2005

Art ConneXions

RMIT Gallery

24 November 2005 - 28 January 2006

Art ConneXions is a cultural exchange program organised by the Goethe Institut in partnership with various galleries to develop a new curatorial model.

German artists engage with artists from Auckland, Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Singapore and Sydney to form a combined residency, art production and exhibition program using photography as the central medium. This exhibition of photomedia is the response the artists’ various residencies.

Artists:

Juergen Bergauer, Lisa Crowley, Martin Fengel, Albrecht Fuchs, Shaun Gladwell, Uschi Huber, Yee I-Lann, Leah King-Smith, Matthias Koch, Vu Le, Reiner Leist, Nicola Meitzner, Valentina Seidel, Sherman Ong Beng Ann, Michael Shoawanasai, Heidi Specker, Erik Prasetya, Jay Yao.

Curators:

Suzanne Davies, Alasdair Foster, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Firman Ichsan, Peter Shand, Tran Luong, Thomas Weski, Terence Yeung, Beverly Yong.

Grots To The Show – Natalie Woodlock

RMIT Gallery

24 November - 24 December 2005

Grots to the Show is a ten-minute video work that combines stop-motion animated narratives, drawings and video footage to create an evocative work that explores the pleasures and traumas.

An enchanted world of North Queensland childhood moments and family rituals, Grots to the Show is concerned with themes of family tension, gender roles and personal connection to place. Working alongside and setting the work, an emotive soundscape of ambient and found sounds and snatches of spoken narrative.

Siemens RMIT Fine Art Scholarships Exhibition 2005

RMIT Gallery

14 - 19 November 2005

The Siemens RMIT University Fine Arts Partnership is one of the most exciting business-arts initiatives to be launched in recent years in Australia.

The Siemens RMIT University Fine Arts Partnership culminates annually with the selection of eight students to receive a combined $32,000 in financial scholarships to further their studies and careers.

Siemens is a large, multi-national organisation with about half a million employees around the world, focussing on electrical engineering, electronics and e-business. They have a number of partnerships with RMIT, in the engineering, business and science schools, but this is the only one with an arts focus.

The exhibition is up for one week only, and presents the shortlisted entries from RMIT Students for assessment for the scholarships. There are eight scholarships in total: five for undergraduate students and three for postgraduate studies.  The winning entries can be identified by a little label, and are judged by a panel from RMIT Fine arts, the arts community and a representative from Siemens.

There is also an acquisitive award, worth $1000 which is judged by a panel from the organisation. That artwork will become part of the collection of Siemens. Other works from the shortlist are on show at their head offices throughout the year, which is great exposure for the students.

Anyone from within organisation  is invited to apply to be a judge for the show, from any part of the organisation.

Outer Limits: International Soundscape Project

RMIT Gallery

27 September - 5 November 2005

Outer Limits simultaneously presented in Australia, Italy and Denmark is a collaboration between the School of Art, RMIT, the Cuneo Conservatory of Music, and Aarhus University.

Outer Limits is comprised of three surround sound compositions investigating the specific sonic dimensions and interactions that define the acoustic environments of Melbourne, Australia, Cuneo, Italy and Aarhus, Denmark, contoured to form densities of space and discrete zones of aural experience.

Outer Limits: International Soundscape Project is a collaboration between the School of Art, RMIT, the Cuneo Conservatory of Music, and Aarhus University.

Stephen Little & Nike Savvas: A Million Suns

RMIT Gallery

27 September - 5 November 2005

A Million Suns is a collaborative installation by London-based Australian artist Nike Savvas, and Stephen Little.

This multi-screen installation references contemporary discourses on several playful levels.

It melds fluid ink-like shapes and shifting areas of cognition within a hybrid sensibility, engaging painting within an expanded field.

Morphing colour and shapes, at times similar to ink blot tests, are projected on to the walls. An accompanying narrative formatted in an accessible children’s story, relates directly to the concerns of the visuals.

