18 biennale of sydney
th
27 JUNE
– 16 SEPT 2012
student newspaper
FREE
all our relations
Art + design = artificial life
Philip Beesley
Working within the concept of hylozoism
– the belief that all matter in the universe
has a life of its own – Philip Beesley
creates interactive environments that
respond to the actions of the audience.
Beesley is a Canadian architect and artist.
He is also a professor at the University
of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Through
architecture and design, Beesley unites
elements of engineering, science,
sculpture and practical crafts into
complex works, offering a vision of how
buildings in the future might move,
think and feel, and suggesting
new conceptions of art.
The Biennale of Sydney
is Australia’s largest
contemporary visual arts
event and is presented free to
the public every two years.
The 18th Biennale of Sydney:
all our relations runs from
27 June to 16 September 2012.
The exhibition is curated by
Catherine de Zegher and
Gerald McMaster and
includes more than 220
works by over 100 artists
from 44 countries.
‘The “Hylozoic Series” contains tens
of thousands of lightweight digitally
fabricated components fitted with
microprocessors and proximity sensors
that react to human presence. This
responsive environment functions like
a giant lung that breathes in and out
around its occupants … Subtle impacts
register air moving around the body
of the viewer, changes in surrounding
magnetic fields disturbed when passing.
Interaction fosters awareness of many
presences and many dimensions. Rather
than human-centred power, ethics
of mutual relations within wide and
sometimes alien systems are implied
by this work.’ – Philip Beesley
This Biennale encourages new stories,
thoughts and patterns to emerge, as
international artists come together
to create new works that relate as if
evolving from each other. The exhibition
will also showcase many new and reconfigured works, including substantial
collaborative installations.
Artworks unfold in a sequence through
the Biennale Art Walk, from the
Art Gallery of New South Wales, to
the newly redeveloped Museum of
Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and
historic Pier 2/3, and finally to the World
Heritage-listed Cockatoo Island.
‘Beesley’s “Hylozoic Soil” stands as a
magically moving contemporary symbol
of our aptitude for empathy and the
creative projection of living systems’.
– Fundacion Telefonica Jury,
1st prize, VIDA 11.0
This Biennale Student Newspaper is
designed for Visual Arts students in
years 7–12. It focuses on the themes of the
18th Biennale of Sydney: all our relations,
and selected artists’ practice. The voices
of artists, curators and critics, and the
artworks themselves, combine to create
a dialogue around art, society and
the world.
‘This blurring of the boundaries
between visitors and the intriguing
vegetation that reacts to their arrival
aims to create a pacified space where
the centre and periphery, the organism
and its environment can no longer
be distinguished. At the heart of this
reflection resides a will to reconcile
natural processes and the artificial world’.
– Jean Gagnon, Curator, ‘e-art:New
Technologies and Contemporary Art,
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2007
Written by Felicity Giselle Çelik
Philip Beesley, Hylozoic Series, 2010 (process drawing).
Copyright © PBAI
hy·lo·zo·ism (hī’lə-zṓĭz’əm)
noun
The philosophical doctrine holding that
all matter has life, which is a property
or derivative of matter.
in·ter·ac·tive (ĭn’tər-ăk´tĭv)
adjective
1. (of two or more forces) acting or
capable of acting on or influencing
each other
2. (computer science) of or relating
to a program that responds to
user activity
What is a Biennale?
You can cut up the newspaper and use it
in your VAPD. Create your own zine from
your experience of the exhibition, use the
articles in school assignments and come
along to different events or log on to the
student online space.
‘Biennale’ is an Italian word that means
an event that occurs every two years.
It has come to mean a festival that
showcases contemporary visual art,
architecture or design. A biennale
is usually held in a city or town for
approximately two to three months.
Biennales are usually funded through a
mix of government and private support.
The world’s first biennale was held in
Venice in 1895. The second was the
Bienal de São Paulo founded in 1951.
The Biennale of Sydney, first presented
as part of the opening of the Sydney
Opera House in 1973, is the third oldest
biennale in the world.
There are now well over 100 biennales
occurring around the world in places
such as Berlin, Taipei, Istanbul, São Paulo,
Sharjah and Shanghai.
Left. Philip Beesley, Hylozoic Series, 2010 (detail), installation, 1200 x 1200 x 500 cm. Copyright © PBAI
IMRAN QURESHI
‘In the past few years, what has emerged
with great clarity is my deep interest
in formalising a dialogue in my practice
between the idea of life and its destruction
through the representation of foliage.’ –Imran Qureshi
Imran Qureshi, Blessings upon the land of my love,
2011 (detail), emulsion and acrylic paint on tiled
floor, dimensions variable. Courtesy Sharjah Art
Foundation, Sharjah.
Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster,
Artistic Directors, 18th Biennale of Sydney.
Photograph: Sebastian Kriete
John Wolseley
Alchemy
YEESOOKYUNG AND PARK YOUNG-SOOK
Park Young-Sook is a master potter who
makes traditional Korean moon jars.
These delicate and sacred ceramic objects
are difficult to construct, often breaking
during the firing process. For the
18th Biennale of Sydney, another Korean
artist, Yeesookyung, is taking these
broken fragments and putting them back
together with 24 karat gold to create a
new work – a large ceramic sphere.
