Mourning the Morning

eO inc., Central Coast Contemporary Arts Initiative, has over the past five years, striven to progress the Central Coast’s Contemporary Arts agenda. Unfortunately, despite the passionate commitment of its members, a point has been reached when they can no longer sustain the energy required to keep eO alive.
Therefore, eOinc. announces that, Shell Collection will be eOinc.’s final exhibition, and the last in a successful programme including f3Xit, col-aberration, re-View and Kvinna-Nainen-Women. Earlier in the organization’s life, it was the agency that sent four Central Coast artists to an Environmental Art Symposium in Korea, and the foundation organization for the Dawn Light Symposium at the Gosford Regional Gallery in 2005.





Central Coast artists Meredith Brice Copland, Sandy James and Maumer Cajic in Cheongju.




Meredith and Sandy proudly display their eO T-shirts






This is not the occasion to detail why it is so difficult for independent artist-directed organizations, or individuals, to be positively engaged in contemporary art in the region. It is enough to say that the art community is diminished by the ending of eOinc. The details are well known, and constitute the hill up which, inevitably, one gets tired of pushing shit.
It is not surprising if artists decide to just get on with their work, and go somewhere where there are more people pushing in the same direction. In these times when the scope of art is global, Gosford needs leading edge artists more than the artists need Gosford.
Engagement is not so difficult if the forms pursued fit the cultural paradigms in vogue, but critical practice will always contest orthodoxy, even in its experimental guise.
Yet despite this, there is a core of contemporary artists who live locally and who would like to see local practice able to participate in the broader intellectual and critical milieu that constitutes contemporary art. It is tragic to see the passion and enthusiasm, the time and effort, the generous community spirit, worn down.
But – don’t be surprised if a few ex-eO members pop up unexpectedly. They might have been pushed to the fringes, but there be a feral and fertile place to play.

The dimming of the Dawn

eO incorporated is proud to present its final exhibition!

Hanging out

Berlin street performer Johan Lorbeer

Just hanging about. Don't try this one in Kibble Park, Gosford, Johan. Loitering is prohibited, according to the sign in William Street, with a penalty of $500.
(I thought that was one thing parks were for)

Thanks to Sharyn for the link.

It never rains

"Rising seas will swamp thousands" (Express Advocate, 14th May) No news there.

Margaret Roberts, who as part of her work in the Dawn Light Symposium in 2005, shows anticipated sea level at the Gosford Regional Gallery.

Cida de Aragon & Steffen Lehmann

Steffen Lehmann has sent some information about the completion of the work that Cida de Aragon and he have been working on for Brisbane.
This will be of particular interest to those who had the opportunity to meet them both at Art inTent.

Re: *Resilience* - The Women Suffrage Memorial in Brisbane.

"According to the dictum of Adolf Loos, only memorials and tomb stones are worthy of true architectural attention (Loos, A: 'Ornament and Crime', Vienna 1910). 'Architecture is about monuments and graves', said the Viennese architect at the turn of the 20th century.

I am pleased that a small memorial project in Brisbane has come to completion:
The completed artwork by media artist Cida de Aragon in collaboration with Steffen Lehmann is located in close proximity to Brisbane City Hall
and King George Square.

The Women Suffrage Memorial commemorates one hundred years of women's right to participate in state elections. It commemorates the centenary of women suffrage and is a reflective, quiet place where people may walk and sit in the shade. It is a permanent artwork visible from all sides and surrounded by high-rise buildings, so scale was crucial – the memorial needed to be large, with an abstract graphical reading of the historical facts. It therefore uses texts on steel panels and an inserted light box, expressing both resilience and delicacy.

The three silver-coloured steel volumes form a cross in plan - symbolizing the cross on the ballot paper of the first state election in1907, when women were allowed to vote. The kaleidoscopic repetition of the faces represents each of the three female pioneers as well as all women of Queensland. The light box shows historical portrait photos and creates a dignified visual presence, while the slanted steel elements (a metaphor for the struggle) create a sheltered space in the urban landscape.

