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‘Glitter is going under!’ So declared Le Corbusier in his critique of ornament. I like to imagine him emphatically banging a lectern with his fist when he says this, or maybe it’s uttered with a cool and confident voice in a smoky men’s club while sipping whisky. There’s no glitter or gilded edges in our installation; but there is flocking, felt, golden curves and ornament with no formal function.
‘Decadence’, mutters Le Corbusier.
Merryn J Trevethan’s work focuses on the uncertainty of perception, using colour to explore the complexity of vision. In this exhibition, Trevethan presents works from her Storm Series of Artist books, objects and recent paintings that distill her daily perceptions and tease out the spatial relationships found in the densely populated architectural environment, as viewed from the 12th storey of her apartment block in Singapore.
Francesca Mataraga presents floor fragment (2015), a sculptural piece and a hypothetical installation. As with other work in this series it explores colour, pattern and form through experimentation with scale, by adapting a pre-existing stripped fabric pattern to an architectural situation.
Girl Shed III is the third iteration and will be the last part to complete the sustainability garden project in the courtyard of AirSpace Projects. Girl Shed is a ramshackle free-form shed designed to provide a creative space and water catchment for the garden. Over the course of the exhibition Sarah Newall will be living onsite creating art that will change and develop the exhibiting space as well as doing daily menial tasks: cleaning, cooking, eating and gardening.
AirSpace Projects will be closed for the first week of April as a result of the Easter break and will be reopening on Friday 10 April with three exciting exhibitions:
Please see upcoming exhibitions for more details.
We have been busy behind the scenes at AirSpace Projects preparing for the expansion of our space into the indoor driveway and basement next door. It’s been a lot of hard work but we’re almost there! Frank ter Meulen of Dutch Touch did a sterling job building platforms, stairs and walls, we couldn’t have asked for a better job. Then the painting day working bee got underway. Huge thanks to James Nyugen, Veronica Habib, Veronica Shen, Ciaron Begley, Janine Bailey and George. Sally has been refining her concreting skills to fill in various gaps and has just one more coat of paint to do on the floors before it’s pretty much done.
Brenda Factor feeds the workers
There will be three new exhibition spaces to add to the main gallery: Gallery Two, The Cranny and Deep Space. The spaces vary in size and can be reserved individually or in groupings. We have already received inquiries and while we have not yet called for proposals and uploaded information to our blog, we are accepting proposals and are very happy to discuss the conditions and your ideas with you. Information coming soon on the blog!
We now also have a permanent workshop area. Li Wenmin and her Drawing Through Journey class has tested out the new workshop area and if the resulting drawings are any indication, the space is working brilliantly!
Alex Falkiner will be running her ever-popular workshops Drawing With Thread (un-embroidery) on Sunday 25 January 1.00-4.00pm and Stitching Off The Page (fancy edgings) on Saturday 31 January from 1.00-4.00pm.
For more information and bookings check eventbrite:
http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/drawing-with-thread-un-embroidery-tickets-14971832153?aff=erelexporg
This year’s exhibition program will be commencing with two exhibitions both opening on
Friday 6 February 6.00-8.00pm
Yvette Coppersmith
Chelsea Lehmann
Paul Williams
Heidi Yardley
The exhibition Iconoclasts takes the etymology of the word ‘Iconoclast’ literally as a ‘breaker of images’. Artists explore this concept individually and collaboratively with the directive to ‘break’ each other’s images, resulting in paintings that are layered, excavated and ‘Frankensteined’ in the style of exquisite corpse.
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To celebrate the opening of the new spaces we are holding a group exhibition where artists choose to respond to the term ‘openings’ in any way they see fit.
Artists include Annie Aitken, Susan Andrews, Janine Bailey, Kylie Banyard, Ciaron Begley, Robert Bennett, Anthony Cahill, Cindy Chen, Leo Coyte, Rox De Luca, Lynda Draper, Nat Gock, Veronica Habib, Yvette Hamilton, Kendal Heyes, Pollyxenia Joannou, Erin Keys, Hyun-Hee Lee, Glenn Locklee, Fleur MacDonald, Francesca Mataraga, Jacqui Mills and Mike Barnard, Sarah Newall, James Nguyen, Anie Nheu, Emma Price, Catherine Rogers, Nuha Saad, Marlene Sarroff, Kristel Smit, Helen Sturgess …
More on this exhibition coming soon …
Sarah Newall is undertaking a three-month residency from February until the end of April to transform the dilapidated courtyard at the rear of AirSpace Projects into a sustainable gardening project. Where possible she is using recycled materials and even recycling an artwork donated by Francesca Mataraga! The garden will be a work-in-progress and you are welcome to visit during openings and opening hours.
Emerging artists Yang-En Hume, Juliette Furio, Veronica Habib and Thomas Quayle collaborate to explore contemporary significations of the human fragment. The exhibition highlights the fragility of the human body and humanity’s destructive capabilities. Come along, have a drink and discuss this intriguing work with the artists.
