THE
THE
NEW
NEW
VA N G U A R D
VA N G U A R D
The New Vanguard features five brilliant artists at the forefront
of technical, cultural, and artistic development. They are not
tied together by a manifesto or a style but advance on their own
accord through the present and into the future. After all, in the
contemporary age when information is disparate and the world
is cosmopolitan, plurality is required if you want to start to make
sense of the world. So why these artists then? Why now?
A projection festival, which is arguably a twenty-first century
phenomenon, is the perfect forum to discuss the development
and innovation in the arts because its very existence embodies the
union of technology and art to create a cultural experience. Today,
the word ‘projection’ might be synonymous with cultural events,
such as the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, but the idea of
illuminating buildings with machine-made light and projected
image containing detailed colour, patterns and iconography can
be traced back far, even as far back as the Ancient Greeks. Their
temples were strategically positioned high on mountains so that
the sun light illuminated the colours, patterns, and iconography of
these divine structures, in great precision and detail, so that they
could be seen from great distances. The practice is similar. The
technology has changed.
Today, we encounter an expanded idea of projection through
technology and art all around us in contemporary culture. People
of all professions, from artists to advertisers to corporate bodies
and politicians, use projection to communicate utopian and
dystopian ideologies and cut through all the other visual noise in
our busy world. But more increasingly it is being used to express
individuality, inner thoughts, desires or emotions. The artists in
this exhibition have created artworks which are great examples
of this expanded idea of projection. They might not necessarily
look like projection artworks but they all deal with cultural ideas
of projection in one way or another, either as a practice, a source
material, or a concept.
2015
Come for the festival and stay for the unexpected; you’ll find
painting, photography, sculpture and installation, performance, and
new media, by artists Tara Cook, Nicole Breedon, Lauren Dunn,
Zoe Scoglio, and Ry David Bradley. We hope that this catalogue
might help you along the way.
10 – 19 July 2015,
6pm to 10pm each night
Curated by
Arie Rain Glorie and Yandell Walton
Artist Talk
Thursday 16th 6-7pm, followed by a
special performance by Zoe Scoglio
Performance Times
Thursday 16th 7pm- 8pm &
Sunday 19th 6pm-7pm
Seventh Gallery, 155 Gertrude Street
ZOE SCOGLIO
NICOLE BREEDON
LAUREN DUNN
RY DAV I D B R A D L E Y
TA R A CO O K
3
5
2
1. Zoe Scoglio
Water falls and other features
Mixed media installation with
performance artwork, 2014-2015
2. Nicole Breedon
Paranoid NYC (tin foil hat)
Aluminium, 2014
3. Lauren Dunn
Open
Neon with printed sticker, 2015
4. Ry David Bradly
Cyril Turner
Dye transfer on suede, 2014
1
4
5. Tara Cook
Through the glass darkly
Mixed custom made media displays, 2015
Zoe’s Scoglio’s installation Waterfalls and other features
could be described as a work that simultaneously projects
back into the past, and into the future by drawing
connections between human and geological timeframes.
She understands that we are part of a greater narrative,
and uses the idea of projection to describe the extension
outward beyond ourselves. Scoglio describes her work as
“exploring the idea that all forms are in a constant state of
transformation, and questions how the objects from our
contemporary life will become the artifacts and ruins of
tomorrow”. Using projection in innovative ways Scoglio
explores the potential of video projection as a light
source (refracted upon glass and water). At scheduled
times throughout the exhibition Scoglio herself will be
present within the installation, utilising mapped video
projection onto her body, representing different states of
becoming geological.
Nicole Breedon’s most recent body of work has been an
exploration of awkward feelings, a personal projection of
small but enduring experiences. Breedon’s work Paranoid
NYC is a solid aluminium cast of a New York Yankees
baseball cap with the illusion of being formed by hand
from kitchen tin foil. Paranoid NYC is an exploration of the
isolation and alienation often experienced when relocating
to another culture. The iconic Yankees cap is a symbol of
belonging, a representation of the love for New York City,
and worn with pride by Brooklyn gang members, wealthy
Manhattanites, celebrities, and tourists alike. The trope of
the handcrafted kitchen foil hat has developed into a type
of shorthand for a character who is paranoid or has an
unwavering belief in conspiracy theories or pseudo science.
Its careful formation into the Yankees cap represents the
ferocious pride and desire for belonging in a fabulous,
deranged and sometimes corrupt city that has real and
significant issues. She describes the work as an “allusion to
the two conflicting worlds that coexist in NYC – the haven
of intellect and culture, and it’s seedy underbelly, the one
which inspires the resigned comment ‘only in New York ’. ”
Viewed from the street through the window of Seventh
Gallery, a large illuminated yellow neon frame lures the
viewer in, an open invitation to consume the galleries
offerings. The work tittled Open by Lauren Dunn is
concerned with cultural behaviours relating to urban
desires, in particular commodity and consumption. The
neon frame speaks of orchestrated boundaries, how we as
consumers are subconsciously guided by large corporations
of what and how to consume. The bands of colour stuck
to the floor mirroring the frame represent a burger; which
is the ultimate symbol of excessive consumption and
commodification for the artist. The simplicity of Dunn’s
work invites the viewer to consider the individual elements
and how they relate to each other within the space they
inhabit. She suggests, “Bright lights and burgers and
globalisation are all related, through this work I would like
to challenge the viewer to think outside the framework
created by large corporations.”
Projection can be described as an act of reproducing on
a surface a remote image; presenting another image from
a source image. Ry David Bradley’s work operates within
image circulation and its material reproduction. He sources
images from the Internet, which are then filtered and
printed onto synthetic suede via a dye-transfer method.
The Internet is the ultimate archive of images, existing
in multiple versions, and each one is prone to alteration.
To circumvent this Bradley commits the online image to
materiality. The computer screen may be the most used
projection in day-to-day life and is referenced in the work
Cyril Turner. Here Bradley depicts a desktop screen saver
combined with gestural mark making, referencing both the
physical and virtual.
Tara Cook is interested in better understanding our
relationship with technology through artistic research,
curatorship and fine art practice. Her photographic, moving
and interactive media artworks reflect on the self and the
work of art in the digital age. Often saturated and abstract,
Tara reveals the form of digital media, making visibly
present its qualities and imperfections. With Through the
glass darkly Cook uses digital media with mixed media
materials to create a self-reflexive and self-mediated
experience that the viewer can interact with through the
simple gesture of looking. It breaks down the everyday
experience of staring at screens- pertaining a wide variety
of medias- and encourages the viewer to consider the
psychological relationship between conceiving a sense of
self and living in a media saturated society.