More art on Broadway

There are two very different artworks I have been enjoying on my way to work each day lately, one is Jonathon Jones’ installation in the window space facing out onto Broadway (quite appropriately, at the Jones Street end of the UTS Tower Foyer).

Jonathon Jones, Unititled (chevrons) 2011, installation view at UTS

It was a part of the ‘Change Has Come’ exhibition of digital and electronic media in the Tower Foyer space, curated by Nicole Foreshew, in partnership with the UTS Gallery. If you didn’t get a chance to see this exhibition, sadly it is over, however we will be able to view the Jones work on the outside of the building for a while longer.

It is a simple construction: rows of fluorescent tubes form a zigzag chevron pattern behind a floor-to-ceiling blue tarpaulin. An iteration of a larger and more immersive installation by Jones in 2008, the pattern and materials evoke both the artist’s indigenous heritage and Western minimalism.

Across Broadway, the second installation of the Central Park Artists in Residence program has made an appearance: Mikala Dwyer’s ‘Windwatcher’, a huge windsock attached to the top of the heritage-listed chimney on the old brewery site.
The funky pattern and slightly flaccid tail end of the sock have the playful immediacy  we would expect from one of Mikala’s works, belying what must have been a feat of engineering to successfully construct and install a sock that must be at least 10 metres long.

Mikala Dwyer, Windwatcher, 2011 on the old brewery chimney at Central Park, alongside Brook Andrew's photographic installation Local Memory.

Those who made the trek out to Cockatoo Island for last year’s Biennale of Sydney would have seen the results of Mikala’s 2010 residency project out there, but now that I am lucky enough to catch sight of Windwatcher every day I am at work, it never fails to make me smile!

Max Dupain at Kuring-gai

Max Dupain, Stairwell, 1978, silver gelatin photograph, UTS Art Collection

Another new acquisition for the UTS Art Collection this year, and another Kuring-gai connection has been a set of three photographs by Max Dupain, taken by the photographer in 1978.

Max Dupain (1911-1992) was a pioneer of Modernist photography in Australia and probably best known for his iconic “Sunbather” images of Australian beach culture. He was also an enthusiast of Modern architecture, and much sought after to document new buildings in his own style.

Dupain’s unerring eye for form and light is clear in images such as the view of the stairwell (above), commissioned at the time Government Architect’s Office were awarded the 1978 Sulman Award for Architecture for the Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education (KCAE) buildings. In the 1980s, the Government Architects Office became the Architectural Division of the Department of Public Works, and KCAE became the Kuring-gai campus of the University of Technology, Sydney.

The three photographs are all darkroom prints, two printed by Eric Seirins of Max Dupain & Associates, from the original photographic negatives. The third photograph (pictured above)  is a signed exhibition print by Dupain himself.

The Max Dupain photographs have been acquired as a part of the new refurbishment of the Kuring-gai campus public spaces, to be installed there later this month.

What do you think of the new spaces at Kuring-gai?
How does this compare to what was there before? 

Simberg-Ehrstrom in the Touch Too Exhibition

Uhra Simberg-Ehrstrom, Munkki, circa 1970s, wool and cotton, UTS Art Collection

Currently on display in the ‘Touch Too‘ exhibition in the UTS Tower foyer is one of the more unusual items in the UTS Art Collection –  titled Munkki, it is a Finnish rug, or ryijy, handcrafted from wool and cotton. It was designed by the acclaimed textile designer Uhra Simberg-Ehrstrom (1914-1979), who among her other achievements was one of the designers for the original Marimekko collection in 1951.

Ryijy are a traditional form of textile art in Finland, originally with a practical application as bed covers replacing furs. Over time the design of the ryijy became valued in itself and the rugs  became prized as decorative wallhangings and momentos of special occasions. By the end of the 19^th C however, mechanical reproduction and inferior design threatened to reduce the ryijy to mere kitsch, and at this time the “Friends of Finnish Handicraft” was established to celebrate and maintain the traditional handcraft techniques and quality. Simberg-Ehrstrom was one of the designers who worked with this group, and Munkki is a product of this collaboration.

In the early 1950s, the ninth Triennale of Design in Milan brought the ryijy to international attention, and Simberg-Ehrstrom went on to represent Finland in three subsequent Triennales with her designs. One of the ryijy she exhibited internationally entitled Forest measures 40 sq m and is now held in a public collection in Helsinki.

Munkki is a wonderful example of these shag-pile wall rugs and came into the UTS Art Collection along with several other textile works through the Kuring-gai College. A wide black border surrounds a central framework of vertical and horizontal lines.  The minimal bands of colour surrounding the central block are deceptively simple; closer inspection reveals a complex layering of dozens of colours filling the larger areas. A small monogram in the lower part of the design is a traditional inclusion — in older ryiji, the date or initials of the maker or owner of the rug are commonly shown.

It has been wonderful to see this object from our Collection out on display, and especially in this context: the depth and texture of the wool makes this an almost irresistible object for an exhibition about the sense of touch.