In Korean, the word for ‘join’ sounds like
the word for ‘gold’. Yeesookyung draws
attention to the defect, the join that
marks both the break and the repair;
that transforms the fragments, almost
alchemically, into a new art object.
‘Over several years, I have found ways
in which the burnt scrub and my paper
collaborate to make drawings – I have
been inventing for myself new ways
of drawing. Rather than holding and
moving the charcoal over a fixed piece
of paper in the conventional way, I have
moved the paper against the charcoal
– against and within the branches and
stems of burnt trees … their stories are
then inscribed with a dark calligraphy.’
– John Wolseley
How does Yeesookyung’s work challenge
artmaking traditions? How does this
process challenge the traditional notions
of the art object? Who is considered to be
the artist? How does the meaning of the
work change, and is the value of the work
pre- and post-destruction the same?
Written by Alana Ambados
al·che·my (ăl’kə-mē)
noun
John Wolseley, Sunset Track (Work in Progress:
Sunset Track), 2007. Photograph: Jenny Long
trash or treasure: yuken teruya
Ever imagine that a miniature enchanted
forest could inhabit a brown paper lunch
bag? Yuken Teruya sure does, as he
transforms everyday consumer waste
into sculptural forms of breathtaking
beauty. With a precise hand, Teruya
incises delicate silhouettes of trees into
objects such as paper bags, pizza boxes,
toilet paper rolls, newspapers and
shopping bags. The results are fragile
and precious artworks infused with
meaning, questioning the cultural and
environmental impacts of consumption
and mass production in contemporary
society. So, the next time you come across
an ordinary everyday object like a brown
paper bag, visualise how Yuken Teruya
might see it and let your imagination drift
to its many whimsical possibilities.
Written by Tahjee Moar
1. a medieval chemical philosophy having
as its aim the transmutation of base
metals into gold
al·chem·i·cal (ăl’kĕ-m´ĭ-kəl) adjective
al·chem·i·cal·ly adverb
Yeesookyung, Translated Vase – the Moon, 2008, ceramic shards, epoxy, 24k gold, 64 x 64 x 64 cm.
Courtesy the artist and GALLERY HYUNDAI, Seoul
zoe keramea
‘In all my work I deal with the
manipulation of surfaces –
they are overlain, folded, enfolded
into themselves or even tied in
knots. I try to find what surfaces
might lay beneath the ones we
see – to cut through, superimpose
and weave them together.’
– Zoe Keramea
whim·si·cal (wımzıkəl)
adjective
1. spontaneously fanciful or playful
2. given to whims; capricious
3. quaint, unusual, or fantastic
Yuken Teruya, Notice – Forest: Six Jewels, 2010,
paper shopping bag, glue, 8 x 21.9 x 20.9 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Hong Kong Arts Centre,
Hong Kong
Zoe Keramea, Dimoebius, 2009, hand-folded paper and thread,
variable dimensions up to 64 x 26 x 26 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Photograph: Nick Kitrinakis
reclaiming the streets
ROBIN RHODE
Word on the street is that Robin Rhode
is seriously cool. He takes a public space
and transforms it into another world,
taking his performative artwork to
the streets.
inside out
Liu Zhuoquan
‘I liken [my work] to a ... strategic surgical
medical practice. My aim is to use a
traditional technique but, while doing
so, [to] reveal and strip away issues of
personal, social and cultural importance.’
– Liu Zhuoquan
It can be a struggle to paint on the outside
of surfaces, let alone the inside.
The traditional Chinese folk art technique
of neihua, or ‘inside painting’, is a style of
painting used to decorate snuff bottles. A
snuff bottle is a container for powdered
medicinal tobacco (also known as snuff).
The bottles, which are small enough to
fit into the palm of the hand, became
incredibly popular and collectable items
in China in the sixteenth to eighteenth
centuries. Due to their ornate, elegantly
hand-painted designs, snuff bottles quickly
became a status symbol for the elite.
After mastering the art of ‘inside
painting’ and deciding that the size of the
snuff bottle was limited, Chinese artist
Liu Zhuoquan began to collect discarded
bottles of various shapes and sizes in
2007 for an ongoing project titled Object
Series. Liu Zhuoquan ‘inserts’ various
objects or stories into these discarded
bottles, such as plants, people, landscapes
and animals, using diluted mineral
colours and fine-angled brushes.
The result is scientific and specimenlike, enabling audiences to observe each
bottle either as an individual object or as
a collection. The painted subjects, and the
bottles themselves, become a commodity
to be collected and displayed, just as the
snuff bottle was collected centuries ago.
Liu Zhuoquan’s work, Where are you?
(2012), exhibited at the MCA, consists of
1720 glass bottles painted with segments
of snakes’ bodies. The work stems
from the artist’s childhood experience
of seeing part of a snake’s body in a
mountain crevice. Not being able to see
the head or tail of the reptile enhanced
the sense of danger. Fear and intrigue lie
in that which is unseen and unknown.
Think about the things you collect. What
will future generations think when they
see your stuff?
