Discussions on contemporary thought are held in Perth,
in local bars with guest speakers from Australia and overseas.
Discussions on Contemporary Thought – 2007
DIALOGUE AND DILEMMAS : CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ART IN PERTH
FORUM 1- After Art School?
Chair
Julian Goddard
Speakers
Gary Dufour (Making History) At the heart of any Art School experience and serious art making in general are questions of
identity and belonging, personal and collective explorations of diverse perspectives on art and
tradition, and the postulation of different futures. My talk will attempt to excavate some common
ground by assembling bits and pieces of random and miscellaneous Western Australian events from
the past thirty years to present a semblance of a whole.
Hannah Matthews (Looking for artists: must be talented, articulate with drive and determination (art school degree optional)) Provocative yes but why do some artists succeed along conventional grounds and other disappear into obscurity? Is it something that can
be taught at art school or is ultimately dependent on the individual's personality and capability?
Jasmin Stephens (Long Haul Learning) Recently Senior Manager, Education and Access, at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Jasmin Stephens has many years experience
as an educator in museums and galleries. From this vantage point, Jasmin will consider the increasing emphasis in spaces devoted to
contemporary art on production and reception as much as presentation and consider what institutions have to offer individuals for the long haul.
Jon Tarry (After All ?!) After All ? ! . is taken from the title of a project by artist Lawrence Weiner, a series of cubed stones the size of standard European cobble stones,
120mm cubed had been embed in the streets of a City in Poland, Bydgoscz, and others where placed adjacent to a stone and coiled rope installation I
had completed at the Red Museum the year 2000, the project 'Construction in Process'. Reading the work as an extension of my work 'Southern Cross',
(a ground map of the constellation) is pretentious, however it did prompt a consideration of the power of artwork as a continuing dialogue of ideas.
Subtle as 'After All' was in material form, most of the time the work was being walked over, spat on completely left unnoticed except for one that
was gold plated. Over time this one required 24 hour security, while the grey stone text works soon went missing, perhaps with hopes of something precious inside.
So what 'After All', of 'Life After Art School", to still ask the questions of it all.
Time, Date
6.00pm for 6.30pm, Tuesday 7th August 2007
Place
HYDE PARK HOTEL 331 Bulwer Street (corner of Fitzgerald) West Perth, WA 6005 Tel 93286166
Price
$10/$15 at door, food service available 6-9pm, bar open until late
FORUM 2- IN SEARCH OF MEDIA STATUS AND CRITICAL THOUGHT?
Chair
Julian Goddard
Speakers
John Barrett- Lennard (Struck dumb: losing one's voice and the uselessness of criticism) We are, it seems, without voice, unable to express an opinion. The art market, so reports suggest, is on fire; people
are graduating from art schools in huge numbers; and government, and the market, are supporting ever more art, yet
the considered, analytical and critical voice is growing ever more hoarse and distant. This is not just a problem of
the provincial setting, experienced only in 'the most remote city on Earth' but something experienced both in the
metropolis and other provinces alike. Not only is the amount and range of considered visual arts criticism in print
declining, but the lack of support for critical writing at any level suggests it is without value, redundant, useless.
Why might criticism be useless-and must I be struck dumb?
Marcus Canning (Grand Slam media intervention: Abandon all art now) In 1993 the KLF Foundation spent over $4,000,000 on creating a grand slam media interventionist action directed at the Turner Prize.
It got more coverage than any art event ever, it reduced Rachael Whitebread to the status of a blubbering fool. It was lots of fun.
It did not occur in Perth. Using this great moment in art hilarity as a spring board, this discussion slaps around some thoughts on the
relation between the art, media, spectacle, and boredom. Why cover it if it's a yawn anyway?
Simon Blond (The problems and anxieties of being art critic of The West Australian) Simon Blond talks about being art critic for The West Australian over a period of two years. He sees this experience as being marked
by an awkward and on occasions embarrassing compromise, writing for a paper that tries to be all things to all people and lacking the
clear identity of Eastern papers such as The Age.
Ric Spencer (Expectations and Un-Realisms: Tales from Both Sides of the Fence) "The gap between expectation and disappointment: conversations on repulsion and attraction, inclusion and exclusion. Some derivations
on the compulsive desire for attention and the salutary need for distance - colonising remarks from an artist/writer operating in a zone
of voyeuristic tendencies and nervous twitches."
