Special show | Barbara Halnan 1941-2021

A survey exhibition facilitated by Dr William Seeto

Opening Reception Sat Mar 5th, 2-5pm

Facilitator Talk Sun Mar 13th, 2-4pm

Exhibition from Mar 2nd until Mar 13th
Open 11am - 5pm | Wed-Sun

Download PDF | Barbara Halnan Survey Exhibition Catalogue

"Variations on a Picket Fence" 2011. Photo by JC

Barbara Halnan described herself as an artist, painter and installation artist - her interests were art, music and reading. She was a dedicated artist and for many she was a friend and colleague. As an artist Barbara was knowledgeable, unpretentious, friendly, self-sufficient and hard working. She went about making art with determination and she needed no prompting to achieve it. Barbara made an impression on everyone who met her in Australia and other countries.

The survey exhibition celebrates her memory and place in Australian and international art. A tribute exhibition is also being held in Paris. ‘Barbara Halnan had strong ties with Paris and friendships with both French and European artists. She participated in the Salon Réalités Nouvelles from 2012 to 2019 and was part of the group of the "non-objective" art movement in Paris where she participated in exhibitions at the ParisCONCRET and ABSTRACT PROJECT galleries. She was an active member and driving force behind Franco-Australian exchange, particularly for The Drawing Collective; she also organised exhibitions of French and international artists in Australia’.

"View of exhibition preparation" 2022. Photos by William Seeto

 

The exhibition in Sydney is facilitated by William Seeto, a friend and colleague, who provides structure to 250+ artworks consisting of finished, lead-up and early works in the main gallery; with selected videos of past exhibitions, her last interview for Inner-West Council Library, and a link to the Paris exhibition in the Backroom. This is supplemented with sections defined by her Paris connection, a collection of Rose McGreevy and other artists' work, her curated artists projects with Rose, a display of her small artworks, booklets and studio set-up with easel, paints, and brushes in the Upstairs space. 

The survey of Barbara Halnan's life work offers a rare insight into her creative process in making artworks - it is the first time they are exhibited together and their significance cannot be overstated. Like most artists Barbara was a modest person who made art and did not promote her rightful place in Australian and international art. This exhibition makes a claim for her as an innovative artist. 

"View of exhibition preparation" 2022. Photo by William Seeto

Barbara Halnan. Photo credit A.P.

***

William Seeto BA, GDip (VA/GM), PhD is a practicing visual artist and exhibition facilitator with a practice of 40 years. His perceptual installations investigate the built environment by reconstructing architectural space.

Contact: bmseeto@gmail.com

"View of exhibition preparation" 2022. Photo by William Seeto

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Conditions of entry:

NSW Public Health Order requires all visitors over 16 years of age,

To sign in with the QR code provided at the entrance,

Wear a mask, social distancing rules will also apply.

Please don't come if you are feeling unwell.

Articulate is a registered Covid Safe business.

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per.doc | project space | Feb 18-20 | Model the Model: a performed action

Artists: Barbara Campbell + Clare Grant

Performances Sat Feb 19th, 5-6pm (Limited capacity event)
Open 11am - 5pm | Fri-Sun

Get tickets here

Clare Grant costume trial for Model the Model performed action by Barbara Campbell and Clare Grant, 5pm February 20, Articulate, Sydney. Photo: Barbara Campbell

In Model the Model, Campbell and Grant re-articulate a small terracotta figure made somewhere between the 3rd Century BCE and the 2nd Century CE. 

The figure comes from an undocumented location somewhere in Southern Italy and is currently stored in a drawer in Rome. This object—like others in the same drawer and in other drawers in the same cabinet, other cabinets in the same room of the museum—comes with a “commentary” that is itself a re-articulation or, better, a re-animation, in which object is made subject. Sentences such as “She stands on her left leg, right drawn back.” and “The tips of her feet project from the hem of her garment.” introduce us to a woman standing somewhere in time and space while she, as object still lies in a museum drawer in Rome. She is stood up. She becomes a “standing woman.”

 

Model the Model is a limited capacity event (taking account of Covid restrictions) in which Campbell sets the conditions for Grant as ‘model’ to take the position of standing woman. Grant will oscillate between subject and object, perhaps to the point of shimmering, perhaps to the point of energetic stillness. The state or status of the standing woman is relayed to others in the room who act on the figure through acute attention, choosing their own role either as writer, artist or more distanced observer.