Written by Alana Ambados
com·mod·i·ty (kə-mŏd´ ĭ-tē)
noun
1. An article of trade or commerce
[from Old French commodité, from
Latin commoditās, meaning ‘suitability’,
‘benefit’]
spec·i·men (spĕs´ə-mən)
noun
1. An individual, item or example
regarded as typical of the group or class
to which it belongs
2. A sample of tissue, blood, etc. taken for
scientific purposes
Liu Zhuoquan, Two-headed Snake, 2011 (detail), glass
bottles, mineral pigments, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and China Art Projects, Beijing.
Photograph: Liu Zhuoquan
Growing up in South Africa, Rhode
played in its wild, undefined spaces
– spaces that were open and free
for everyone to claim. Drawing on
personal experience, Rhode uses the
initiation rituals of his secondary school
years to inform his artistic practice.
Senior students would draw candles
and bicycles onto a wall in the boy’s
bathroom and force junior students to
try and blow out the candle or to ride
the bike.
thoughtfully consider their lives,
appreciating the role that humour
plays in imaginatively engaging with
the world.
‘Without being explicitly subversive,
my art is loaded with narrative –
rhetorical, political and anarchic
impulses. My work is an attempt
to communicate a strong artistic
statement with non-conventional
and delicate gestures using transient
materials such as chalk, charcoal, and
household paint to suggest movement
within motionless objects.’ – Robin Rhode
Written by Alana Ambados
an·i·ma·tion (ăn’ə-mā´shən)
noun
1. The act, process or result of
imparting life, interest, spirit, motion
or activity
2. The art or process of preparing
animated cartoons
3. An animated cartoon
Robin Rhode, Kinderstoel, 2011, still from
doublechannel digital animation, 2:20 mins.
Courtesy the artist and White Cube, London
Exhibiting on Cockatoo Island, Rhode’s
animations from the series ‘Variants’:
Arm Chair, Zig Zag, Kinderstoel, Military
Chair and Piano Chair (2011) are also
influenced by Dutch furniture designer
and architect Gerrit Rietveld. In
these works the artist playfully and
persistently attempts to interact with
his own wall and floor drawings of
different chairs. The chairs act as props
or accomplices to the narrative that
Rhode animates while simultaneously
raising important questions about the
function of art within its social context.
This humorous yet considered overlap
of two- and three-dimensional realities
confuses the audience’s understanding
of time, space and perception, creating
a complex storyboard with narratives
that document the journey of the
drawing’s creation and erasure.
Using the language and symbols of
popular culture, Rhode provides
opportunities for viewers to
Juan Manuel
Echavarría
Alice in technoland: Daan Roosegaarde
‘For 30 years I wrote fiction, but on the
eve of my 50th birthday I felt as if I was
drowning in words. It was then that I
took a new path, through photography.
The year was 1995. Since then, I have
been investigating violence in Colombia,
my country. A political violence that
has been going on for 70 years, it was
happening when I was born and is still
going on today. My investigation, through
the camera lens, allows me to express
myself artistically using metaphors and
symbolism.’ – Juan Manuel Echavarría
Daan Roosegaarde’s sculptures have
been described as inhabiting an ‘Alice
in Technoland’ world. They are playful
works of science fiction. By imagining
the possibilities of technology beyond
everyday use and transforming them into
interactive sculpture, Roosegaarde helps
us to imagine and participate in
a futuristic world.
met·a·phor (mĕt´ə-fôr’, -fər)
noun
1. A figure of speech in which a word or
phrase that ordinarily designates one
thing is used to designate another, thus
making an implicit comparison, as in
‘a sea of troubles’
2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol
sym·bol (sĭm´bəl)
noun
1. Something that represents something
else by association, resemblance or
convention, especially a material object
used to represent something abstract
or invisible
Juan Manuel Echavarría, Silencio Chinultio, 2011,
c-print mounted on Dibond, 101.6 x 157.5 cm. Courtesy
the artist and Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York
‘I’m not interested in talking about me
and my teddy bear and my personal
emotions. I’m interested in how our
world is changing, do we want that, how
will this look, what’s the poetic side of
that, how to make people aware of those
changes … this is where the real magic is.’
– Daan Roosegaarde
Cuddling your teddy bear (if you still have
one) can make you feel good. Looking
at artwork can make you feel good, bad,
indifferent, or confused … Some artists talk
about their work being a mirror to their
emotions. Dutch artist and architect Daan
Roosegaarde is not interested in talking
about his personal emotions. His artwork
is about transforming technology to help
us experience the world in a new way, to
create interactive spaces, buildings and
cities that connect people while also
being poetic and inspiring.
Imagine that the technology behind
the screen of your ipod, ipad, Wii or
Xbox could be used to create your own
interactive artworks. Roosegaarde’s art
explores what happens when technology
jumps out of the computer screen and
becomes part of your body, the walls and
the landscape. He wants to show that
technology can be used to ‘create poetry’
(amazing technology-inspired artworks)
and be sensual and playful.
Traditional sculptures are static; they
don’t move, and usually they can’t
be touched. Interactive sculptures
are created by the artist, but they are
incomplete without the manipulation and
transformation of people’s interactions.
The interactive sculpture Dune (2007–12),
installed in the dark Dog Leg Tunnel on
Seeing
the
light
JONATHAN JONES
Indigenous Australian artist Jonathan
Jones uses light to illuminate and explore
the complex relationship between the
individual and community.
