Visual Arts Program - 2011 - Perth International Arts Festival

Visual Arts
JANUARY–APRIL 2011
perthfestival.com.au

IMAGE CREDITS
Art can transform the way we see ourselves: challenging
how we think and lead our lives, inspiring us to respond with
imagination, insight and a spirit of adventure to an everchanging
world.
When artists create work in open spaces they enhance our
experience of place in unexpected and sometimes playful ways.
ART:CITY in 2011 brings this opportunity to the people of
Perth with a riches of commissioned public projects, exceptional
exhibitions and an address by the founder of one of the world’s
most dynamic artist collectives working in urban settings.
ART:CITY aims to encourage interactions between artists from
across different disciplines and from around the world. In 2011
artists visit from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland and
the USA. They join artists in Perth in creating art encounters
that are sure to change your perception of place, have you
reflecting upon possibilities, and they might well bring a smile to
your face too.
Over the coming weeks, we hope you and your family will take
the opportunity to explore the array of ART:CITY events and
exhibitions that enliven Perth by day and night.
This is art of our times at its most inventive, compelling and
life-affirming – and it’s yours to enjoy freely.
Helen Carroll Fairhall
Manager, Wesfarmers Arts and Curator,
the Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art
Cover: Tomas Saraceno, detail Flying Garden, 2005
Vila Manin, Centre for Contemporary Art
Image courtesy of the artist and Pink Summer Contemporary Art
Page 2 Roderick Sprigg, Study for Pursuit of Happiness I, 2010
Image courtesy the artist
Page 3 Andrew Shoben in front of Monument to the Unknown
Artist, 2007
Image courtesy greyworld
Pages 4&5 Jesper Just , Something to Love, 2005
8:10min. Super 16mm film (production stills)
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris; Galleri Christina
Wilson, Copenhagen and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York
Page 6 Maschi Fontana, Space Mustang , 2009
Courtesy and © the artists
Page 7 John Gerrard, detail Lufkin (near Hugo, Colorado) 2009
Image courtesy the artist, Simon Preston, New York and
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Page 8 Nathalie Daoust, Fishing, 2008
Courtesy and © the artist
Page 9 Jess Burke, Gerald Bailey, 2009
Courtesy the artist
Page 10 Genevieve Thauvette, Unica Zurn, 2008
Image courtesy the artist
Page 10 Genevieve Thauvette, Marina Abramov, 2008
Image courtesy the artist
Page 11 Tomas Saraceno, study Cloud City Perth, 2011
Courtesy the artist and Studio Tomas Saraceno
Page 12 Nien Schwarz, Radicle (Study III), 2010
Photo Michael Wingate

VISUAL ARTS PROJECTS –
LOCATIONS AND TIMES
Andrew Shoben
ART:CITY Keynote Address
Thur 17 Feb, 6pm
Perth Concert Hall
5 St Georges Tce, Perth
www.perthconcerthall.com.au
Tomas Saraceno: Cloud City, 2011
Langley Park West End, cnr Queen Victoria Tce
Sat 19–Sun 27 Feb, all day
Jesper Just
Fri 11 Feb–Fri 8 April, Mon–Fri, 12–5pm
Sun 13, 20 & 27 Feb & Sun 27 March, 1–4pm
John Curtin Gallery
Building 200, Curtin University
Kent St, Bentley
08 9266 4155 www.johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au
Dialogues with Landscape
Tue 15 Feb–Mon 7 March, 8am–10 pm
Whitfield Court, Great Court and Tropical Grove
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Ave, Crawley
www.culturalprecinct.uwa.edu.au/dialogues
John Gerrard
Opening Wed 16 Feb, 6–8pm
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
Perth Cultural Centre,
James St, Northbridge
17 Feb–3 April, Tue–Sun, 11am–6pm
08 6228 9603 www.pica.org.au
Roderick Sprigg: GOLD
Opening Wed 16 Feb, 6–8pm
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
Perth Cultural Centre,
James St, Northbridge
17 Feb–3 April, Tue–Sun, 11am–6pm
08 6228 9603 www.pica.org.au
Maschi Fontana: Rising Lotus
Sat 29 Jan–Sun 20 March
Opening Fri 28 Jan, 6.30pm
Fremantle Arts Centre
1 Finnerty St, Fremantle
08 9432 9565 www.fac.org.au
Nathalie Daoust: Frozen in Time
Sat 29 Jan–Sun 20 March
Opening Fri 28 Jan, 6.30pm