The work deals with the complexity of contemporary memorials and the problem of commemorating historical achievements in the 21st-Century. It acknowledges the contribution of these dedicated and resourceful women, whose legacy, fought one hundred years ago, is still ongoing and unresolved, as even today we find discrimination against women, for instance in the form of unequal pay. With this commission, we could explore some important questions, such as: What is the connection between collective memory and commemoration? What are the challenges of integrating memorials into the urban fabric, and how is the appropriate scale determined.


End of May, the memorial will be inaugurated by the Premier; the project has also just been selected to be exhibited at the forthcoming Architectural Biennale in Venice (Sept. - Nov. 2008), as part of the Australian exhibition."

I hope you have a chance to see the memorial at your next visit to Brisbane's CBD.

Best wishes,
Steffen

Professor STEFFEN LEHMANN
Ph.D., AADipl.

Chair, School of Architecture and Built Environment
The University of Newcastle.
s_Lab space Laboratory for architectural Research and Design
Homepage: www.slab.com.au

Editor, 'Journal of Green Building'

Sharyn Walker?

If you have not caught up with Sharyn Walker’s latest forays into public space, real and virtual, her recent 'blog projects' were worth a look . She has put them on hold for now, but when they are restarted we will put up a link
The project is a very nice example of open process work, that invites you into the artist’s 'making in-progress' while playing with the illusion that you think you know who that person is. The subtext is an examination of processes of identity formation.
Using the internet as a medium is now a well established art form, but as a strategy it takes on greater significance and political force given the context of Gosford’s lack of material infrastructure for contemporary art. It also gives Sharyn a potential audience of millions. Sharyn has achieved an impressive amount and variety of work in the past year.

A Place of Fear

Firstly an update on the report to council; on new directions for the regional gallery, on bringing contemporary art to the centre of Gosford, and the benefits of funding Terri Latella’s YAG.
Trevor Drake, who introduced the motion to Council, tells us that he is working on the report behind the scenes with Debra Schleger (who we know has been trying to facilitate a greater art presence in Gosford CBD).

Yes! – we have discovered that the acronym YAG stands for Yerin Art Gallery.
According to the Gosford Library local studies page, Yerin means A Place of Fear (but in the case of its being the origin for the place name Erina, as “a place of fear” it is applied to a place of initiation)

ORLAN: Post-Identity Strategies

Tallinn Art Hall (Estonia) April 16th - May18th. The exhibition produced in collaboration with Michel Rein Gallery, Paris.

"In the Self-Hybridization series (Pre-Colombian, African and the more recent Native American), ORLAN continues and extends her journey through an infinity of possible physical identities. By using various canons of beauty and aesthetics from different times and places, the artist creates “living” totemic figures, “almost tangible in their virtuality, fascinating in their disturbing appearance and seductive in their artificial otherness.”

Orlan is best known for the surgical-operation-performances of the early nineties where she transformed the operating room into an artist’s studio, and appropriated plastic surgery as a creative art form mirroring the mutating paradigm of contemporary art."

Australia 2020

The issue of arts funding was on the agenda at Belinda Neal’s forum at Erina on Saturday in preparation for Australia 2020.

The session dealing with Topic 3, Towards a Creative Australia, was guided towards consideration for the individual creator by Chris Bearman’s opening address.
Along with the obligatory ‘we have so many talented people here’ (Which other place will not say the same?) the discussion tended to focus on local problems rather than national objectives. In particular, our dilemma, and consequent funding limitations, occasioned by the region being categorised as neither urban nor regional; lack of cohesion and cooperation within the local arts community; a crisis in art education, and the talent drain.
However it was possible to get on record, yet again, the essential component in moving Towards a Creative Australia, that is, adequate financial support and respect for the individual artist and small to medium sized art organizations. I say “yet again” as the research has been done indicating the imbalance between the funding for the primary producers and that of the major institutions and a burgeoning class of arts managers.
It was pointed out that the platform for any hub of creative industries is provided as a collateral outcome of having a dynamic contemporary art scene, that individual and small group art funding is less that 7% of the Oz Council’s arts budget, and that the mean income for visual artists is a little over $17,000 per year. The percentage is even smaller for individual artists, when it is realized that state and local governments concentrate their resources on infrastructure.
Australia needs artists to make their unique contribution to the national debate and cultural environment. This often entails no financial return to the artist. To have a Creative Australia we need to provide greater financial support, to let artists do what they do best -– make art.

