Romantic Ireland Part 1

Kiera O’Toole’s exhibition “Romantic Ireland’s Dead and Gone” opened last Saturday and gave rise to a few thoughts, as did her accompanying text. Apologies for the length of this post, but it contains a few notes I promised to some of you.


Part 1 this week.

The relation between the written and literary forms of art on the one hand, and that of imagery and the visual on the other, has long been a matter of conjecture in art.

While it is common to have some text or catalogue essay accompany an exhibition, these are often merely explanatory of process and technique, or of the exhibition’s conceptual underpinnings. Frequently they contain gratuitous biography, offering an explanation for the origin of the “inspiration”, and give voice to the exhibiting artist’s self interpretation and theoretical contexturalising - however as Freud warned us, artists are not reliable in representing themselves outside their work. There are exceptions of course, Mike Parr being an example.

Kiera’s graphic images, based on bluebottles, show a refined drawing technique and feeling for materials. The organic drifting shapes are metaphors for the dispersal of the Irish people around the world.

In the exhibition Kiera also uses literary text in a powerful and evocative way. A poem by W.B.Yeats, September 1913, from which the title of the exhibition, Romantic Ireland’s Dead and Gone was taken, is presented together with the drawings, but the relationship is not one of illustration or the expression of parallel concepts, but of a concurrence of values and emotion expanding out from that passionate centre; back into the history of Ireland on the one hand, and on the other, forward into the familiar world of globalised consumer culture and (collateral) forced migration.
Kiera has managed to link Yeats’ dark and cynical view of commerce driven culture and its extinguishing of the heroic and romantic shared Irish cultural identity, with drawings based on the organic forms of bluebottles; those little drifters on the tides of chance and circumstance, who like the Irish and others before and since, have washed up and been grounded on the Australian shore.

Australia, being as it is “girt by sea”, has always been a haven for those displaced and adrift who, like the Irish, are "beyond the pale”. [“Beyond the Pale” was term for those living outside the Pale of Dublin, the fence around Dublin Castle dating from the 14th century within which the English were supposedly safe from the barbarous Irish.]

Perhaps Australia itself could be the ‘Pacific (peaceful) Solution’. 120 different nationalities were represented at the ABC last week to celebrate the diversity of Sydney culture.

'We must tolerate each other or we must tolerate the common enemy,' [Thomas Davis, quoted by John O'Leary]

The Irish are certainly not now beyond the pale in terms of literary reputation, but the question has been asked why the visual arts have been so relatively undeveloped in a nation with such a rich creative culture. Perhaps it is simply a reflection of cultural tradition, given that both (or all) forms of art spring from the poetic imagination (a common language and structuring of thought processing; a unique and recognisable blend of cognitive, perceptual and affective skills).

Could it be that language is more ‘slippery’ and elusive as a means of communication, these being useful attributes in a society, like that of Ireland, that has been in constant rebellion for so long, and that the printed text is more democratic/subversive, being both affordable, mass produced and transportable?

To quote Seamus Heaney in England’s Difficulty.
“I moved like a double agent among the big concepts……

An adept at banter, I crossed the lines with carefully enunciated passwords, manned every speech with checkpoints and reported back to nobody.”

And also from Heaney – “What ever you say, say nothing.”

Many Irish have lived in forced or self-imposed exile yet continued to engage with Irish issues through their words in a way that, in the past at least, images would not have been able to do. Indeed Joyce and Beckett were able to radically change the English literary world from ‘exile’ in France.

Romantic Ireland’s Dead and Gone opened the door for us to the power of the Irish poetic tradition without being overwhelmed by it – the connection between the images and text being almost paradoxical, given the apolitical nature of bluebottles. But the buoyant little bladders adrift in the flux and flow of their watery world, are also grounded in the physical world of pain and death by stranding; a return to the earth.

This connection with the earth, the soil, is a noticeable theme in Irish writing.
To stick with Yeats, he writes in The Municipal Gallery Revisited:

"(An image out of Spencer and the common tongue).
John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory, thought
All that we did, all that we said or sang
Must come from contact with the soil, from that
Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong…."

And Seamus Heaney, (excerpts) from Digging:

"By god, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man."

"The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it."

And in consigning “Romantic Ireland” to the earth in O’Leary’s grave, we come back to Kiera’s quote from Yeats’ September 1913.

(First stanza)
“What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?
For men were meant to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

[Ironically Yeats was later a Senator of the Irish Free State and chairman of the Commission of Coinage.]

O’Leary, was a poet and Fenian, sentenced to penal servitude by the English and then exiled to France. He returned to Ireland and died in 1907. He wrote:
“It seems a very simple thing to say that the first thing an Irishman should feel is that he is an Irishman. But, unfortunately, the matter is not so plain after all, and certainly not plain to all, for there are many men, not only born in Ireland, but whose ancestors have been there for generations, who foolishly, not to say wickedly, fancy that they are, after all, only some sort of Englishmen.” These days we might say, in agreement with Kiera’s view as I understand it, that they are some sort of Europeans or consumers of global culture.

Next week – Part 2. Some notes on the Celtic Tiger and Creative Industries.

Sensibility of Light & Fabric

Meredith Brice and Myung-Sook Chae
Monday 5 November 7:30pm Exhibition OPENING at 'Rewak' The Art Gallery, College of Fine Arts and Design, University of SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates.

A couple of artists known to many of you.
Meredith first met Myung-Sook , when she participated in the Nine Dragon Heads Symposium in Korea. Sandy James, Maumer Cajic and Meredith, as emerging artists recently graduated from the (now defunct) Fine Arts program at the Ourimbah campus, were sponsored to travel to Cheongju for the event.
It is good to see these opportunities leading to new initiatives.
Many will of you will recall Chae, Myung-Sook from the Dawn Light Symposium.

Art spaces and places

Reflecting the extensive and successful lobbying by FOPAP (Friends of the Performing Arts Precinct), background to the CSPF (Cultural Spaces and Places Framework) report presented to Council for approval focussed on a Performing Arts Centre. Those from other professional art disciplines should take some temporary comfort from the recommendations made by the consultants that any progressing of a performing Arts Centre should be part of an integrated plan including all elements of an Art and Culture Precinct.

