compartment C, Car 293".

Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks such as listening to music or following a line of trees.  The changing landscape distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness and which runs scared of memories, longings etc. and focuses on the impersonal and administrative.

You only have to think of what happens when you've forgotten the pin number at an ATM.  You take yourself off on a walk, viewing shop fronts or whatever it takes to distract the practical mind.  And sure enough, the pin number is remembered.

According to De Botton, Edward Hopper enjoyed train travel, the dreaminess fostered by the noise and the view from the window, a dreaminess in which we seem to stand outside our normal selves and have access to thoughts and memories that may not arise in more settled circumstances.

Christchurch Dealing With It's Pain

A temporary art installation by Peter Majendie near the CTV building in Christchurch acknowledging the lives lost in the 2011 earthquake.  The chairs stand on a vacant lot once occupied by a church.

What Are Art Galleries For?

Author Alain De Botton has been arguing for some time that there is something inherently wrong with the way art is presented in museums.  Not for him the notion of art-for-arts-sake.  It is a question of curatorship to some degree, but also an inability on the  part of administrators to define exactly what purpose an art museum is meant to perform.

Robert Rosenblum 1927 - 2006

One of my favourite art historians, Robert Rosenblum is credited with challenging accepted norms of modern art and its history. He believed that Modernism had a much longer history than people assumed.  Instead of examining and judging works of art within time-specific frameworks, Rosenblum tended to critique art regardless of its associated movement or place in history. 

Rosenblum believed that Modern art can trace its roots back to the French, German and Danish painters (who worked mostly in the Neo-Classical style) of the late 18th-century.  Rosenblum constantly confronted formal ideas of Modernism and even art history itself, and challenged those in the art world to view Modern art as a vast well of ideas rather than being a product of particular timelines. 

Of Impressionism, Rosenblum wrote that it rejuvenated Western painting and forced us to rediscover what children had always known, that the most immediate spectacle of light, colour and movement, perceived before the brain can sort out other kinds of order, is a tonic, joyous experience. 

Of contemporary art he said (rather sadly, I suspect)  "We're in what might be called, in the phrase of the day, a Postmodernist situation, and the feeling that Modern art can be heroic, that it makes a difference to the world, all this seems sort of quaint and nostalgic rather than a part of living reality." 

Dealing With Asperger's

A confronting exhibition is about to end at Latrobe Regional Gallery.  It's called Splinters Of The Minds Eye by Neale Stratford.  In this show, Stratford interprets the real world through the veil of Asperger's Syndrome with which he was diagnosed years ago.  

"I explore the gaps between internal and external realities, examine wanton desires and delusional thoughts within the context of everyday reality in the understanding of the paradox that is me."  Stratford's work puts me in mind of Bill Henson but with a powerful psychological twist.  References are made to anxiety, depression, introversion and autism that are part of his daily existence.  But at least Stratford has the ability to deal with his "disability" creatively.  I can't imagine what it must be like for those who can't.

Melbourne's Lost Biennale

When an art exhibition sticks in one's mind after 17 years, it tells you something.  The 1999 Melbourne International Biennale was an initiative of the Melbourne City Council, The Ian Potter Centre and Arts Victoria and the exhibition "Signs Of Life" was staged over several floors of a rundown former Telecom building in Russell Street.  It was a venue which according to reviewer Helen Stuckey came with no institutional baggage and was totally innocuous.

Shadow Of Falling Stars - Ugo Rondinone

Travelling from floor to floor was a journey of exploration and discovery and each level varied dramatically in character and light.  The most successful works were able to adapt the environment to their particular needs - there was video, installation, sound, sculpture etc.  For me, the most memorable work was "Shadow Of Falling Stars", by Ugo Rondinone.  In each corner of the room, video monitors were mounted high up (like surveillance equipment), 2 showing a figure walking, the other 2 showing a young girl dancing in slow motion.  Opposite the entrance was a wall of roughly finished timber painted dark green and in the centre a pink window overlooking the city.  Add to this the soundtrack of the artist repeating a languid dirge and it made for a very disturbing atmosphere.  I was going through a relationship breakdown at the time and he tapped into my emotions very succinctly.  

On another level, the entire floor was covered in a field of clover by Nickolaj Recke, and then there was Mariele Neudecker's aquarium sculptures - dark and mysterious.

Sadly, the building was earmarked for renovation into apartments immediately after the exhibition, thus denying Melbourne of an ongoing venue for cutting edge art from here and overseas.

The Renaissance - A Fresh Perspective

My favourite art historian/critic Waldemar Januszczak is at it again.  Following on from his excellent series on the Rococo and Baroque, he now turns his attention to the Renaissance in his latest series The Renaissance Unchained.  Given the mountains of material that has trawled through this period of history, you have to wonder what fresh perspective could Januszczak offer.  

He challenges the accepted line put forward by the world's first art historian Giorgio Vasari that the Renaissance began in Italy and that Michelangelo was at its centre.  Januszczak argues that being the first to put pen to paper on these matters meant Vasari's views "could harden quickly into art historical certainties that were passed from generation to generation.  And these weighty certainties were not easy to challenge."   So Januszczak makes a case for the Renaissance having its origins in Flanders and Germany.

Given that the series Rococo was not screened on either the ABC or SBS, I assume the same will apply this time around too.  I am only discovering these series by checking out the BBC4 website - rather sad really.