Archive for the ‘Meeting People’ Category
FLOOD DONATION: ‘Toowoomba Water’ book to SLQ
Helen Cole + Doug with the book 'Toowoomba Water'
At a time when all Queenslanders were reflecting on the first anniversary of the devastating floods of January 2011 it was fitting that I was able to make a presentation of the book Toowoomba Water to the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland.
The book features a response to flooding in Toowoomba that took place on January 10th. The book was designed to be output using Australia’s premier print-on-demand supplier – AsukaBook using their Book Bound Hard Cover 10″x10″ format.
On the studio step + our 'rainforest' backyard
Water came within 20cm of our studio and a brown torrent flowed into our garden and under the house. At the bottom of our street a massive flow of water along East Creek took the lives of two people.
East Creek in flood at the bottom of Burns Street
The book makes a commentary on the flood by responding to an aspect of the event that was ‘sampled’ and then brought together to form the book – it is an unusual approach to the documentation of place. Reference for this methodology comes from the work of Marcel Duchamp‘s Paris 1919, Sol LeWitt’s colour grids and Bruce Nauman‘s L.A. Air.
The donation was accepted by Helen Cole, Senior Librarian, Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland.
SEE THE BOOK: http://www.cooperandspowart.com.au/2_PLACES/OtherBooks/Twba_Water_Flip/TwbaWater-Flip.html (Note: This link is to a Flash Flipbook that may not play on all viewing devices)
VISIT: Georgia Hutchison & Beverley Bloxham – daughter & mother artists/designers
Georgia, Beverley and Victoria with the book
We had a visit from Beverley and Georgia, we shared ideas and methods and secret knowledges on the art of simple binding for handmade books, referencing the notable texts and work of Keith Smith. Georgia showed us her submission for her degree in Bachelor of Design, Industrial Design at RMIT, which she had only recently been awarded as First Class Honours. This unique state handmade book , Wild Order was beautifully designed – its simplicity belied the complexity of the content. Georgia utilized, Riso print, to produce monochrome images, diagrams and texts: black and white some were pale shade of colour eg yellow or green. These delicate and grainy images were astutely placed with texts and diagrams to tell the narrative of the major project the Georgia produced. See www.georgiacharlotte.net
Beverley, is an artist, designer and curator of note and substantial experience you can check her work on http://www.behance.net/BFBloxham She has worked hard to establish local community arts organizations and networks and is now working with others to establishing online presence for an NGO community in India.
IAN SMITH: “On and Off the Road” in Toowoomba Regional Gallery
On Sunday January 8, Ian Smith presented an artist’s talk to accompany his exhibition On and Off The Road, a travelling exhibition from the Gold Coast Art Gallery, at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery. Attended by around 60 local and visiting artists from the McGregor Summer Schools, Smith spoke about his life and work. The follow are a few comments and observations inspired by the man and his talk.
Ian Smith is like the Australian version of one of those characters straight out of Jack Kerouac’s 1950’s trans-American crossing, On the Road. He is the kind of person who would give you a lift as a hitch-hiker and keep you amused with every kind of story you can imagine, embellished with obtuse observations of life, art and doin’ what you need to. And if the narrative about Smith can stretch that far, his art is as big and crammed full of life and insightful opinion. Just by standing before it you can have a conversation with it where it tells you its story and you will not get a word in yourself.
Smith was born a brought up in Cairns. He didn’t ‘discover and fall in love’ with north Queensland as so many artists have. He is a self-confessed ‘Tropicale snob’ and wears his regional slant on things with all the swagger of a true regional artist. Smith is a figurative painter but somehow landscape gets in the way, although these landscapes have figures and life-signs of humanity.
VIEW THE ALEX CHOMICZ VIDEO of the exhibition and the artist: Ian Smith Paintings On and Off the Road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1kZi1ZHIGw.
Ian Smith presenting an artist's talk @ the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery 8 Jan 2012
Ian Smith and crowd @ Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
Watching the Alex Chomicz video "Ian Smith Paintings On and Off the Road"
Ian and I had some connections from the past – He exhibited in my Gallery (Imagery Gallery) in Brisbane in the 1980s and we shared teaching experiences at the Queensland College of Art in the 1970s and friendship with North Queensland photographer Glen O’Malley. So he came over home to my garden for a few beers (Ian) and coffees (Vicky and I) and a chat.
