In Motion Festival 2016
Feature Exhibition
Gallery One
Laura Woodward
Resonate
Artist Talk: Saturday 22 October, 3.30pm
Resonate is a exhibition of new works by Melbourne-based artist Laura Woodward. It focuses upon those subtle, nuanced movements that can be found in organisms, in humans, and in machines, resonating across and between the animate, the inanimate, and the human-made: vibrations, tremors, twitches, pulses, rhythms, and the systems that underlie these movements. Motion, the basis of all life, is present not only in the visible, tangible realm, but right down to the atomic level. It is at the heart of our action and of our inaction, and it is the way in which we understand both time and the world around us. Investigating these movements through the development of new works, Resonate seeks to draw out the ways in which these various forms – organism, animal, non-animal, human, and machine – both resonate with and differ from each other.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication in which various contributors – including the exhibiting artist, an artist-curator, an artist-theorist, a poet, an anatomist, and an artist-philosopher – respond to the above conceptual stimulus. Offering texts, drawings, photographs and poetry, the contributions will interweave and overlap, exposing further rhythms, systems and resonances between and across the several practices at play.
Above Image: Laura Woodward, Ongoing/Reverse (detail of Resonate installation, AirSpace Projects), 2016, acetal, acrylic, water, nylon hose, santoprene hose, fasteners, air fittings, motors, dimensions variable. Image by Jem Selig Freeman and courtesy of the artist.
Resonate: Catalogue Available
$20.00
An attractive catalogue, an experimentation in resonance, accompanies Laura Woodward’s exhibition. Edited by Woodward, the catalogue contains contributions from Barbara Bolt, Ryan Jefferies, William Seeley, Ryan Van Winkle and Kent Wilson who respond – in a way that is relevant to their own practices – to the evocation, the paragraph outlined above that forms the basis of her exhibition Resonate.
Biography
Laura Woodward is an artist based in Melbourne. Woodward has been exhibiting sculptural, kinetic installations for over ten years. Her current artistic research involves the creation of looped systems embodied in these sculptural installations. The system’s inherent logic drives its formal and systematic emergences, opening up the opportunity for bodily resonances and experiences forged between artwork and viewer.
Woodward’s work has been nationally recognised through prizes, grants, public commissions, solo exhibitions and significant group exhibitions. She received Australia Council New Work Grants in 2010, 2013 and 2014; won the Agendo Prize for Emerging Artists in 2009; and was awarded the Vulcan Steel Postgraduate Tutorship Award and a Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Award in 2007. In 2015 Woodward received a ‘Highly Commended’ award for the Art Gallery of NSW Studios in Paris Scholarship. Solo exhibitions include Ararat Regional Gallery, 2015; Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Southbank, 2013; and Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, St Kilda, 2010. Woodward’s practice increasingly involves the creation of large-scale sculptural works for the public realm, including her major upcoming commission Murmur for Marina Tower, Docklands.
Woodward is a lecturer in the School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts.
LAURA WOODWARD CURRICULUM VITAE
QUALIFICATIONS
2010-4
PhD. School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne. Thesis: “The
Introverted Kinetic Sculpture”.
2007-8
Master of Fine Art. (First Class Honours) School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne. Thesis: “Prosthetic Propulsion: Mechanistic Sculpture and Interactive Installation”.
2005
Bachelor of Fine Art, Honours. (First Class), Victorian College of the Arts.
2001-4
Bachelor of Fine Art, Sculpture. Victorian College of the Arts.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
Resonate. Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton.
Resonate. Airspace Projects, Marrickville, NSW.
2015
Writhe. Ararat Regional Gallery, Ararat.
2013
Introverted. Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, Southbank. 2012 Web. Incinerator Gallery, Moonee Ponds.
2011
The Saltus. Place Gallery, Richmond.
2010
Underwing. Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, St Kilda.
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
(upcoming) Synthesis. George Paton Gallery, Melbourne. Works developed through Free Radicals
Chemistry Residency, a collaboration between Bio21 Free Radicals Ins tute and VCA.
2015
Faux Fair. C3 Gallery, Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford.
A Little Something. MARS, Windsor.