It was interesting to see in the session on Topic 4, Future Directions for Australian Economy, that Caroline Veldhuizen concluded her opening address with a Powerpoint presentation that showed four key objectives for the economic development of the Central Coast, and that two of them could have been lifted straight from Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class.
Her graphs showed, amongst other things, the growing importance of the knowledge based enterprises, but still maintained the ignorant categorising of art with entertainment and recreation.

The session on Agriculture was dominated by issues of Intellectual Property rights, something that artists, also ‘primary producers’ and creators of immaterial value, are also grappling with.

Unfortunately I was not able to stay for all the sessions, but regardless of whether the ideas somehow make their way to Canberra, the Australia 2020 initiative already has been useful as a form of dialogue to raise big picture issues, as well as serving as an indicator of how we can reshape political processes.

Logos

Below is a contribution to Australia’s preparation for the big sports event in Beijing, thought it worth passing on for all those who have not yet seen it. (received from Nina Angelo)

No news on the Report to Council being prepared. It seems that it will be at least a week before the process for preparing it will be addressed. Likewise no one seems to know what YAG is.

Posting has been a bit sparse lately with deadlines approaching. Yes, it is that time again when we artists are reminded of our place in the scheme of things, as we compete for scraps of financial support to keep the practice afloat.

We know where you've been

Bio reading of the city.

Work by Tuur Van Balen, student of Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art in London, who, at the work-in-progress-show at RCA, offered tap water (kindly provided by Thames Water) and asked visitors to donate a urine sample along with their postcode. He added the samples and postcodes to a map of London which contained biological information.


He commented “I'm interested in how cities are not as much made up by streets and buildings as they are made up by our behaviour and experiences.
These experiences are heavily mediated by technology, just look at the way mobile communication networks totally reshaped our cities.
We're on the verge of a new area, an area that relies on the understanding of our body and the understanding of our DNA. What does this mean for the cities of tomorrow? Will we have DNA-surveillance and discrimination? Bio-identities and communities? ...


The biological map in the interim show was an 'intervention' using the show as a platform to get feedback on these ideas. By gathering urine samples, I want to make people think about how their biological waste contains information. Pissing in public might become like leaving your digital data up for grabs, spitting in the streets like leaving your computer unprotected on the internet.”

Professional Practice

Just back, and clearing out the inbox, so thought I would share these snippets from Nettime before deleting.

"I think we need a non-commercial public sphere, as a complement to other proletarian and marginal public spheres which can put pressure on the state and make up for the insufficiencies of formal democratic representation. In other words, I think there should be an anarchic civil-society sphere that produces political confrontation and conflict. I am not naive or bitter enough to think that can be the only dimension of social existence!"

best, Brian

“I visited Glasgow about 18 months ago and was able to sense in a matter of days the attraction the city holds for creative people, and the way the arts are being used to regenerate what was formerly a declining industrial centre."

The complicitness of artists and 'arts professionals' in the instrumental use of the visual arts as propaganda for the rapid neoliberal structural readjustment of the city really could not be more explicit. However, I am bemused by the seemingly prevalent academic spectre of an art "passionately producing alternative visions and utopias for today’s late capitalist society".

Cheers,
Leigh

"What would happen if art stops with relentlessly criticizing the existing state of affairs, or with passionately producing alternative visions and utopias for today’s late capitalist society? What if art would, on the contrary, fully identify with and affirm the prevailing norms, values, practices, etc., even adding some oil to the fire? The latter would, in other words, demand of artists to no longer automatically assume the role of the ‘good guys’, the eternal idealists, dreamers, etc., who always try to make the best out of the current situation, pushing the system to be something other and better than it is. It would, inversely, ask of them to stop protecting society from what it wants and turn it into the worst version of itself, so as to confront it with its own unsustainability and undesirability."
Ned Rossiter on:
Cultural Activism Today, The Art of Over-Identification

YAG???