The following report (edited) was presented to Council on the 2nd of October, 2007.

“(IR 3873107)
Directorate: Community Services and Organisation Development
Business Unit: Arts & Culture

The key finding from this stage one report is that there is broad community appeal for the development of a performing arts facility as part of a wider cultural precinct, warranting further investigation and consideration by Gosford City Council (ie. moving to stage two of the project).

Should Gosford City Council agree with this finding and proceed to stage two it is recommended that the brief for stage two (key objectives, scope of works and tasks) be revised. The rationale/reasoning for this recommendation is as follows:

• The stage two scope of works (brief) focuses on developing a business case / feasibility study for a performing arts facility in isolation. Whilst it is an important element, stage one findings identify that a performing arts facility and cultural precinct are interrelated and integral to each others development, sustainability and success.
They are not mutually exclusive and as such should not be planned in isolation from one another.

• As such the stage two scope of works should be broadened to be a holistic business case which includes all elements of the proposed cultural precinct. A suggested revised scope would include (subject to Gosford City Council agreement):

- A refined schedule of uses for all activities/elements in the cultural precinct;
- Identification and recommendations on the optimum site;
- The development of a masterplan including design layout/concept plans;
- Indicative capital costs for all elements of the masterplan, including a performing arts complex;
- Potential capital funding mix and the identification of private developer partners (joint venture arrangements);
- The optimum model for governance and management of the precinct and key
facilities.
- A business case for the public elements of the precinct – ie. those components of the precinct such as the performing arts complex owned by Gosford City Council (similar to the existing stage two scope of works).

The key object of the revised stage two scope of works would be for Gosford City Council to understand the total net costs (capital and recurrent) to Gosford City Council to deliver a masterplanned cultural precinct to:

• Achieve Gosford’s cultural objectives;
• Position Gosford as a regional capital offering a diversity of activities to a growing population; and
• Support Gosford’s wider economic and social objectives, in particular the revitalisation of the CBD.

RECOMMENDATION

(A ) That a revised scope of works in the brief for Stage 2, as outlined in the consultant report, be endorsed by Council and finalised with the Project Reference Group.

(B) That Council accept the KPMG consultancy ‘Cultural Spaces & Places Framework – Stage 1 findings’ report and proceed with Stage 2 of the project.

(C) That the revised scope of works in the brief for Stage 2 be fully integrated with any planning associated with the Gosford City Centre Plan, Waterfront Strategy, Gosford Pool, Civic Precinct and other elements considered for the establishment of a regional city and incorporate any changes critical to the seamless coordination of those projects.

(D) That Stage 2 of the Cultural Spaces & Places Framework be integrated though the management committee implementing the Gosford City Centre Plan and that the Sunset Committee be retained to provide further input as required.

(E) That Council approach State and Federal Governments to seek funding for the projects.”

The recommendation was passed with the deletion of “as required” in (D).

Artists and others with an interest in Contemporary Art in Gosford and the region are invited to a discussion about these and other issues concerning practitioners in the area, on Saturday afternoon, the 1st of December.
To manage the location, it would be appreciated if you could indicate your interest in joining the conversation via the Back Page email (see links on this site).

More information will be posted when our invited guests confirm.

Ripples in the pond

Some ripples in the pond regarding communications between Council and art stakeholders.

Minutes from Gosford Council meeting 30th October.

The following motion adopted:
NM.18 REVIEW OF THE CAROLINE BAY ARTS PRECINCT ADVISORY
COMMITTEE (IR 3934299)

Councillor: Trevor Drake

BACKGROUND

One of the major outcomes from the Visioning 2025 Project is the recognition of the role Arts and Culture has in creating a sense of place and soul for a City.

The Community placed the focus on Arts and Culture as a high priority and this is reflected in the recent support in the Cultural Places and Spaces review for the creation of a Performing Arts Centre.

At the Meeting of the Caroline Bay Arts Precinct Advisory Committee on 19 September the
Committee recognised the important role Arts and Culture will play in the revitalisation of the City Centre and hence the future role of the Advisory Committee in this strategy.

MOTION

A. Gosford City Council to have the Community Services and Organisational Development
Directorate prepare a report on the role and functions of the Art Gallery and Caroline Bay
Arts Precinct Advisory Committee taking into account in the historical function, present
functions and future functions.

B. Whether the Committee remains, disband or reforms into another advisory committee to
assist Gosford City Council in the future cultural development of Gosford City.

C. Gosford City Council to develop terms of reference for any Committee it recommends as a consequence of the review.

The motion was foreshadowed in a previous post on the Back Page but the language of the “Background” is interesting, as is the reference to the Cultural Places and Spaces review. Notable is the use of “Art Gallery and Caroline Bay Art Precinct Advisory Committee,” rather than the old "Gosford Regional Gallery Advisory Committee", which probably indicates a potential role that reflects the changing art and culture geography of Gosford.

And of particular interest is “the support in the Cultural Places and Spaces review for the creation of a Performing Arts Centre” as this is not the remit of the Advisory Committee.
In fact a motion adopting the Cultural Places and Spaces Framework Stage 1 Findings, was accepted at the October 2 Council meeting which made it clear that plans for a Performing Arts Centre should be part of an integrated Art Precinct masterplan incorporating other sectors of the Art matrix.

More on the Cultural Places and Spaces Framework is in the pipeline for Back Page.

Kiera O'Toole

This looks like one to put in the diary.

Thanks Kiera for the following text:

“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone” W.B.Yeats. September 1913.

As an immigrant to Australia, O'Toole is concerned with the repositioning of Irish Identity in a post modern culture and with issues of negotiating individual identity; the reality of migration; a sense of place and displacement of language and community. Her artwork is an emotive response to immigration and the inquiry into the (pre)conceptions of Ireland and ‘Irishness’.