‘Touch Too’, curated by Anne Cranny-Francis from the Transforming Cultures Research Centre at UTS, will be on display until July 27th in the Tower foyer exhibition space.

Do you know any more about this object? Do you have any memories or stories to share about seeing it when it was installed at Kuring-gai?

Or maybe you have seen it for the first time in the ‘Touch Too’ exhibition, what was your response?

I would love to hear from you – drop me a line or leave a comment in the box below.

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Our two new portraits

The new portraits of UTS Vice-Chancellor Ross Milbourne and Chancellor Vicki Sara, painted by Danelle Bergstrom

They’ve arrived! Our much-anticipated portraits of Vicki Sara and Ross Milbourne have been delivered and are on display in the Chancellery alongside the portraits of previous Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of UTS.

The whole process has been an interesting one to observe: from screening potential portrait painters to the final selection,  to the ongoing sittings and refinement of the paintings, and finally the unveiling.

The artist who was selected by both sitters was Danelle Bergstrom, who is both an award-winning portraitist, and renowned landscape painter. (Bergstrom’s recent and highly successful show at Arthouse Gallery in Sydney can be viewed here.)

Her paintings join other official portraits at UTS by Noel Thurgate, Imants Tillers, and Robert Hannaford.

In 2010, Bergstrom won the People’s Choice award at the Portia Geach (an award for female Australian portrait painters) for her work Independent Spirit, a portrait of artist Anne Thomson. This was the fourth occasion Danelle has won the People’s Choice at the Portia Geach Memorial Award, with previous wins in 2009 for her portrait of composer Peter Sculthorpe, 2006 for Nancy Borlase and 2005 for Inspector Hobbs, portrait of Michael Hobbs.

In 2003 she was Highly Commended in the same award for her portrait of Nancy Bird Walton, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery.

Bergstrom’s portraits have also been included in several Archibald Prize finalists exhibitions, and was Highly Commended in 2004 for her portrait of Franco Belgiorno-Nettis. She was also twice awarded the coveted Packing Room Prize, in 1995 for her portrait of Jon English and in 2007 for a double portrait of Jack Thompson.

Most importantly, Danelle has a proven record of undertaking commissioned portraits, and a talent for capturing the personality and expression of her sitters in a direct yet disarming fashion. In these most recent portraits, our own Chancellor and Vice- Chancellor are sketched out with light, open brushstrokes and with a twist: the artist has chosen to tip the square canvases to create a diamond shape. The overall effect is something dynamic, fresh and “outside the box”, which seems fitting for a University moving into a new phase in its development.

Richard Goodwin: Poroplastic

Richard Goodwin, Poroplastic 1: Red octopus, 2008, steel, plastic, motorcycle parts, Courtesy of the artist, photography Joanne Saad

Visitors to Building 10 (the old Fairfax Building in Ultimo) this year have been intrigued by a new addition to the mezzanine level at the Jones Street end of the atrium space: parts of a disassembled motorcycle are arranged on a steel frame,  frozen mid-explosion.

‘Poroplastic 1: Red Octopus” is the work of multidisciplinary artist and architect, Richard Goodwin. Goodwin’s work is concerned with several nodes of research – this represents a body of work that examines the machine as exoskeleton.

The form of ‘Poroplastic 1′  is not a haphazard arrangement, but derived from intensive 3D modelling using highly detailed computer animations. Another major project Goodwin has been pursuing is modelling the publicly accessible spaces in city buildings, and visualising intersections in the form of parasites or openings.

An earlier contribution by Goodwin to UTS campus is situated in the Markets building outside the Law Faculty – two round chambers set into the wall contain wigs and clothing, connected by a single metal bar to text  (Articles 26 & 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) etched into the concrete. The use of clothing in these earlier works were Goodwin’s gesture towards the clothing as second skin, as both exoskeleton and carrier of the body’s history.

More recently Goodwin exhibited with Michael Snape and UTS Photography and Situated Media director David Burns in an exhibition ‘Co-Isolated’. In this exhibition Goodwin combined several elements of his work: performance and vehicles old and new. The vehicle as readymade, altered by combination with other vehicles or additions of fabric or extensions have been an ongoing theme in his work. One of the most elegant of these, comprising a brand new Honda motorcycle strapped onto the back of a Chinese delivery tricycle, won Goodwin the 2011 Wynne Prize at the AGNSW.

Goodwin’s multidisciplinary work across architecture, design, visual and performance art brings together a strong set of ideas and strategies for contemporary urban life, and interrogates how we define and use our public spaces.

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If you are interested in hearing more about Richard Goodwin and his work this lecture from the College of Fine Arts, is well worth watching:

Brook Andrew at the Brewery

Brook Andrew, Local Memory, 2011, Sydney Central Park artist-in-residence program

You may have noticed in the old brewery site across Broadway from UTS a series of black and white photographs have appeared on the half demolished building. Although larger than life at three metres tall, these are wonderfully intimate portraits, some taken from family albums. Arranged in a grid they sit like windows across the factory wall.

