Five New Sydney Art Exhibitions to See in March
Leave those suede shoes; this month you're getting wet.
Five New Sydney Art Exhibitions to See in March
Leave those suede shoes; this month you're getting wet.
If there's ever a month in Sydney with no shortage of art, it's March. This is the month that's called Art Month. With that mind, these five wall-splashes, colour-dashes, veiled helmets, time capsules and ghost ships are just the tip of the iceberg.
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In an exhibition that traverses video, installation and drawing, Campbelltown Arts Centre puts long-standing friends and Perth-based artists Brendan Van Hek and Rebecca Baumann side by side. A collaborative commission (shown alongside existing works) explores a shared intent to approach colour, light, surrealism, dreams, illusions and social experiences in a decisive manner. What happens when these artists combine practices? We’re keen to see.
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Artist Deb Mansfield’s grandfather was a Hemmingway-esque sea captain and inventor, who worked for the British Navy dismantling ocean mines post WWII. In his later years he designed sea craft, including a fantastical submarine that wasn’t realised until well after his death. Mansfield herself worked as a sailor from 1996-9, and it’s these fascinating family histories that she explores in this solo exhibition at Wellington St Projects. Mansfield is interested in peripheral sites — islands, intertidal zones, space travel — as avenues for investigating the nature of boundaries and borders. For us land-locked lubbers, brace yourselves for a sea change.
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If you’re looking for an inspiring way to celebrate the International Women’s Day 40th Anniversary, head down to Sydney College of the Arts to see this variety of artistic engagements with official records, neglected artefacts, alternate documents and intergenerational passing on of memories. The exhibition features a time capsule created 10 years ago by Jane Polkinghorne and Anne Kay, who interviewed 100 Sydney-based artists in 2005 about their understanding of their art practice, a program of pioneering films made by women in the 1970s, a series of mother-daughter interviews and a day of free artist talks to book yourself into. This timely exhibition acts as a fascinating time-capsule of Australian contemporary art and is an important acknowledgement of the women who have contributed.
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Shaun Gladwell is the artist who made his name with that beautiful skate video way back in 2000, and he’s come a long way since then. His latest work is in SCAF Projects 24 and 25, which is exhibited across two sites. The first is at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) and features a major new commission: The Lacrima Chair an immersive installation exploring ideas of flight, travel and cultural transmission through sculpture and video media. The second is presented at UNSW Galleries and titled Collection+: Shaun Gladwell, a selection of existing works curated by Dr Barbara Polla and Prof. Paul Ardenne. This is a rare opportunity to see a range of work by one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists.
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This double bill is a March must-see. Contemporary performance artist Liam Benson documents and exhibits his work through photography and video, and this exhibition, Noble Savage, seeks to examine the anxieties surrounding Australian cultural identity through the lens of a “privileged white male of Anglo-Celtic heritage with a queer awareness”. Tully Arnot won last year’s inaugural NAB Private Wealth Emerging Artist Award, so is currently in high demand. In Gallery 2 you’ll find his highly anticipated solo exhibition, titled Trace Etc, which continues his exploration of the value of our relationships with non-sentient forms, and how these feed into our capacity to interact meaningfully with one another. For example, he will be exhibiting a series of solar-powered green straws that look like weird moving blades of grass in a meadow.
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