“Blue bottles, in the Irish imagination, are alien to us. They exist only in exotic places / spaces. They are exquisite in their visual beauty but you can’t touch them. They drift aimlessly, unrooted, uncertain, grouping; gazing in different directions so in case of danger, some can survive. Blue Bottles are not a single organism, but made up of a number of zooids. Each zooid has a specific role and together they function as if it were an animal. These little beings remind me that we all need a safe place/space, physically, spiritually and emotionally.

As an immigrant to Australia, I am establishing new beginnings. The distance both physically and psychologically between the two countries allows me to take “a look at us as Irish people, our displacement, our living all over the world, our history of emigration, our psyche” (Alanna O Kelly). ‘My intention is not fashion sentimentality of a homeland’. (John Moriarty 2007) but to express the private and collective basic emotions common to all immigrants and express my perception of Ireland today.

The poem, September 1913 by W.B.Yeats, is a response to the Lockout of September 1913 in Dublin. Yeats was infuriated by the man who led the lockout, W. M. Martin as he also refused to support Yeats ambition of buying an art gallery in Dublin. Yeats comment in this poem, on the justification of the pursuit of money and the lack of idealism in Ireland is reminiscent of Ireland today.

“What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;”

Over the last twenty years, Ireland has experienced the ‘Celtic Tiger’. (The ‘Celtic Tiger’ is an idiom for the period of rapid economic growth in the Republic of Ireland. (1990s – 2001) During this time Ireland experienced a boom in which it was transfigured from one of Europe's poorer countries into one of its wealthiest which continues to present day.)

Many people in Ireland believe the growing consumerism is destroying Ireland’s culture. Our new economy has created such wealth and affluence that it has desensitized its people. We have, in my opinion, to a large extent, become superficial and depersonalized. Ireland of old, an enclosed, inward looking and conservative country still lies in the underbelly of Irish society. ‘Romantic Ireland is dead and gone’.

Dialogues: Women from Ireland. Katy Deepwell. Published by IB Tauris & Co LTD. P140.
Dialogue: RTE 1. Radio. ‘A tribute to John Moriarty, writer and philosopher, who died at the beginning of June.’ 7th July, 2007.

Moo Media

Final art post from the Country Fair.

Youngest entrant (18 months) wins $2 First Prize in Pre-School Children's "Other" category.

Photography and arrangement (fridge magnet backing on 'calf cradle ' panel) by Claire Berecry-Brown.

Claire considers how to spend the cash.

Mangrove Mountain Country Fair

A preview of art at tomorrows Mangrove Mountain Country Fair.

Well done Michael Thompson of Somersby School - too bad about the prize.

On the subject of winners and others. Are the portraits by children at Central Mangrove School an indication of things to come ?

Federal election 07

Continuing The Back Page practice of canvassing candidate's arts policies at election time, the following letter has been sent to candidates standing for Robertson.

Dear ........

I would like to invite you to outline, for the arts community in the Robertson Electorate, your arts and culture policy for the upcoming federal election.

In the recent state election, candidates were invited to have their arts policy posted on the Central Coast contemporary art blog, backpagefree.blogspot.com

This initiate was well received and we have been asked to do the same for the federal election.

We are interested in the overall party policy, but particularly keen to hear your comments with regard to policy in terms of local needs and priorities for art and culture.

This invitation to candidates will be posted on the website.
Responses will be posted as soon as they are received.
Visits to backpagefree.blogspot.com have been steadily increasing over the last year, but peaked during the state election this year.

Your attention to this invitation will be greatly appreciated, not only because the policies are important, but also because the courtesy shown by responding both builds a sense of community and a feeling for a candidates receptiveness to his/her constituents.

Thank you, and best wishes for the campaign.

Intellectual and animal rights

Intellectual property and animal rights

In view of the recent IPR debates, we note the post on the Gosford Times blog about American artist Rachel Berwick who taught parrots a lost language, and wonder if a breach of copyright is possible when the means of reproduction is a living organism.




On a lighter note, take elephants. (with a glass of water)

Information received about an exhibition (cancelled).

"Agency presents quasi-things. Quasi-things fall just inside or outside a category, they move from one category to another or they don't belong to any category at all... In short, things that witness hesitation in terms of classification.

On the occasion of the exhibition series "Faire un effort" of NICC at the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, agency presents quasi-things that are related to conflicts concerning authorship. Some of these conflicts lead to a lawsuit. As opposed to visitors of an art centre, who usually approach things in a subjective way, a judge is expected to make an objective judgement. For the purpose of evaluating copyright, a judge employs the division between categories such as nature and culture, evolution and creation, object and subject, collective versus individual... Many things are difficult to classify as such.

Take for example Specimen 770. This quasi-thing is part of the German TV film “Zwischen Zirkuskuppel und Manege” that was broadcasted by WRD in 1964 (see picture above). The point of conflict is the copyright of a dance of a circus elephant. The judge has to decide whether the film abused the copyright of this dance. The resulting discussion during the lawsuit questions whether the taming of an elephant can be protected by copyright of dance."
[Information from e-flux]

Elephants in Gosford, 12th October. Left front foot held in raised position while peeing © Nelli.

art and/or culture

Just in passing – a note on art and/or culture provoked by Poli-talk on such matters in election 2007 policy announcements.

“One of the problems with the new administrative reforms both on the Nordic as well as European level, which also resulted with NIFCA being closed in Finland, is that no differentiation is made between culture and arts. All is culture: sport is culture, food is culture, everything is basically culture. Maybe the only thing that is not culture is contemporary art.”

An extract from Between a Rock and a Hard Place – the Possibilities for Contemporary Art Institutions to Function as Critical Political Spaces.
By Marita Muukkonen.
Part of the Public Preparation series for the upcoming Biennale of Young Artists in Estonia, and a document that will form the basis for discussion at Market Gallery in collaboration with variant magazine.

Worth a read.

See also “I reach for my…” tagged posts on Back Page.

Burma

Back Page posts this message for those who want to act in response to recent events.


