FINAL EXHIBITIONS FOR 2008
Brooklyn Bags
Photography by Catherine Gomersall
Opens 6pm THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2008
Continues until Sun 21 Dec
On the Ground Floor
Catherine Gomersall, Untitled from the series 'Brooklyn Bags', 2008, Inkjet Print, 60 x 90cm.Currently in New York, Perth-based photographer and Edith Cowan University PhD candidate Catherine Gomersall brings her latest series of work to Melbourne in Brooklyn Bags.
The ‘plastic bag’ has not only become a controversial cultural artifact, it has come to symbolise a predicament of modern living. Photographers around the world have documented the plastic bag in public spaces expressing curiosity and concern over their use and management. The plastic bag appears as an accessory to the famous Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. In 2004 a rubbish bag as an art exhibit made headlines and is binned by a cleaner at the Tate Gallery in Britain. Petitions litter the streets and internet forum sites by local and national activists encouraging the public to “Ban the Bag”. The question remains has the “Green Bag” actually altered the cultural phenomenon of the bag?
Gomersall's new exhibition questions these views through a series of compelling and bold photographic prints entitled ‘Brooklyn Bags’. Taken on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, earlier this year, she is currently on her 2nd photographic expedition there and will be flying in directly for this exhibition at Guildford Lane Gallery.
www.catherinegomersall.com
The ‘plastic bag’ has not only become a controversial cultural artifact, it has come to symbolise a predicament of modern living. Photographers around the world have documented the plastic bag in public spaces expressing curiosity and concern over their use and management. The plastic bag appears as an accessory to the famous Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. In 2004 a rubbish bag as an art exhibit made headlines and is binned by a cleaner at the Tate Gallery in Britain. Petitions litter the streets and internet forum sites by local and national activists encouraging the public to “Ban the Bag”. The question remains has the “Green Bag” actually altered the cultural phenomenon of the bag?
Gomersall's new exhibition questions these views through a series of compelling and bold photographic prints entitled ‘Brooklyn Bags’. Taken on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, earlier this year, she is currently on her 2nd photographic expedition there and will be flying in directly for this exhibition at Guildford Lane Gallery.
www.catherinegomersall.com
Salt and the Dress
An Installation by Lesley Dickman
Opens 6pm THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2008
Continues until Sun 21 Dec
On the Ground Floor
An Installation by Lesley Dickman
Opens 6pm THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2008
Continues until Sun 21 Dec
On the Ground Floor
Salt and the Dress raises concerns about rising water levels and desalination. Established painter Lesley Dickman extends her art practice with this installation, continuing her interest in textural qualities with the use of white muslin and salt. A soft aesthetic initially disguises elements of discomfort in Salt and the Dress, like a chameleon it has its disguises...
Graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Monash University, Gembrook’s artist Lesley Dickman has since developed a career spanning graphic design, painting, performance and teaching. Exhibiting since 1981 Dickman’s style and content has evolved to include textiles and installation media successfully pushing her theories beyond the canvas.
“We don’t often realise that we learn how to see, how to look and how to interpret the world around us, often guided by an external hand or editor. In Outside In/Inside Out I have freed my work from the computer to display an unedited image without any editorial control. The only “editor” is natural light provided by the sun. Each viewer draws upon his or her own experiences in order to interpret what is happening; making this encounter similar yet different to others. The work allows a sense of self and a space for contemplation on the universality of the world outside as we share experiences despite our differences.”
With the assistance of an Australia Council grant, Nina Sellars travelled to Los Angeles in 2006 to photograph the surgical construction of Stelarc's Extra Ear project. The experimental and internationally renowned artist Stelarc underwent surgery to have a left ear constructed on his left forearm. A miniature microphone was also embedded underneath the Extra Ear during surgery, allowing it to be wirelessly connected to the Internet via a Bluetooth transmitter. Sellars' artistic practice, which focuses on the physiology and phenomenology of the human body, profoundly intersects with Stelarc's own body-based practice.