Written by Tali Zeloof
il·lu·mi·nate (ĭ-lōō´mə-nāt’)
verb, transitive
1. To provide or brighten with light
2. To make understandable; clarify
3. To enlighten intellectually or
spiritually; enable to understand
Jonathan Jones, untitled (oysters and tea cups), 2011,
oysters and tea cups, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Jonathan Jones
Written by Jayne Whitford
Daan Roosegaarde, Dune, 2007–12 (detail), hundreds of fibres, steel, microphones,
sensors, speakers, software and other media, dimensions variable.
Courtesy Studio Roosegaarde. Photograph: Studio Roosegaarde
CAL LANE
Gendered labour relegates women to
the domestic sphere. It suggests that
‘women’s work’ should occur primarily in
the home. Although Lane’s performances
take place in a shipping container that
Co-Artistic Director Gerald McMaster
affectionately calls her ‘little house on
the prairie’, the floral forms and lacelike patterns that she creates are not the
result of meticulous embroidery. Instead,
Lane subverts the representation of the
female as domestic goddess by carving
these decorative forms out of industrial
materials, a practice historically
reserved for men.
Jones often works with simple, everyday
materials, such as fluorescent light
or blue tarpaulins, which he recycles
and repurposes to create sculptural
installations imbued with complex
layers of meaning. untitled (barra) (2012)
consists of neon lights leading from one
end of a tunnel on Cockatoo Island to the
other. The lights sequentially turn on and
off, mimicking the playful movements
of longfin eels, a native and significant
species to the Gadigal people of the
Eora Nation.
and movement of passing visitors and
responds by brightening and dimming.
Welcome to the world of ‘Alice in Technoland’
Blurring
Gender Lines
Is labour gendered? Are there
occupations, trades or skills that are
traditionally masculine and others that
are feminine? Through engaging in a
physically demanding artistic practice
where she cuts floral patterns out of
metal, including wheelbarrows, shovels
and car doors, Cal Lane exposes gendered
labour as a social construction.
Drawing on his Aboriginal heritage,
Jones investigates the connections
between symbols of cultural identity
in his sculptural work untitled (oysters
and teacups) (2012). The work appears
as a large midden constructed from
oyster shells and teacups, spilling out
from and enveloping a small building on
Cockatoo Island.
Jones collaborated with his grandfather
on many of his early works. This
creative exchange broadened his
understanding of the limitations and
potential of his medium while also
providing an opportunity to learn from
his grandfather about his Aboriginal
roots. Their collaboration stimulated
Jones’s conceptual investigation into
cultural identity.
Cockatoo Island, reacts to the sounds
and motions of people walking by.
Visitors become active participants in
the artwork, having a direct influence
on its identity. This hybrid of nature and
technology is made from fibre-optic rods
that are controlled by smart technology,
which monitors the body heat, sounds
Domesticated Turf (2012), Lane’s new
site-specific work on Cockatoo Island,
involves a stenciled carpet of red sand,
together with steel-cutting performances
by the artist. Her sand installations,
which resemble domestic lace patterns,
are in a constant state of transformation.
The grains of sand could at any moment
be rearranged by the wind. In this way,
like the Japanese fog sculptor Fujiko
Nakaya, Lane collaborates with nature
to create her works. Because nature can
be temperamental, Lane accepts that her
sand installations are temporary and will
deteriorate if the wind wishes them to.
The meaning in Lane’s work generates
paradoxes. These paradoxes transform
our relationship with industrial objects,
while also encouraging us to realise that
in art, as in life, there is more than meets
the eye.
Cal Lane, Lace Tank, 2009, oxy-acetylene cut steel oil
tank, 320 x 121.9 cm. Courtesy the artist
in·stal·la·tion (ĭn’stə-lā´shən)
noun
1. An art exhibit often involving video
or moving parts where the relation
of the parts to the whole is important
to the interpretation of the piece
par·a·dox (păr´ə-dŏks’)
noun
1. a seemingly absurd or contradictory
statement that may nonetheless
be true
2. one exhibiting inexplicable or
contradictory aspects
Written by Tali Zeloof
Ann Veronica Janssens
‘I am interested in what escapes me – not in order to arrest it but in order to
experiment with the “ungraspable”. Cognition, reflexes, meanings and psychology
lie at the heart of these experimentations. By pushing back the limits of perception,
by rendering visible the invisible, these experiences act as passages from one
reality to another.’ – Ann Veronica Janssens
Ann Veronica Janssens, Blue, Red and Yellow, 2001, coloured artificial fog, mixed media, 900 x 450 x 350cm. Courtesy
the artist; Air de Paris, Paris; 1301 PE Gallery, Los Anageles; Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp; and Alfouso, Naples.
Photograph: Pascual Merce-Eall
The ‘Where’s Wally?’ of Japan
Yoshihiro Suda
Remember the days when we sat on
our bed, opened up a Where’s Wally?
book and spent hours looking for our
favourite red-and-white striped shirtwearing traveller? Martin Handford,
the creator of Where’s Wally?, published
the first book of the adventure series
in 1987. How times have changed!
