Martyrium and Reliquary opened last night

 Martyrium and Reliquary is open 11am - 5pm 

Friday - Sunday until Sunday 9 July

photos: Zeina Issa

Martyrium and Reliquary opens Friday 23 June 6-8pm

Mireille Eid and Elizabeth Presa

24 June - 9 July 2017
opening Friday 23 June 6-8pm

Martyrium and Reliquary will be opened by Professor Peter Hutchings, Dean of the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University

Attempting to give sight to invisible silences, we seek to ignite the “unheimliche” as a way to awaken dormant senses. "While a wound or misfortune embodied is not always visible, the opposite is true for the “splendour and brightness which dry up misfortune.” If we understand the “splendour and magnificence” of the event as the luminous yet mysterious moment of “the immaculate conception,” as Deleuze writes in The Logic of Sense, then we see that life is not something that happens accidentally to us. When purely expressed, the event “signals and awaits us” as one might imagine a pregnancy to come, the unborn, as it were." (1) We trust that at the precise moment the visual encounter takes place, senses would surge whilst engaging the decision-making process in an oscillating movement between latent passion and calm-inducing meditation. Nevertheless, spectral representations unsettle these senses as any wound would, while inviting the viewer to seek the quintessential equilibrium between hope and the real, between memory and emotion. 

Mirielle Eid Mar Elias 101cm x 76cm Inkjet print 2017

Each of Eid’s images reminds one of what Merleau-Ponty calls“le mouvant”: the moving object that contains an implicit identity charged with psychic states that had become sanctified. Just as the logic of the perceived circle is the entity that possesses, in advance and in itself, all of the properties that analysis will discover there, the movable object is the object of an indefinite series of explicit and concordant perceptions and beliefs. Stills caught in mid-sentence, prayers yet to be uttered, yet to be discovered, mouth gaping, quiver with beatitude the hidden figures, the veiled reflections, and even dilations of one’s own life. “The hallucinatory thing is not the real thing, a deep being that contracts a thickness of duration in itself … the hallucination slides across time, just as it slides across the world”.(2)

Presa’s sculptures on the other hand function as reliquaries. But whereas reliquaries traditionally contain parts of the bodies of saints, here these small reliquaries, - made by folding , twisting and threading brass mesh - contain something of the inflections, shadows and luminations radiating from their material under differing plays of light. Resembling small Baroque experiments or excitations, they make evident the fact that the physical world, in its most mundane sense, holds within it potentiality for remarkable transformation, whereby the most common of materials can take on the character of an angels wing, metamorphosis of flesh, or transcendent experience. Such experiences may remain imperceptible or may appear in unexpected illuminations, forms and spacings.

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1. E.Presa, text for exhibition, entitled "Life Must First Imitate Matter", 2015 

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/237176/237177 Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium.

2. Merleau-Ponty, M., & Landes, D. A. (2014). Phenomenology of perception. Abingdon, Oxon Routledge, 2014: 355.

FINAL SOLIDARITY WEEKEND COMING UP

SOLIDARITY is open 11am - 5pm Fri-Sun Sunday 18th June

Curated by Akil Ahamat, Sarah Fitzgerald, Delilah Lyses-sApo and Alexandra Mitchell, Solidarity shows the work of sixteen current and recent students of Sydney College of the Arts, National Art School, UNSW Art & Design and UTS. The exhibition demonstrates the need to secure the diversity of art education in Sydney. Throughout the duration of the exhibition sixteen artists will use the project space as their studio space, working in sixteen mini studio spaces. The studios are open to the public who are invited in to see the process of art making, to talk with the artists and to see the final work at the Closing Party on Saturday 17th June from 6-8pm. 

SATURDAY 17th JUNE

4-5pm: Performance: Mending the Memory Gap #3 - Stella Chen.

5:30-5:45pm: Performance: Matter and Musical Motion (plate bells, piano and voce) - Marta Ferracin with Kim Cunio and Heather Lee: Kim Cunio and Heather Lee will play with plate bells and intervals of piano and voce to generate a cosmic musical motion inspired by the concept of growing found in nature. The cyclic nature of the music is designed to mirror the organic motion happening in the installation itself. 

