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Victoria Cooper+Doug Spowart Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Australian Camera obscuras

HOME: Our exhibition at GALLERY ON OVENS

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HOME-AGonOvens-ONLINE-SQUARE-1700

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WE NOW LIVE IN BENALLA in north-eastern Victoria, and to celebrate we held an exhibition at GALLERY on OVENS in May 2022.

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A STATEMENT ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Great writers, artists and philosophers have considered the physical, psychological, emotional and political place we call HOME. We reflect and are inspired by their work as we consider our personal perceptions of home personal within the broader human condition.

We have been artists and collaborators for over three decades. Our HOME has been: a house in a suburb or town, our car, a friends place, an artists in residence, a studio, a library, a campsite, a motel room. Whether stable or temporary the places we have inhabited – their architecture, history, social condition or collected objects have evoked our creative and questioning thoughts about perceptions of existence.

For us all these places we call HOME are spaces where we can contemplate, re-invent, conceive, originate, initiate new ideas for the future. We use the broad palette of our arts practice including – Camera obscuras, Cyanotype printing, Pinhole photography, Projections, Light painting and Nocturne light and the resolved artworks are presented as wall-images, artists books and photobooks.

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COOPER+SPOWART Home exhibition montage

COOPER+SPOWART – Home exhibition montage

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In this post we report on the exhibition and the works it contained relating to the concept of HOME …

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PREPARATION

Gallery on Ovens installation planning

Gallery on Ovens installation planning

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Selecting work and preparing work

Selecting work and preparing work

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THE INSTALL

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THE EXHIBITION

Table view of artists' books

Table view of artists’ books

Gallery on Ovens window

Gallery on Ovens window

Exhibition duo

Exhibition duo

Cyanotype wall

Cyanotype wall

Looking at books with Maggie

Looking at books with Maggie

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THE DE MOUNT

The de Install

The de Install

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DOWNLOAD A HOME” CATALOGUE – “CLICK” HERE

Catalogue Book Cover

Catalogue Book Cover

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Images and texts ©Cooper+Spowart 2022

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FOUND: A camera obscura in a storage shed box

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An image is found in a packing box

An image is found in a packing box

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So today we were planning a day of shedding in our storage shed. We donned our dust masks and glasses, and cut through the five years of dust on many boxes and began to move our precious things into protective packing boxes.

Just as we were getting into the rhythm of this challenging chore we found something amazing in one of the empty boxes…

From that moment we stopped all work…

What follows is an impromptu document of performance we made in this remarkable image discovery. Found within an ordinary box ­– in a dusty storage shed – somewhere in the rows of storage sheds where we and others store our forgotten treasures…

 

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A video featuring the performance …

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Here are some images and a video on the refinement of the image by using other boxes and a pair of gloves to mask-out the light admitting aperture to around 3cm square.

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A video revealing the storage shed packing box set-up …

 

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OTHER COOPER+SPOWART CAMERA OBSCURA POSTS:

 

A collection of camera obscura works

https://wotwedid.com/2013/10/26/camera-obscura-2000-2020-in-hotels-and-other-places/

 

A porthole camera obscura on the Spirit of Tasmania

https://wotwedid.com/2019/01/11/2018-field-studies-camera-obscura-spirit-of-tasmania-porthole/

 

A gallery camera obscura

https://wotwedid.com/2016/11/14/maud-gallery-camera-obscura-for-one-day-only/

 

Our Tarago CarCamera Obscura

https://wotwedid.com/2016/05/13/ode-to-tarago-carcamera-obscura/

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Until the next obscura reveals itself …

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BUNDANON Residency 2018 – WHY ARE WE HERE?

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WHY ARE WE – documentation of a page from the Island Book

 

WHY ARE WE … Here at Bundanon?

In 2007 we were successful applicants for a Bundanon residency that enabled is to realize a major component of our individual PhD research. However we still needed to resolve many issues raised by this work and to return our finished works to be documented in the site that they were created. So in 2009 we were granted a second residency to complete this part of our studies.

While we were deep in our research other interesting and unanswered questions arose that have haunted us since this time. Although our itinerant life in the last few years has been exciting and constantly changing, we have missed the opportunity to be in a studio and a place devoted to just working on our practice.

Now this latest residency will give us time to work again at the boundaries of our practice and create the new work that has been gestating in our minds over these few years.

See our COOPER+SPOWART website for further info. (Please note the content of this page are Adobe Flash driven presentations)See relevant aspects of our past Bundanon residencies relating to our PhD research here Victoria COOPER ThesisDoug SPOWART – Thesis.

FOLLOW OUR WORK over the next 3 weeks on our FACEBOOK Page

 

A SELECTION OF IMAGES

From artists’ books, photobooks, experimental projects, artwork documentation and our collaboration made during our 2007 & 2009 residencies.

 

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SINGLE MEN’S QUARTERS CAMERA OBSCURA

 

Documentation of the Camera Obscura image in the Single Men’s Quarters

 

PROJECTIONS

‘CLICK’ to enlarge

 

SOME IMAGES FROM DOUG’S WORK

‘CLICK’ to enlarge

 

SOME IMAGES FROM VICKY’S WORK

‘CLICK’ to enlarge

 

 

TO FOLLOW OUR ACTIVITIES OVER THE NEXT 3 WEEKS “LIKE” our FACEBOOK PAGE and in “Follow” – click “SEE FIRST”

 

FB-Follow

 

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Please join with us in this exciting project…

 

 

 

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