SYDNEY.- Sydney Contemporary announced 15 Australian and international artists for their innovative and highly anticipated Installation Contemporary program being presented for the duration of the fair from 12-15 September 2019.
Now approaching its fifth edition, Sydney Contemporary welcomes Installation Contemporary back this year as one of the highlights of the Fair presenting an opportunity for audiences to view innovative, site-specific and interactive installations in the environment of Carriageworks.
Installation Contemporary has been curated by newly appointed Dr Mikala Tai, a curator, researcher, academic and the Director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Designed to exhibit large-scale artworks in a diverse range of media, Installation Contemporary responds to the unique architecture of Carriageworks and presents the viewer with an opportunity to go on a journey of discovery that indulges their imagination.
The program includes a diverse line up of artists for 2019 presenting primarily new works including Rathin Barman (Experimenter and 4A Centre for Contemporary Art), Daniel Boyd, Jacqueline Fraser and Marley Dawson (Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery), Jessica Bradford (Galerie pompom), Consuelo Cavaniglia, Nell and Reko Rennie (STATION), Movana Chen (Flowers Gallery), Gregory Hodge and Michael Lindeman (Sullivan+Strumpf), Antonia Mrljak (Curatorial+Co.), Yioryios Papayioryiou (Artereal Gallery), Joan Ross (Michael Reid) and Katie West (Dominik Mersch Gallery).
Highlight installations include:
Did you ask the river? is the debut VR work from one of Australia’s leading visual artists, Joan Ross. In the style of a first-person video game, the audience is given free rein to explore an interactive 3D extension of Ross’ vibrant, unsettling colonial landscape. Unlike many VR experiences, the audience is placed in another’s body – that of an 18th century colonial woman – and they become uncomfortably complicit in her unwitting destruction of the landscape. Developed in collaboration with Dr Josh Harle at Tactical Space Lab in Sydney, Did you ask the river? is the second Mortant Family VR Commission for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne.
Gregory Hodge’s first foray into monumental suspension painting that engulfs the viewer’s senses. Hodge has always been interested in the history of illusionistic painting from Flemish trompe-l’oeil to large scale Italian Baroque frescoes. His work Suspension Painting reaches back to these traditions by absorbing many of their painterly tropes while also working within a predominately abstract visual language.
Hong Kong based artist Movana Chen’s, ongoing piece Dreconstructing is knitted from shredded papers of old magazines. Chen explores various ways to “wear” one’s identity, to experiment and create new opportunities for different cultures to start conversations. The reconstructed paper represents wishes, and transforms the meanings of daily life, which opens up a two-way communication between body, art and everyday life.
Jacqueline Fraser’s The Making of Mississippi Grind 2017 operates as a sponge for an array of popular cultural references, casting a seductive gaze towards celebrity, rap culture and high-fashion. The installation exemplifies Fraser’s ability to create viscerally charged domains at an architectural scale.
In the large text-based sculpture titled and forming the word Thanks, Michael Lindeman focuses on the repackaging of bad debt. Crafted from clear vinyl material hand cut into a disquieting, deflating three-dimensional font, the sculpture is filled with crumpled copies of rejection letters that Lindeman has collected for the past twenty years.
In addition to Installation Contemporary, a new site-specific commission for the Fair, Tower of Power is being created by collaborative powerhouse Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro (Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery). The duo will construct a neo-medieval tower, that visitors can climb to get 360 degree views of galleries at the fair, and where they can also recharge their mobile phone! The installation is made possible by BondorPanel, who are pushing creative boundaries and collaborating with leading artists to realise their vision.
For 2019, the Fair welcomes Chinese-Australian artist Guo Jian. Best known for his satirical, erotic paintings and installations rich in cultural narrative, Guo Jian is a political activist drawing from his extraordinary life as a former soldier, and in exile. Artist Profile magazine presents this Artist Project – a new series of paintings by Guo Jian. The paintings engage with traditional Song Dynasty landscapes to interrogate the relationship between China’s ‘rubbish culture’, the disposability of celebrity and the destruction of minority cultures.
Other previously mentioned highlights include:
Performance Contemporary curated by Jeff Khan (Artistic Director) and Katie Winten (Program Producer) of Performance Space presents performance art throughout the Fair with bold works by artists including Archie Barry, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Nell, Leila El Rayes and Harry Pickering as well as Marcus Whale and Athena Thebus.
Kid Contemporary returns for 2019 offering kids of all ages an art experience to create, play and perform. Multidisciplinary artist Jason Phu presents his immersive project 'Funny dumb weird haha cardboard box mask workshop' which invites participants to create and decorate masks from cardboard boxes and markers.
New for 2019, NEXT showcases cutting edge contemporary art by emerging artists aged under 35, priced at AU$5,000 or under. This dynamic new platform provides art lovers the opportunity to discover and acquire work by the next generation of talent. FUTURE presented by Campari, also provides a platform for young galleries, presenting solo or duo exhibitions of new work.
Opening Night at Sydney Contemporary is one of the most exciting events on the cultural calendar presented on Thursday 12 September from 5-9pm at Carriageworks. The ticketed event is open to the public and offers guests an opportunity to be part of the energetic art world and to experience the full program of performances (with the exception of Archie Barry) including one night only access to Nell premiering ROCK GATE and Tony Albert’s first Sydney foray into performance with Confessions.
Australasia’s international art fair, Sydney Contemporary will show 90+ leading Australian and International galleries exhibiting the work of over 450 artists from 34 countries for its fifth edition under one roof at Carriageworks from 12 -15 September 2019.