2014
In Motion. Curated by Sally Clarke, AirSpace Projects, Marrickville, Sydney.
Composing Common Worlds. Curated by Kent Wilson, Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery. 2013 Luminescence. Hotel Windsor, Melbourne.
2012
Entertaining the Environment. Bus Gallery, Melbourne.
Entertaining the Environment. La Trobe Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo.
2011
Sensory Worlds. Inspace, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lorne Sculpture 2011. Lorne.
2010-1
McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin.
2009
Post. Place Gallery, Richmond.
Tips for Anxious Gardeners. Curated by Benedict Ernst. The Library Artspace, Fitzroy.
Convergent at 9 Yarra. Curated by Moth Design as part of the State of Design Fes val. South Yarra. Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Show. Curated by Nick Vickers. COFAspace, Sydney. Art Melbourne – The Studio. Royal Exhibi on Building, Carlton.
Penthouse Mouse. Curated by Natalia Radywyl. The Fun Factory, South Yarra.
2007
McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award. Curated by Penny Teale. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin.
Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Show. Curator Nick Vickers. COFAspace, Sydney.
2006
Dispace. Linden – St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts, St Kilda.
2005
The Fifth Baldessin Foundation Travelling Fellowship Exhibition. Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford. 2004
Wallara Travelling Scholarship 2004. Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Southbank.
Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition. Yering Station, Yarra Glen.
COMMISSIONS, SHORTLISTS AND PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2017
(upcoming) Permanent Public Sculpture: “Murmur”, a major animated lighting sculpture for Marina
Tower, Docklands. To be delivered in collaboration with Jem Freeman and Like Butter.
2015
Highly Commended: Art Gallery NSW Studios in Paris Residency Scholarship.
2014
Curator and Project Coordinator: “Rising: the Victoria Harbour Young Artist Initiative” – an exhibition of five to eight major outdoor public artworks from Sculpture & Spatial Practice students, VCA. In partnership with Lend Lease, City of Melbourne, Parks Victoria and Places Vic.
2013
Permanent Public Sculpture: Collaboration with Jem Freeman commissioned by Lend Lease for Hume City Council, to create a significant public sculpture for the new Craigieburn Central Shopping Centre, Craigieburn, Melbourne. The resulting work is “Voices”, a sculptural sound installation comprising seven large tubular bells that respond to viewer movements.
Curator and Project Coordinator: “Rising: the Victoria Harbour Young Artist Initiative”.
2012
Permanent Public Sculpture: Commissioned to create the Horsham Highway Entrance Sculpture. Shortlist: Lorne Sculpture Award 2011.
Curator and Project Coordinator: “Rising: the Victoria Harbour Young Artist Initiative”
2011
Co-Curator and Project Coordinator: “Victoria Harbour Young Artist Initiative”.
2010
Shortlist: 2010 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award.
Co-Curator and Project Coordinator: “Victoria Harbour Young Artist Ini a ve”.
2009
Commission Shortlist: Proposed Memorial for Fallen Fire Fighters, Burnley, nal 3 candidates.
Co-Curator and Project Coordinator: “Victoria Harbour Young Ar st Ini a ve”
2008
Residency Shortlist: Asialink Visual Arts Residency to Ssamzie Space, Seoul, South Korea.
Finalist: ANZ Visual Arts Fellowship Award.
2007
Shortlist: 2007 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award. 2005 Finalist: Dowd Founda on Scholarship.
Finalist: The Fifth Baldessin Foundation Travelling Fellowship.
2004
Finalist: Wallara Travelling Scholarship.
2003
Finalist: Lucato Peace Prize.
2002-3
Sculpture Commission: Ballarat Grammar School.
2000-1
Various Private Commissions.
AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2014
Australia Council Mid-Career Artist New Work Grant.
2013
Australia Council Mid-Career Artist New Work Grant.
2011
Recipient – Melbourne Research Scholarship (MRS) for PhD.
Artspace Studio Residency, Artspace, Sydney.
2010
Australia Council Emerging Artist New Work Grant. 2009 Winner – Agendo Prize for Emerging Artists.
2007
Winner – Vulcan Steel Postgraduate Tutorship Award.
Winner – Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists.