Ian Smith talking
An animated Ian Smith makes his point!
BOAT and BIRD – Craig R Cole + Alister Karl : MADE Creative Space
Boat and Bird invite
A tale of two types of gallery exhibition
The gallery, the artist, the exhibition and the audience have been around for a couple of hundred years where a common expectation is that the exhibition operates as a vehicle for the selling of art. There is a commercial reality that ‘selling’ art funds the process of art-making, on the part of the artist – and staying in business and generating income through commission, for the gallerist. There has always been an anathema or disinterest in the making of art as commodity against the creative free place that artists see themselves in a community.
In the 1960s, artists rebelled against the commercial gallery structure by making art in the landscape (land artists like Robert Smithson) or making ephemeral conceptual works (Fluxus), which were not the saleable commodity like the painting in the frame. Later, performance art and video artists created art that was often unpalatable to the art purchasing (investor) clientele by the nature of both the content and the medium itself. Artists want to just do their own thing but can art exist outside the mercantile frame? And were does fit within the contemporary artists’ community?
An exhibition by Craig R. Cole and Alister Karl in Toowoomba’s MADE creative space may serve to provide some insights. Entitled Boat and Bird the exhibition is a collaboration project by the two artists that features subject content as defined by the title – boats and birds. The two artists have a creative friendship that goes back over 14 years and for much of this time they claim the subjects of boat and birds have permeated their relationship.
The MADE space is multi-roomed, with wooden floor and black and white walls and the two artists have drawn, affixed and assembled found and collected objects. There is no catalogue, no erudite didactic panels, no pretence (or perhaps – all pretence) and no ‘in your face’ message the viewer to be burdened by. Drawings are fixed to the wall, and in some cases, they have been allowed to leap from the paper onto and into the gallery wall itself. A collection of delicate feathers appears to have settled on one part of the gallery wall where its embryonic bird shape morphs into a boat sail. In a mini installation space around 20-feathered shuttlecocks sail through the air before a framed print of the game being played.
Some collaborative boat works utilise nautical themed things rescued from junk shops and car boot sales. In the context of gallery these objects take on new meanings by the interaction of the viewer. Juxtaposed in the gallery space are boat models, a photo jig-saw, consisting of a harbour full of boats, is presented as a DIY for viewers to attempt to assemble, and a set of coded nautical message flags is presented for deciphering.
In one corner a collaborative piece consisting of things like ship models a bird covered cuckoo clock, a metre or two of fishing net, steel mesh, a pair of crutches and ancient surveyors strings and ropes. The collaged objects seemed sometimes bird-like and yet at other times maybe even boatish.
In viewing the works one may take clues and cues from the art works and then connect them with personal lived experience. Sometimes there is a moment of instant delight at discovering a hidden joke or glib message. Other times there is and enjoyment of the beauty of the simple line and outline or the whimsy of the extension of the artwork into the space.
The exhibition Boat and Bird presents art at its best – free, fresh and fun with enough take away visual memories to stir further thought and reflection. Here perhaps is the ‘other’ form of the exhibition, the hors commerce one. Perhaps this form is where the true he(art) is.
WORDS+PHOTOs: Doug
Is it a boat? or Is it a bird? A collaborative installation by Cole + Karl
Birds drawing: Cole + Karl
Feathers morphing into a sail: Cole + Karl
"Float on": Cole + Karl
Boat harbor jig-saw: Cole + Karl
Birds escape from page
- Alister Karl @ opening of Boat and Bird
Craig explains the viewing alignment of boat and painting
Craig's photo of boat and painting
Craig R Cole and the author Doug R Spowart
12 December: Meetings – John Reid + Maurice O’Riordan
Vicky meets with external supervisor John Reid in our accommodations in the artists’ flat at the Australian National University’s Art School. Their meeting strategised the final refinement and structure of her PhD exegesis.
