2014 exhibition program
Diagonals and Some More Tangents | Laila Marie Costa
24 January to 16 February 2014
Opening: Thursday 23 January, 6 - 8 pm
Laila Marie Costa’s art practice incorporates aspects of consumer culture, mass production and environmentalism. Diagonals and Some More Tangents was created during a two month residency in La Plata, Argentina. Jules Verne’s design for this city envisioned a utopian society of the future. In reality, the diagonals create confusing mazes that challenge previous experience of the urban environment.
Costa’s collages, assemblages and installations were created from the city’s waste and the process of searching for it. 
Image right
Laila Marie Costa
Diagonals and Other Tangents 2013
Installation view, mixed media
400 x 400cm
Image courtesy the artist
Social Resonance | Ben Taranto
24 January to 16 February 2014
Opening: Thursday 23 January, 6 - 8 pm
Social Resonance is a multi-sensory sculptural installation that considers the body’s interconnectedness to space, form, surface and material. Spatial relationships are highlighted as visitors navigate the installation. Sound and light trigger the senses; metal forms and the viewer’s body interrupt moving images of luminous water; and ambient sounds interrupt the space. The work invites an individual experience in a contemplative environment that responds to the viewer’s movement. 
Image right
Ben Taranto
Social Resonance 2013
Metal, glass, sound and moving image
Dimensions variable
Photograph: Cat Drysdale
Wunderkammer: The Museum of lost and Forgotten Objects | Nadia Mercuri and Sarah Field
28 February to 23 March 2014
Opening: Thursday 27 February, 6 - 8 pm
Wunderkammer is an exploration of the human desire to dominate, control, and possess, where the artists modify the historical ‘cabinet of curiosities’ of the museum to express contemporary concerns. Mercuri identifies the disappearance of glass blowing techniques in Australia and laments a future where museums and private collections may be the only place to view these ancient techniques. Field focuses on the darker aspects of collection and display, drawing parallels between seduction, voyeurism, desire, and entitlement and portrayals of the female body in contemporary western culture.
Image right
Nadia Mercuri
Wunderkammer 2013
125 x 106 x 45 cm
Blown Glass, antique scientific glass, found object, antique cabinet
Photograph: Andrew Barcham
Epitaph: Bird Specimens and the Culture of Collecting | Bianca Durrant
28 February to 23 March 2014
Opening: Thursday 27 February, 6 - 8 pm
Bianca Durrant presents new works based on her observations and research of birds of paradise in the natural history collections of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin and the Australian Museum. Durrant questions Western and European methods of museum display by presenting historical collections and their associated data in contemporary forms that reference the Renaissance Wunderkammer – the cabinet of curiosities.
Image right
Bianca Durrant
Ptiloris paradiseus Paradise Riflebird 2013
Ink and synthetic polymer paint on linen
40 x 60cm
Image courtesy of the artist
Migratory Architecture | James Voller
4 to 27 April 2014
Opening: Thursday 3 April, 6 - 8 pm
Migratory Architecture arose from the artist’s experience of migration to Australia from New Zealand. Voller’s photographs map his own story of integration alongside the quickly changing architectural and social features that characterise recent migration in Merri-bek and Darebin. Voller’s interactive installations invite viewers to arrange his work to represent how they see their local environment and community. Using participatory and interactive photography the artist shares the authorship of migration with the audience, echoing the process of his experiences in Merri-bek and Darebin.
Image right
James Voller
Untitled 1 2013
Working Image, Melbourne
Unspecified dimensions
Image courtesy the artist
DISPLACE | Andrew Tetzlaff
4 to 27 April 2014
Opening: Thursday 3 April, 6 - 8 pm
Tetzlaff considers landscape photography in a fresh way—upending, fracturing and looping it as a means of revisiting our experience of it. The photographic print is viewed not only as an image, but as a sculptural form physically connected with its environment. Tetzlaff challenges the identity of traditional landscape as “a view” that we, as viewers, are inherently outside of. Landscape instead is proposed as something that surrounds us and something that we can be within—a spatial and temporal experience.
