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An
exhibition by
Stephen
Bram
Marco Fusinato
Melinda Harper
Anne-Marie May
John Nixon
Rose Nolan
Kerrie Poliness
Kathy Temin
Gary Wilson
Constanze Zikos
April
12th - 30th 2003
opening:
Saturday April 12th at 2pm
guest speaker:
Jenepher Duncan, Director,
Monash University Museum of Art
Special thanks to
The Committee - Living Museum
Sue Cramer
Ben Curnow
Jenepher Duncan
Peter Haffenden
Susan Jennison
Anna Schwartz
City of Maribyrnong
Parks Victoria
©
the artists + authors 2003
View
images from the exhibition
click
on an artist's name (above) to view their work in
the exhibtion
click here to view general installation
images of the exhibition
Text
from the exhibition catalogue
'Composition'
by Ben Curnow
The
exhibition catalogue is available to purchase see Museum
Publications
Introduction
The venue
for this exhibition was a large industrial bluestone building (c1865)
in Pipemakers Park, originally Melbourne's Meat Preserving Factory.
The building was vacant and in the process of renovations for future
use as a venue for cultural events in Melbourne's west. A gap in the
renovations program allowed for the possibility of this relatively impromptu
exhibition, which has been organised by the artists via a series of
picnics/discussions in the park.
This exhibition may serve as an historic reminder to the beginnings
of affiliations between these artists whose activities of self-determination
over the last 12 years - 2 decades have resulted in many important artist-run
initiatives and collaborative projects.
These projects have included many artist-curated exhibitions, artist-run
galleries in Melbourne such as Art Projects (John Nixon 1979 - 85),
Store 5 (Gary Wilson 1989 - 93), No.4 (Marco Fusinato 1996-98), cnr
(Stephen Bram 1998 - now), and artist-produced publications such as
Rosebud, Kerb-Your-Dog, Circular and the newly published Annex (March
2003).
Text
from the exhibition catalogue
'Composition'
by Ben Curnow
The meaning
and critical function of art is not delimited by the boundaries of single
works of art, nor is it to be sufficiently understood through the study
of individual artists' practices alone. Artists don't practise in a
vacuum; and while a certain amount of meaning can be considered as intrinsic
to a work when it leaves the studio, a great deal more has to do with
the context in which it appears.
The existence of a work of art is made 'real' through acts of exhibition.
Yet the actual relativities between artists (and even between works,
in a genuine sense) remains largely unexplored territory. Much of the
time, the business of creating linkages is left to the 'experts': non-artists
such as curators and critics who impose ulterior interpretations and
monological descriptions.
The artists whose work is assembled in this exhibition, on the other
hand, have shared a history of involvement in collaborative projects
such as this one, through which the process of context-creation can
effectively be brought within the ambit of artistic practice. The continuation
of such activities has constituted not only a meaningful form of collective
experiment, but also a sustained sharing of the task of reciprocal elucidation.
Over the past several years the artists (as part of a wider group) have
frequently exhibited in close proximity, conscious of working in one
another's margins, at the same time as individuating their own presence
in the art world. They have taken it in turn that time to independently
initiate exhibitions, publications and related projects. Most famously,
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were among the key participants
in the artist-run gallery Store 5.
On many occasions exhibitions have been held involving various members
of this loosely affiliated grouping in makeshift venues, adapting to
circumstances and opportunities as they find them. Organised in a spirit
of friendship, grounded in a shared ethical commitment, these projects
are open-ended affairs where one can see relationships between works
and yet the independent rights of each artist seem immanent in the identity
of the exhibition as a whole.
Ben Curnow
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