Doug meets with the editor of Art Monthly Australia Maurice O’Riordan. The office for AMA is situated in the garrett-like clocktower of the School of Art @ the Australian National University. Access is gained by climbing a narrow set of stairs that seem as if they are piled upon the boxes of past issues. My interest in meeting with Mauice is that AMA has just published my review of the 2011 Olive Cotton Photographic Award. SEE Current Issue
The stairs to the AMA office
Maurice with the latest issue of AMA
Maurice and I spoke about different aspects of the critical review of art and artists in Australia, the problems of the regional artist, the important role that journals such as AMA play in the discussion about art and practice, changes in photography as art over the last 20 years and the demise of Photofile.
Photos and words: Doug
9 December: Summer Travels
On the road to Canberra
This series of Blog posts presents a selection of WOTWEDID over a 5 day period at the beginning of our 2011 Summer Travels.
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10 December: Arriving in Canberra
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Our artist friend Liz Coates took us to an exhibition opening @ the M16 Gallery. Entitled TIMESCAPE the exhibition consisted of works by Julie Brooke, Ella Whateley & Vanessa Barbay (All visual arts PhD students from the Australian National University)
M16 Panorama : Exhibition "TIMESCAPE"
The exhibition was opened by Ruth Waller, Head of Painting @ ANU School of Art. Waller spoke of the challenge of the visual arts PhD and the special nature of the knowledge that artists have that is tuned and refined in the process of research and study.
Ruth Waller, Vicky and Liz Coates
The work on show is a testimony to the work of the artist as academic researcher. The artists’ state that the work is “An exploration of how experiences of the complex and multi-dimensional qualities of time and space may be embodied in the material process of painting.”
SEE website for details http://m16artspace.com.au/?p=635
Pictures @ an exhibition
SEE A folio pictures made @ the exhibition opening http://www.behance.net/gallery/Pictures-an-exhibition/2669661
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30 November – Year 1 Photo Assessment @ SQIT
PROFESSIONALS CRITIQUE SQIT STUDENT WORK IN FINAL ASSESSMENT
Fourteen Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE (SQIT) PhotoImaging students had their skills assessed this week by a panel of industry professionals as part of their Certificate IV assessment. SQIT PhotoImaging lecturer Doug Spowart, was thrilled about having such a high calibre of industry professionals directly involved with students. “The industry professionals review and assess the students photographic folio, and give them guidance and direction for their future in professional photography” Mr Spowart said.
Some of the team with student Leicolhn McKellar - PHOTO: John Elliott
The seven industry professionals are significant players in professional PhotoImaging statewide, and include the State president of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography and long-standing supporter of SQIT students, Jan Ramsay from Eyeon Photography in Brisbane. Other Brisbane-based photographers included Mark Shoeman, Robert Cob-croft and Andy Cross. Local photographers participating in assessment included
Beverley Lacey from The Chronicle, John Elliott, and Syd Owen of Owen’s Camera House.Robert Cobcroft, student Tracey St Johnwood, Doug Spowart and Andy Cross - PHOTO: John Elliott
The SQIT PhotoImaging team established an award 16 years ago to commemorate the Owen family’s impressive contribution to professional photography in Australia. The Syd H. Owen trophy is awarded each year to the Certificate IV in PhotoImaging student with the highest score, and also incorporates an internship with Owen’s Camera House for a period of 12 months. This year the award went to Jess Martin. The Diploma Graduating Student of the Year was awarded to Lindsey Collier with Shanea Rossiter as the Runner up. The Photobook of the Year went to Leicolhn McKellar.
“The feedback provided by industry representatives is highly regarded by students as it reflects the industry standards required for practitioners within the PhotoImaging industry.” Mr Spowart said. “Assessment is based around specific criteria including the ability of the student to create images to industry standard, as well as their readiness to enter the industry either as employees or a freelance photographer.”
The Graduation event - PHOTO Doug Spowart
The PhotoImaging student graduation took place on 30 November, with prize-winning graduates receiving membership to the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. Brisbane AIPP member Robert Cobcroft was guest speaker at the graduation event.