Image right
Andrew Tetzlaff
Gravity Interrogation II 2012
Installation view
Digital print, oak
100 x 100 x 150 cm
Photograph: Andrew Barcham
In Your Dreams
Stephen Bush | Michael Doolan | Daniel Dorall | William Eicholtz |
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison | Dylan Martorell | Steaphan Paton |
Kate Rohde | Kate Shaw | Sally Smart | Van Sowerwine & Isobel Knowles |
Yandell Walton | Sharon West
Curated by Edwina Bartlem and Victor Griss
9 May to 8 June 2014
Opening: Thursday 8 May, 6 - 8 pm
In Your Dreams explores fantastic worlds and imaginary creatures through a range of media including sculpture, diorama, painting, printmaking, collage, artist’s books, video projection, ambient sound and interactive artwork. It engages the senses, creating an environment to spark the imagination of children and the young-at-heart.
Many artworks have whimsical or surreal qualities of dreams, fairy tales and fables, and like many folkloric tales, occasionally a dark or cautionary quality. Ideas of cuteness, reality, history, power and belonging are introduced through various formal and symbolic devices. Several artists play with scale drawing the viewer into a miniature world overshadowed by colossal creations, generating awe and wonder. Alternatively the viewer can play the role of the giant, observing the drama and curiosity of a Lilliputian world.
Image right
Michael Doolan
Cautionary Tales (turquoise) 2011
Ceramic and auto enamel
32 x 50 x 30cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Karen Woodbury Gallery
Strait Protean: The Art of Brian Robinson | Brian Robinson
Curated by Victor Griss
20 June to 20 July 2014
Opening: Thursday 19 June, 6 - 8 pm
Long before the white man came, the Islanders were the Vikings of the Torres Strait – a narrow passageway of water and treacherous reef lying between Papua New Guinea and Australia. A seafaring indigenous people, they were proud and dignified, deriving their spirituality from ancestral ties to the land, the sea and the sky. Continuing a strong cultural tradition of storytelling, Brian Robinson’s prints and sculptures read as episodes of an intriguing and grand epic. Set within compelling visual puzzles intertwined with organic patterns, the encounters between cultural traditions are told. Like an arcane manuscript, Strait Protean charts a course imbued with customs and mythology of the Torres Strait Island people, referencing classical art and pop culture icons, where forms and characters are co-opted into the spirit world of the Islander’s imagination.
Image right
as the rains fell and the seas rose 2011
Linocut printed in black ink from one block
62 x 112.5 cm
Image courtesy the artist and KickArts Contemporary Arts/Djumbunji Press
2014 Winter Night Screen Program
Tania Lou Smith | Kate Mitchell | Susan Jacobs | Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano
Curated by Catherine Connolly
20 June to 17 July 2014
Opening: Thursday 19 June, 6 - 8 pm
Nightly from 5.30 pm - 12 am
Brunswick Civic Centre Window
233 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Tania Lou Smith
20 to 26 June
Untitled #1 2010
Single-channel High Definition digital video
04:32 minutes
Courtesy the artist
Kate Mitchell
27 June to 3 July
Being Punctual 2010
Single-channel High Definition video
16:9, colour, silent
16:00 minutes
Courtesy the artist and Chalk Horse Gallery
Susan Jacobs
4 to 10 July
Security Illusion 2009
Single-channel High Definition digital video
05:17 minutes
Image: Scott Miles
Courtesy the artist
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano
11 to 17 July
Monument for Air 2011
Single-channel High Definition digital video
16:9, colour, stereo sound
03:40 minutes
Courtesy the artists and Anna Schwartz Gallery
The Wave | Liz Walker
1 to 24 August 2014
Opening: Thursday 31 July, 6 - 8 pm
The Wave considers the hardship and perils of asylum seekers amid the complications of government policy and popular media messages. Using found objects, recycled materials and fallen native timbers, The Wave examines the complex emotions on both sides of the asylum seeker debate. From general observations to profound personal accounts, this multi-layered installation focuses upon aspirations common to all cultures and human need; the wish to belong to a place and the desire in times of crisis for a safe haven.
Image right
Liz Walker
The Wave (boat people) 2013 (detail)
Australian native timbers
Dimensions variable
Image courtesy the artist
What was taken and what was given | Kelvin Skewes
1 to 24 August 2014
Opening: Thursday 31 July, 6 - 8 pm
Nauru hosts three regional processing centres, part of Australia’s revamped ‘Pacific Solution’. They house about 1200 asylum seekers. The vast majority of Nauru’s tiny 21 square kilometre land area has been mined out, and Nauru now relies on aid and patronage from other countries. This exhibition contemplates twentieth century colonialism and twenty-first century paternalism. The case of Nauru is a historic example that encourages us to reflect on questions about extraction industries, the viability of the nation state, and our international and intergenerational responsibilities.