A motion was passed at tonight’s Council meeting which might be of interest.

The gist being that a report to council will be prepared on:
1. Developing an indigenous and others cultures gallery at East Gosford;
2. That Council review the purposes and role of the Regional Gallery in the long term, and its relationship to the City Centre and previous plans for its expansion and;
3. Determine the economic benefits of supporting YAG with the development of a gallery and contemporary art space in Gosford, including how it would interact with Gosford City art and culture policies, plans and strategies.

The motion was stitched together by Trevor Drake and Terri Latella.

I do not know what YAG stands for, but it would seem to be a non-profit association currently being cobbled together by Terri Latella, who will be on its executive. A site is already being negotiated at the eastern end of Erina Street.

You know something is going on here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones.
(Bob Dylan)

Tactical cartography

The emotional mapping project at Art inTent is being covered on the Gosford Times blog, for those who have not checked it recently.
When discussion came around to the work of Christian Nold, I was interested to hear from Anne Graham about new work she is doing using emotional responses measured by GSR (Galvanic Skin Response), and the significance memory had regarding the feelings people had about places, which were picked up by the apparatus.


Christian Nold's Bio Mapping is a community mapping project in which, over the last four years, more than 1500 people have taken part . In the context of regular, local workshops and consultations, participants are wired up with an innovative device which records the wearer's Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is a simple indicator of the emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. People re-explore their local area by walking the neighbourhood with the device, and on their return a map is created which visualises points of high and low arousal. By interpreting and annotating this data, communal emotion maps are constructed that are packed full of personal observations which show the areas that people feel strongly about and truly visualise the social space of a community.



Another useful read on the subject is Jessica Clark's The New Cartographers, which contains good links. To quote a little, "In many ways, these mapping tools are re-locating us as the center of our personal universes. We no longer go to maps to find out where we are. Instead, we tell maps where we are and they form around us on the fly, a sensation that can be comforting or stifling. After all, while finding the right map can orient you, having dozens can threaten to tip the signal-to-noise ratio toward cacophony."

"Maps are everywhere these days. The ubiquity of global positioning systems (GPS) and mobile directional devices, interactive mapping tools and social networks is feeding a mapping boom. Amateur geographers are assigning coordinates to everything they can get their hands on—and many things they can’t. “Locative artists” are attaching virtual installations to specific locales, generating imaginary landscapes brought vividly to life in William Gibson’s latest novel, Spook Country. Indeed, proponents of “augmented reality” suggest that soon our current reality will be one of many “layers” of information available to us as we stroll down the street."

Finally, there are some examples of mapping as an art of rhetorical engagement; a process where art does not simply reflect upon its context but, as Trevor Plagens says, takes a "position" within what ever matrices of power constitute that reality.
The following quotes are from An Atlas of Radical Cartography, Ed. Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press, 2007. (Ten essays with accompanying maps)

"There is a Long tradition of making maps that present alternative interpretations of various landscapes and reveal implicit relationships between power, control, and spatial practice."

The essay Tactical Cartographies, by the Institute of Applied Autonomy, which I thought pertinent to our project in Gosford, contained the following:

"Embracing the potential for maps to be used in advocacy is an explicit recognition of maps as rhetorical devices. In short maps don’t merely represent space, they shape arguments; they set discursive boundaries and identify objects to be considered. When individuals make their
own maps, they offer an expression of what they consider important, what they consider to be "of interest," and for what they are willing to fight. In openly acknowledging the rhetorical power of maps and positioning themselves as interested parties taking sides in contentious debates, tactical cartographers offer a direct challenge to the presumed neutrality of mapmakers as mere visualizers of spatial data. Tactical cartographers make claims about
landscapes, but also about their own status as authors of spatial narrative. In creating maps that confront power, tactical cartographers claim their right to set the rules of debate and to provide interpretations of local events with both an authority and a contingency equal to
official representations."

inTent update

Art inTent update.

