Posts Tagged ‘UNSW’

A fragmented synthesis – William Kentridge: Five Themes

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

By Ben Messih


Figure 1: William Kentridge, portrait by Van der Merwe

I was first introduced to the work of South African artist William Kentridge in 2008 at the 16th Biennale of Sydney. Kentridge’s works, I am not me, the horse is not mine (2008; installation of eight film fragments, DVCAM, HDV transferred to video) and What will come (has already come) (2007; steel table, cylindrical steel mirror, 35mm animated film transferred to video) were exhibited in the beautifully derelict Cockatoo Island. These installations – amongst Kentridge’s most accomplished to date – had a profound impact on me: technically masterful, poignant, satirical and insightful. The language of Kentridge moved me as I had never been moved by a work of art before. Subsequently, four years after first falling in love with his political, poetic synthesis I found myself at Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to revisit his work in the acclaimed major traveling retrospective William Kentridge: Five Themes.

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Posted in Artwrite Issue 48, Features | Comments Off

Editorial

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Welcome to Artwrite #47. Artwrite is a collaborative student-run magazine produced by Art Administration students at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW.

In this edition, our writers delve deep into issues of accessibility in the arts. ‘Community engagement’, ‘social inclusion’ and ‘diversifying and developing audiences’ are phrases increasingly used by practicing arts professionals everywhere, and we examine just what is being done both locally, and globally, to bring about such changes.

Our features discuss both sides of the issue and range from explorations of local artist-run-initiatives, to the alternative use of public space for art events such as Sydney’s Festival of Free Spaces. Photographer Dean Sewell openly discusses illegal guerrilla art in a bold interview with Renay Ringma and we consider why contemporary art spaces are still associated with notions of exclusivity and elitism.

This edition also reviews a diverse range of exhibitions, from the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ current blockbuster Mad Square: Modernity in Modern Art, to the public display of private art in White Rabbit’s Beyond the Frame. Also under the spotlight are Penrith Regional Gallery’s New Acquisitions in context and Bronek Kozka’s Memory, Myth and the 1/4 Acre Block.

The efforts of our fellow students must be acknowledged. Without their effort and ingenuity this edition of Artwrite would not have been possible. Every student in the class joined in the sub-editing and they all committed to working cohesively to ensure each article is at its absolute best.

Special thanks also go to Joanna Mendelssohn for pushing us to our creative limits and teaching us the importance of meeting deadlines — a lesson we all learned quickly, and ultimately, the reason we were able to produce a publication we are all proud to be a part of in such a short space of time.

We can only hope you enjoy browsing through the assorted collection of articles, reviews, opinion letters and short kids pieces assembled here.

A PDF version of this edition is currently in production, guided by the exceptional design finesse of Dale Maxwell-Smith, David Lyndon and Gokcen Altinok. It will be archived in the UNSW library under UNSWorks.

Megan Hillyer & Nina Pether, Editors, Artwrite #47

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Posted in Artwrite Issue 47, Master of Art Administration students Semester 2, 2011, Editorial | Comments Off

Editorial

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

ArtWrite #46 is a bonanza of ideas on art issued forth from the Semester two Writing for Art and Design class at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW. Free ranging across media, from graffiti art to lace making, the articles included in this publication showcase a student perspective of how art is currently being received and interpreted across Australia and beyond.

Mad Square was without doubt the major exhibition staged in 2011 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It spanned a range of art movements current in Germany from the turn of the twentieth century, the historical significance of which gave rise to multiple interesting interpretations. In recognition of the magnitude of the show, a section of this publication has been dedicated to its review.

Just as Mad Square was ambitious in its breadth, so too does ArtWrite attempt to be comprehensive in its coverage of predominant art events in Sydney 2011. From public art to performance art, gallery space to cultural space, our passion for art writing is abundantly clear in this collection of reviews and feature articles.

ArtWrite is the culmination of a great deal of hard work, a baptism by fire for us, the uninitiated of the publishing world! We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our fearless leader, Jocelyn Payne for her patience and input. We’d also like to thank our guru Joanna Mendelssohn for her wisdom and guidance. We trust we’ve done you both proud.

Finally, as the publishing committee, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with a class of such talented, articulate and spirited students whose love and passion for art is splashed across every page.

We very much hope you’ll enjoy the read!

The Publishing Committee

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Posted in Artwrite Issue 46, Artwrite Issue 46, Undergraduate Students, Semester 2, 2011 | Comments Off