Fremantle Arts Centre
1 Finnerty St, Fremantle
08 9432 9565 www.fac.org.au
Genevieve Thauvette: Beheld
Sat 19 Feb–Sun 13 March
Perth Centre for Photography
91 Brisbane St, Perth
Wed–Fri, 12–5pm, Sat & Sun, 12–4pm during Festival
or by appointment 0405 647 889
08 9227 6620 www.pcp.org.au
Jesse Burke: Low
Sat 19 Feb–Sun 13 March
Perth Centre for Photography
91 Brisbane St Perth
Wed–Fri, 12–5pm, Sat & Sun, 12–4pm during Festival
or by appointment 0405 647 889
08 9227 6620 www.pcp.org.au

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2011 PROGRAM
Discernable throughout the 2011 exhibitions is a consciousness
of the fragility of the environment and of humanity, yet the
works collectively convey optimism, suggest positive strategies
and sometimes even offer humour. Across multidiscipline
practices artists share their investigations in poetic, imaginative,
sensitive and sometimes startling ways. They demonstrate
resourceful approaches to community sustainability, whether
it is through encouraging greater human interactivity or
environmental engagement in daily living, or whether it is
conceptually more searching about the health of the globe
and how we might coexist and flourish into the future. Other
projects interrogate the psychological core of humanity,
navigating the rich territory of emotion and empathy, while
some focus upon external forces and their impact.
Significantly, several of the international artists, each
distinguished in their field, are presenting work in Australia for
the first time. This is complemented by the work of local artists
who enhance correspondences across the Visual Arts program.
The ART:CITY Keynote Address
Andrew Shoben, founder of the London-based artists collective
greyworld, delivers the 2011 Wesfarmers ART:CITY Keynote
Address, contributing to dialogue about art in public places and
community well-being. greyworld's aim is to make art in places
that are often classified as urban understudies – places that
might be between or peripheral to the perceived geographical
‘main game’ of the city and its primary business. Their intention
is to activate and enliven such spaces where an audience might
be the least suspecting and where passing pedestrian traffic or
transitory occupants of that space can become participants and
contributors. greyworld is cognisant of the social capacity of art
and unleashing community empowerment, and they employ fun
and technological adaptability to achieve this.
The ART:CITY Commission
Working in Australia for the first time, Argentine artist Tomas
Saraceno has conceived for Perth an ambitious temporary
sculpture spectacularly emblematic of his visionary practice
– a practice that straddles science, architecture, engineering,
aeronautics, nature and art. Douglas Fogle writing in the recent
Phaidon publication Creamier suggests that, ‘… Saraceno
practices a kind of ‘science friction’, whereby the utopian
elements of artistic fantasy come into productive collision with
the real world of hard science’. Saraceno considers a future
where community and its mobility in the world might dilute
the highly governed geopolitical systems currently in place and
where living might be less burdensome upon earthly resources.
For all its utopian and futurist overtones, the departure point for
Saraceno is often generated by his interest in the natural world,
starting as he has from the structural intricacy and strength of
a spider’s web or the meniscus of a soap bubble or the shapeshifting
mobility of a cloud.
For the past decade Saraceno has produced a series of works
under the banner of ‘Air port City’ alluding to a concept
whereby people could inhabit the skies. He has constructed
works out of inflatable biospheres and explored lighter than air
technology to construct suspended pods. His art gives form to
explorations into complex psychographic, scientific and physical
shifts for inter-community tolerance and for environmental
sustainability. His research incorporates flight, ballooning, natural
energies, plant biology and material technology, all of which is
concentrated on airborne survival and growth.