Image right
Kelvin Skewes
Freshly Mined Area Beside Nauru Regional Processing Centre 2013
Pigment Ink-jet print
114 x 142 cm
Image courtesy the artist
Uneducated
Dan Arps | Simon & Tom Bloor (U.K) | Lane Cormick | DAMP | Emily Floyd | Nathan Gray | Dr Peter Hill | Annabelle Kingston | Anastasia Klose | Annette Krauss (N.L) | Room 13 (U.K) | Kym Maxwell | Sean Peoples | Nick Selenitsch | Antonia Sellbach | Peter Tyndall
Curated by Kym Maxwell
5 September to 5 October 2014
Opening: Thursday 4 September, 6 - 8 pm
Uneducated presents artworks and projects that are sociological and educational in nature. The exhibit showcases ‘active’ forms of education that are expressed through the arts in the mediums of photography, video, installation, painting and socially-engaged arts. Each work explores ideas of society, knowledge and institutional learning and stimulates us to consider our role as spectators. The exhibition reflects an ‘educational turn’ in contemporary art discussions, revealing how Australian artists are responding to this — contrasting recent works with historic examples from Europe. A series of talks will address the definition of the ‘educational turn’ and the Australian context, using local and international examples in contemporary art writing, curatorship and philosophy.
Image right
Nick Selenitsch
Line Markings 2010
Dimensions variable
Installation view, Heide Museum 2010
Image courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
New Forms | Natasha Dusenjko
17 October to 9 November 2014
Opening: Thursday 16 October, 6 - 8 pm
Renowned sculptor Constantin Brancusi referred to his own works as “My dodii”. The term originated from the ancient Greek oracle of Dodona and alludes to a cryptic and wordless communication. In an attempt to reveal the mysterious hieroglyphs and oracles born from the sculptor’s mallet, New Forms considers how language functions, and the potential for other types of communication. Using sonic distortion and photographic techniques, the artist considers the possibilities of an everchanging language and obscure modes of communication in a digital age.
Image right
Natasha Dusenjko
New Forms 001.1 2013
Inkjet print, pen and ink
40 x 30 cm
Image courtesy the artist
Feral Science | Mitchel Brannan
17 October to 9 November 2014
Opening: Thursday 16 October, 6 - 8 pm
Drawing on the aesthetic of maps, charts and diagrams, Feral Science invites us to consider how meaning can be generated through intuitive drawing processes. Random fragments of text take the role of place names in these abstract ‘maps’ and shapeless pools of watercolour stand in for conventional geographic features. Sometimes playful, sometimes contradictory, these fragments of text and form are reorganized into new relationships so unexpected narratives and poetic connections can occur.
Image right
Mitchel Brannan
Distill (Wild Sweetie) 2013 (detail)
Mixed media on linen
Dimensions variable
Photograph: Malcolm Lloyd
Speak Out | Merri-bek Summer Show
Rushdi Anwar | Margaret Bishop | Wendy Black | Heinz Boeck | Matt Bottos | Carmen Caruana
Margaret Christianson | Aaron Claringbold | Megan Cope | Brony Dennis | Nick Devlin | Julian Di Martino
Kasia Fabijańska | Sarah Field | Jan Garood | Flora Georgiou | Darcy Gladwin | Gabriella Gomersall - Hubbard
Michael Gromm | Peter Hannaford | Richard Harding | Amaya Iturri | Stephanie Karavasilis | Thomas Killen
Penelope Le Petit | Karleng Lim | Jenny Loft | Carmel Louise | Janelle Low | Priscilla Manthey | Jordan Marani
David McCall | Nadia Mercuri | Eugene Mott | Steaphan Paton | Kate Price | Caesar Sario | Elif Sezen
Benjamin Sheppard | Josh Simpson | Karen Standke | Maya Sugiharto | Fleur Summers | Jessica Sutton
Frances Tapueluelu | Robert Waghorn | Miyuki Watanabe | Dianna Wells | Belinda Wiltshire | Mark Wingrave
21 November – 13 December 2014
Opening: Thursday 20 November, 6 - 8 pm
The Merri-bek Summer Show is an annual exhibition presenting the diverse and dynamic talent of artists with strong connections to the creative City of Merri-bek. The theme for this year’s exhibition is ‘SPEAK OUT’. Participating artists have created new work responding to this theme.