Nowadays, we are probably using a
Where’s Wally? app on our iPhone,
pinching the screen to zoom in and
search for Wally and his friends.
All those years ago, Handford set us
a challenge; to open our minds and
explore what was going on in the world
around us, to discover those things
and places that would have never
occurred to us otherwise. The same can
be said of Japanese artist Yoshihiro
Suda. Suda carves highly realistic,
life-sized botanical flowers and plants
out of magnolia wood. His works Rose,
Morning Glory, Balloonflower, Leaf and
Weeds (2012) are positioned in unusual,
unsuspecting corners of the exhibition
spaces in the Museum of Contemporary
Art Australia and Cockatoo Island,
challenging audiences to look, observe
and consider these unexpected
intrusions of nature.
‘The space [of the work] is more
important to me. I carve small things,
but even those small and often
overlooked things have the potential
to change our way of seeing a space. I
think art can change our perspective
and ways of thinking. It encourages
us to see things that we otherwise
might miss.’ – Yoshihiro Suda
The pace of modern technology often
prevents us from slowing down;
we always seem to be in a rush, and
we don’t stop to smell the roses,
let alone admire the weeds. Your
challenge during the Biennale is to
go on an adventure, just like Wally:
find Suda’s works hidden among the
exhibition spaces on Cockatoo Island
and the Museum of Contemporary Art
Australia, and discover the beauty in
the everyday.
Written by Alana Ambados
bo·tan·i·cal (bə-tăn´ ĭ-kəl) also
bo·tan·ic (-tăn´ ĭk)
adjective
1. Of or relating to plants or plant life
2. Of or relating to the science of botany
Yoshihiro Suda, Rose, 2008, painted wood,
dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
Scissors.
Paper. Bliss.
SACHIKO ABE
RANDOM FACT #1: Sachiko Abe trained
in the Self-Defence Forces in Japan and
only started making art in 2004.
Japanese artist Sachiko Abe looks like
she is in a state of blissful meditation
as she cuts away at sheets of A4 paper.
Sitting cross-legged like a small child,
she has become the physical embodiment
of her name, which translates to
‘child of bliss’.
RANDOM FACT #2: Leading Japanese
artist Yoko Ono’s performance work,
Cut Piece, involved the artist sitting on
stage while members of the audience
approached her and cut away at her
clothes. Could Sachiko Abe be referencing
Ono in her own performance?
Many of us have a daily routine we
perform to connect and cope with our
ever-changing world; something that
makes us feel centred and in control.
It can be as simple as getting up and
brushing your teeth every morning or
going for a jog after school. Abe’s routine
is cutting simple sheets of paper into fine
threads that fall around her, and for the
18th Biennale of Sydney she turns this
everyday routine into art.
med·i·ta·tion (mĕd’ ĭ-tā´shən)
noun
1. A devotional exercise of, or leading
to, contemplation
‘My video expands painting as an elastic
structure in time, material and space. It
creates a space for articulating the hidden
narratives, a bridge between painting
and theatre.’ – Farideh Lashai
Lashai is considered to be one of the
most active Iranian female visual
artists, working across the mediums
of painting, sculpture, installation and
video. Lashai’s work is influenced by
many different traditions, ranging from
the representation of nature seen in the
works of seventeenth-century European
landscape painters to the conventions
of Far Eastern art. In recent work,
Lashai has projected video onto painted
landscapes, blending the two mediums to
create a constructed fictional world that
becomes a backdrop to narrative. Created
in the heat of the Arab Spring and the
Egyptian revolt, El Amal (2011) features
Charlie Chaplin in a scene from The Great
Dictator, while the face of Um Kalthoum,
the Grande Dame of Arab music, rises
over the scene, majestic as a moon. The
work is a commentary on the power
of art, its eternal character, and how it
influences the identity of nations.
Written by Felicity Giselle Çelik
Sachiko Abe, Cut Papers # 11, 2010 (installation view),
performance and installation, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and A Foundation, Liverpool
Biennial, 2010, Liverpool. Photograph: Julia Waugh
‘Where there is life, strong or weak,
long or short, large or small, coarse or
fine, near or far, visible or invisible, born
or not yet born, all should be lived with
infinite kindness and a heart to love.
Do not do harm to others because of
your own selfishness.’ – Li Hongbo
Inspired by the coloured honeycomb-like
paper balls used as festive decorations in
China, Li Hongbo’s sculptures are made
from thousands of layers of delicately
glued paper. The resulting works often
resemble carved solid forms that, when
pulled apart, take on the flexibility of a
long snaking Slinky toy.
Li Hongbo
Hongbo’s work Ocean Flowers (2012),
on display on Cockatoo Island, fuses
the harmonious with the destructive as
the artist turns guns and weapons into
blooming paper flowers, and vice versa.
As he playfully contrasts these opposing
symbols, Hongbo creates a relationship
between ideas that we see as being in
conflict with each other. He asks us to
consider the ways opposing categories
can somehow be unified – aggression
Girelal:
Dance
Alick Tipoti
Alick Tipoti was born on Badu Island in
the Torres Strait, and lives and works in
Cairns, North Queensland.
‘I believe language is the core
of all cultures in the world
today. Song, dance and the
visual arts all evolve from
the centrepiece of language.’