Dear friends,
Burma's generals have brought their brutal iron hand down on peaceful monks and protesters -- but in response, a massive global outcry is gathering pace. The roar of global public opinion is being heard in hundreds of protests outside Chinese and Burmese embassies, people round the world wearing the monks' color red, and on the internet-- where our petition has exploded to over 200,000 signers in just 72 hours.
People power can win this. Burma's powerful sponsor China can halt the crackdown, if it believes that its international reputation and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing depend on it. To convince the Chinese government and other key countries, Avaaz is launching a major global and Asian ad campaign on Wednesday, including full page ads in the Financial Times and other newspapers, that will deliver our message and the number of signers. We need 1 million voices to be the global roar that will get China's attention. If every one of us forwards this email to just 20 friends, we'll reach our target in the next 72 hours. Please sign the petition at the link below -if you haven't already- and forward this email to everyone you care about:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php
The pressure is working - already, there are signs of splits in the Burmese Army, as some soldiers refuse to attack their own people. The brutal top General, Than Shwe, has reportedly moved his family out of the country – he must fear his rule may crumble.
The Burmese people are showing incredible courage in the face of horror. We're broadcasting updates on our effort over the radio into Burma itself – telling the people that growing numbers of us stand with them. Let's do everything we can to help them – we have hours, not days, to do it. Please sign the petition and forward this email to at least 20 friends right now. Scroll down our petition page for details of times and events to join in the massive wave of demonstrations happening around the world at Burmese and Chinese embassies.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Paul, Pascal, Graziela, Galit, Ben, Milena and the whole Avaaz Team

More info at.

Federal Election 2007 Arts Policies

Continuing the practice started with the State election, Back Page will be covering the arts policies of the major parties and other relevant political organizations in the upcoming Federal election, with a particular focus on local candidates.

We begin with the Labor Party’s Policy and commentary on it by NAVA in their Media Release.

Summary of -
NAVA Media Release
18 September 2007

Visual Arts Positive About Labor’s Arts Policy

Today the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) expressed its positive expectations of Labor’s New Directions for the Arts policy, launched last Friday.

Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director of NAVA said, “Though the detail and financial commitments have still to be revealed, with this policy most of the main issues for our sector are on the table.”

Full text of the statement is available at NAVA web site, which also has a link to the full text of New Directions for the Arts.


Back Page Editor's notes:
The document, despite employing the planners favourite term “Vibrant” on its cover, a word made almost meaningless through overuse, does contain some interesting policy and useful perspectives.

Like Coalition rhetoric in the past, it makes a point of pushing for greater private sector investment and corporate philanthropy in the arts. This is of course easier said than achievable in the current cultural climate in Australia, and of course the Big End of Town is attracted to larger arts institutions and prestige events. We look with interest for measures to support small to medium scale art projects.
There is also a question over the future of AbaF (Australian Business Arts Foundation) under the Labor policy.

It is good to see, in the section 'Supporting Australian Artists', that there is recognition of “the arts as a significant field of endeavour, worthy of support in their own right”, as well as the arts having a purpose in shaping national identity through art production and the arts sector giving “an immeasurable, sustaining dimension to the life of the nation”.

Labor will develop ArtStart programs to assist young and emerging artists, and to harmonise current Australia Council, Centrelink and ATO rules for income earned by artists on welfare. This is welcome, but the commitment to “CONSIDER” adding “‘participation in arts projects’ to the criteria for employment and community participation in work for the dole programs where it is likely that such participation will improve a persons prospects of gaining employment or private income”, sounds like a “non-core promise”. Without the contribution of unpaid work in the arts sector, the artist-directed and run initiatives that nurture contemporary practice, and hence the whole food chain, would die. Therefore it would be a positive move to support, rather than “consider” this addition.

New Directions for the Arts states Labor’s commitment to equity of participation in and enjoyment of the arts, and in this regard emphasises “the development of arts in rural and regional Australia as well as outer suburban areas.”
It makes a commitment to examine ways to develop regional arts, and to work with other levels of government to identify local priorities.
For Gosford and the Central Coast this sounds promising, but the area’s status (not really regional, rural or outer suburban) continues to confound programs of support, even when expressed in such general terms as in the Labor policy.

'Arts Education Policy' section of the policy is good in recognising the importance for individuals of arts education beyond the curriculum categories, and of its instrumental value, but does not mention the intrinsic values of engendering the expansion of cognitive faculties and the “technique” of art as a way of knowing.
The strategy of encouraging “artist in residency” programs in schools and universities is useful.

The topic of “Creative Industries” gets considerable attention. There is recognition, at last, of the importance of this sector of the Australian economy in the global mesh, and makes clear that Labor realises that there is a lot to do to catch up internationally.
While there is considerable attention given to Digital Content and New Media, there also seems to be an understanding that these 'creative' industries are built on a necessary foundation of speculative art practice. To quote: “Creative research is central to the growth of arts and innovation, and increasingly draws across disciplines and incorporates emerging technologies.”
In the policy document there remains the usual blurring of the important differences between cultural entrepreneurship, creative industry and art (there are many who think that art is in opposition to the intentions of the others). But to the extent that the Creative Industry argument feeds art funding, it should be welcomed.

In conclusion, New Directions for the Arts, contains many welcome initiatives, and is worth reading more closely. It also has the sense of in insider’s understanding, so one can assume it was well researched in consultation with art industry folks.

Everyone will discover some shortcomings for themselves, as I did, so we look forward to Policy statements by other parties for comparison.

BACK PAGE WILL BE CONTACTING LOCAL CANDIDATES FOR A STATEMENT ON ARTS POLICY IN RELATION TO THEIR ELECTORATE.

Click Here

Flash!

Brown's Cows Art Projects have been awarded $10,000 in the recent round of the Gosford City Cultural Grants.
The grant is to conduct Click Here, a series of art activities in the Gosford Town Centre.

In this project Brown's Cows will work together with Gaff (Gosford Art Flux Forum).

Watch this space for more information about the project and activities planned.

Caroline Bay Watch 19th Sept

Caroline Bay Watch.
Highlights from the Regional Gallery Advisory Committee – 19th September.

After two years of waiting, the catalogue for the 2005 Dawn Light Symposium has been distributed. Problems with the final product have been passed on to Tim Braham for attention.

In response to a paper tabled by Neil Berecry-Brown designed to redress problems with the functioning, roles and responsibilities of the Advisory Committee, it was decided that the following motion be put to Gosford Council by Councillor Drake.

