STROBED
A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.
GANG + J. D. Reforma [Gaffa]
when: Opening night Thursday 15 July 2010, 6-8pm. Exhibitions continue until Tuesday 27 July 2010.
cost: Free.
where: Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence Street, Sydney.
From Gaffa:
GANG is an exhibition showcasing the depth of creative networking between Java and Sydney over the last decade. Gang is a celebration of the past, present and future of a wealth of collaborative exchanges that have occurred through the creative networks active in ‘Gang Festival’ (Sydney) and its sister festival ‘Festival Mata Air’, based in Central Java.
This exhibition also marks the inaugural launch of ‘Gang Installations’, a new art installation company and the birth of the next phase in Gang Collaborations.
Gallery One:
Rudy Ardianto
A collection of works made during Rudy’s recent years living in Java-Indonesia (2006 – 2009). The works are an exploration into the realms of power with a re-occuring reference to seats: the seat of power, the devil’s throne, the wheel chair, the ‘Green’ chair. Through this work Rudy explores the undercurrent movements, both political and cultural, flowing in contrary directions to the mainstreams of power.
Gallery Two:
Clare Perkins
This exhibition of paintings is a collection of buildings – real, imagined and remembered: re-presented as slightly skewed likenesses in paint on canvas and board. Terraces, warehouses and other industrial spaces in the Chippendale, Redfern and Newtown areas inspire the paintings. History and the memory of life etched into the surfaces of the buildings present rich emotional and textural reference for paint application and as we witness the transformation and homogenisation of our urban landscape these paintings capture some of the character of our city’s disappearing history.
Gallery Three:
A Group Show of GANG Collaborations
Shannon Johnston, Clare Conroy, Johan Marais Piper, Deni Pancatritana – Taring Padi Collective (Java Indonesia), TUK Collective (Java-Indonesia), Elizabeth Russ, and Installation by Marty Jay.
Keeper Gallery:
CAPPUCCINO WILDERNESS SAFARI
A solo exhibition by J. D. Reforma
In Cappuccino Wilderness Safari, J.D. Reforma reflects upon the bourgeois tendency to “life-stylise” – re-contextualising the artificial construct of suburbia by extracting from within it specific elements for re-constitution into a fictionalised narrative of “the wild”.
He cites the celebrity-filled tabloid magazine, the idyllic model-home, and the branded takeaway-coffee cup as functional entities within this elusive “wilderness” safari, where the twin-concerns of celebrity and status are the designated and much sought-after “game”.
In elevating them to trophy-status, he proposes that through a totemistic (not simply consumeristic) dedication to such objects, the urban bourgeoisie attempt to transcend the supposed stasis of their position.