2006

Sigmar Polke: Music from an Unknown Source

RMIT Gallery

18 December 2006 - 17 February 2007

Music from an Unknown Source brings together a series of 40 gouaches by Sigmar Polke from 1996.

RMIT Gallery presents Sigmar Polke: Music from an Unknown Source, a collection of 40 paintings by one of Germany’s most exciting and prolific contemporary artists, Sigmar Polke. The exhibition continues until 17^th February, and is toured by the Goethe-Institut.

Curated by Götz Adriani and Polke himself, the exhibition was developed in 1996 in partnership between the artist and Germany’s Institut Fur Auslandsbeziehungen / Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA). The nature of this commission gave Polke the artistic freedom to treat the project as an opportunity, like Bach’s suites of reflections on a theme, to sample the themes of his entire artistic output in a single series. Indeed, in these works we have the possibility to observe in one setting Polke’s major visual concerns.

Sigmar Polke is one of Germany’s key contemporary artists, belonging among the most significant artists of the post-war era, and represented in major international art collections. Polke was born in Oels in Silesia (then German, now part of Poland) in 1941. Since the early 1960s he has been concerned with the relationship between reality as contained in a picture, and reality itself, which he sees as the relationship between art and daily life. In regard to this, he often takes an ironic position of some distance, which enables him to turn his attention – above and beyond issues of content – to the form and the material nature of painting.

Nihonga

RMIT Gallery

29 November - 6 December 2006

This collection of works was a gift to the people of Victoria in 1976 from the International Culture Appreciation and Interchange Society in Tokyo.

RMIT Gallery celebrates the 2006 Australia-Japan Year of Exchange with the exhibition ‘Nihonga’, a selection of paintings from some of Japan’s leading artists from the 1970s, opening on Wednesday 29th November and continuing to Saturday 9th December, 2006.

The exhibition is drawn from a collection of paintings donated to the people of Victoria by the International Culture Appreciation and Interchange Society of Japan, and includes pictures by some of the best painters in the Nihonga style. These 25 works were commissioned from masters of the Nihonga school by Japan’s International Culture Appreciation and Interchange Society between 1972 and 1977, and are exemplary of this unique artistic style.

Embracing both Eastern and Western painting techniques, the Nihonga style is one of the premiere contemporary Japanese painting schools. Nihonga artists draw on the Japanese affinity with nature to create works that draw together traditional and contemporary styles. Painting onto silks, the Nihonga artists use only natural materials, pigments and binders in order to create images both depict and utilise the natural environment.

Artists of the Nihonga style are guided by the twin concepts of “light” and “white”. In Nihonga paintings, the illumination is always from the front, creating the illusion that the viewer the source of light. Rather than using light to show the time of day, it is instead used to imply a degree of spirituality, and a link between the viewer and eternity. As a result the images have an ethereally flat, shadowless quality.

Siemens–RMIT Fine Art Scholarship Awards 2006

RMIT Gallery

27 November - 9 December 2006

This is the sixth year of the prestigious Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Scholarship, one of the most progressive and rewarding scholarships of its kind in Australia.

The Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Scholarship enables students to further their careers in the field of fine arts by assisting research and production costs. Eight students will receive scholarships, comprising five undergraduate travel scholarships and three postgraduate scholarships to a total of $32,000, as well as one artist receiving the $1000 Siemens Fine Arts Acquisition Award, with their work becoming part of the Siemens art collection. An initiative of the School of Art, RMIT University.

The 2006 shortlist includes: Jeremy Bakker, Nigel Brown, Simon Cottrell, Prue Crome, Simon Currell, Wendy Dracoulis, Lisa Frankland, Michael Georgetti, Anna Gilby, Peter Gurry, Leon Hawker, Renda Helal, Douglas Hendry, Bianca Hester, Lisa Hilli, Kate Just, Katie Lee, Sanne Mestrom, Angela Morgan, Joanna Mortreux, James Murnane, Philippa Lesley Murray, Stephanie Neoh, Elizabeth Nigol, Robyn Phelan, Emily Plunkett, Pheobe Ross, Lisa Rumler, Deane Sobey, Kate Spencer, Salote Tawale, John Waller, Angela Watters, Mon-Xi Wu, Sally Zurbo.

The five undergraduate scholarships of $2000 are awarded to: Prue Crome, for her work titled “Light Passage”, Lisa Frankland, for the installation titled “Un-Packing”, Anna Gilby, for her work titled “Window”, Robyn Phelan, for her ceramic piece titled “3 Teapots”, Sally Zurbo, for her drawing “Untitled 2”.

The three postgraduate scholarships of $7000 are awarded to: Bianca Hester, for her installation titled “Project, Projects, Compressed”, Kate Just, for her sculpture titled “Family”, Sanné Mestrom, for the watercolour titled “A history of space is the history of wars #1”.

The $1000 Siemens Acquisition Award 2006 is awarded to: Anna Gilby for “Window”, a free hanging relief in plaster, bandage, wire, aluminium and steel.

A judging panel of Siemens employees has selected the acquisition piece which will enter the prestigious Siemens corporate collection on display at its corporate headquarters in Bayswater, Victoria.

