The slow demise of the ubiquitous department store resulted in the closure of Myer’s Fremantle franchise in Western Australia and the abandonment of the building it occupied for four decades. The five-story empty concrete shell, stretching over two hectares, was prime real estate for the world’s largest temporary space activation project, MANY 6160. Visitors can be immersed in a recreated environment for production and creativity with a collective of curated pop-up stores reflecting the eclectic style of Freo; including retail, artists’ studios, production spaces and, since February 2016, an artist-run initiative ambitiously named, Success.
A red velvet curtain is drawn to reveal the opening scene of this ‘success’ tale, allowing the visitor to traverse down the escalator to a once vacant basement, now underground art space. The large-scale exhibition venue features multiple galleries, studios, and performance spaces across a 2,800 square meter capacity – from white plasterboard to grey undressed concrete walls; waffle cement to exposed ceiling tracks; overhead fluorescent battens to ambient spotlighting – the raw space is ideal for installation and audio-visual work.
Whether named after one of the first British ships to explore Western Australia, HMS Success, or the outer suburb and numerous landmarks in honour of the vessel, there’s a self-effacing quality to its name. There’s no pretentious Gordon Gecko-esque goal of achieving personal and monetary greatness in the art world. Success was developed by Perth-based Artist Run Initiative, Moana Project Space as a new platform for contemporary art, compelling ideas, curatorial projects and groundbreaking artwork. Since its inception, the gallery has showcased innovative visual art and site-specific projects from a mix of Australian and international artists, performers and curators; including Sydney-based artist Benjamin Forster; WA artists Thea Constantino, Joshua Webb and Erin Coates; and Melbourne performance-duo germ_lock (featuring noted installation artist Eric Demetriou), as well as curators Kate Britton and Laetitia Wilson.
This November, Success will showcase its fifth block of programming with five simultaneous exhibitions including an audio visual solo show and ‘Other Spaces’, a new site-specific series curated by Jack Warnsbrough, where artists respond to the strange void left behind by the deserted staff rooms, awkward architectural blind-spots, and unfinished cul-de-sacs of the former department store. Also, adding to the opening night festivities, an experimental music performance curated by Lyndon Blue. The connection between sport and art is explored in ‘Plugger’ and ‘Success Mini Golf’, combining aesthetics and playful competition.
Named after AFL legend Tony Lockett, one assumes, ‘Plugger’ is a group exhibition curated by Emma Buswell, featuring Australian and Dutch artists David Attwood, Gabrielle de Vietri, Guillermo Kramer, Bas Schevers and Stef Van den Dungen. These artists tackle the methodologies and strict frameworks of sport, its contexts, strategy, performance, team spirit and gamesmanship. They explore the personal and formal politics of athletic culture and art making drawing on populist formulations, competitive aggression and idol status. According to Success, “this exhibition unpicks the frisson through which both these subjects are made separate and ultimately attempts to unveil commonalities and shared agendas. Through humour and appropriation each artist grapples with binary oppositions, adversarial relationships and the pursuit for success, and the personal politics of winning and losing.”
‘Success Mini Golf’ is a series of new sculptural artworks that double as an interactive putt-putt course, played out across the cavernous main gallery space. “The aesthetics and ideology of golf becomes the subject, as a site of corporate elitism, environmental waste, fashion and aesthetics, and cultural decadence”, says Success. “The project also parodies the notion of use value in art, critiques the quality of gallery audience, the culture of the ‘installation art’ experience, and champions the accessible over the obscure.”
Success
From 12 November, 2016
Western Australia
Escalator to Success
Photograph: Dan McCabe