An inspiring presentation was given by Steffen Lehmann, Astra Howard catalysed a valuable discussion about local issues, we were joined by artists Cida de Aragon and Anne Graham who contributed insight gained from their extensive practices, artworks by Sharyn Walker and Judy Harris appeared in the Park, people contributed to an intriguing emotional map of Gosford, Councillor Vicki Scott attended representing herself as well as the Mayor, and Member for Gosford, Marie Andrews, opened the event and stayed well beyond her scheduled time to take part in the open forum session.


The forum will continue, and a time will be scheduled soon for this, as the conversation was extremely productive, but had to be curtailed when the tent removers arrived.

Professor Steffen Lehmann – Key Note Presentation.

Matters arising, DVD projections, and further psychogeography outcomes will be presented in Gosford as soon as approval can be obtained for a site.

Unscheduled installation/tableaux by Judy Harris

The mapping project proved popular, and requests for late additions have delayed its display. We expect it to be on the Gosford Times blog within the next couple of days as a work-in-progress.

Liz Wright considers her options.

We must acknowledge once again Marie Andrews’ engagement and interest in the future of art in the Gosford region.

[Images thanks to Sharyn Walker and Fiona Doyle]

inTent forum

Forum/discussion sessions at Art inTent

Schedule.
Following presentations by professor Steffen Lehman and Astra Howard, there will be a short break after which Anne Graham will address issues arising from her considerable experience as an artist, and I will speak about locality and regionalism in a global context, as well as critique the function of 'art for social betterment'.
Integrated with words from Anne and I, will be round table discussions about local issues in light of the presentations.

The nature of Click Here as a project will be put in the context of related projects of urban intervention occurring around the world in what is becoming a mainstream genre of practice.

The purpose of the discussions is to share our perceptions about the current character of contemporary art and to envision its future in the local context. From this we will move towards some proposals and strategies for the next steps forward in Gosford.

Some recurring topics have emerged from recent conversations with local artists, and we will endeavour to address these as well as issues arising on the day.

Local opportunities for strengthening art milieu (resources and impediments)
Communication and coordination
Locus focus
Financial support
Education, and critical context needed for, contemporary practice.
Action plan

Art inTent

Art inTent

Announcing the next activity in the Click Here series of art interventions in the centre of Gosford, Art inTent (Ceci n’est pas Baba).

Art inTent is a being organised by Brown’s Cows Art Projects and Gosford Art Flux Forum, who will be joined for this event by eO inc.

Open from 11am, in a tent in Kibble Park on Saturday the 8th of March will be presentations and restagings of past projects in the Click Here series, including the Bloomsday psychogeographic dérive. There will also be an opportunity for people to contribute their impressions to a collective “mapping” of Gosford.

If you missed, the Space Between, Buy Nothing – Get One Free, Astra Howard’s SPI vehicle, Scoop Shadow, or Streaming by Korean group KoPAS, this will be your chance to catch up.
There will also be new works, information about contemporary art groups in the region, and a mini-workshop/introduction to a project by eO inc.

Marie Andrews, MP for Gosford, will be there to officially open activities at 1pm.

The Key Note speaker at Art inTent will be Dr Steffen Lehmann. Art inTent is the next in the Click Here series of art activities being conducted in the centre of Gosford by GAFF and Brown’s Cows Art Projects, assisted by a Cultural Grant from Gosford City Council.

Dr Steffen Lehmann is the Artistic Director of the ‘Back to the City’ project in Newcastle, a new biannual public arts festival about temporary interventions in public space. Its aim is to gain new readings of the city and experiment with innovative forms of collaboration, bringing into focus the revitalisation process of Newcastle's city centre.

“Steffen brings a wealth of international experience and extensive knowledge of curatorship to the exhibition of public art. His practice, teaching and research demonstrates an enduring commitment to involve the local community in excellent exhibition projects about the contemporary city. He is a German-born architect and urban designer and holds the Chair in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle. He is Founding Director of the s_Lab Space Laboratory for architectural Research and Design (Sydney-Berlin).”

In regard to the Gosford Art Flux Forum, Click Here project and Art inTent, he said: “I congratulate the organisers. This exciting initiative is based on a continuing dialogue between the different disciplines, and different worlds will be engaging with each other in this collaborative site-specific endeavour.” – Professor Steffen Lehmann Ph.D., AADipl. Chair, School of Architecture and Built Environment. The University of Newcastle.