A. Gosford City Council to have the Community Services & Organisational Development directorate prepare a report on the role and function of the Art Gallery and Caroline Bay Arts Precinct Advisory Committee taking into account the historical function, present function and future function.

B. Whether the committee remain, disband or reform into another Advisory Committee to assist Gosford City Council in future cultural development of Gosford Council.

C. Gosford City Council to develop a terms of reference for any committee it recommends as a consequence of its review.

This is a draught of the motion to be put, and may be amended on reflection by the members of the Advisory Committee.

The final form of the Cultural Spaces and Places Report should be available soon, so the reformation of committees will be interesting.

Gosford Art Flux Forum

“The flux of art is a cultural and intellectual commons, and is the vital foundation for all creative engagement as well as being a playground for imaginative and critical conjuring with possibilities.”

Gosford Art Flux Forum is an initiative of Brown’s Cows Art Projects. Gaff was incorporated to provide a legal entity to facilitate the development of contemporary art within the Town Precinct of Gosford and places within the City’s ambit.

An objective of Gaff is to be a catalytic art presence in the town centre; promoting creative processes of democratic engagement in the production and presentation of socially engaged, collaborative and temporary projects for non-gallery situations where context is integral to the meaning of the work.

Gaff will also operate as a street front venue in the CBD serving as a focus for contemporary art and a locus for the presentation of art projects, the provision of information resources, and a coordination place for work in the public domain,

GAFF will conduct art research through praxis of Gosford itself as a process of contemporary art and encourage projects in which the people of Gosford can be part of the invention of “Gosford”, gaining both understanding of its emergent identity and its place in the world.

We recognise that autonomy is an essential part of the culture of effective contemporary practice and, at the same time, that art can play a role in creating the context in which it functions. GAFF will work to address its context by developing infrastructure for sustainable contemporary art practice in Gosford City through discussions and partnerships with various stakeholders, including all levels of government, artists and artists’ organizations, educational organizations and business.

Gosford Art Flux Forum understands itself as part of an international network of artist directed organizations and groups that share a number of attributes. These include a culture of open enquiry, a sometimes alternative and critical position in relation to civic and commercial art operations, and an interest in playing a catalytic and engaged role in generating an immediacy of experience in contemporary cultural and social issues.

In order to engage with critical issues and new ideas and practices in contemporary art, and to place local artists within the ambit of developments internationally, GAFF will support the development of contemporary art in Gosford by building partnerships, linkages and exchanges with other organizations beyond the region.

Gosford Art Flux Forum seeks to reinvigorate the urban ‘commons’ with imagination, the poetic, and an enjoyment and enthusiasm for contemporary art processes and practices.

GAFF has a program of activities scheduled for 2007 and is currently working on the programs for 2008 and 2009.

GAFF Secretary: leeji@pacific.net.au

Sculpture in the Vineyards

Opening event - 20th October, 2007.

Dispatch From the Front

Feed-back from the Cultural Spaces and Places Framework process.

The consultants engaged to make a report to Gosford Council gave a progress presentation to some of the “stakeholders” at the Laycock Theatre on Monday, prior to it also being made to Council today.

The general response to the presentation was very positive, with agreement that the consultants have listened well and integrated most of the community’s comments into their report. It was also clear that they have brought insights gained from other places and situations to balance the pressures from particular lobby groups who understandably are pushing their own agendas.

This “dispatch” is in no way meant as a summary of the multifaceted presentation and workshop at Laycock. The process has many phases yet to go, and while stage one in still not finished, but there were a few highlights that might interest contemporary artists.

Not surprisingly "Performance Spaces" head the list of facilities required, with specifics for a major Concert hall/Theatre of 1,000 seats with rehearsal rooms etc., and a “Black box” multi-functional space of 250 seats accommodating everything from Arthouse cinema to new media, dance, comedy and cabaret.

The next listed “Element of Gosford’s Cultural Precinct as Regional Capital for the Central Coast” is a Contemporary Art Gallery of 1,000 square metres, followed by facilities for Artists’ Studios and Workshops. At this early stage the specific functions of these spaces relative to each other and to existing facilities needs some further work, but it is gratifying, not only make it onto the radar, but to have the critical role of contemporary art presented to Council as a central part of the cultural life of the city, at its own expense.

Given the high cost of building the “Performance Spaces”, and the inevitable squabbles about the Theatre’s siting, it seems to me that it will be a long time before we see any major infrastructure projects funded for contemporary art. So life goes on - “You can stand for a long time on the side of a mountain with your mouth open waiting for a roast duck to fly in”

There will no doubt be modifications to the report before it is completed at the end of the month, and a chance for public comment, but it is shaping as a useful document with Council elections due next year.

There were other areas in the presentation including public art, residential and commercial uses and a 3,000 capacity sound shell, but the purpose of this dispatch was to keep you in the loop about contemporary art issues from a personal perspective at this interim stage, not to make a definitive report.

Cheers
Neil Berecry-brown.

Daniel Dancer video

For those who wanted to see the video Daniel Dancer made and were frustrated by the lack of information about screening location, you can check it out here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3443203277495364049&hl=en

"5 Lands Dreaming by Daniel Dancer
NSW Australia, 2007.
This short film documents a yearly event called The 5 Lands Walk
which is a 10 kilometer "walkabout" along a coastal path that knits 5
communities together via art, culture and music in a celebration of
nature at the height of the annual humpback whale migration
northward. This completely non-commercial event seeks to honor and
reconnect with the oldest culture on Earth . . . that of the
Aboriginal people of Australia which dates back 50,000 years. An Art
For the Sky humpback whale was created as the finale for this event
and involved music, dance and movement through the image at a
spectacular location."
Quote from web site.

Wind Prayer/Brides of Khan

A couple of artists, familiar with some readers, will be performing at the Ku-ring-gai Art Centre on the 17th August, 6.30 pm. Jieon Lee will be dancing, and Boyd (with Sam Golding) will be playing.