The series, titled ‘Local Memory’ was conceived by Sydney Central Park artist-in-residence Brook Andrew.  It features 18 photographs of people who were in some way influenced by the site, living and working in the Chippendale area before the century-old brewery closed its doors in 2003.

Brook Andrew is an interdisciplinary Australian artist working in photography, neon, mixed media and installation. He draws inspiration from his Wiradjuri heritage, public media and archival collections and travels nationally and internationally to work with communities and museum collections. His best-known works challenge the assumptions of colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial thinking.

Andrew is the first of the artists selected as a part of the Frasers Property artist residencies, curated by Anne Loxley to activate this heritage site.

If you are interested in viewing more work by this artist, a selection of earlier works by Brook Andrew are on display on level 5 of the Tower, near the Great Hall. These include ‘Sexy and Dangerous’, ‘I Split Your Gaze’, and two works from the series ‘Contention’, which are on loan to UTS from private collections through the UTS Art Collection.

Euan Macleod – Self Portrait

Euan Macleod, Self Portrait/Head Like a Hole, oil on canvas, 1999, UTS Art Collection

Its that time of year again: down at the Art Gallery of New South Wales loading dock, entries are being delivered by hopeful painters for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize competitions. Of this triad of prizes for portraiture, landscape and genre painting it is the Archibald Prize that has captured the imagination of the art-going public, and the announcement of the winner is always eagerly awaited.

There are a number of artists represented in the UTS Art Collection who have been honoured as finalists and winners of the Archibald over the years: Adam Cullen, Imants Tillers, and George Gittoes to name a few. But the stand-out in our Collection would have to be ‘Self-portrait-Head Like a Hole’ by Euan Macleod, which won the Archibald Prize in 1999.

What makes a painting worthy of this honour, and what makes the Archibald such a perennial favourite? On the one hand, the celebrity of the sitters is a drawcard; along with the condition that the entries be painted from life. This requirement hearks back to a tradition of painting untroubled by the rise of Modernism or by the elevation of photography and more contemporary media to the status of legitimate art forms.

And of course more often than not, the merits of the winning painting are hotly debated. Controversy has been a keynote of the Archibald, particularly over the perceived realism and authenticity of the connection between the painter and their subject.

Macleod’s self portrait from 1999 was no exception. Although undeniably painted with a direct and intimate knowledge of the subject, it was described as “arguably the most abstract painting ever to win this prize”.

On the other hand, the artist himself has spoken of the difficulty that acclaim can bring, and the distraction of becoming a celebrity-artist as the result of winning such a prestigious prize. In the recent monograph on Macleod’s work, Gregory O’Brien wrote: “The painting was widely feted, but also, predictably, argued over. Macleod found the media circus surrounding the award and the ongoing publicity – positive as well as negative – distracting, unnerving and ultimately distressing…”

Macleod was born in New Zealand and trained there in Graphic Design before attending Art School where he studied painting. He moved to Australia and quickly established himself as an artist with the Watters Gallery in Sydney. Around the time of the 1999 Archibald, Macleod was painting landscapes where the land and water meet, playing with the positive and negative spaces to produce figures literally embedded in the scene: fingers form along a shoreline, the profile of a face appears on the side of a cliff face.

Where Macleod’s landscapes typically feature a singular figure, or at most a pair of figures, Self-portrait: Head Like a Hole is heavily populated by comparison. The landscape with water provides the scene, but filling the canvas are two faces – the larger looking directly at the viewer. The second head is in profile and is gazing into the eye of the first (as though peering into a keyhole), which in turn is the head of a third figure which is stepping out of the water. Two other figures complete the painting: one swimming with dolphins, the other suspended upside down.

Although undoubtedly a portrait, this is far from conventional portraiture. Elements of  Macleod’s other paintings surround and intersect with his representation of himself, exploring an unsettling relationship between an artist’s work and his own self-image.

Since that time, Self-Portrait: Head like a Hole has been reproduced many times over, bearing testament to its symbolic power as a key work in the artists’ oeuvre – the painter in the painting .

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Self Portrait: Head like a hole is normally on display in UTS: Business, at the Markets campus of the University of Technology, Sydney. Currently it is on loan for Surface Tension: a major survey exhibition of 49 key works by Euan Macleod, touring regional galleries in New South Wales and Queensland.

The Painter in the Painting – a monograph on the work of Euan Macleod – by Gregory O’Brien was published by Piper Press in 2010.

The Archibald Prize 2011 opens at the AGNSW on April 16.

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to our new blog about the many stories behind the artworks in the UTS Art Collection. There are alot of stories that I know of and want to share and I’m hoping that you will share what you know too, in the comments section.

I plan to post at least once a month about a particular piece, or person – an artist and their relationship to UTS, for example, or about some of our generous donors and lenders.

With your help and interest, in time, this site could become a treasure trove of tales – tall and true – about how artworks came to be in particular spaces, the people who loved them and loathed them and made their installation possible.

If that sounds interesting to you, please stay tuned.