Robert Cobcroft presenting - PHOTO: Doug Spowart
WORDS: TAFE Press Release
26 November: Robyn Stacey “House to House” @ Jan Manton Art, Brisbane
This afternoon we attended the opening and book launch of Robyn Stacey’s latest project “House to House” at Jan Manton Art in Brisbane.
http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/exhibitions/2011/index.php?obj_id=stacey
Jan Manton introduces Dr Amanda Bell who opened the exhibition
The work on show at Jan Manton Art is but a small selection of a larger body of work that was on show earlier this year at Stills Gallery in Sydney. This was a great selection from the larger show and included the book launch of a considerable volume on the historic house project. Working to extend the perception of the curatorial selection and exhibition, Stacey has embedded narrative and playful sense of discovery in the images she created of these objects.
Victoria Cooper
Stills Gallery show: Tall Tales and True
http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/exhibitions/2011/index.php?obj_id=2011_05&nav=4
A comment by Doug Spowart
A veteran of museum and archive still life subject matter Robyn Stacey presents at this showing, 6 large-scale colour photographs. The photographs deserve and reward intense observation as each image is akin to peering through a magnifying glass where finite detail is revealed as the eye moves across the plane of view. Most photographs blend artefacts form the historical houses alongside the contemporary living subjects, usually of flora, fruit and nuts.
The images exist as tantalizing trompe-l’œil. The viewer is drawn through the photographic surface by the artist’s careful compositional placement of subject, the descriptive lighting employed, and the now uncommon experience of large format camera sharpness. Here the original visual experience of the texture, depth and space of what was carefully placed before the camera is reconstituted on the gallery wall.
Today, as growing response to the immediate digital snapshot, a movement called ‘slow photography’ is emerging taking its lead from the ‘slow’ food movement) These photographs, made as planned, considered, composed, placed, illuminated and imaged are perhaps the epitomy of the movement. David Hockney once proposed that the more time the artist takes making an artwork the more the viewer will get out of it. Robyn Stacey’s work is made with time and therefore will reward even the most intense, continued and considered observation.
Robyn and Vicky talk about the work
Photos: Doug
24 November: A Photographer’s Gathering – Nev Madsen
Neville Madsen interview
About thirty local photographers gathered at an event at the Toowoomba Cobb and Co Museum to celebrate the work of photographers from the Toowoomba Chronicle newspaper. Featured in this event organised by Cobb and Co staff member and photographer Tony Coonan was an interview with Walkley Award winning photographer Neville Madsen. The interview was conducted by local photography identity John Elliott. John posed questions about Nev’s beginnings in photography, his early experiences in Warwick under the tuteladge of John Harrison and Gordon Brown, how he feels about working for newspapers today, and the circumstances of his making the award-winning photograph.
An animated Nev answers John's questions
As a testemony to Neville’s dedication to being a documenter of his community he was not on duty on the day of the flood – via a scanner he was aware of what was happening and went to a location he thought would provide some action. He started shooting video and soon realised that what he was witnessing was a significant life threatening drama and grabbed his ‘real camera’ to capture the unfolding event.
Neville Madsen with John Elliott
Words and photos: Doug Spowart
14+15 November: Second Year Photo Assessment
On these two days Second Year Diploma of Photoimaging students from the SOuthern Queensland Institute of TAFE participated in an industry assessment of their folios and professional practice preparedness. The assessors were AIPP Queensland Division President Jan Ramsay, accompanied by Mark Schoeman, well-known photo identities Ian Poole, John Elliott and Andy Cross and local photographer Syd Owen.
Student folios from the key industry disciplines, Domestic portraiture, Commercial and Media were assessed. The assessment included work samples that would be expected from practitioners of the disciplines, business operation documents, website and online networking sites such as Linkedin, Behance Creative Portfolio and WordPress blogsites. The assessment expectations are comprehensive and represent the intended expectations of the CUV50407 Diploma in Photoimaging training package.
Ian Poole, Syd Owen, Andy Cross with student Shanea Rossiter
To see a sample of the online presence that students create see:
Lindsey Collier’s Linkedin site.
http://au.linkedin.com/pub/lindsey-collier/2b/36a/400
And Philippa Hodges’ Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/philippa-hodges/30/62b/718
NOTE: To see the full folio you may need to be signed in as a Linkedin member.
Pictures to follow
Cheers Doug
wotwedid 