Baubles, Bangles and Beads: Australian Contemporary Jewellery

RMIT Gallery

1 November - 20 December 2006

Baubles, Bangles and Beads highlights the range, quality and inventiveness of Australian contemporary jewellery design.

The exhibition focuses on individual items borrowed from private collections shown alongside current works by the artists, sharing the passion of collecting and celebrating these highly original artists. It also examines the special tripartite relationship between the jeweller, the wearer/consumer and the object.

Collectors:
Ann Lewis A.M., Penelope Seidler, Dr Gene Sherman, Peggy Wallach, Kerry Crowley, Robert Thompson, Margaret Pomeranz, Mandy Martin, Paula Dawson, Erika Semler, Linda Jansen, Stephen Cassidy, Rhana Devenport, Anna Volska, Conrad Morton.

Jewellers:
Carlier Makigawa, Simryn Gill, Yuri Kawanabe, Sheridan Kennedy, Donna-May Bolinger, Jason Moss, Margaret Kirkwood, Kate Forster, Fiona Hall, Darani Lewers and Helge Larsen, Zara Collins, Rowena Gough, Barbara Heath, Robyn Gordon, Sean O’Conne.

Great Brits: The New Alchemists

RMIT Gallery

28 August - 23 September 2006

Great Brits: The New Alchemists showcases a new generation of designers working in Britain, sharing a passion for experimentation with new materials and technologies with an alchemical bent.

The Oxford English Dictionary definition of alchemy is “seeking to turn base materials into gold or silver” in “a miraculous transformation”. The work of the five young British designers in Great Brits: The New Alchemists shows how they are exploring the transformative possibilities of design in everything from leaps of the imagination to the application of advanced technology.

Each designer works in very different ways and to different ends, yet they all deal with the transformation of banal materials, processes, objects and typologies into something unexpected and, often, extraordinary. Pascal Anson reinvents abandoned objects by reassembling them in sets; while Peter Traag makes new furniture from old. Michael Cross and Julie Mathias flirt with danger by plunging electric light bulbs under water. Julia Lohmann turns food industry waste, such as sheep’s stomachs, into surreal lighting. Mathias Megyeri confronts our fears by customising security products.

This is the second Great Brits exhibition to be curated by the British Council and the Design Museum and unveiled at Paul Smith’s headquarters in Milan. The first exhibition in 2003 explored the revival of romanticism in design. Great Brits – The New Alchemists reflects the emergence of a rawer surreal spirit in which designers are challenging the standardisation and loss of identity that decades of globalisation have bred by weaving narratives into design.

Curators: Emily Campbell, British Council and Alice Rawsthorn, Design Museum.

Made in Germany: Architecture and Ecology

RMIT Gallery

28 August - 23 September 2006

Showcasing nine building projects which demonstrate the diversity of German-designed ecological construction methods in recent years.

Amongst these are factories, child-care centres, sports halls, private homes in various locations around Germany, as well as major projects such as the new construction of the central railway station in Stuttgart.

This exhibition is designed by the Goethe-Institut in collaboration with the Aedes gallery in Berlin.

The Idea of the Animal

RMIT Gallery

12 August - 18 November 2006

Animals: in all their guises, from beloved pet to prawn-on-the-barbie, it is indisputable that animals occupy an important part of human life.

The Idea of the Animal is a new exhibition presented by RMIT Gallery and the Melbourne International Arts Festival which investigates the complex relationship between humans and animals in contemporary visual culture.

Participating artists include:
Karen Abernethy (AUS), Bruce Armstrong (AUS), Joseph Beuys (Ger), Jazmina Cininas (AUS), Peter Cole (AUS), Barbara Dover (AUS), Marian Drew (AUS), Hubert Duprat (Fr), Peter Ellis (AUS), Katrin Isabel Ernst (AUS), Hayden Fowler (AUS), Rew Hanks (AUS), Kristin Headlam (AUS), Kate James (AUS), Nicolas Lampert (USA), Linda Marrinon (AUS), Kevin Mortensen (AUS), David Noonan (AUS), Selina Ou (AUS), Diego Perrone (Italy), Simon Perry (AUS), Patricia Piccinini (AUS), Lisa Roet (AUS), Anne Ross (AUS), Joan Ross (AUS), Paul Ryan (AUS), Angela Singer (NZ), Kathy Temin (AUS), Jenny Watson (AUS).

Time Goes By: Rebecca Horn

RMIT Gallery

7 July - 13 August 2006

Rebecca Horn is an artist who can move an audience through laughter to deep reflection using the most unlikely of objects.

Forty kilometres of developed Hollywood film, a metronome and Buster Keaton’s shoes are the materials from which German contemporary artist Rebecca Horn constructed her installation Time Goes By, the artwork that forms the centrepiece to a survey exhibition of the same name opening at RMIT Gallery on 6 July 2006.

Rebecca Horn is widely regarded as a particularly versatile and creative artist. She works across a broad variety of media – drawing, sculpture, installation, kinetics, photography and film – to create artworks that explore the relationship between the body, movement and space.