Wind Prayer is a production of
Brown's Cows Art Projects,

with support from
the Korean Culture Foundation,

Gaff
Gosford Art Flux Forum
Contemporary Art Gosford Incorporated
and
The Ku-ring-gai Art Centre

Stretegic development space 2

Update, and response to Jillian’s comment in the previous post.

The visit was a field trip by Kim Spinks in order to be shown around the Central Coast to assess the arts and culture situation.
At least that is what I could glean from her comments at an afternoon tea she had with the Regional Gallery Advisory Committee. Her intention is to write an internal report.
It seems that she spent most of her time with local government people (Wyong and Gosford Council employees) as well as holding some meetings with groups organized by Christine Bramble (Wyong Council). Contemporary art groups were not amongst those included.
The report will not be public, but will be available to local government staff.
Her take home message was that a Central Coast arts strategy will not come from ArtsNSW, but that they would support a unified, and politically backed, strategy if one could be developed in the region.
The impression I had was that ArtsNSW preferred to deal with local government as the representatives of the community. It will be interesting to see how the Councils move forward, if they do, given that they have no communicative structure with contemporary art groups at this time.

As it was, so it will be.
In contemporary art it is “D.I.Y. or Die”, as a New York group recently put it.
(Remembering the positive aspects of autonomy in this statement)

These are just my personal observations of the meeting.

The next official “Arts Futures” event will be feedback to stakeholder groups meeting, on the 6th of August, by the consultants employed to carry out the “Cultural Spaces and Places Framework” report.

Neil Berecry-Brown

Stretegic development space

There is some progress to report in the campaigns to implement strategies for developing sustainable contemporary art practice in the region.

Kim Spinks from Arts NSW will be in town on Monday in relation to the development of a regional arts strategy for the Central Coast.

However given the speed at which strategies are developed, and then maybe implemented when and if funds are available, we will continue to work at filling the space rather than watching it.

Caroline Bay Watch

The prize season is with us again!

Gosford Art Prize 2007 exhibition “the highlight of the exhibition year” (GRG copy), opening Friday the 3rd of August.
This year GRG is offering a guide to the art prize industry from the Gallery’s perspective. Explaining how to use the competition to promote, market and win, how to chose which competition to enter, and the judging processes. Unfortunately it will be held (on Tuesday 28th August) after the opening of the exhibition, but it is good to see GRG start to address some of the issues in its programming. We hope it will be more than a “how to”. Contact GRG (4325 0056) for information.
One could start with:
The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value by Jim English. (review)

Young artists at NAIDOC market. No prizes, just for fun.

Prize to GRG for committing programming to indigenous culture and reconciliation.
The NAIDOC market event on the 8th of July was fun.

Also announced from the GRG is Wamberal to Wagstaffe open studio tour scheduled for the 8th and 9th of September. In the running for art tourism/business advancement Prize.


Prize for the worst coffee.
The coffee shop at Caroline Bay must serve the worst coffee, at the highest prices and with the slowest service, anywhere on the Central Coast.

The Masque of Zero

We welcome a new era for Performance Art in Gosford with the installation of state of the art equipment by Gosford City Council.

Launched last Friday the video equipment and installation, costing $320,000, makes possible forms of practice previously associated with larger cities abroad.

Pat Naldi and Wendy Kirkup, using what now seems primitive equipment, made some ground breaking work in the UK as early as 1993, and the Surveillance Camera Players in New York (and now San Francisco, Italy, Sweden, Turkey etc.) are synonymous with the genre.

Game on.

Image – Fiona Romeo, Curator of the Science of Spying exhibition currently at the Science Museum, London.

Daniel Dancer

Daniel Dancer’s work at yesterdays 5 Lands event, prompted some extension of thoughts begun with the Watanobbi post; his is work in which the central conceptual concern is with engendering a transformative experience for participants. The aesthetics of the final production, as art, is important only so far as it gives authenticity and authority to the process.

Terrigal, June, 2007.

Making large scale interventions in the landscape as art, was pioneered by the Land/Earth artists of the 1970s, such as Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, Richard Long etc., and James Turrell, who, like Daniel Dancer, is also interested in the sky, although his Roden Crater Project is infinitely more enduring physically. (Watching video of Daniel photographing his 'drawings' from a plane, also conjured up associations with Smithson who died in similar circumstances – The Icarus myth is a recurring theme in the artists’ psyche).

Daniel Dancer’s projects are concerned with accessing insight (sky sight) through direct bodily experience, possibly reflecting his education in Child Psychology, and do not address themselves to modernist and post-modern, questioning of the of meanings of form, process and theoretical context.

Big Horn Sky, Bishop, CA 2005 - 950 Kids and Teachers.

The form of his imagery is ancient; transcultural. Like many Land Art projects, it raises questions about the phenomenology of perception, which I think have been insufficiently interrogated in contemporary practice. This situation seems to be changing however, as the advent of GoogleWorld, the ready availability of GPS technology, ubiquitous CCTV and the 'Mobile Phone That Ate the World' have opened our eyes anew (while blinding us).
Daniel asks us to understand that we need to see the “Big Picture” if we are to make decisions that will give the world a future. Working often with children, he keeps the message simple, but the cognitive principle is sophisticated – although perhaps more accessible to the imaginative young mind of children (and other playful people). It means that we must reawaken our ability to experience the world from two places at the same time – to experience the material world, earth and body, while seeing the view from above – the “sky sight”.

In April, 2007, the Community Independent School in Pittsboro, North Carolina formed this nearly extinct bird in a pasture near their school with 100 participants and lots of clothes.

This reminds me of what has been told to me about how aboriginal people always live in a geography that is simultaneously the material world, and a “Big Picture” of story and myth by which to “make decisions that will give the world a future".
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
But perhaps this intelligence is an ability we are born with, and sometimes lose, and rather than focusing on surviving the dissonance we could think of a creative synthesis. This seems to me the paradigm Daniel is working with.
The Art for the Sky projects each produce a video for presentation and so live on as representation. They do not critique the Society of the Spectacle as put forward by Debord, although they want to give primacy to the immediate experience – perhaps it is impossible to avoid the S.O.the S. However to some degree it could be argued that many of the threats to the environment that Daniel Dancer seeks to change by resurrecting an holistic ‘living with the world’ are contributed to, if not largely caused by, the alienated, consumer driven S.O.S.
Any ambiguity of the position does not diminish the contribution he makes, anymore than the commercial compromises to the Burning Man event completely negate the power of the experience felt by attendees.