Cloud City is an extrapolation from cloud formations, bringing
together the engineering expertise of air balloon technology
with the finesse of an artist with an architectural sensibility for
space and experience. In this instance the work is also informed
by a preliminary visit to Perth during winter when the crisp,
sunny July sky was punctuated with clouds. As magical and
intriguing as Saraceno’s art appears to be, with each project,
his fascination with clouds as a cellular paradigm for future
occupation in the skies seems more believable and achievable.
Dialogues with Landscape
To commemorate the passing of the 1911 Act that established
The University of Western Australia, seven local artists have
been selected and commissioned to produce work on the
campus. Under the title of Dialogues with Landscape, the artists
have each responded to the natural and cultivated grounds of
the University and the history of its landscape, built form and
community.
This inaugural site-specific event at the University in some ways
encapsulates the imperatives and energies that run through
the Visual Arts program. Nien Schwarz, Bennett Miller Diokno
Pasilan, Julian Stadon, Rachael Dease, George Egerton-
Warburton and Gian Manik, each in their unique engagement
with the location, produce a test tube for the diversity of ways
artists work site specifically with a character, history, nature
and community – how artists can activate and accentuate
place and experience. They have brought to bear a sense of
fun and inquiry, reverence, care and connectivity. For example,
Bennett Miller has sculptured a new territory for the resident
peacocks and Diokno Pasilan has created a temporary Memory
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House in the Tropical Gardens, recalling the Filipino tradition
of community celebration and sharing when moving a villager’s
house to a new location. Performances initiated by artists also
encourage public participation, temporarily affecting their
interactions with the renowned grounds of the University.
Exhibitions
Rising Lotus is the result of a globe-traversing collaboration
between the duo of artists working as Maschi Fontana: Tom
Muller in Australia and Jean Thomas Vannotti in Switzerland.
It is a witty though respectful absorption of science fiction,
mysticism and popular culture. Maschi Fontana’s record of
art attuned to social and environmental currencies, exchange
and systems suggests Rising Lotus aims to bridge the natural,
man-made and paranormal forces through a multi-sensory,
experiential trail of sculpture, sound and print, all of which might
point to anchors sought in an unmoored world.
In his first solo exhibition in Australia, Irish artist John Gerrard
blends fact and fiction in a survey of his remarkable largescale
Realtime 3D projections. In one interview discussing his
methods, John Gerrard refers to online ‘image wandering’ as
a preliminary step to locating landscapes he eventually visits
in reality – satellite technology making it feasible to map the
landscape via computer. What occurs from that point on
continues a highly technical see-saw and synthesis between
the real and the representational, from photography to model
making to digitisation to realtime activation. Within this complex
and controlled level of intervention and manipulation, what
seems never lost is the transportation of the artist’s vision
to audience. Employing orbital camera scanning, the viewer
is lulled seamlessly into time travelling within the work; and
with subjects that touch on the depletion of natural resources
and the impact of our habits of consumption, Gerrard’s
work proposes a reinvigoration of social realism in art in the
technological age.
A survey of selected film works by Danish artist Jesper Just is
also his first solo exhibition in Australia. By presenting multiple
works, a rare opportunity is afforded to see how elegantly
constructed Just’s captivating vignettes are and how intriguingly
and effectively he provokes unsettling layers of empathy,
bemusement, judgement and narrative in his viewer. His
mesmerisingly beautiful film work seems both simultaneously
cognisant and dismissive of cinematic convention, drawing
the viewer into characters and situations which seem familiar,
before suspending them, inviting the suggestion of narrative,
purpose and reflection. Questions of relationships, vulnerability,
gender, power, memory and reality are posed within these films
and the exquisiteness of Just’s direction, timing and sound are
so complete and sometimes unexpected that ultimately the
emotional emancipation and questions raised are self-reflexive.
His art is an exceptional study in intimacy and humanity.
Armed with a video camera and a mission, local artist Roderick
Sprigg has journeyed to the Western Australian goldfields
around Leonora – the remnants and documentation of this
adventure forming his exhibition Gold. Dressed in business suit
from the waist up and reflective mining pants from the waist
down and armed with a cart, the GPX 5000 metal detector
and a pick-axe, Sprigg portrays a contemporary prospector
with a script that is both romantic and soulful: ‘A young man, an
isolated figure, is in search of what is readily available to anyone
who searches. Soldiers, sailors, policemen, lawyers, aristocrats,
the destitute and the desperate – even future prime ministers
and presidents have their place in the historic Goldfields.
