sushichampagnepaintingsculpture

RENEE COSGRAVE / AKIRA AKIRA / ESTELLE IHASZ / VIV MILLER / CHRISTOPHER L.G HILL / LISA RADFORD / JESS LUCAS  LANE CORMICK / NICK SELENITSCH / ASH KILMARTIN / MEREDITH TURNBULL / RY HASKINGS /  NOEL SKRZYPCZAK / BRYAN SPIER / MARK HILTON / FIONA ABICARE / ALEX VIVIAN / DAMIANO BERTOLI / CHARLES O’LOUGHLIN / LIZZY NEWMAN / ACE WAGSTAFF / SAM GEORGE / JUSTIN ANDREWS / AMANDA MARBURG / ALEX PITTENDRIGH / MADELINE KIDD / MASATO TAKASAKA / NADINE CHRISTENSEN / OSCAR YANEZ / SHARON GOODWIN / MATT HINKLEY / JAMES LYNCH / GEOFF NEWTON COLLEEN AHERN / ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­KATHERINE HATTAM / A one night exhibition in a city apartment / DECEMBER 2, 2011

Fashion designers often say that they design a collection with one particular woman in mind. A whole label will be built around this character: the quintessential female, sophisticated with girlish charm (Channel); or flirtatious, pushing boundaries, in charge (Versace).  In my opinion artists do not deviate far from this model of working.

We work with (and for) our fictional muses, our fictional interiors, museums and houses… The problem arises when these actual people and places fail to materialise. Punished by market forces, price points, untargeted marketing, and whatever else, it never fails to come as a surprise when nothing sells. Why is it that a celebrity who has never made an artwork before can sell a painting for thousands of dollars simply by appearing in a reality TV program (The Apprentice)? (However I must admit to a vague admiration for Sam Newman when he promised to purchase a painting by Shane Crawford, with the proviso he would never have to look at it again, the first ‘unidiotic’ thing he has ever said.)

What you see in this exhibition could be described as a fictional collection, for one night only, crammed into a city apartment Herb and Dorothy style.  Or you could call it a survey show, a cross-section of artworks produced in this place at this moment in time. There is an aesthetic that is undeniably Melbourne, there are themes and ideas that cross-pollinate. This is all well and good, but it doesn’t solve the essential dilemma: what is the future of these objects? After tonight where will they end up? Probably they will be packed away, returned to their custom made boxes, back to the studios, the stock rooms and the dusty shelves.

But the dream lives on. The hope that out there somewhere lurks the collector: real or imagined, phantom or flesh and blood. A figure half-obscured in shadow… searching, searching, never satisfied. He’s strangely confident, knows a lot about many things; borderline precocious. Then there’s the young professional: the sophisticated working woman, the sporting star, the TV personality. She knows what she wants and she always seems to find it. Whatever the case one thing is certain: it may take skill and determination to make a work of art but it takes a bloody genius to buy one.

Madeline Kidd

November 2011