6.15pm Address by local Greens NSW MP, Jamie Parker

7 pm: Performance by Liz Hogan 

6-8pm: CLOSING PARTY

THE ARTISTS PARTICIPATING:

SCA - Kalanjay Dhir, Marta Ferracin, Delilah Lyses-sApo, Sophie Suttonberg

NAS  -  Dominic Byrne, Sarah Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Hogan, Elizabeth Rankin

UNSW A&D  -  Stella Chen, Alexandra Mitchell, Caoife Power, Douglas Schofield
UTS  -  Akil Ahamat, Ayesha Wasique, Kristina Savic, Rathai Manivannan

Photos Alexandra Mitchell

Solidarity afternoon of performances and talks

Mending the Memory Gap #3: Stella Chen used water to make the temporary language of the body's imprint and of its words

Caoife Power talked about her practice of collecting parts of the city and bringing them into her studio . . .

Rathai Mannivannan talked about using her art practice to explore her Tamil culture in Australia 

Marta Ferracin talked about experimenting with the effect of sound on the growth of slime 

Alexandra Mitchell discussed the incorporation of sound into her art practice

Kristina Savic discussed the struggles she has with making art without a studio 

Sarah Fitzgerald discussed how she is using her location beside Parramatta Road in her work

Elizabeth Rankin discussed her use of narrative in her work and how it so often turns out to the narrative of her own life

Solidarity event: Saturday June 10

 1 – 2pm: Panel Discussion – Solidarity = Stability: This panel discussion will meditate on the need to maintain the diversity of art school’s in Sydney as well as the notion that with solidarity between the art schools there may be stability.

2-3:30pm: Performance: Mending the Memory Gap #3 - Stella Chen
2.30 - 3.30pm: Matter and Organic Resonance: Marta Ferracin with Trevor Brown:
Trevor Brown will perform live on saxophones, flutes and clarinets. The sounds will be digitally frozen and positioned in time and space. Natural harmonics, overtones and microtones will be played to create sympathetic vibrations that interact with Marta Ferracin's slime mould.

3:30-4:30pm: Solidarity Artist Talks: artists will discuss their work, artistic process, what it has been like working in the project space and own thoughts on the current uncertainty surrounding Sydney’s art schools.

Solidarity Studios occupied

The Solidarity studios are now occupied by Kalanjay Dhir, Marta Ferracin, Delilah Lyses-sApo, Sophie Suttonberg (from SCA), Dominic Byrne, Sarah Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Hogan, Elizabeth Rankin (from NAS), Stella Chen, Alexandra Mitchell, Caoife Power, Douglas Schofield (from UNSWA&D) and Akil Ahamat, Ayesha Wasique, Kristina Savic, Rathai Manivannan from UTS. Please visit when open on Friday - Sunday 11-5pm till Sunday 18 June, or at other times whenever people are there working. 

Below are images from some of the studios.  

Caoife Power

Marta Ferracin

Rathai Mannivannan

  Alexandra Mitchell  

Stella Chen

Elizabeth Hogan

Ayesha Wasique

Douglas Schofield

Elizabeth Rankin

Delilah Lyses-sApo

Dominic Byrne

Kristina Savic

SOLIDARITY artists' studios

One of the things Marta Ferracin is doing in her SOLIDARITY studio is working out how to grow single cells Physarum Polycephalum (slime mold) by protecting them from light and bacteria. She is also working with sound that resonates the concept of growing found in nature. Find out more about this on Saturday 10 June at 2.30 - 3.30pm (see program in earlier post). Photo: Marta Ferracin

SOLIDARITY artist-dinner last night

above photos: Marta Ferracin

Marking studio locations - above photos: Sue Callanan

SOLIDARITY is open from Saturday 27 May

(Image credit – Cal Power, ‘Art school protest’)

SOLIDARITY

EXHIBITION DATES: Saturday 27^th May - Sunday 18^th June

OPENING HOURS: Fri/Sat/Sun – 11am-5pm
 PLEASE NOTE: There will not be an opening on the first Friday as normal.
See program of events instead.

EXHIBITION DATES: Saturday 27th May – Sunday 18th June

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS: Fri/Sat/Sun 11-5pm

ABOUT:

Curated by Akil Ahamat, Sarah Fitzgerald, Delilah Lyses-sApo and Alexandra Mitchell, Solidarity will show the work of sixteen current and recent students of Sydney College of the Arts, National Art School, UNSW Art & Design and UTS. The exhibition will demonstrate the need to secure the diversity of art education in Sydney. Throughout the duration of the exhibition sixteen artists will use the project space as their studio space, working in sixteen mini studio spaces. The studios will be open to the public who are invited in to see the process of art making, to talk with the artists and to see the final work at the Closing Party on Saturday 17th June from 6-8pm. 