Martin Sastre: Hola Australia! The Iberoamerican Trilogy

RMIT Gallery

27 September - 5 November 2005

The Iberoamerican Trilogy is a recent video project by Uruguayan artist Martin Sastre.

The Iberoamerican Trilogy recounts the future of the planet beginning with the fall of Hollywood and the creation of a new order, the Iberoamerican Axis – when the world finally becomes known by its real name: The Third World.

This is an ironic and humorous commentary on the international art scene, from the eyes of a Latin American artist trying to establish himself in the mainstream art world.

Buda Contemporary Australian Silver And Metalwork Award

RMIT Gallery

15 August - 17 September 2005

This exhibition presents the work of professional and student metalsmiths vying for a series of awards.

This travelling exhibition was established in 1988 to commemorate the work of colonial gold and silversmith Ernest Leviny, who lived at Buda in Castlemaine.

It is the leading event in Australia for the promotion of contemporary gold and silversmiths and jewellers – celebrating innovation, excellence in design and the traditions of the craft in a contemporary context.

Artists:

Diane Appleby, Roseanne Bartley, Vito Bila, Sean Booth, Shirley Cho, David Clayton, Simon Cottrell, Joung Mee Do, Mark Edgoose, Maureen Faye-Chauhan, Marcus Foley, Stephen Gallagher, Kirsten Haydon, Glen Henke, Marian Hosking, Rik Juod, Daehoon Kang, Hong-rye Kim, Shanyn Linklater, Glenice Mathews, Vanessa Raimondo, Amy Renshaw, Gilbert Riedelbauch, Christopher Robertson, Beatrice Schlabowsky, Dore Stockhausen, Louisa Vilde.

New Trends Of Architecture In Europe And Asia-Pacific 2004–2005

RMIT Gallery

10 August - 17 September 2005

This internationally touring exhibition creates dynamic encounters between Europe, Asia and the Pacific through architecture, a diverse art form.

The selected works represent the architects and city planners who are generating a new art of global living, but instead of defining a universal approach we see a network of endless diversity. The exhibition includes 20 architects from Europe and the Asia-Pacific and will be shown in Australia, China, France, Ireland, Japan and Korea.

Europe

Austria: BKK-3 ZT GmbH, Finland: Ocean North, France: dECoi Architects, Germany: Jurgen Mayer H, Ireland: Hassett Ducates Architects, Italy: Elastico, Netherlands: Rene van zuuk Architecten bv, Portugal: Didier Fiuza Faustino, Slovenia: Sadar Vuga Arhitekti, Spain: RCR Arquitectes (Rafael Aranda, Carne Pigem, Ramon Vilalta),.

Asia-Pacific

Australia: Kerstin Thompson, China: Chang Yung Ho, Hong Kong: Rocco Yim, Korea: Yi Jong Ho, Malaysia: ZLG Sdn Bhd, Japan: Atelier Bow-Wow, Shigeru Ban, Nobuaki Furuya, Kengo Kuma, Sei Takeyama.

This is a travelling exhibition organised by “New Trends of Architecture in Europe and Asia-Pacific” Committee, Lille 2004 European Capital of Culture, Home Affairs Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture, and RMIT University, Melbourne.

Slow Burn: The Art Of Nick Mourtzakis

RMIT Gallery

4 - 23 July 2005

Slow Burn features a selection of exquisitely refined paintings and drawings.

At a time when many contemporary artists have adopted the role of production designer rather than maker, Mourtzakis is an artist who revels in the role of material creator. His drawings have been described as works of subtle intricacy and arresting stillness, and his paintings so honed that they function as icons of our urban and industrial environs. Mourtzakis works within the traditional genres of painting and drawing: portraiture, figure drawing, still-life, interiors and landscape.

Curator: Suzanne Davies

Out Of Print: Gordon Bennett

RMIT Gallery

4 - 23 July 2005

Gordon Bennett describes his background as an indigenous Australian as being fundamental to his view of life and his artistic expression.

