Artist Index

7.4.14

FAIR ISLE five weeks from Friday 11 April 6 pm - Sunday 11 May 5pm.

PRESS RELEASE

FAIR ISLE experiments with exhibition practice by showing changing combinations of the work of 30 artists who work with installation and other forms of spatial practice.

These artists are Lisa Andrew, Linden Braye, Bettina Bruder, Sue Callanan, Sach Catts, Clara Chow, Criena Court, Fiona Davies, Beata Geyer, Brigitta Gallaher, Barbara Halnan, Justin Henderson, Virginia Hilyard, Anna Jaaniste, Fiona Kemp, Gillian Lavery, Diane McCarthy, Rose Anne McGreevy, James Nguyen, Margaret Roberts, Alan Rose, Andrew Simmons, Sardar Sinjawi, Alexandra Spence/Katrina Stamatopoulos, Helen L Sturgess, Ioulia Terizis, Vicky Versa, John von Sturmer, Skye Wagner and India Zegan.

Over its 5 weeks Fair Isle will show the following combinations of the works of these 30 artists: 

12-13 April
Opening event on Friday 11 April 6-8pm and open 11am - 5pm Sat - Sun 12-13 April: Bettina Bruder, Fiona Davies, Fiona Kemp, Rose Anne McGreevy, Alan Rose and Helen L Sturgess. 

19-20 April
Open 11am - 5pm Sat - Sun 19 - 20 April with work by: Linden Braye, Sue Callanan, Sach Catts, Bettina Bruder, Fiona Davies, Brigitta Gallaher, Barbara Halnan, Fiona Kemp, Rose Anne McGreevy, Alan Rose, Helen L Sturgess and Skye Wagner. 
26-27 April
Justin Henderson Redfern Gold 2014

Opening event Wednesday 23 April 6-8pm, and open 11am - 5pm Sat - Sun 26 - 27 April: Linden Braye, Sue Callanan, Sach Catts, Clara Chow, Brigitta Gallaher, Barbara Halnan, Justin Henderson, Andrew Simmons, Sardar Sinjawi, Vicky Versa, John von Sturmer and Skye Wagner. 
Clara Chow Currency
3-4 May
Open 11am - 5pm Fri - Sun 2 - 4 May: Lisa Andrew, Clara Chow, Criena Court, Justin Henderson, Virginia Hilyard, James Nguyen, Margaret Roberts, Andrew Simmons, Sardar Sinjawi, Ioulia Terizis, Vicky Versa and John von Sturmer.
Anna Jaaniste
10-11 May
Opening event Friday 9 May 6-8pm, and open 11am - 5pm Sat - Sun 10-11 May:  Lisa Andrew, Criena Court, Beata Geyer, Virginia Hilyard, Anna Jaaniste, Gillian Lavery, James Nguyen, Diane McCarthy, Margaret Roberts, Alexandra Spence/Katrina Stamatopoulos, Ioulia Terizis and India Zegan.

There will be a discussion and closing event on the last day, Sunday 11 May 2-4pm.

Some aspect of each variation of Fair
Alexandra Spence & Katrina Stamatopoulos still from WindUp Bird 2013
Isle
 will be written about by one or more art writers (and artists who also write) including Linden Braye, Adrian Clement,  Desiré de Kikk, Chantal Grech, Leahlani Johnson, Isobel Johnston, Amy Prcevich, Kathryn Ryan, Nick Strike, John von Sturmer and India Zegan. Their texts will be published initially on the Articulate blog. Extracts from the discussion event held on the last day of Fair Isle will also be published on the blog.

The intention is that Fair Isle will enable artists and visitors alike to watch as, over 5 weeks, groups of 6 artists progressively alter the exhibition space for the next group by installing new work. It starts with the first group who install and construct new work in the empty project space, altering it for each other and for the next group who install their work in the same but now modified architectural space.  For the third week, the first six will remove their work so that a new group of six artists install their work in the space that is modified by the second group, and so on. The modification usually occurs not from literal movement of walls etc, but simply from the alteration of space that occurs when artworks are installed.

Ioulia Terizis
Fair Isle is thus not so much an accumulation of actions, as a slow progressive movement of entanglements and disentangments that might create patterns in the minds of viewers that are a little like those produced by fair isle knitting, and that in the end will disappear into memory when the last group leaves.

This Fair Isle experiment will stop after 5 weeks, but it is a project that, if it became a more standard form of exhibition practice, would mean artists might make decisions in response to the surprising things that other artists do as much as to developments in their own individual projects. It is a form of collaboration between artists that has a hint of the temporal rhythm of dance and music. It is also one that maintains the priority most artists give to their individual projects as well as valuing the role those projects play as inspiration and challenge to others. Within a broader picture, it thus aims to strengthen both individuality and communality in artpractice.

Artists were invited to participate in Fair Isle because they work with installation or with an interest in space in some other form, and, initially at least, because they had done projects at Articulate before. Within that, group composition is fairly random—artists who responded to invitations selected which group they wanted to join usually without knowing who the other artists were. They do have the opportunity however to meet beforehand to jointly determine how they want to interact with each other and the project space. Each combination of works us thus in effect curated jointly by the participating artists.