Published 01 June 2014
Published March 2014
Published December 2013
Published 01 September 2013
Published June 2013
Published March 2013
Published September 2012
Aleks Danko The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia Melbourne (and touring) 7 February - 18 April 2004
Published June 2004
Plimsoil Gallery, Hobart 5 - 28 March 2004
While the idea of modern and contemporary art are located in a fairly nebulous discursive realm, the notion of modern or contemporary lifestyle (the two seem, in fact, interchangeable) are very much a part of the familiar rhetoric of consumer spending. No Nonsense Return Policy (2003), Pat Foster and Jen Bereans installation at BUS Gallery, documented six miss-assembled items of IKEA furniture and dissect the curious aesthetic cycles that drive the commercial products in both realms. Taylor looks at this work and others which are focused on drawing attention to the formal and ideological intersections between modernism and the stuff of homes and home decoration.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 29 February - 30 May 2004
The generic theme for the 2nd Auckland Triennial Public/Private sought to address central issues concerned with the relationship of the visual art scene to that of the everyday life (to banality), the potential or otherwise of new technologies to engage with the conditions of modern society and the ability of art to deal in specific ideas of a social and political nature. Furthermore in bringing together artists projects that are cross-cultural and transgenerational, the curatorial aim was to make connections which would intensify the privacy debate. Edward Hanfling examines some of these works with regards to such issues and concerns.
It is not hard to shop given the entire city of Tokyo seems to be premised on the activity. Tokyo is a space as complex and flowing as the most convoluted natural system. One may be in a train station but it is filled with shops. Above ground, below ground, on the ground - shops. Haley documents his activities over a period of a couple of months in what is most likely the worlds largest consumer oriented city. He discusses the somewhat surreal and absurdist nature of this environment and paints a picture of the plethora of advertisements, signs, extreme fashion trends and other visual paraphernalia that consume the city.
Perth Symposium, various venues 19 - 21 March 2004
This essay looks at the work of Jose Da Silva, a young Brisbane artist whose work explores the way pornographic images and acts of violence shape gay male subjectivity. Da Silva underscores the way sexual violence is repeatedly fetishised and performed in gay porn, and by extension queer culture. Da Silvas work is bait, designed to lure an audience with its amateur porn pull. Once captive, an audience finds itself figuratively trapped in a seedy backroom where sexual violence is not simply patterned on recognisable social problems like homo hate crimes and/or gay male domestic violence.
Nam June Palik Sydney Opera House Forecourt 8 -26 January 2004 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 26 February - April 2004
Gallery 25, Mildura April 18 June 6, 2004
Adelaide Bank 2004 Festival of Arts 28 February - 4 March
James Guppy has a curiously ambiguous place in contemporary art. This is not because of his subject matter, but rather because of his technique. For the most part Guppys recent work is not about fun, nor is it even really about sex. Rather he argues it is about the nature of exploitation. He argues that artists by their nature are voyeurs who see the world around them and all its objects as items to be used as visual product. His recent Peeping Box series taps into this idea where images of sexual activity with a particular sadistic overlay are presented behind thick glass to incite some vain attempt on the part of the viewer to engage in such voyeuristic acts.