– Alick Tipoti
Born 1944 in Rasht, Iran, Farideh
Lashai is a contemporary artist and
writer with studios in Iran and New
York. With an artistic career spanning
over five decades, Lashai first began
exploring painting in the 1960s. Her
material influences include object
design, literature, poetry, oriental art,
abstraction, European modernism,
thirteenth-century Persian miniatures,
colour-field painting, animation and
digital media. Her work
El Amal (2011) creates a narrative
through painting and video animation.
Nature is the real silent star within
each of Farideh’s paintings, films and
installations. Her artistic interests are
located within civilisation’s unavoidable
impact on the emotional and spiritual
energy of a land.
Guns
and
Roses
Alick Tipoti, Girelal, 2011, linocut mounted on canvas,
131 x 835 cm. Courtesy the artist and the Australian Art
Print Network, Cairns. Photograph: Michael Marzik
Farideh Lashai
The contrasting characters portrayed in
El Amal (2011) convey differing views of
the land they inhabit. Um Kalthoum sings
from her heart, whereas Charlie Chaplin’s
character, Adolf Hitler, enacts his
grasping desire to rule the world. In the
final act, Chaplin’s Hitler loses his sweet
dream of world power when the globe he
is holding bursts. At the same time, the
majestic face of Um fades away, leaving
only the painting that is now charged as a
space for imaginative narrative.
Written by Tali Zeloof
The paper trail in the room morphs into a
growing sculptural form. However, Abe’s
interested more in the act of cutting, than
in the shapes the paper creates. What you
are watching in Building 101 on Cockatoo
Island is an endurance performance, in
which the artist’s body and repetitive
actions are the primary materials in her
work. The snipping sound of the scissors
is a constant reminder of the passing
of time, something that can arouse an
anxiety at odds with the seeming calm
of her pose.
An
Unlikely
Double
Act
Girelal (2011), the title of Tipoti’s
enormous linocut, translates as dance,
with the artist encapsulating in the print
the vibrant ceremonial life of his culture.
Documenting a series of epic stories told
by his Torres Strait Islander ancestors,
Tipoti shows the connection between the
Maluyligal (Torres Strait Islanders) and
their spiritual ancestors, the Muruygal.
He shows the traditional sequences of
chants and dances, bringing them to life.
Looking closely at Girelal (2011), can you
see the rich detailed patterns that make
the figures in the unfolding narrative
appear as if they are dancing?
Tipoti shows the teachings being passed
through singing and dancing from the
spirits to the elders, to the youth and
back to the spirits, which is a spiritual
teaching cycle few can understand.
Written by Tahjee Moar
Farideh Lashai, El Amal, 2011 (details), canvas painting
with projected animated images and sound,
200 x 200 cm. Courtesy the artist and Leila Heller
Gallery, New York
and peace, brutality and beauty, fear
and harmony, solidity and fragility.
By exploring the endless possibilities of
paper, Hongbo brings a new appreciation
to this everyday material.
Ocean Flowers (2012) is a comment
on the futility and devastation of
war, representing a hope for a world
without weapons.
Written by Tahjee Moar
Li Hongbo, Ocean of Flowers, 2012 (installation view),
paper, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist
Drawing on the Walls: Ricardo LanzarinI JUDY WATSON
Ricardo Lanzarini’s impressive dreamlike compositions inspire and puzzle.
Drawn in intricate detail, his masses of
bizarre and wonderful figures create
spectacular landscapes that explore
memory and the trace of the drawn line.
‘These burnt vessels are like
organic life forms
writhing in pain
trophies from a ravaged fray
lying “in state” on their glass slides
their shadows envelop and
mesmerise
haunting and compelling artefacts
they lead the viewer
beneath the water
to a deeper place of memory.’
With a contemporary approach to
drawing as installation, Lanzarini
continually reworks the surface through
layering and erasure, creating new
images from the remnants of earlier
marks. The symbolic meaning behind
Lanzarini’s array of bizarre dream-like
figures is left open to our imagination.
Lanzarini’s 2010 installation ... cómo
llegar a las masas?, which translates
as ‘... how to arrive at the masses?’,
was created within the small space
of the former Miguelete prison cell in
Montevideo, Uruguay. It explored the
madness brought on by confinement
and imprisonment. New characters
were drawn each day for over a month,
creating the feeling of a chaotic outbreak
of lunacy.
Similar to the paintings of Hieronymus
Bosch and literary themes of Franz
Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the hectic figures
of his drawings float among strange
landscapes of mushrooms, gadgets and
insects. Lanzarini listens to the radio
while he works, allowing influences
– Judy Watson
Judy Watson, burnt vessels, 2009 (installation view),
found objects, glass shelf, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane
Ricardo Lanzarini, ... cómo llegar a las masas?, 2010 (installation view), drawing on wall, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Ricardo Lanzarini
from the news and media – and a wide
array of imagery – to infiltrate his work.
Lanzarini considers his compositions to
be closer to abstraction than figuration.
If you look very closely, patterns may
be seen as they are created within the
crowds of individual characters.
Written by Felicity Giselle Çelik
draw·ing (drô´ ĭng)
noun
1. the act or an instance of drawing
2. the art of representing objects or forms on a surface chiefly by means of lines
3. a work produced by this art
It’s just fog – or is it?
