4 – 26 June 2010

Opening Friday June 4th, 6-8pm

FRONT GALLERY
Inhabiting Ritual
Michelle Sakaris

MIDDLE GALLERY
The Domestic
Hannah Courtin-Wilson, Jacqui Shelton,
Kylie Bawdon & Ashlee Hope

SIDE GALLERY
A Taming
James Carey

ARTIST FLOOR TALK
Saturday June 12th, 4pm

Michelle Sakaris

Inhabiting Ritual is an installation comprised of photography, video and site specific performance that explores the characteristics shared by conceptual art and the observance of religious ritual. Specific rituals are displaced, void of their original purpose and given new meaning through their performance in the context of art. Sakaris’ interest lies in the function of ritual as a means for recapturing wholeness in displaced and disintegrating communities. As a second generation Australian, the experience of being simultaneously an insider and an outsider in the Greek orthodox community informs her art practice.

Bio

Michelle Sakaris completed a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2009. She has been involved in a number of solo and group exhibitions including Blake Prize (2009) National Art School Gallery, Light Is Like Water (2008) George Paton Gallery, Infinite Spectrum (2006) Yarra Sculpture Gallery.

Hannah Courtin-Wilson, Jacqui Shelton,
Kylie Bawdon & Ashlee Hope

The Domestic is a photographic, video and object based exhibition responding to domestic space, and exploring the re-animation and re-presentation of the complex temporality of past events. Placing raw memories held within objects into new contexts, a skewing of memories within the domestic occurs.

The works represent presence through absence, using objects directly relating to the domestic; the objects speaking of human interactions and their existence within the environment.

Questioning the function of the snapshot both as a changeable time based object and as a depiction of a truthful domestic space, there is a collective conscious at play within the works; a familiarity and a sense of nostalgia.

Bio

Kylie Bawden is an emerging Melbourne based artist who works primarily with photomedia. She has previously shown work in Melbourne and Launceston.

Hannah Courtin-Wilson is a Melbourne based artist, musician and obsessive collector exploring the fields of photomedia, neurology and video art.

Ashlee Hope completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Monash University in 2009.

Jacqui Shelton is a Melbourne based artist whose work involves a consistent exploration of the polarities of identity and exposing ‘the self’ as a non solidified being in its environment.

James Carey

A site-specific project will be undertaken in a soon to be demolished, residential house. Through a series of interventions and manipulations to the house, a body of documentation including photography, film and a collection of sculptural ‘artefacts’ will be collated.

A Taming is an exploration and comment on how certain forces contribute on the one hand to comfort, security and respite, whilst on the other hand vulnerability, loss and anxiety.

As Melbourne’s population grows, much debate surrounds the notions of housing
(un)affordability and how this threatens the domestic life for Melbournians. Urban sprawl, increased density and gentrification are examples of these threats as well as opportunities for some. There exists, through the inevitable process of urban renewal and gentrification, moments where intervention and manipulation of appropriate sites can occur.

Bio

James Carey is a Melbourne based artist who explores the complexity of relationships between body, site, intervention and discourse. His work has been shown widely and is currently a PhD Candidate in the Architecture & Design School at RMIT University, Melbourne.