ONE DAY SHOW: ARTHOTLINE Project Launch, The Bond Store, Windmill St Millers Point - Saturday 7th November 1992 1-6pm

ARTHOTLINE was a concept organised by Mark Titmarsh that consisted of a series of one day shows in non-gallery spaces.  What made it unique was that it was advertised via a 0055 phone number.  When it was your turn to exhibit, you rang a number and recorded a message that stated the location and time of the exhibition or performance.  The public then rang the 0055 number to find out where and when to go - the internet and social media STILL didn't exist yet - so this was a pretty neat idea!

The first show was a one day group show at the Bond Stores at the Rocks.  I showed 2 paintings, both called  'Black and White'.  They were each made from the same set of stencils - one was black and white patterning on a white background, the other black and white patterning on a black background.  I have just found a picture of them....

The phone number was advertised via a business card that was distributed as widely as possible

'Black & White', oil on canvas, 35cm x 35cm, 1992

'Black & White', oil on canvas, 35cm x 35cm, 1992

WORK by Hany Armanious, Maria Cruz, Kate Mackay, Bill Seeto - BLACK, 80 Campbell St Surry Hills - June 30 to July 28 1992

BLACK was a gallery space run by Mikala Dwyer  - it was in an architects office in Surry Hills.  It ran for 1 or 2 years (?) and had a number of interesting shows.  

Because it was an architect's space I decided to create works that related to the architecture...  There was a section of wall that jutted out over the stairwell - my 2 paintings were made to fit onto the length of this piece of wall,  they were thin to mirror the stair handrail, and they were positioned so that they sat on top of  the hand rail when viewed from the gallery entrance.  The imagery was 5 strips of patterns that I had used in previous work, but here they were all layered on top of each other in various strengths of gold and silver pigment mixed into clear oil.

silver, oil & pigment on canvas, 11.5cm x 95cm, 1992

gold, oil & pigment on canvas, 11.5cm x 95cm, 1992

I have since found a black & white photo of the works as installed in the gallery...

MEMOS: 6 Writers, 6 Artists - Mori Gallery, 56 Catherine St Leichhardt - Wed 24th June to Sat 18th July 1992

Memos was an exhibition curated by Jo Holder at Mori Gallery that paired 6 writers with 6 artists.

 "The title was suggested by Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Coming Millenium.  In this, his final novel, Calvino suggests that one may aim to establish a series of values with which to meet so symbolic a date. The selection of artists was guided by Calvino's eclectic and heterogeneous literary values: lightness, precision, visibility, multiplicity and consistency" Jo Holder, Memos catalogue


The main work that I exhibited consisted of 4 large paintings - Detail I-IV, surrounded by 12 small works - Detail 1-12.  The response to my work was written by John Sandow in a piece called Yellow Mood in which he responded to a small yellow painting that was 1 of 3 (the other 2 being Blue and Red, of course...).  As usual, I no longer have these works, and have no photos of them, except for the black and white reproduction in the catalogue - but they were basically the same image of a stylised flower from a piece of wallpaper, rendered in red, blue and yellow.

The Detail work took it's imagery from 4 different German carpets from about the 16th century.  Each of the large works reproduced the patterning from the carpets.  Each of these paintings were underpainted with various colours, which were then overpainted in white, so that most of the colouring disappeared.  The 12 small paintings took further details from the larger paintings, with these paintings being brightly coloured. The 4 large works formed a 2 x 2 grid with the 12 smaller works hung randomly around the central works

'Detail I-IV' oil on canvas, 4 panels, 80cm x 70cm each, 1992

3 pieces from 'Detail 1-12', oil on canvas on board,  20cm x 17.5 cm each, 1992

SUPERMArt: The Art Supermarket - The Blaxland Gallery, Myer Melbourne - May 14 to June 2 1992

SUPERMart was an exhibition curated by Mikala Dwyer and Shiralee Saul and was part of Melbourne's 'Visual Arts Next Wave Festival'.  

The exhibition was 'an inquiry into the nature of contemporary art practice, the current status of the art object, and the networks of commodification, promotion and market strategy which surrounds it.....a series of industrial shelving units (will be) arranged to create an impression of a conventional supermarket...installed on the shelves will be a series of discrete objects fabricated by approx. 30 emerging artists from Sydney and Melbourne...most of these works will be multiples' (exhibition rationale, Shiralee Saul, 1992).

So my contribution consisted of 5 rolls of toilet paper - I unrolled each one and stencilled a different repeating pattern on to each strip of paper, then rolled them back up. They disintegrated about 5 years ago, when water got through our roof during renovations....

An A3 sized 'supermarket flyer' was produced as the exhibition catalogue.

LINEAGE: Works by Helga Groves, Justin Trendall, Kate Mackay - 200 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy - Friday 1st May to Saturday 30th May 1992

LINEAGE was an exhibition with Helga Groves and Justin Trendall at Gertrude Street in Melbourne.  I exhibited the paintings that I had shown in the "Grammar of Ornament" at First Draft WEST the previous year.

Although I had made the work to fit specifically within the First Draft space - and had managed to sell a couple of pieces - I figured that I could work out a hanging arrangement that would work within the Gertrude St space once I arrived.  Eerily the truncated version fitted exactly onto the two side walls of Gertrude St......do do do do (cue Twilight Zone music....).

Below is the text from the room sheet that we produced.  I think Justin wrote it? (please let me know otherwise...) and why were there no writing credits included?....

Again, I have no images of the exhibition...except in my mind...(I was particularly hard up for cash in those days and couldn't afford frivolities like documentation - it was hard enough getting to Melbourne - thank god the digital camera finally got invented...), but here are some images of separate pieces from the show.

  

oil on canvas, 25cm x  18cm, 1991

oil on canvas, 25cm x 20cm, 1991

oil on canvas, 25cm x 35cm, 1991

oil on canvas, 25cm x 50cm, 1991

FACT: An Installation Publication #6 - Touring Exhibition - April 4th to Dec 20th, 1992

Fact was an exhibition co-ordinated by James Harley and Shiralee Saul.  It travelled to Linden Gallery, Melbourne; Umbrella Studios, Townsville; 24Hours Contemporary Art Centre, Darwin; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; Photospace, Canberra; Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth; Chameleon Contemporary Art Space, Hobart; Ars Multiplicata, Sydney and A.C.C.A., Melbourne.  Approximately 100 participants were invited to respond to the  'Fact Scenario'

The resulting works were to be displayed on Amiga computers, as well as in a hard-copy publication.

Remember that the internet didn't exist at this time, at least not for ordinary people - and displaying works on a computer was pretty cutting-edge!  The exhibition was sponsored by the Australian Network for Art and Technology and Commodore Business Machines - now it just sounds quaint....

Part of the invitation to exhibit emphasised that 'images which incorporate text may lose resolution-quality when digitized to install in the computer; i.e. they will become less legible, thus becoming more pictorial rather than textual'  Visitors to the exhibition were able to access individual images and texts via a bubble-jet printer.

I hoped that in re-reading all of the exhibition information, that would eventually remember the work that I submitted - unfortunately I haven't and I don't think I've ever seen the resulting publication....