FUJIKO NAKAYA
Let’s face it – Sydney is going through
a weather personality crisis. Seasons
have blurred into days where it’s sunny
in the morning, raining during lunch
and hailing by the time dinner rolls
around. Cockatoo Island is no exception.
The forecast for the island today is
looking foggy.
Fujiko Nakaya uses fog to create
her artworks. Fog. How can fog be
a legitimate material for making an
artwork? How are you meant to create,
let alone control, fog? Isn’t that Mother
Nature’s job?
Art has the unusual ability to discover
aspects of the world that reason and
logic don’t always understand. We might
not understand why Nakaya chooses to
replicate a phenomenon of weather, and
yet we just might. How many questions
is she raising about how we interact with
a space and the greater environment?
About our society’s desire to control and
manage our environment in order to
preserve or exploit it?
Nakaya exhibited another artificial fog
artwork in the 2nd Biennale of Sydney:
Recent International Forms in Art.
Consider the responses of audiences in
1976. Are these ideas still relevant today?
Nakaya’s interest in fog has developed
from its relation to our visual sense.
In a thick fog we become disorientated,
frustrated by our inability to see. In this
way, Nakaya’s sculptures activate our
other senses, compensating for our loss
of sight.
Written by Alana Ambados
Living Chasm – Cockatoo Island (2012),
Nakaya’s work for the 18th Biennale of
Sydney, is constructed from hundreds of
nozzles that release pure water vapour.
These environmental atmospheres
explore the interface between art
and technology.
im·merse (ĭ-mûrs´)
transitive verb. im·mersed,
im·mers·ing, im·mers·es
1. to cover completely in a liquid;
submerge
2. to engage wholly or deeply; absorb
Fujiko Nakaya, Foggy Forest, 1992, 814 fog nozzles,
6 pumps, 1 timer, site-specific installation,
dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.
Photograph: Shigeo Ogawa
(Shinkenchiku-sha Co. Ltd)
Subhankar Banerjee, Caribou Migration I, 2002,
(detail) from the series ‘Oil and the Caribou’,
digital chromogenic print face-mounted to Plexiglas,
218.44 x 172.72 cm. Courtesy the artist
Honoré ∂’O, Air and Inner, 2012, mixed media, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nadja Vilenne, Liège
SUBHANKAR
BANERJEE
Down to Earth
Honoré ∂’O
Belgian artist Honoré ∂’O invites
audiences to participate in active and
creative experiences with simple, downto-earth materials such as paper, bricks
and string. In his installations, audiences
become responsible for creating
and shaping their experience with
the artwork.
Inspired by the philosophy of Peter
Sloterdijk, Air and Inner (2012) is ∂’O’s
participatory installation at Pier 2/3.
It consists of white paper strips, the
ends of print rolls, suspended from
the ceiling and anchored with string
to chairs scattered around the venue.
Have you ever wanted to change the
world? Tell people about things that just
don’t seem right? Subhankar Banerjee
is an Indian-born, American artisteducator-activist who uses documentary
photography to raise awareness
about human and animal rights and
environmental issues.
Visitors are encouraged to sit on one of
the chairs in the space, adjusting the
length at which the paper hangs from the
ceiling. Rather than viewing the work
at a distance, audiences experience, and
are responsible for, the shifts of paper,
and ultimately the subtle shifts in their
own perception of the artwork and of the
surrounding space. These small shifts
encourage audiences to rethink
the way they respond to everyday
objects and spaces.
Is this a photo of ants crawling across
white stone? Or maybe the migration
path of caribou across the Arctic ice flow?
Mystery: Who is Peter Sloterdijk?
Subhankar took this photograph from
an aeroplane in the Arctic. Why? He
describes his work as being a metaphor
for the interconnectedness of everything
on the planet. How?
Written by Alana Ambados
Written by Jayne Whitford
A common thread
LEE MINGWEI AND NICHOLAS HLOBO
Artists Lee Mingwei and Nicholas Hlobo
share a common thread: they can sew.
Ideas of recovery, repair and celebration
are tied into the artistic practices of
both artists, but are realised in two very
different ways. Lee Mingwei activates the
process of recovery by repairing damaged
items of clothing, while Hlobo weaves
together seemingly disparate materials to
create something new.
‘Textiles are often able to communicate
in ways that move beyond language
and culture – if we are sensitive to
the messages they contain.’ Jessica
Hemmings, ‘Material meaning’, Wasafiri,
vol. 25, no. 3, 2010, pp. 38–46.
Gade, Ice Buddha No.1, 2006, photograph, 79 x 52 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Red Gate Gallery, Bejing
Gade
‘Divinity, nature and life itself have
been alienated and faith transformed
… a people once led by spirit are
now increasingly permeated with
material desires.’ – Gade
Gade is a Tibetan artist who lives and
works in Lhasa, Tibet. His artworks
play with elements of traditional art
while simultaneously commenting on
the viewer’s stereotypical perceptions
of Tibet with humour and satire. His
interest is in depicting real life in
contemporary Tibet, a place that is
complex and rapidly evolving. Ice Buddha
No.1 (2006) is a photograph that depicts a
Buddha carved from ice slowing melting
into the Lhasa River. What do you
think this image might be saying about
traditional life and culture in Tibet?