Exhibition is open from 11.00am Friday 3 October and closes 5.00pm Saturday 18 October.
An exhibition of new work by
Curated by Kathleen Linn
5 September – 20 September 2014
At 7.00pm there will be a performance by Alison Bennett and Kate Brown who will be responding to Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen’s installation.
Creating order out of disorder is something that has fascinated artists, scholars and musicians for thousands of years across different cultures. The garden as a way of creating order and beauty in our surrounds is manifested in different ways around the world, reflecting the larger aesthetic and cultural concerns of a society. The strict lines and formalism of many European gardens contrast with Chinese and Japanese ideas that allow for meandering paths, a harmony with natural shapes, the discovery of hidden views or sparse surrounds that intend to cultivate spaces of the mind rather than living plants.
For Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen and Kristel Smits aspects of Chinese and Japanese gardens have provided a source of inspiration as well as a conceptual path of enquiry in their work. Miniature Cosmos intends to delve a little deeper into this and other aspects of these two emerging artists’ practices.
Kristel Smits, Maple Magic II
Kristel Smits’ mixed-media works on paper draw strongly on childhood experiences and personal interpretations of place. Her works in Miniature Cosmos are inspired by visits to Japanese gardens, both in the Sydney suburb of Auburn and in the Netherlands (The Hague), on her recent travels. Through a delicate and meticulous working process that she has been developing since 2007, her series of sepia-toned drawings are strongly evocative of memory while also possessing a mysterious, dream-like element. They contrast with her more highly coloured series of drawings, which take inspiration from botanical studies to create detailed renderings of individual plants, or carefully chosen garden views, set against dense Dutch woodlands. Her drawings will be exhibited alongside bonsai specimens, adding to the depth perceptions within the work.
Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen, A Drawn Out Moment (detail)
Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen’s drawings have their origins in invisible phenomena. Her works form a personal response to natural sounds such as bird calls, the distant rumble of traffic or insect sounds observed at specific times of day. Her work explores the inner line of things that have no form. Taking Japanese ink on Chinese paper as her primary working tools, her drawings can be understood as a form of abstract musical graphic notation. For the opening night of Miniature Cosmos Cindy will, for the first time, be working with two performance artists – Kate Brown and Alison Bennett. They will create a performance-based dialogue with Cindy’s ink drawings, returning the work once again to the aural realm.
Miniature Cosmos features bonsai created by Thor Beowulf of the Bonsai Design Studio in Woollahra. We welcome you to attend the two Bonsai Demonstrations occurring at Airspace Projects as part of the wider program for the exhibition.
Exhibition is open for viewing from 11.00am Friday 5 September and runs to 5.00pm Saturday 20 September.
Opening Thursday 21 August, 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Marilyn Schneider, Mega Mansion, 2012. Foam core, DVD cases, Chroma key paint, cardboard, 150 x 60 x 75 cm.
For Lifestyle Display Marilyn Schneider uses sculptural installation to examine the visual language of surfaces and logos in commercial spaces. These reconstructions critique the generic aesthetic looks and stylistic attitudes that present the viewer with a seemingly excessive display of wealth and status.
Using imagery derived from luxury trade shows, celebrity homes and high-end fashion stores, the installation investigates what the spectaculisation of the urban landscape reveals about our culture. Synthetic and industrial materials are used to create imitations that critique how different forms of artifice attempt to manipulate the subject in the public sphere.
11.00am Friday 1 August – 5.00pm Saturday 16 August 2014
Anie Nheu, Crepuscule, 2014. Oil on board, 30 x 25cm. Image Credit: AirSpace Projects
Opening tonight: 6.00 – 8.00pm, 10 Junction Street, Marrickville.
Sydney artists Anie Nheu and Jan Fieldsend work independently then collaboratively to bring together a collection of unlikely objects and materials to stunning effect. While the title Playbox holds childhood associations, this exhibition delves into adult considerations of bodies, emotions, memories and inter-cultural space. Seductive hand painted and drawn surfaces are juxtaposed against industrial and manufactured materials that carry signifiers of culture, place and history. The result is a sophisticated installation crafted with intense deliberation and intelligence.
Informed by the thoughts of the Japanese school of thought Mono-ha (Nheu) and the practice of Ikebana (Fieldsend), extensive time and attention has been paid to the arrangement of things to provide a multi-sensorial experience. Western art history has not been overlooked and references to Minimalism, the Pattern and Decoration Movement and Abstraction abound.
While there is a strong sense of play and collaboration in this installation, playmates Nheu and Fieldsend have left behind a sense of nostalgia, and an emotional residue that is unsettling but fascinating. Works titled Problem Child, Disassembled Monument for a Slow-Motion Dancer and The Tooth Fairy are all shaped and placed in such a way that that it leaves no doubt that this installation is not a consequence of child’s play.
AirSpace Projects 2014-2017 