Eyes in the sky - Terrigal.

Perhaps we will see Daniel again, lets hope so – his arriving by balloon would be nice.

And lets hope next time that Gosford is a bit better organised. Preparation looked rather underdone on Saturday, and although Daniel will be presenting the video on Monday (tomorrow), no one knows where.

[Images 2 & 3 above are from Daniel Dancer's web site, Art for the Sky, linked above.]

Watanobbi (Y with a W)

Recently there was the, still to be adequately explained, closure of an exhibition at the Gosford Regional Gallery as a result of complaints to someone in Council, now we have a few individuals taking it upon themselves to have a work of community art, dubbed the big “W”, removed at Watanobbi.

Sharyn Walker has drawn our attention, on The Gosford Times blog, to the derelict condition of the fountain in Burns Place, Gosford (also, no acknowledgement of the artists on the information plaque), the Charles Sturt sculpture in Rumbalara Reserve has been cruelly vandalised, and we all know the saga of the Wondabyne Stones.
It is unfortunate but not uncommon for public art works, and most other things, to be vandalised, and it is understandable that not all individuals in a community will share the same taste in aesthetic matters, but there is a responsibility on the part of civic authorities to respect, protect and nurture the endeavours of artists to enrich the culture of the Central Coast.
If we respect the unique skills and creative abilities that artists contribute to the community, and exhibit their work, or commission them, and by doing so put trust in their artistic integrity, we owe it to them to stand by that commitment.
Controversy is never far away from art in a conservative community, but even so it has been surprising that the work has caused any fuss.

It seems that a local resident, who did not like the big “W”, started a petition to have the poles removed, as reported in the Wyong Shire Sun. In a large community project there will always be a few who feel excluded from the process for some reason, this is almost impossible to avoid given the complexities of social, political and personal characteristics.

So what is it that has riled the resident?

I quote the Wyong Shire Council Press Release:

“Four timber ‘totem poles’, shaped like a W, with a native bird habitat box at the top, is being built near the approach to the town, north of Wyong. It’s part of Watanobbi’s Community Art Project, developed by Wyong Shire Council; the local community centre; residents; schools and a host of local organisations. More than 300 people, under the direction of community artist, Margrete Erling, helped create the habitat boxes, which are decorated to reflect local history, indigenous heritage, and Watanobbi environmental issues. The aim of the community art project is to foster community pride; promote closer relationships between local organisations and schools; and highlight the work of the Watanobbi Community Centre.”




While community art projects are sometimes difficult in terms of process, and questions of authorship and aesthetic control, they can be very powerful tools of community building regardless of what one thinks of the “art” outcome. At the time of writing I do not know about the process from inside the project, but as an artist with over thirty years experience, and a university lecturer in art for about the same period of time, I think the big “W” is a credit to Watanobbi and to its many creators.

I sympathise with someone who has to look at art that they do not appreciate, but if it is really the art that is the problem, I think there is plenty in this work for someone to learn to appreciate and enjoy.

I also sympathise with the 300 or so people who gave their time and creative enthusiasm to the project. Participants in such community art project become emotionally invested in the work they make for others, and it can be cruel to trash their best efforts. It is hard enough for professional artists to endure heartless criticism, no matter how well intentioned, but that is part of their vocation, we need to build esteem not undermine it in community art projects.

I have heard that the placement of the poles is a bit of a conundrum for some, as the configuration is not seen simply as a big “W”, but from certain angles could be an X, a couple of Vs, or maybe something from an “alien” alphabet. I would have thought that this was a dynamically interesting aspect of the work, being a constantly changing tension between potential and resolution, and therefore an interesting metaphor for continuous community development. This flipping between focus and dispersal is an aspect of the mature work of American sculptor David Smith, whose metal sculptures in the 1950s were notable, and now part of the Art History cannon, for the way they set up relationships between the component parts of the works as well as the setting, moderated by the viewer’s trajectory.

Although I have not seen the Watanobbi work yet, the idea of it changing perceptually and in interpretation, as a result of movements by the viewer, would suggest an addition to the mystery and ambiguity that every successful art work needs.

A decision was made to have an art piece, and that is what they got. If they would rather have a conventional sign, and a society governed by the ethics of commerce, profit and prejudice, free from the humanistic values transmitted through culture, good luck to them, they will need it.

Perhaps something similar to a recent work erected in China could be suggested as an alteration to the disgruntled Watanobbi resident.



The 30ft totem, named Sky Pillar, stands at Longwan Shaman Amusement Park in Changchun City, China.
"It is a totem of Shamanistic culture, which originated in this city," says the president of the park, Cheng Weiguang. Shi Lixue, director of the China Folk Culture Association said: "It symbolizes our ancestors' pursuit of happiness and prosperity."

Wollombi

From information received:

Wollombi Valley Arts Council Inc

is pleased to invite entries from all emerging artists of any age, in any medium, to the
2nd EMERGING ARTIST AWARDS
6th to 12th July 2007



First prize $1500
Second prize $750
Under 18s $250

Entry deadline: Friday 29th June 2007.
Details available from their website.

And a reminder that entries for Sculpture in the Vineyards close on June 30th.
See their website via "labels" below.

-and congratulations to the artists and organisers in Wollombi for what they are achieving!!

places of denial and desire.

The electricity is back on at the Back Page!!!

Tomorrow is International Bloomsday and seven artists will be at-large in Gosford on a psychogeographic dérive.
At a time when Debord's ideas about the Society of the Spectacle are under review, it will be interesting to see what eventuates; and what places of denial and desire are encountered.


"I wouldn't start from here"

"and the wilderness is paradise enow"

Buy nothing, get one free

Urban insertion

Buy nothing, get one free, an open-ended cumulative “urban insertion” , part of Click Here, has been running for eight days, 24 hours a day, in Mann street Gosford.

