Unseen Ways is well and truly up and on show until January 14 (closed between December 24 and January 2). It was great to see all (well, most) of the artists all together in the same room at the opening. Not to mention of course the studio staff, and quite a number of other very interesting folks. Thanks all of you that made it along!
I wanted to put a post up drawing specific attention to the catalogue, which was designed by the very talented Tane Cavu and contains an excellent essay by Colin Rhodes. It’s been posted on the exhibition webpage. Thank you to the Macquarie University Printery for their sponsorship, which allowed us to do the print version. If anyone is interested in getting a copy, feel free to email me at otheracademies@yahoo.com.
Rhodes’ essay effectively outlines the history of specialised studios, different models that they utilise and the current state of the specialised studio sector in NSW and Australia, with specific reference to Roomies Artspace, MQE Studios and Studio ARTES (the studios participating in the exhibition).
To explain what role the essay plays in the exhibition I’m going to take a short detour. Recently on Andrew Frost’s Art Life blog Sharne Wolff wrote a piece considering Djon Mundine’s three golden rules of good curating. Read the post for the full discussion, but in short the three rules are:
- The curator is to ensure that the artist is never unexplained or misread (which Wolff equates with simply making the artist look good, but I suspect this may be an oversimplification of Mundine’s actual meaning)
- Wherever possible, the gallery hosting the exhibition should acquire one of the works
- The exhibition or event should leave a legacy of some kind (again, it appears as if Wolff might be misinterpreting Mundine’s meaning, equating ’legacy’ with simply leaving ‘proof’ of the exhibition’s occurrence. To leave proof (or evidence) is simple, but to create something that will inform future endeavours in a meaningful way is something else entirely)
To the best of my knowledge, Rhodes is the only academic writing about specialised studios in specific reference to their relationship with the mainstream art world. This particular essay presents a range of new ideas in the area, particularly through its focus on NSW and Australia. Because of this, it will be able to be used to inform future directions for specialised studios in NSW and as such, I consider it to be a key achievement of the exhibition and one of the factors that contribute to the exhibition’s fulfilment of rule 3.
Rule 2 is on its way to being fulfilled, and I’ll be sure to make another post confirming this. Rule 1 I’m not able to comment on just yet. It is not wholly for me alone to decide because it requires critical feedback from people not so closely attached to the project.