Time, Date
6.00pm for 6.30pm, Tuesday 14th August 2007
Place
HYDE PARK HOTEL 331 Bulwer Street (corner of Fitzgerald) West Perth, WA 6005 Tel 93286166
Price
$10/$15 at door, food service available 6-9pm, bar open until late
FORUM 3- WHAT PRICE ART?
Chair
Julian Goddard
Speakers
Helen Morgan (Perhaps a Commercial Gallery is simply a shop) Art has more than a monetary value:
It enriches our souls and our environments.
It stretches our intellect and imagination.
It reaches out to us with a story or a feeling.
It stirs our emotions and memories.
It chronicles our history and challenges our present, past and future.
It makes us think and exchange ideas and challenges our politics and social justice.
It can engulf us with beauty and wonder and sometimes bring us to tears.
What role does the commercial gallery play? Is it simply that of a shop?
Margaret Moore (Over playing notions of Geography and Commodity in Collecting Contemporary Art) From a cultural perspective I will reflect upon the impact of Perth’s location and of established mindsets upon the promotion,
presentation and purchasing of contemporary art. Consideration will be given to how such factors might both inhibit and advantage
the collecting of contemporary art in Perth. This will involve a wider discussion of what constitutes “contemporary art collecting”
and the realities and mythologies of a contemporary art market.
Ian Bernadt (Collecting Art: pleasure, profit or peril?) 1. A general introduction into why I developed an interest in art
2. Basic principles of collecting
3. The passion and the terror
Rodney Glick (They’ll Buy Something Soon - Maybe) What Price Art? It is important Artists spend time on accurate market pricing for their artwork - so when it doesn’t sell,
they will know that if it did, they could have made some money - maybe.
Time, Date
6.00pm for 6.30pm, Tuesday 21th August 2007
Place
HYDE PARK HOTEL 331 Bulwer Street (corner of Fitzgerald) West Perth, WA 6005 Tel 93286166
Price
$10/$15 at door, food service available 6-9pm, bar open until late
FORUM 4- MAVERICKS AND STATUS QUO: THE UNDERSTANDING OF VISUAL ART
Chair
Diana Warnock
Speakers
John Stringer (Who’s Calling the Shots?) What is driving the current boom in contemporary art for record prices and escalating exhibition attendances,
and is this activity liberating or stifling public taste?
Marco Marcon (Of Curators and Other Evils) My talk will start with a brief analysis of Documenta XII and Manifesta 5. I will then discuss the relationship between the flaws
that undermined those two international exhibitions and broader problems affecting contemporary curatorial practices.
Geoff Warn (The public mother of art) If architecture is the mother of the arts, engineering could be its patriarch. So, are these good parents, setting a good example?
Helen Hewitt (Public art in Perth – sculpture or scaled up craftworks?) It is nearly twenty years since the percent for art scheme was introduced by the State Government to ensure that art should have some
greater presence within the public environment of Perth. It is timely to look back and consider the successes and the failures. At the
recent City Vision dinner in honour of Bill Warnock, Alan Dodge spoke about art and the city and made the observation that many of the
more recent public artworks in Perth lack an appropriate critical relationship with the space in which they are placed. This paper will
take up that point and look at some possible reasons for that. Then, using the example of works created by the AC4CA (Australian Centre
for Concrete Art) group, the notion of public art will be set against another idea – of [private] art in the public domain.
Oron Catts (Flying under the radar) SymbioticA is internationally renowned as a pioneering laboratory and a major centre for art and biology. SymbioticA just received
the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art. However, SymbioticA is much less recognised in Perth and the rest of
Australia than in Europe and North America. Even though we believe that SymbioticA could only happen in Perth, Perth itself seems
indifferent and the rest of Australia doesn’t feature Perth on the map.
This talk will ask whether one of the reasons for SymbioticA’s international success is due to the lack of engagement with the local community - flying under the radar. Or maybe, there is no radar in Perth to speak of (or speak to?).
Time, Date
6.00pm for 6.30pm, Tuesday 28th August 2007
Place
HYDE PARK HOTEL 331 Bulwer Street (corner of Fitzgerald) West Perth, WA 6005 Tel 93286166
Price
$10/$15 at door, food service available 6-9pm, bar open until late
