A dynamic group of emerging artists who use unexpected and interdisciplinary practices will present an intriguing show at Gertrude Contemporary as part of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival. ‘Bellowing Echoes’ will features the work of Jess Johnson, Anna Kristensen, Tessa Zettel and Karl Khoe, Marcin Wojcik and The Slow Art Collective.
Curated by Marcel Cooper and Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, the show powerfully and directly explores fundamental global concerns with an underlying sense of darkness, urgency and responsibility. Its based on the historical character George Arden who, after emigrating to Australia at the age of 18 in 1838, launched the weekly ‘Port Phillip Gazette’ as a way to engage and empathise with the community of Melbourne during a time of social and political change. The show’s curators explain that by taking the essence of George’s story and using it as a provocation and as a point of exchange for these artists who value the personal, the political and the relational, they have been able to make new histories and possibly new futures. Arden leads us through the exhibition, comprised of experiential and process-orientated works which present a similar yearning to communicate global issues from young and ambitious viewpoints.
Artist Marcin Wojcik says “it was like I was channelling his thirst or taste for success, chasing some grand vision”. Wojcik’s theatrical work employs devices such as props, scenes and backdrops to draw the viewers into performative spaces. His installation V – Glider (Fawkner Park) has two parts – building and attempting to fly a glider, then a reinterpretation of the event.
Indian Chamber by Anna Kristensen is a three-dimensional, 360-degree panoramic painting that is viewed from the inside. In choosing the Jenolan Caves as her subject matter she has evoked the claustrophobic darkness, coldness and other worldliness of these geologically historic underground caverns. Landescapes, by Tessa Zettel and Karl Khoe, also challenges perceptions of place, history and the environment, by providing an alternative landscape of a ‘collective imaginary’, through the eyes of their fantastical masks built from found materials.
The Slow Art Collective celebrates Asian immigration to Australia with Double Happiness B + B. Its installation sees collected objects from Chinatown transformed into an evolving and complex infrastructure, while Jess Johnson’s work For Protection Against This Modern World boldly addresses more sinister visions of an imagined future.
This show challenges perceptions of contemporary art, by using process-oriented, participatory and performative methods to engage the audience on a personal and experiential level, where “the onus for change and power is shared”. Cooper and Bailey-Charteris sum up their own ambitions: “We hope that audiences will take away a new history. One with more understanding and a belief that despite the rises and falls, we can change and face up to what needs to happen for a positive future.”
Gertrude Contemporary
To May 26
Melbourne
Jess Johnson, Terror of the Deep, 2012, pen, feltips, collage, coloured card, plywood, painted frame, 64 x 84cm
The Slow Art Collective, Shelter, 2001, installation view from Ian Potter Museum of Art exhibition ‘Mis-design’, dimensions variable
