DRIFT artists/curators' talks Sunday 17 March at 2pm

DOWNLOAD the DRIFT catalogue

You are invited to  DRIFT artists' & curators' talks on Sunday 17 March at 2pm -  with Judith Duquemin, Marlene Sarroff and Anke Stäcker. 

Per Formo Untitled 2012 (detail)

From An invitation to drift… 

Curator's essay by Judith Duquemin

The purpose of this exhibition is to highlight aspects of flânerie that relate to acts of creativity in contemporary visual art because the artist as flâneur/ flâneuse is an intriguing and complex individual in a global society. Aspects of their identity are revealed in this exhibition of photo-media, painting, print-media, digital art, multi-channel video, and sculpture and installation, by six established artists from Norway, UK, USA, and Australia. 

Flânerie from the C16th simply referred to acts of strolling or idling. With an interest in modern city life, the French Romantic poet, Charles Baudelaire (1821) portrayed the flâneur as a gentleman stroller of the streets, open-minded and unprejudiced, wandering without aim, a reflective observer of circumstance, a lover of the crowd. ...

The subject of flânerie has inspired many writers, artists and philosophers since the last century. For example, the spectator was a central figure of modernity strolling around the iron and glass covered arcades of 19th century Paris (Walter Benjamin); the man who strategically shelters himself within the crowd (Edgar Alan Poe); the surrealist devising random chance situations that reveal the real nature of the city; the flâneuse with her own private experience of modernity (Janet Wolff); the traveller directed and informed by aesthetic encounters arising from the urban terrain, a process known as dériving or drifting (Guy Debord)i. Within the arts the writer and philosopher Susan Sontag saw parallels between the flâneur and the photographer.  ...

essay continued

Please also come to the DRIFT finissage  on Sunday, 24 March from 3pm.

You are also invited to follow Leichhardt Council's LOST trail on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March - DOWNLOAD LOST FLYER & MAP