Elephants boycott The Room

As with the parable of the six blind men asked to describe an elephant, six topics examining aspects of contemporary art practice in Gosford will make up a framework for open discussions. These hybrid performance installation-roundtable discussions have been designed to facilitate informal conversations. Come along and give your opinion! Neil Berecry-Brown will offer some thoughts on locality and regionalism in a global context, as well as critique the function of 'art as a tool for social betterment' in relation to local practice.

Joining us will be Professor Anne Graham, School of Drama, Fine Art & Music, The University of Newcastle. Anne Graham is an artist and an academic; she teaches performance, installation and sculpture. She has exhibited in the Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne Festivals, the Biennale of Sydney, Perspecta and in many curated exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2000 she completed ‘Passage’ a major permanent public art work for the City of Sydney. She has recently completed major public artworks for the Tweed River Regional Gallery and the Newcastle City Council. She has worked extensively in Japan and has recently designed a public park for the Second Echigo Tsumari Triennial in Nigata Province, Japan.

Astra Howard, who was in Gosford in December with her SPIV project, will present documentation and ideas about her innovative form of art. Astra Howard is an Action Researcher/Performer working predominantly within public city spaces. She has completed a PhD centred on facilitating communication via performance-based interventions. Her most recent solo works have been commissioned by the City of Melbourne, the Frankston City Council and the Queensland Department of Communities. Astra also works in a crisis accommodation centre in Sydney, designing and facilitating educational programs and professional services for the homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged community.


During the event no harm will be inflicted unnecessarily on elephants in the room, real or imagined.

Details of the discussion section of the schedule will be posted before Saturday.

Double Click

It seems the "With One Click" post has been ruffling some feathers.

Big Tent Revival

Big Tent Revival. Second Coming of the Tent to Kibble Park.

Weather permitting, we will pitch the Art Tent,
“Ceci n’est pas Baba”,
on Saturday the 8th of March, 2008.

(Image credit - Banksy)

With a Programme to Edify, Amuse and Provoke.

It will feature:
Presentations and restaging of past projects in the Click Here Series, including the Bloomsday psychogeographic dérive.
Make your mark!
There will be an opportunity to contribute your impressions to a collective “mapping” of Gosford.
Technical wonders!
We will make use of new technical advancements on the Magic Lantern, the Lumière brothers’ Cinematographe, and Edison’s “Talking Machine”, the Gramophone (all demonstrated in the Gosford School of Arts in the 1890s), in the form of DVD and PowerPoint projections.
Live Conversation!
As with the parable of the six blind men asked to describe an elephant, six topics examining aspects of contemporary art practice in Gosford will make up a schedule for open discussions. These hybrid performance installation-roundtable discussions have been designed to facilitate informal conversations. Come along and give your opinion!

During the event no harm will be inflicted unnecessarily on elephants in the room, real or imagined.

Watch this space for updates, schedules and details.

with just one click

Appearing in the Express Advocate, 30th January, and other places.
Story picked up from the Gosford Times.

Scoop 2

The installation of a crocheted intervention/restoration in the Memorial fountain in Burns Place Gosford happened on Australia Day, 26th of January, an even more peaceful and quiet Saturday than usual in that part of town.
Congratulation to Sharyn, Betty and Robyn for subtle work, which softly-softly engages in public issues with a positive and generous attitude. The context of the work, both materially and politically, gave it particular relevance.




While crocheting is usually regarded as craft, the use of crocheting in art does not mean it is merely craft in the decorative sense.
“Many contemporary artists are using craft to make diverse and timely political statements. Because creating crafts is so often social and communal, they can play a vital role in the public sphere” from, introduction to the “Crafting Protest” seminar program at the New School, New York, coincidentally also on the 26th of January, 2008.
One might also add that the use of social and communal processes in itself positions the work such that it critiques careerism and the artist-marketing model of practice.
Further information on the eO blog.













Burns Place: Click Here