Samuel Hodge at Alaska Projects

Overview

Much has been written about Sydney's newest ARI, Alaska Projects. Having only been around for four months (and already nominated for a SMAC Award, which must have happened within the first week of the Alaska launch date) it seems that Sydney loves to feel like it is oh-so-underground. You know, an artspace in a carpark — so effing cool. And with 400 people along to Samuel Hodge's opening last week it looks as though the people speak volumes. But then again, anywhere where you can drink and smoke and look at art and be in a carpark sounds pretty good to me. We all want to feel like we live in New York sometimes.

I may sound a little cynical and to tell you the truth, prior to visiting Alaska Projects I was. ARIs come and go but Alaska has just a touch of magic in the form of director, Sebastian Goldspink. As MCA VSO alumni (you may also remember him from here) he really has the gift of the gab and unlike most jaunts to art galleries in this city (ARI or otherwise) a visit to Alaska is met with the warm, extended hand of Seb, "Hi. Have you been to Alaska before? Do you know Sam's work? Let me talk you through the show." Which is suitably refreshing. And welcoming. And inclusive. And not at all the usual blank stare of nonchalance that you would expect from a gallery director running a space in a carpark in Kings Cross.

Anyway, if you venture down to Alaska over the next week you will find the sprawling archive of Samuel Hodge’s Euro-hued post-Vice photographs. As a commercial photographer who also sees himself as a visual artist many of the photographs are outtakes from fashion shoots and other banal made moody everyday moments. A couple are particularly striking, the rest didn’t change my life, but might change yours. Either way, I would well recommend searching out Alaska on a Sunday afternoon when the Level Two car park doubles as the backpacker car market. Expect to exit the lift and be faced with some sort of Buffy vampire lair — backpackers nestled at plastic tables, munching on rice crackers, practicing their sideways glances of 150, 000 kms. 2 bedder conversion. New tyres. 3 months rego.

Gold, Charlie, gold.

Samuel Hodge runs until Sunday 22 January. Alaska Projects is open Thurs-Fri 6-8pm and Sat-Sun 1-6pm.