Category: I Spy

Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018/2019

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In January 2019, I attended the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – the largest art exhibition in India. The exhibition ran for 3 months in multiple venues throughout Fort Kochi, Kerala.

The theme for the Biennale was Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life.

Embedded in this theme was ‘inequality’ – a theme that continues to resonate around the world. The artists challenged the audience to consider, how do we create a space that creates opportunities for all?

Such a question is more relevant than ever during this COVID 19 pandemic.

The works exhibited during the Biennale were politically driven. Exploring issues around colonization, gender equality, human rights and the impact of natural disasters on the local community. This last point was particularly relevant for local communities as  Kerala was flooded through the monsoon season in 2018, many homes were lost and 433 people died. This crisis resonated through multiply works in the Biennale.

The curator of this Biennale, Anita Dube, wrote:

“If we desire a better life on this Earth — our unique and beautiful planet — we must in all humility start to reject an existence in the service of capital. Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life asks and searches for questions in the hope of dialogue.”

It is the hope that we as people can create a space for equality that crosses divides. Creating a space where people can talk and find solutions to some of the grand challenges confronting us.

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#FaceOfTheDaySG

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Image by the author, February 2019

On a recent trip to India to attend a friends’s wedding, I had a day lay over in Singapore. During my stay I visited the National Museum of Singapore to see an exhibition on Polaroid cameras that I was interested in, In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology.

During the visit I stumbled across DigiMuse Connects, which was a part of Singapore Art Week 2019. DigiMuse is a program curated by the National Museum of Singapore for creative people, to design a projects that engages technology within the cultural sector.

One particular project caught my eye was, #FaceOfTheDaySG by fashion Designer Yang Derong. The designer used Instagram as a visual diary and documented his creation of a different outfit and persona for everyday of the year on the social media platform. The project focussed on creating a visual dialogue of these personas that reflected everyday events, social issues, icons and trends with the aim of starting a conversation with the online audience. The engagement was designed to make the audience think and reflect on contemporary issues through the images they were viewing.

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Darwin-Street-Art-Festival

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September 2018 saw street artists, both local and international, head to Northern Australia to participate in the Darwin Street Art Festival. The festival, which was held on the 15-16 September, included live music, family activities and the chance to see street artists creating their murals in the heart of Darwin.  The festival turned the boring back laneways of Darwin into an urban gallery and included imagery of some of the well-known locals, Australian fauna and flora as well as a series of abstract designs. 

Andrew Bourke & Jessie Bell | Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu | 2018
Image by the author

Street art has the ability to tell a story, convey a message and liven concrete walls that are contained within our cities.  The artworks act as a vehicle to create conversations between the artist and the  audience. These conversations have always intrigued me as I find myself asking questions such as: What is the artist trying to tell me? Why have they selected this imagery? What inspires them?

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Girl Power-Review

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girlpower.png

I recently watched Girl Power, a documentary on female graffiti writers (remembering that graffiti is a sub-set of street art which I have written about here).

The film was made by Sany, a Czech graffiti writer, who wanted to create the first female graffiti writer film. The film documents Sany’s double life as a female graffiti writer: negotiating work, life, friends and family and how she balances (and sometimes doesn’t balance) this double life.

The rawness of the film narrative, including the technique and vision captured by the cameras, captures how women negotiate this subculture, through the view point of the female graffiti writers.  The audience is taken on a journey through the eyes of Sany and other female graffiti writers . Some parts are terrifying, as the women are running from  authorities (including police, security guards and transport staff), being caught, questioned and held for hours.

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#Inspiringlocals

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ELK
ELK – Father Dave – Martin Place –  June 2016 – Photograph by author

During the month of June 2016, ANZ sponsored a street art project called Inspiring Locals – which highlighted locals who are making a difference within their communities. This project was coordinated by Melbourne art consultant, Alex McCulloch.

Four street artists where selected for the project, Luke Cornish (ELK), Kaff-eine, Adnate & Stormie Mills. Each artist selected a person who they thought aligned with ANZ’s vision statement of diversity, inclusion and respect as everyday priorities, both inside the workplace and out.

The four artists where assigned walls around Sydney;

  • ELK  – Father Dave in Martin Place and conductor Dr Nicholas Milton at Chatswood;
  • Kaff-eine – LGBTI activist Katherine Hudson at Bondi Junction;
  • Adnate – Aboriginal activist Jenny Munro at Haymarket; &,
  • Stormie Mills  – retired Parramatta Eels player and community activist Nathan Hindmarsh at Parramatta.

The project is important for many reasons but here I want to discuss just three: the creation of community, knowledge production and, pure enjoyment. Continue reading “#Inspiringlocals” →

20th-Biennale-Of-Sydney

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Thanks to a work colleague, I was fortunate enough to preview the 20th Biennale of Sydney before it opened to the public. The Biennale is an international contemporary arts festival held in Sydney every two years. The title of this years Biennale is  “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed” – and it contends with the idea that we live in both a virtual and physical space and sometimes we are caught between the two.

Constantly surrounded by our phones and other devices, we are always connected to social media and the internet 24/7 in this ongoing loop of virtual/physical.

The Biennale, which is held in many different venues around Sydney – with each venue   designated as an ’embassy’ (or theme). I have picked three of my favourite works form Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), Cockatoo Island and the Museum of Contemporary (MCA).

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Cultural-Scouts-Tour-24-Feb-2016

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Will & Unknown Feb 16 Newtown
Will Coles and unknown-Newtown 2016-Photo by author

On the 24 February 2016, I headed with fellow art appreciators on a  graffiti  tour through Newtown & Enmore. The tour was hosted by the amazing Cultural Scouts, who conduct cultural tours all over Sydney.
The tour started off in the back streets of Newtown near Young Henry’s Brewery, just one street away from Enmore Road. It lasted about 2 hours, winding through the back streets and lanes of Enmore and Newtown – streets that I did not know even existed!

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