The Mending Project (2009) at the MCA
invites the audience to share a torn or
damaged item of their clothing with the
artist Lee Mingwei, who then ‘mends’
it using a variety of coloured threads,
while in conversation with its owner.
The coloured thread emphasises and
highlights the repair, in effect celebrating
rather than concealing the damage, as if
to say “something good was done here,
a gift was given, the fabric is even better
than before’. – Lee Mingwei
Through the use of contrasting and
recycled materials, such as ribbon,
leather, gauze and rubber, Nicholas
Hlobo employs the traditionally female
handcrafts of stitching and weaving in
his artistic practice. In works such as
Tyaphaka (2011) and Amaqabaza (2012) at
the MCA and Inkwili (2012) on Cockatoo
Island, Hlobo creates incredibly complex,
voluptuous and playful sculptural
installations that confuse the visual
codes of gender, suggesting both female
and male forms. Inkwili plays on ideas of
things that can be submerged
or can be brought above the surface.
The sculpture is placed on the slipway,
and as the tide rises the tail of the
sculpture is submerged in water.
‘I approached the sculpture as organically
as possible. The form is not meant to
resemble a specific animal or thing but
a cell that changes shape depending
on one’s perspective – a “blob” like an
amoeba, a phallic but abstract form.’
– Nicholas Hlobo
The messages Lee Mingwei and Nicholas
Hlobo seek to convey are influenced
by their very personal and specific
engagement with the material. Through
intimate dialogue and performance,
meaning and memory are created
through the reciprocal sharing of
experience that occurs between
artist and audience.
Written by Alana Ambados
re·cip·ro·cal (rĭ-sĭp´rə-kəl)
adjective
1. concerning each of two or more
persons or things
2. interchanged, given or owed to
each other
3. performed, experienced or felt
by both sides
Lee Mingwei, The Mending Project, 2009 (installation view), interactive installation, one 3-metre table, 2 wooden chairs, 400 cones of thread, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Lombard-Freid Projects, New York. Photograph: Anita Kan
EVENTS
ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Sydney’s Students Speak
Wednesdays: 1 August – 12 September
6 pm FREE
Sydney’s art students present short talks
about their favourite Biennale works. Hear
from the next generation of artists and
art historians. Meet at the entrance to the
exhibition on Lower Level 1.
Unpacking the Biennale Study Mornings
Years 10–12
Wednesday, 25 July; Thursday, 26 July;
and Tuesday, 31 July
10.30–11.30 am
RESOURCES
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
AUSTRALIA
generationext
Sunday, 12 August
6–8 pm FREE
Bookings required, see mca.com.au/
generationext
COCKATOO ISLAND
Youth Mystery Tours
Sunday, 22 July and Sunday, 26 August
2 pm FREE
Cockatoo Island
Bookings essential, contact (02) 8484 8718
or see bos18.com
Embrace the theme of the exhibition
and collaborate creatively with other
young people with live music, tasty food,
artmaking and artists.
Exclusively for ages 12–18.
Join our mystery tour with a young
or emerging celebrity guide, including
artists, actors, musicians, DJs and chefs,
for a unique tour of the exhibition on
Cockatoo Island.
Other events: For bookings and tickets,
contact (02) 9245 2484 or
[email protected]
Saturday Sketch
Saturday from 7 July
10.30 am–12 pm
FREE
HSC Study Morning: Years 11–12
Monday, 23 July and Tuesday, 24 July $
Prepare for case studies and HSC
examinations through this in-depth
study session.
Meet in Building 137, Lower Island.
Whether it is your first drawing or you
are an experienced professional, Saturday
Sketch offers a chance to engage with the
exhibition through drawing sessions.
BYO sketchbook and drawing materials.
View video interviews with Biennale artists
on the Biennale website.
See bos18.com/education-resources
Listen to artists talking about their
artworks and practice from Opening Week.
See bos18.com/education-resources
Watch artworks grow with a compilation
of time-lapse images taken during the
exhibition’s installation. bos18.com/
education-resources
Artist Packages
Download comprehensive Artist Packages,
in case study format, on selected artists
from the 18th Biennale of Sydney
Education Kit.
bos18.com/education-resources
Education Kit
Download the 18th Biennale of Sydney
Education Kit to gain insights into the
exhibitions themes, artists and artworks.
bos18.com/education-resources
Student online platform
The collaborize space is an online space
designed to allow students from across the
country share opinions and ideas, start a
dialogue with other art-focused students
and access high-calibre, click-friendly
resources. The space is monitored for your safety. biennale-student.wecollaborize.com
MAJOR GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
Produced by the Biennale of Sydney
Virginia Mitchell, Head of Public Program and Education,
Jessica Haly, Public Program and Education Coordinator,
and Todd Fuller, Education, Events and Online
Learning Coordinator
Written by Alana Ambados, Skye Gibson, Felicity Giselle
Çelik, Tahjee Moar, Jayne Whitford and Tali Zeloof.
Copyright © 2012 The Biennale of Sydney Ltd.
Copyright of all images is held by the individual artists.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other
information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
FOUNDING PARTNER
SINCE 1973