situation

A report on Situation by Sydney-based writer SveaLena Kutschke that has appeared in a handful of German language online & print media publications … translation to follow

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Das spinnenartige Verhalten zeitgenössischer Künstler
Das Museum for Contemporary Art in Sydney zeigt Arbeiten künstlerischer Netzwerke aus Sydney, Singapur und Berlin
6.Juni- 21. August

von SveaLena Kutschke

Mit schwarzer Terroristen Montur und Wollmaske bekleidet, bohrt Jeremy Hiah mit einer elektrischen Bohrmaschine Löcher in eine Apfelsine, die sich direkt über seinem linken Ohr befindet. Die Vernissage- Gäste verkneifen sich tapfer das Lachen und ertragen mit stoischen Minen die Rückkopplung einer übersteuerten E-Gitarre. Kunst ist grenzwertig, wer möchte sich da über Ohrenschmerzen beklagen. Vor allen Dingen, wenn ein Künstler droht, sich selber aufzubohren.
Er findet seine Performance furchtbar, deshalb habe er auch eine Maske getragen, gesteht Jeremy Hiah später grinsend und beisst in seine Kängurupizza, das versöhnt. (more…)

First thing last Monday morning I was back down at the museum interested to take some final documentation of the deinstallation process. I knew the registrars & preparators had marched in at 5:01pm the night previous, the last day of the show, to start to pull it to pieces. Still it was surprising to see how much they’d got done and by the next morning it was truly a ghost of its former self. (more…)

Last Saturday’s open artists forum elapsed as more of a shaggy afternoon drink & chat at the pub, with some lively conversation around the blog’s comment explosion, questions of how to maintain an ongoing mutual interaction between the MCA & local artists and various ideas for future projects. Particularly exciting were some people’s ideas for non-space reliant networks of exchange & relations based around formats of talks and tours. (more…)

For anyone who might have missed the subtle signpostings, there is a whole lot of ‘healthy argy bargy’ going on in the parallel universe of the comments thread for Christopher Dean’s July post ‘more from the Situation forum’.

Simon Barney thanks the critics…

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I’m the dumb-fuck who’s just spent the last few months making other people’s paintings that they’ll be taking home - if they want them. (It’s called No Ideas) So don’t talk to me about dumbing down – my thing never could get dumber no matter what the museum tried. It’s a mess of paintings – and the critics have been on the money all along. Let’s list them.

FBI radio reviewer (missed her name) ‘Sorry to say, the Australian stuff is, well, disappointing’. I should let Ariane know that Sydney has one non-parochial critic – she liked the Berlin work, letters to Sofie, and the chewing gum paintings. I heard her a few weeks after the opening while working on one of the paintings I was to add to the show. I always think it’s best to get the review while you are still doing the work. (more…)

Some thoughts on museum audience response to Situation from Jasmin Stephens, Senior Manager of Education and Access at the MCA…

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Situation is a different type of exhibition for the MCA and its audiences. In recent years, a growing audience has responded to the sort of emotive, immersive experiences that exhibitions such ‘Liquid Sea’, ‘Ugo Rondinone: Our Magic Hour’ and ‘William Kentridge’ afforded. In the case of these fine exhibitions it is not only the artist’s vision but also the consummate skills of the MCA Preparators which has drawn viewers into the imaginative realm of those exhibitions.

With Situation, some audiences have needed prompting to engage with the exhibition particularly as they report that parts of the show look like “art” while other parts look like a “school project”. The fact that some things seem able to be touched, while others not, has compounded visitors’ uncertainty moving through the space. Works such as Tino Seghal’s ‘This is Propaganda’ and Koh’s ‘A Brief Chronology of The Artists Village 1988-2004′ have only further destabilised the relationship of the objects and images encountered to what they refer to. (more…)

From Ariane Muller in Berlin…

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just seeing the blog now which is sure my fault, as i am one of the invited artists i’d like to thank everyone for the effort (even after a show has been set up - released - discussed - and still going on)

anyway here now back from berlin i would also like to write something on where i have spent these ten days - sydney naturally i was curious about getting some feed back, so i looked for reviews now and then googling them naturally i dont think we get any australian newspapers here. i stopped doing so very quickly, somehow found out that seemingly whoever is in sydney and writes from this perspective was only interested in one part of the show and this was the sydney situation. (more…)

As Situation hits its last strides this month, there is interest to use the show as a forward-looking springboard to set up an occasion for discussion amongst local artists. In the style of an open-plan, informal artists forum, the loose objective might to be to consider and engage the ongoing needs that artist-determined projects meet and ways to go about facilitating them innovatively and responsively here, now & into the future.

If you’d like to…

- share ideas, possibilities, propositions and resources for forward-thinking models and projects

- exchange thoughts on negotiating & manifesting future sites, spaces, studios, critical forums

- consider the continued viability of premises dependant artist spaces, given the bleak fact that at least two Sydney artist spaces have faced closure within Situation’s duration

(…and whatever else might come up over the table in the space of an afternoon!)

come along on

saturday 20th august

at 3pm to

The Courthouse Hotel
202 Australia St, Newtown

*meet in the front side beer garden*

contact number on the day: 0423 182 095

A ‘beauty of the Briefcase’ moment last night. Russell arrived at the Hollywood with a fresh-off-the-press box of the long awaited Situation catalogues to pass on. They were handed around, much admired and in true Briefcase style spilled beyond the gathering of people for Liz’s alarming spider works to loop in other incidental pub drinkers - so nicely illustrated by a guy at the other end of the bar handing a copy he’d been looking at back to Russell with the verdict “it’s great!”

Briefcase presents

Scary Crochet by Elizabeth Day

Petting and stroking will be permitted in the bar area
from 6-8 pm Tuesday 9 August 2005

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL cnr Foster and Hunt streets Surry Hills

briefmail@yahoo.com.au