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Conditions of entry:

NSW Public Health Order requires all visitors over 16 years of age,

To sign in with the QR code provided at the entrance,

Wear a mask, social distancing rules will also apply.

Please don't come if you are feeling unwell.

Articulate is a registered Covid Safe business.

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

 

per.doc | project space | Feb 11-13 | The Hidden 2022

Artists: Jo Truman + Andy Milne (+ The Fragile Ids- 

Tim Cunningham, Jo Truman, Andy Milne and John Shand)

Performance Sat Feb 12th, 6pm (Limited capacity event)
Open 11am - 5pm | Fri-Sun

Get tickets here

Image: drawing by Jo Truman

Installation with drawings and sound.

This project explores trauma and memory through sound and silence, the written word and drawing. I am working from the premise that “the body holds the score” and that every one of our cells contain imprinted memories of our lives, a notion that is gaining traction through the field of Polyvagal theory and Epigenetics. However, it is not a new notion- first nations people are aware of ancestors living within and around them, notions which are not just beliefs but lived experiences. 

I work from the premise that we have the capacity to “read” our own imprinted memories through interception and visceral awareness. These imprints inform our lives on a daily basis, impacting us, generating positive (expansive) or negative/traumatic (constrictive) feelings experienced on a visceral level. Imprints may be deep but are plastic in nature and may be mitigated and transformed through sound. 

The collaboration with Andy Milne involves bringing sonic memories into the real time of the present, as the installation interacts with the space of the gallery with random sounds informed by memory intrude into the present moment, also signifying the tendency for traumatic memory to intrude on the present. Not only sound is explored but the sometimes loaded implications of frozen silence. 

Following my mother’s death I inherited hundreds of little notes inscribed with existential and spiritual musings about life following her escape from a repressive abusive marriage, about the same age as I am now.  Her rich inner life was inaccessible to me, as her state of shut down from years of trauma from losses experienced in WW2 and beyond into her marriage had impacted her ability to talk. The notes reveal her quest for her authentic self  which had been compromised by the adverse experiences which dominated her life. They have provided a portal through which I can finally get to know her and consequently understand myself, as she is deeply imprinted within my own body and being. These notes and their content form a basis of this project.

My current work explores the threshold of the tipping point between “being” and “nothingness” and how internalised and intergenerational social imprints construct the sense of self, thus informing  interactions with the surrounding environment. The current Covid shut down is an echo of the experiences of my early childhood life which was a constant struggle for the recognition of self, a selfhood which was consistently denied by a shut down mother and a shutting down father- signals which were consequently played out by siblings to maintain a perceived status quo. 

My vocal improvisations have  evolved over many years through a process of interoception, involving a visceral mapping of my nervous system and deeply internalised feelings, bringing their messages to the external via  the voice, working with these sonic energies as compositional material for transformation. The body holds the score. I am curious about how women can develop their own sense of authentic self and identity in a world dominated by authoritative male voices. My response has to go inwards to discover and honour the deeply embodied stories and experiences I hold within my body using my breath and voice as an instrument. 

The band “fragile ids” (Jo Truman/Andre Milne/John Shand/ Tim Cunningham) will be performing on Feb 12th in a dynamic sonic celebration of the Articulate Project Space. 

Due to Covid restrictions the Articulate Project Space is only able to accommodate 29 people for this event.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Conditions of entry:

NSW Public Health Order requires all visitors over 16 years of age,

To sign in with the QR code provided at the entrance,

Wear a mask, social distancing rules will also apply.

Please don't come if you are feeling unwell.

Articulate is a registered Covid Safe business.

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

 

per.doc | Opening event performance

Witness, 2022

All is Fine, 2015, and Army of Me, 2021
Katya Petetskaya & Kit Bylett

Witness is a collaboration between the artists, Kit Bylett and Katya Petetskaya, that explores performance documentation residing within the living body. In Witness, Kit and Katya turn inwards, and to one another, to extract the memory of performances written into their bodies. Read more

Photos by Elke Wohlfarht

Photos by Elke Wohlfarht

Photos by Elke Wohlfarht

Photos by JC

Photos by JC