Past exhibitions
2008
dOFa08
20 June - 1 August 2008
DofA is the John Curtin Gallery's annual exhibition of work by postgraduate students from the Department of Art, Curtin University of Technology.
Presented in collaboration with the Department of Art, Curtin University of Technology.
Beth Kirkland
My research is based on the possibility that art practice can function as a site of resistance to pressures arising from the training organisation in which I work. The imperative for large organisations to become efficient and accountable can contribute to high stress levels as the pace of work quickens and staff become dissatisfied with often having to complete tasks in a superficial manner. In my re-thinking of workplace activity I embraced "mindfulness" as a way to resist to this environment. I am interested in making marks mindfully, that is, slowly and with alert concentration and focus. I explored three marks - the line, the watercolour brushstroke and the rips and powder burns made by a gun. Although simple in themselves, they are subject to the making process. Mindful practice is like a crucible, wherein irrelevancies are burned away and what is truly valuable is left behind.
Beth Kirkland, Repititions,watercolour and pigment ink on paper, 2007
Dragica Milunovic
My practice is influenced by a minimalist, process based aesthetic and its central technical concern is mark making. I explore a defined range of mark making though the investigation of its materiality, scale and colour. I work with a specifically restrictive marking methodology that is immediately evident on viewing the works.
A further objective in the paintings is to achieve an intriguing illusion of depth imbued with movement and to convey a feeling of transcendence to the viewer.
Variation in the density of mark deployed allows for interplay between the positive and negative space make by or left by each mark. Slightly uneven edges and ridges in the painted marks help to create a texturally vibrant surface. The hand-made nature of these works is essential.
Dragica Milunovic, #28, oil on canvas, 150 x 150 x 4 cm
Kuemhee Oh
Empty, Mindless space
This work aims to transform perception and experience and to synchronize the mind and body. The process of training for a synchronized mind and body is based on Zen doctrine of Buddhism as a means of meditative training and attending carefully to inner ego through meditation. This work is oriented toward searching for the essence of the universe composed of one force, comparable to the ascetic practices for examining the inner world through Zen philosophy of Buddhism.
Kuemhee Oh, Mindless Space, monofilament and ink, 2007
Mark Parfitt
My art comes from a desire to make an ordinary life more celebratory, more personalised and more fun. It singles out problems, circumstances and events that exist between home and work and goes about asking questions, planning solutions and taking action.
I keep a diary as I go along. This is where the process is visualised by photographs, drawings, writings and object making. The diary acts as a kind of project journal that records the events. It visualizes how I think and can possibly show people how I do things.
The investigation attracts attention and focuses on an ordinary situation and in doing so elaborates, decorates, renovates and parodies it. I hope for my viewers to see when an everyday, diurnal situation is amplified in such a manner, it can reveal concerns to do with endeavour, futility, significance and responsibility.
Mark Parfitt, Carlisle Buffalo, mixed media, 2007
Lynn Smith
My practical work in the past has largely deal with loss or death. Embedded into that has been the notion of desire which instigates and or perpetuates a perception of loss. The work has also involved the investigation of status, conspicuous consumption and power. These themes still underpin my new work. It is my contention that cultural reality is often concealed by rhetoric and complex social mores but becomes more visible in the domestic or personal sphere. The alpha personality wages war largely in the personal domain - a secretive, silent, sanitized battlefield for the most part devoid of blood but not of collateral damage. An assessment of the personal domain can, thus, make visible the underlying 'truths' of contemporary existence.
Lynn Smith, Tic Tac Toe - The Histnonics of Lust, Digital projection, 2008
Fong-Yeng Soon
The concept of Nothingness persists as an un-manifested and very subtle concept. Subtlety has led to a profound series of questions with, it seems, infinitely extendible implication in fields such as mathematics, theology, and philosophy. Ponderings on the implications issuing from the concept of nothingness have shaped research parameters even in engineering and physics. Science sees a perfect vacuum as a physical possibility, but technology has yet to demonstrate this. When it seems that everything has been removed from a vacuum container, there is always something let...including the space itself and the ubiquitous and irremovable vacuum energy that has been detected in Quantum physics. It is my belief that there could not be anywhere a region containing absolutely nothing. The curiosity of the Nothing has led me to investigate its profound implication.
Fong-Yeng Soon, Folded Truth, Paper, 2007
Julian Stadon
Art is primarily concerned with the representation of the human condition within its surrounding environments. SLARiPS facilitates greater investigations into this notion, through the development of a system that links all phases of reality, through creating objects that move freely through these environments.
SLARiPS (Second Life Augmented Reality in Physical Space) is the development of interactive augmented reality constructs that appear 3D in physical space when viewed through a head mounted display. The work explores the evolution and impact of networked digital environments, particularly in Second Life.
Julian Stadon, Slarips, mixed digital media, 2008
Brook Andrew: Eye to Eye
4 April - 30 May 2008
Brook Andrew, I Split Your Gaze, 1997, duraclear mounted on acrylic, ed. 3/10,
1350 x 1210 x 60 mm, courtesy of the Artist and Tolarno Galleries
Brook Andrew: Eye to Eye is an exhibition that spans the artist's practise over the past decade and features photography, neon lighting and installation. Andrew has created a powerful body of work that challenges dominant points of view regarding Indigenous people and issues of identity – who constructs history and who history excludes. The works in this exhibition speak of an unfolding or recovery of a lost history, a lost identity and a lost language.
A Monash University Museum of Art Touring exhibition.
Presenting partners are Penrith Regional Gallery & the Lewerws Bequest and John Curtin Gallery.
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Matthew Ngui: Points of View
8 February - 20 March
Matthew Ngui, Swimming; at least 8 points of view, 2007, four-channel
digital video, sound,
10:10 minutes,
installation
view,
Museum
of Contemporary Art, Sydney © the artist,
Photograph: Jenni Carter
The John Curtin Gallery presents Matthew Ngui: Points of View. Curated by Russell Storer from the Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition draws together Ngui's works from the past two decades.
Continuing his investigation of space and perception, Ngui’s drawings, installations, video works and performances fragment or transform images, objects and experiences from everyday life, calling attention to their cultural value as they move between contexts.
Exhibition organised and toured by the Museum of Contempoary Art, Sydney, Australia
Presented in partnership with the UWA Perth International Arts Festival 2008
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