Time Goes By presents a selection of her work from the 1970s to the present, with particular emphasis on the links between her sculptures and her films. A program of Horn’s films will be screened throughout the exhibition period.

GRUNT: RMIT, the Working Men’s College & the 8 Hour Day

RMIT Gallery

17 May - 24 June 2006

Born of workers’ struggle, RMIT began its life as the Working Men’s College in 1887.

Born of workers’ struggle, RMIT began its life as the Working Men’s College in 1887. The legacy of the Stonemason’s victory in 1856 – winning the right to 8 Hours Labour, 8 Hours Recreation and 8 Hours Rest – was that many workers were able to pursue other activities within their working week. Self-improvement through education was a high priority, and the Working Men’s College prospered, offering evening courses in trades training and general education. The Working Men’s College took as its motto “Perita Manus, Mens Exculta” (“A skilled hand, A civilised mind,”) and in 1887 announced its goal “to improve the general and technical education of those who work.”

GRUNT: RMIT, the Working Men’s College & the 8 Hour Day examines the relationship between early education and labour in Victoria. Historically, Grunts are the undifferentiated workers – the foot soldiers of war and the labourers of industry. GRUNT seeks to make visible the struggle of Melbourne’s workers to attain education, and celebrates the crucial role they played in the successful founding and development of the Working Men’s College. Drawing on the strengths of the RMIT University Archives, its collections of photographs, books and objects from its formative years, the exhibition illustrates and examines the educational experience of the first students at RMIT.

Black Abstract

RMIT Gallery

17 May - 24 June 2006

Black Abstract presents the work of renowned artists Ada Bird and Gloria Petyarre, Anmatyarr custodians who have painted the stories, symbols, patterns and their country Anungra for over 20 years.

Black Abstract continues the dialogue for people across great distances. The exhibition brings country from the central desert across lands and waters, to connect with Victorian audiences and communities.

This exhibition looks to define a sense of place and identity by affording the viewing audience greater access and understanding of Australian Indigenous art. The exhibition does not consider Aboriginal art to contain abstract meaning, rather, a more literal relationship between land, time, and artists’ story.

Threading the Commonwealth: Textile Tradition, Culture, Trade and Politics

RMIT Gallery

23 March - 23 April 2006

This exhibition comprises a survey of textiles from the majority of nations that make up the Commonwealth.

Consisting of key historical and contemporary works, the collection demonstrates how various traditional and visual languages have transformed over time. It also provides an opportunity for the differences and similarities between the constituent nations of the Commonwealth to be explored while examining a range of issues.

The exhibition will tell two grand stories common across these diverse cultures while celebrating the courses of human histories and experiences. Firstly, the ceremonially significant textiles in display of power – the Power Cloths – worn by key figures in the nations of the Commonwealth, ranging from a state gown belonging to Queen Victoria to the Melbourne Lord Mayor John So’s Aboriginal possum cloak.

The second story concerns garments and textiles used in the Rites of Passage – from birth, circumcision, marriage to death and all that comes in between. RMIT Storey Hall facade will be transformed by cloths woven from gold and silver thread.

The exhibition is part of Festival Melbourne 2006, the cultural festival of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Festival Melbourne 2006 celebrates the breadth of culture and art from across the nations of the Commonwealth. The Festival is proudly funded and supported by the Victorian and Australian Governments.

Canopy of the Commonwealth: Linking Victorian Communities

RMIT Gallery

1 March - 30 April 2006

This community participation project brings together textile work by people from across Victoria in a display of skill that reflects the different and diverse communities living in the state.

Participants of all cultural backgrounds and varying abilities of textile proficiency have submitted panels that have been screen printed, embroidered, stitched, appliquéd, painted, or in some other way embellished and then joined together in a large canopy that drapes the ceiling of the gallery foyer. The exhibition is part of Festival Melbourne 2006, the cultural festival of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Festival Melbourne 2006 celebrates the breadth of culture and art from across the nations of the Commonwealth. The Festival is proudly funded and supported by the Victorian and Australian Governments.

medalling: 8 designers on a quest

RMIT Gallery

1 March - 30 April 2006

medalling is the quest—a parallel sporting and creative endeavour, combining raw talent, aspiration, skill, knowledge and perseverance in preparation and presentation.

A medallist is a designer of medals. A Commonwealth Games medallist is on a quest for a medal of gold, silver or bronze. The Games is also an arena for cultural exchange and the honouring of shared values and a history.

Eight designers have explored diverse cultural, historical and social messages in their commissioned artworks. The role of medals, ribbons, wreaths and trophies in awarding merit and victory; materials and symbols as signifiers of hierarchy in achievement and the rich mix of the Games participants’ cultural allegiances were the starting points for the artworks.

The artists are: Ian Bonde, Pearl Gillies, Stephen Gallagher, Vicky Mason, Anne Neil, Belinda Newick, Ilke White, Shine Myung-Ok Shin.

The exhibition is part of Festival Melbourne 2006, the cultural festival of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Festival Melbourne 2006 celebrates the breadth of culture and art from across the nations of the Commonwealth. The Festival is proudly funded and supported by the Victorian and Australian Governments.