On Saturday 22 June, Carriageworks will present a full day of performances and a series of curator and artist panels to celebrate the final weekend of ‘The National: New Australian Art’.
Against a backdrop of dark sunshine, ‘The National 2019′ at Carriageworks presented the work of 19 artists from across the nation whose work traverses the present moment, through the past, for the future. Co-Curator of The National and Carriageworks Director, Programs, Daniel Mudie Cunningham said, ”The National 2019′ at Carriageworks presents newly commissioned works that map memory and place-making, where the work of art is a form of emotional tourism. Exploring the boundaries of truth and fiction, the selected artists reflect on the individual’s place in an uncertain and ever-shifting world. At Carriageworks, artists send their work into the world of The National, like postcards mailed from the visual wreckage of local, national or global contexts.’
Tom Mùller’s ephemeral, site-responsive Ghost Line, which simulates the historic experience of a locomotive steam train in action will be activated on the shared pathway outside Carriageworks three times throughout the day, at 11am and 4pm, and a special after-dark activation to close the program at 6pm.
Tom Mùller, Ghost Line, The National: New Australian Art 2019, Carriageworks. Photograph: Zan Wimberley
At 11.30am, Matthew Sleeth, the artist behind A Drone Opera, opening at Carriageworks on Thursday June 20, will speak with Daniel Mudie Cunningham.
Mark Shorter will perform his time traveling, landscape painting critic ‘Schleimgurgeln’ in a durational performance for Song for Von Guérard from 12-6pm. Shorter describes, ‘I’m an artist that works with performance and installation, ideas around the body as a material to work with, landscape and how landscape’s constructed.’
Throughout the afternoon, Carriageworks will host three panels discussion between curators and artists exhibiting in ‘The National: New Australian Art’:
2pm, Panel 1 – The Archive, moderated by MCA Curator Clothilde Bullen and will feature artists Cherine Fahd (Apókryphos), Eugenia Raskopoulos (ORDER-(DIS)ORDER), and Mish Meijers & Tricky Walsh (The Crocker Land Expedition).
3pm, Panel 2 – The Collectors, moderated by Carriageworks Assistant Curator, Visual Arts Aarna Fitzgerald Hanley with artists Tony Albert (House of Discards), Sean Rafferty (Cartonography (FNQ)), and Troy-Anthony (Baylis Postcards).
4pm, Panel 3 – The Popular, moderated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham with artists Nat Thomas (Postcards from the Edge), Tara Marynowsky (Coming Attractions), and Sam Cranstoun (UTOPIA).
Sam Cranstoun, UTOPIA, The National: New Australian Art 2019, Carriageworks. Photograph: Zan Wimberley
Cranston’s multidisciplinary practice combines various forms of research with a wide array of media to create work that investigates different systems of representation. He will discuss his work, UTOPIA, the large public work situated at the external entrance of ‘The National’ at Carriageworks. UTOPIA references Ken Done’s iconic sign displayed at the entrance to World Expo in 1988 that spelt out the word Australia, and functions a reflection on where we are as a nation 30-something years later. Mudie Cunningham describes the work as: ‘while it might be utopian, it’s interesting to think about what it actually left out of the narrative, how it might have left out issues around multiculturalism, the migrant experience, and very importantly, the Indigenous experience. It’s an optimistic and sunny work, but it also by extension signals the dystopian flip side, which runs through the course of ‘The National’ at Carriageworks.’