PROGRAM OF EVENTS:

FRIDAY - SUNDAY 11-5pm, OPEN STUDIOS
The audience is invited to come and visit throughout the duration of the exhibition to see the process of each artist and how their work transforms over the four week period. There will also be an opportunity for the audience to make statements regarding the importance of the diversity of art education in Sydney, sharing their thoughts in a live blog. 

SATURDAY 10th JUNE
1 – 2pm: Panel Discussion – Solidarity = Stability: This panel discussion will meditate on the need to maintain the diversity of art school’s in Sydney as well as the notion that with solidarity between the art schools there may be stability.
2-3:30pm: Performance: Mending the Memory Gap #3 - Stella Chen 
2.30 - 3.30pm: Matter and Organic Resonance: Marta Ferracin with Trevor Brown:
Trevor Brown will perform live on saxophones, flutes and clarinets. The sounds will be digitally frozen and positioned in time and space. Natural harmonics, overtones and microtones will be played to create sympathetic vibrations that interact with Marta Ferracin's slime mould. 
3:30-4:30pm: Solidarity Artist Talks: artists will discuss their work, artistic process, what it has been like working in the project space and own thoughts on the current uncertainty surrounding Sydney’s art schools.

SATURDAY 17th JUNE
3-6pm: Performance: Mending the Memory Gap #3 - Stella Chen 
5:30-5:45pm: Performance: Matter and Musical Motion (plate bells, piano and voce) - Marta Ferracin with Kim Cunio and Heather Lee:
Kim Cunio and Heather Lee will play with plate bells and intervals of piano and voce to generate a cosmic musical motion inspired by the concept of growing found in nature. The cyclic nature of the music is designed to mirror the organic motion happening in the installation itself. 
6-8pm: CLOSING PARTY

THE ARTISTS PARTICIPATING:

SCA - Kalanjay Dhir, Marta Ferracin, Delilah Lyses-sApo, Sophie Suttonberg

NAS  -  Dominic Byrne, Sarah Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Hogan, Elizabeth Rankin

UNSW A&D  -  Stella Chen, Alexandra Mitchell, Caoife Power, Douglas Schofield
UTS  -  Akil Ahamat, Ayesha Wasique, Kristina Savic, Rathai Manivannan

SOLIDARITY - EXHIBITION EXPLANATION

There is no stability without solidarity and no solidarity without stability.

-Jose Manuel Barroso (2010)

 There has been much disruptive rumour and speculation about the future of the art schools in Sydney and this has resulted in an overwhelming feeling that an arts education is undervalued and unsupported by current governments. Threats of closures and mergers have led to an atmosphere of uncertainty that makes it almost impossible for both academics and students to function let alone thrive as they should. 

(Image credit – Sarah Fitzgerald, ‘Visions of utopia: Bauhaus’)

Studios are a vital part of an art education and the community of an art school. The studio is a place where creative freedom is supported within a challenging, academically critical environment and this is where an arts community, that continues beyond art school, is established. 

(Image credit –Sarah Fitzgerald, ‘Dividing the space’)

Throughout the duration of Solidarity, Articulate project space downstairs gallery will be converted into sixteen studio spaces. Tape will be used to divide the gallery into studio spaces. How each studio space is inhabited will be up to the discretion of each artist and collective. Some artists may choose to use the space as a studio, some as an exhibition space and others may simply leave their space empty.

By focusing on the studio, Solidarity seeks to address what is lost amidst the current rumour and speculation about the future of the art schools of Sydney. What is lost? It is time. Time in the studio to think and contemplate. Time to make mistakes. Time to have breakthroughs. And ultimately – time to focus on art and the creation of art.  

In conjunction with the exhibition there will be will be a program of events including a talk (that will focus on the current uncertainty and instability of Sydney's art schools and meditate on what needs to be done in order to ensure the security and diversity of art education in Sydney for the future) and a day of performance art. Program details will be released shortly.

It is hoped that this exhibition will be the start of fruitful collaboration between current and past art school students of Sydney and that future exhibitions will occur, Solidarity simply the first of many to come.