He refers to colonial history and the documented violence towards Aborigines by the early colonists as well as the current issues of death in custody of Aborigines in the 1990’s.

This exhibition of 120 works forms a visual essay of Bennett’s print-media practice between 1984 to 2004. Included in this exhibition are examples of his earlier traditional and labour-intensive printmaking techniques to his recent computer generated printing, tracing his various motivations for the move out of print, into the print-out.

Bennett’s practise has spanned various media including painting, print, video, performance, drawing, installation and more recently sound, animation and music clips.

Curator: Simon Wright

Goran Petercol: Light2

RMIT Gallery

13 June - 23 July 2005

This exhibition is based on Petercol’s exploration of light as a medium of visual art.

He experiments with light in a painterly manner, juxtaposing layer upon layer of light to construct multifaceted spatial installations. Petercol’s light installations draw with directional light sources and manipulated linear forms to cast organic, fragile shadows. Through the interaction of the tangible and abstract he creates transcendental spatial drawings that physically and effectively engage the viewer.

Curator: Suzanne Davies

A Matter Of Time: 16th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial

RMIT Gallery

13 May - 25 June 2005

The Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial is recognised nationally as Australia’s pre-eminent textile related exhibition. The 16th Biennial focuses on time and temporality.

Drawn from a diversity of practices including visual art, craft, multimedia, performance, fashion and design, the works engage with the transformation of matter into expressions of time.

Curator: Suzie Attiwill

Artists: John Barbour, Sue Blanchfield, Bula’bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation, Georgina Cresswell, India Flint, Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr, Desley Henry, Meredith Hughes, Sara Lindsay, Paull McKee, Sebastian Di Mauro, Linda Lou Murphy, Andrew Nicholls, Monique van Nieuwland, Rosemary O’Rourke, Sue Pedley, Sharon Peoples, Julie Ryder, Sue Saxon, Anne Zahalka, S!X, Holly Story, Christian Bumbarra Thompson, Liz Williamson, Louiseann Zahra.

This is a travelling exhibition.

IRWIN: Like To Like

RMIT Gallery

14 March - 5 April 2005

The collaborative artists’ group IRWIN has been a dynamic force in contemporary Eastern European art for some 20 years.

Comprised of five artists from Slovenia, IRWIN: Like to Like focuses on three recent installations which cleverly unpick the idea of an artistic ‘avant garde’ in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. This mixed-media exhibition includes six large-scale colour photographs depicting actions and projects in landscape; the result of contemporary reconstructions of performance art by 1970s art movement OHO. IRWIN’s work highlights the paradox of art-making practice in Eastern Europe which is re-establishing itself after communism.

Curator: Cornerhouse, Manchester

Artists: Dusan Mandic, Borut Vogelnik, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek, Miran Mohar.

This was a travelling exhibition.

Dressed To The Eyes: The Fashions Of Hall Ludlow

RMIT Gallery

14 March - 30 April 2005

Sculptural, sumptuous, yet spiritual and subtle. Hall Ludlow’s work has left an indelible mark on the Australian fashion history.

As Australia’s first true ‘couturier’, Ludow opened his dress salon in Melbourne in 1949, and subsequently in Hong Kong and Sydney. Ludlow developed a distinct aesthetic and style of dressing that competed with the best of international design trends, and was awarded the prestigious Gown of the Year award in 1953 and in 1959.

Ludlow collaborated with celebrated local photographers Helmut Newton, Athol Shmith and Bruno Benini and elite models such as Diane Masters and Maggie Tabberer. Many of these fashion photographs are iconic references to Melbourne during the 1950s.

Sourced from private collections, this exhibition includes a range of fashions spanning 50 years, from wedding gowns to sun hats and a selection of rare archival material including original toiles, decorative trims, scrap books, photographs and film footage. This exhibition is part of the 2005 L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Curators: Suzanne Davies, Diane Masters and Robyn Healy