SYDNEY.- Sydney Contemporary, presented by Deutsche Bank and Carriageworks, one of Australasia’s most significant and celebrated art events on the cultural calendar, today announced over 25 Australian and international artists for their Installation Contemporary and Performance Contemporary programs. Spanning a range of mediums from painting and sculpture, sound and ceramics, through to installation and video, as well as performances, the artists will present ambitious, large-scale and interactive works across the entire Carriageworks multi-arts precinct in Redfern, Sydney for the Fair being presented from 13 to 16 September 2018.
Now approaching its fourth edition, Sydney Contemporary welcomes Installa tion Contemporary back this year as one of the significant highlights of the Fair, presenting Australian and international artists, whose innovative and often site-specific installations range from the handcrafted to the digital.
"Installation Contemporary gives artists the opportunity to look beyond the spatial limitations and commercial considerations of the fair booth," says 2018 Installation Contemporary curator Nina Miall, "to play with scale, work in more experimental or ambitious ways, or make work that responds directly to the industrial spaces of Carriageworks".
In 2018, Nina Miall has curated Installation Contemporary to present over 20 works for the program by artists including: Penelope Davis with Sea Change, 2017, MARS, an installation suspended from the ceiling like a swarm of jellyfish that evokes the precarious beauty of the ocean environment and the human impact upon it; Robert Jahnke will show Kaokao, 2017-18 a light installation of a tukutuku chevron pattern found in Maori tribal houses that signifies fortitude and virility; Abdul Abdullah will present Call me by my name, 2018, 7 tapestries suspended in a circle, displaying portraits of faces with emoji symbols addressing accusations of failure directed at younger generations by older generations; Lindy Lee will present two of her Four Innumerables works, sculptural objects that use light to create an immersive installation; Glenn Barkley has collaborated with Sydney ceramicist Mechelle Bounpraseuth and Melbourne fibre artist Louise Meuwissen to create theheartisahousewithits doorleftopen, 2018 an installation of colourful ceramic tokens.
Sydney Contemporary will present a powerful work, Jean Dubuffet's four metre high L'Incivil (1973/2014) whi ch will be brought to the Fair by Pace Gallery who represent many of the most significant international artists and estates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Most recently presented in a major outdoor sculpture exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in 2017, L’Incivil highlights the artist’s continued interest and support of art brut – “raw art” – which for Dubuffet sprang from a spontaneous and obsessive need for the artist to express himself and rely on his own language and means of expression.
Simon Ingram's recent work, Radio Painting Station in ZKM's Open Codes - Living in Digital Worlds (2017-18), was in intent on making invisible cosmic energy visible as painting. For Sydney Contemporary 2018, the artist stays with his interest in revealing the unseen, but seeks to flip the subject from cosmos to mind with the help of an EEG headset, to reveal, as painting, some of the energy it can emit.
Yhonnie Scarce investigates the British Atomic testing carried out in the Maralinga area during the 1950’s and 60’s and the effects radiation had on the local indigenous population.
Other installation highlights on the program include painted panels Gravity Response System by Ash Keating; a large-scale installation of stacked barriers with marble and goldleaf The Golden Calf, 2018 from Alex Seton; 50 ceramic Bagu figures made by 10 artists from the Girrigun Art Centre (via Sabbia Gallery) made exclusively for the Fair; a chandelier of upside down chairs and tables with fluorescent tubes by one of the world’s leading light artists Bill Culbert; multi piece site specific installation including paintings, ceramics and video by Chris Dolman; an interactive sound sculpture using timber and rocks from Awabakal country by Megan Cope which involves a performative element by invited Aboriginal artists and performers. Ronnie van Hout will show his sculpture works Pointing Figure and Smoking Figure and Jason Sims presents a sculpture that creates simple illusions of space and form, Lucas Davidson will show 6 freestanding mirrored works, Tim Silver presents several sculptural ceramic blue-marbled busts, and Ron Adams presents a large multi panel work.
In addition to the Installation Contemporary, globally-renowned artist Patricia Piccinini reimagines The Field, recently seen at her immersive survey show Curious Affection at GOMA, a special project for Sydney Contemporary. The vast installation landscape of genetically modified flowers will be redeveloped specifically for the Elston Room at Carriageworks. This will be the first time this work will be seen outside of a museum, and will give viewers the chance to immerse themselves inside the fantastical world of one of Australia’s best known artists. This installation is made possible by innovative architectural solutions company Bondor, who are pushing creative boundaries and collaborating with leading artists to realise their visions.
Deutsche Bank has also commissioned a soon-to-be-announced site-specific installation in its lounge by an Australian emerging artist. This follows the bank’s commissioning of Robyn Stacey’s camera obscura work Double Take in 2017.
Performance Contemporary will showcase bold performance pieces for this year’s Sydney Contemporary by artists including Lauren Brincat, Michaela Davies, River Lin, Julie-Anne Long and Emily Parsons-Lord. Performance Space curators Jeff Khan (Artistic Director) and Tulleah Pearce (Program Manager) have curated a program that will take place throughout Carriageworks over the four Fair days, with the greatest concentration of performative events on Opening Night on Thursday 13 September.
Emily Parsons-Lord brings excitement to the Fair with her new commission exploring the elemental connections between earth and the air in a pyrotechnic performance. Lauren Brincat’s Brava, Bravi, Brave is a site-specific response to the architecture of Carriageworks via a rhythmic duet between two drummers. In a one-on-one encounter titled Cleansing Service, Taiwanese artist River Lin invites guests to remove traces of dirt, guilt and regret in a shared act of purification. Michaela Davies investigates sonic possibilities, human limits, and the nature of agency, using electric muscle stimulation and other methods to both obstruct and extend human capabilities. Val, the Invisible can be found constantly cleaning, Fair attendees can see her throughout the art fair, in passageways and high traffic areas and Queenie, The Defender will be patiently waiting in line, rehearsing rules; both performed by Julie-Anne Long.
With many performances debuting on the Opening Night, Thursday 13th September in addition to over 80 galleries with over 300 artists from more than 32 cities across 14 countries, Sydney Contemporary is an unmissable art event for audiences and a highlight of Sydney's cultural calendar.
This year Sydney Contemporary have extended opening hours on Friday 14th September. Art Friday runs until 8pm with DJs Sidehustle, after work drinks, and ticket holders are invited to the After Party at the Bearded Tit in Redfern with DJ Charlie Villas and shows from Sydney’s drag performer and multi-threat performance artist Aaron Manhattan, and performance musicians Ms Frizz & Lux, we’ve got you covered from 8pm – midnight.