Further live activities and projections are scheduled for next week.

Cows LED back to Mann Street

Brown’s Cows LED back to Mann Street Gosford

An urban screen/performance/public engagement has been corralled in the Imperial Centre Mann Street shop front.
Following on …the Space Between… this installation consists of a changing series of LED texts and performances by Brown’s Cows in collaboration with people in the CBD.
It is part of “Click Here”, a long-term strategy of deploying contemporary art projects in and around the township of Gosford; and configuring Gosford itself as a contemporary art research project.
The electronic signs will be reprogrammed each day, beginning the 23rd of May 2007.

buy nothing, get one free
there is nothing you can’t buy
our loyalty program costs you nothing
nothing beats a good brown cow
we make our art for, and about, nothing
art is nothing to believe in, and nothing is real
no really, its nothing



wander wonder
wonder wander
wander wonder
etc.
art is nothing to believe in
and the cow jumped over the gate

.......to be continued

The balloon goes up.

In the Society of the Spectacle - is resistance possible?
What spaces of resistance will be encountered in Gosford on the 16th.

Odilon Redon
Eye Balloon, 1878

The theoretical formulations presented by Guy Debord in The Society of the Spectacle, take on a new relevance in this age of blogs, surveillance, MySpace, and technically mediated relationships.

CARNICERO Y MANCIO, Antonio
Ascent of the Balloon in the Presence of Charles IV and his Court. c. 1783

“If there's a "surveillance society" or a "society of the spectacle", I would submit that it's about informatics, and not primarily about the visual spectacle. These artifacts above are only a few instances that indicate how Things that can perform identity surveillance, tracking, tagging and wrangle some database informatics are what matter nowadays.” research.techkwondo.com/blog/julian/193


Debord traces the development of a modern society in which "All that was once directly lived has become mere representation." Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing." This condition in which authentic social life has been replaced with its image represents, according to Debord, that "historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life." The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity. "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord writes. "rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images."
(Wikipedia)


Ours is a world of Biennales, Art Prizes, Blockbuster Touring Shows and Festivals in which art is seen by many as an industry that provides entertainment services and boosts tourism; where its support is premised on its audience generating quality.

Art in the Gosford region will have a short life if it is based on a festival (spectacle) led “recovery”. It requires commitment to a creator based development rather than a secondary creative Industries strategy, which depends on the essential creator (artist) environment.


In describing the development of the Society of the Spectacle, Matt Kavanagh of McGill University writes:
“We live in the society of the spectacle. In the era of blogs, 24-hour news channels, and the instant celebrity of reality television, this probably goes without saying. But what does it really mean? Contrary to the list just enumerated, the society of the spectacle is not of recent invention, nor is it limited to pop culture. Instead "the spectacle" serves as a shorthand description for structural transformations in advanced capitalist societies during the post-1945 era. We might think of this as a broad shift from the factory-based industrial system of the early part of the twentieth century to the immaterial economy of today. Manufacturing has been replaced by service work and the trades have given way to symbolic labour (journalists, bureaucrats, academics) as the prevailing face of the middle-class. The key to this realignment is the increasing mediatization of society.

Most recently, the rise of the “Creative Class” as an economic force, and rapid promotion of the “Creative Industries” globally, together with knowledge-based enterprises reinforces Debord’s analysis.

What goes up...

Sakiko Yamaoka - New Work

New work by Sakiko Yamaoka.
As you might know Sakiko was a contributing artist to the recent Gosford project …the Space Between…
This new work “We are elegant” was part of Perfurbance #3 in Indonesia, the performance festival directed by Iwan Wijono.

"The photo is my performance-work in the cemetery with village people and some artists participated in the festival."

“Perfurbance art Festival is a performance art festival on public spaces referring to growths of urbanized society and its complication as an effort to understand a dialectical of its cause and effect. Hopefully, the festival will allow society to understand and anticipate the negativity of urbanization growth, which certainly has impacts on our growing society and environment.
When earthquake took place on Jogjakarta and Central Java last May 27, 2006, artists have joined volunteers in gathering help for victims.”
- mahatma anto

Iwan Wijono performs internationally as well as in Indonesia. He contributed to the Eco Poetics Symposium, organized by Synapse Art Initiatives, held at Somersby in 1998, as did Sakiko.

On that occasion, at a time of political turmoil in Indonesia his work was performed, to his script, by Australian artists.



Performer carrying pole (with bells), Scott Foster.

Gosford dérive

Image by Banksy, London street stencil artist (from artofthestate blog) More of Banksy at his site.





Further to the renewed interest in the Situationists and their contribution to methods pertinent to the circumstances facing artists now, is a post by Shawn Micallef, on Spacing Wire, a Toronto urban issues site, about his experiences wandering the city of Dublin. Although not writing specifically about art, he makes a link between Joyce's litterary work and the idea of the dérive.


"I was told to look out for the feet and arrows above, as they are there to evoke Leopold Bloom wandering around the city in Ulysses."

Spacing Wire also has a sample of Toronto urban intervention art.

More "walking" projects can be found on the Walking in Place site including
A PERIPATETIC INVESTIGATION OF PLACE

It seems at this time that there is a great deal of interest by artists, particularly in New York, with the art of lived-space and of reclaiming the "commons" through live interventions. Creative Time has a long history of projects of this kind. Example are two projects scheduled for the near future, Situational Drive: Complexities of Public Sphere Engagement (Conference), and Six Actions for New York City, including work by Spartacus Chetwynd who is currently showing at Artspace in Sydney.

A meeting to talk over aspects of the June 16th wander in Gosford, will be held soon.

Gosford Bloomsday dérive

Caution: Cows loose in Gosford 16th June, 2007.

Brown’s cows Art Projects will be coordinating a dérive in Gosford for Bloomsday 2007.

Just time to brush up on the Situationists and a quick read of Ulysses.

For some background information about Guy Debord and the dérive check backpagefree.blogspot.com/search/label/Space

Anyone interested in a bit of psych-geographical mapping of Gosford, is welcome. Email your interest to be a part, and watch this space for news.