Recipient – Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) for Masters of Fine Art.
2003
Winner – Fini Frames Prize for Best Political Artwork, Proud.
2000
Winner – Best Three-Dimensional Work, Len Brookman Art Exhibition.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REVIEWS ON ARTWORK
2015
Stephen Haley, ‘Drawing on Movement’, Ararat Regional Art Gallery, August 2015 (exhibition
catalogue).
2013
Kent Wilson, ‘Introverted’, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, January 2013 (exhibition catalogue).
2011
Robert Nelson, ‘Thinking Along Similar Lines’, The Age, 23 November 2011 (review).
2010
Trent Walter, ‘Showcase for Emerging Talent’, Australian Art Review, Nov 2010 to Jan 2011 (review).
Liza Power, ‘Top-Shelf Sculptures Elevate Artform’, The Age, 22 November 2010 (review).
Nicholas Croggon, ‘The Lives of Things’, Place Gallery, August 2010 (exhibition catalogue).
2009
Penny Modra, ‘Tips for Anxious Gardeners’, The Age, 6 September 2009 (review).
2007
Robert Lindsay, ‘The Third Organon’, The McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award 2007 (exhibition
catalogue).
2005
Liza Power, ‘Artists Create and Live in their Own World,’ The Age, 27 September 2005.
2002
Marcella Bidinost, ‘Sculptor: Carving Out a Place in the Art World,’ The Age, 2 November 2002.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2015
Research presentation: “The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture: How it Moved” presented by invitation to PhD students in Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.
Conference paper: “Agential Relationships of Time, Matter, Movement and Experience in System- based Kinetic Sculpture (using Luc Besson’s ‘Lucy’ as a Transversal Testing Ground) presented at the conference “TransversalPractices: Matter, Ecology and Relationality, VI Conference on New Materialisms” September 2015, VCA, The University of Melbourne.
Research presentation: “The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture: How it Moved” presented by invitation at “The Outstanding Field Symposium” convened by the DDCA, VCA, March 21st 2015.
2014
Paper: Exploring Neocybernetics and New Materialisms in Contemporary Kinetic Sculptural Practice through “The Introverted Kine c Sculpture”, Studio Research Journal, Issue 2, June/July 2014.
2013
Conference paper: Neocyberne cs and New Materalisms in Contemporary Kinetic Sculptural Practice, presented as part of panel “The New Materialism in and through Sculpture and Spatial Practice”, convened by Barbara Bolt at the AAANZ “Interdiscipline” Conference, VCA, Melbourne.
Book Chapter: The Somatic in Kinetic Sculpture: from Len Lye to an Introverted Kinetic Sculpture (via Donna Haraway’s cyborg), published in “Moving Imagination – the motor dimension of imagination in the arts”, edited by Helena de Preester, published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, June 2013.
2011
Conference paper: The Somatic in Kinetic Sculpture presented at the conference “Inner Movement: the Motor Dimension of Imagination”, Faculty of Fine Arts, University College Ghent, Belgium. Conference paper: The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture presented at the “Experimental Arts Conference”, The National Institute for Experimental Arts, College of Fine Arts, Sydney.
ARTS INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
2015
Owner and Manager of Ironside Studios (ongoing since 2008).
Co-owner and Designer at Like Bu er, small produc on-based design company (ongoing since 2007).
2011
Presenter, ‘Art Chats’, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.
Presenter, ‘Art Forum Program’, Visual Art, Victoria University.
2010
Presenter, Art Forum, SouthWest TAFE, Warrnambool.
2009
Artist Assistant to Robert Owen.
2008
Board Member and Treasurer, Seventh Gallery, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
2007
Presenter, ‘Talking Sculpture: Virtual Gods and Art’, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.
2006
Artist in Residence, Caul eld Grammar School.
2001-3
Artist in Residence, Ballarat Grammar City Cite.
COLLECTIONS
McClelland Sculpture Park, ‘Wring’ on long-term loan and display. Vulcan Steel, Dandenong. Ballarat Grammar School, Wendouree. Private collec ons in South Melbourne, Carlton, Kyneton, Darlington, Castlemaine.
AirSpace Projects 2014-2017 