Whether it is divine or humanistic, Gold is symbolic of arrival,
of financial, physical or spiritual completeness. A standard. The
material has the power to allure and delude and bring its disciple
to a fear of failure.’ A part of Sprigg’s self-prescribed search is
to literally follow in his father’s footsteps, as his father and uncle
found and established King of the Hills mine. This exhibition
furthers Sprigg’s enduring investigation into masculinity,
aspiration, heroism and failure.
Masculinity is raw in Jesse Burke’s intrinsically humanitarian
series entitled Low, depicting portraits of homeless and
disenfranchised men. Although the subjects are familiar to the
artist, he returns their compliance in being photographed with
artistic reverence, capturing their fragility with pathos and dignity.
Through lighting and by casting their image into velvety black
voids, an aura of grace is bestowed upon these displaced men,
consciously referencing the grief or suffering that marks historical
paintings of Christ. He intersperses these portraits with stark
images of weeds, finding in this conjunction of man and nature
a tribute to the social fringes and to environmental neglect.
In a dramatically different locale and circumstance, Nathalie
Daoust in Frozen in Time explores human vulnerability and
entrapment from a personalised, feminine perspective. Her
photographs disarmingly depict women unnaturally posed amid
the pictureseque Swiss Alps. The ethereal beauty of nature,
enhanced by Daoust’s hand colouring, shrouds the eeriness and
abandonment of the figure. Within a universally appealing and
familiar setting, she introduces a note of discord, softening what
might be sinister or discomforting, or alluding to dream state
versus reality.
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The intent of self-portraiture by Canadian photographer
Genevieve Thauvette is also staged and layered though
unambiguous. Photographing herself in the guise of a number
of significant women artists of the 20th century, her series
Beheld is an assertive yet enigmatic portrayal of women artists
and artistic developments by women throughout the century.
The images, featuring Hannah Hoch, Georgia O’Keefe, Frida
Kahlo and Marina Abramovic amongst others, are consistently
framed in gold, and a doily forms a halo around their heads.
Thauvette includes in her portraits an image of their male
partners, whose careers at times eclipsed their own, perhaps
questioning the role of muse or equal. Framed kitschly like icons
and with the figure choreographed like a saint with an attribute,
Thauvette produces work that is as playful as perceptive of art
lineages and the roles gender and devotion.
Margaret Moore
ARTISTS PARTICIPATING IN
FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS 2011
JESSE BURKE
Jesse Burke’s photographs evoke a deep lushness with images
of velvet black darkness, blankets of pine needles, blood, love,
and sadness. He photographs the natural world around him
as well as the men who are a part of his life, whether family
members or friends, to explore the vulnerability of masculinity.
He is drawn to moments where a rupture or wound is physically,
emotionally, or metaphorically inflicted. He employs concepts
such as male bonding and peer influence, masculine rites and
rituals and man’s connectedness to nature in order to expose
these instances.
Jesse is an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design where
he received his MFA in Photography. His work has been
exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Milan, Stockholm, Madrid, Miami,
Los Angeles, Seattle, Tucson, Providence, Ottawa and Boston
and was recently selected to be a finalist for Review Santa
Fe and Critical Mass 2010. Jesse was the 2008 recipient of
the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Aaron Siskind
Fellowship. He is represented by ClampArt gallery in New York
City, where he had his first solo exhibition Intertidal in June
2010, and by Platform Gallery in Seattle.
NATHALIE DAOUST
Nathalie Daoust has created and exhibited her photographic
works around the world and most recently was included
in the Athens Photography Festival. She also held a solo
exhibition in Sao Paulo. Daoust studied at the Cegep du Vieux-
Montreal in the 1990s. She utilises a range of traditional and
contemporary techniques and has trained in anaglyph and
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lenticular photography. Her practice has involved numerous
site-based projects and residencies, and her ‘New York Hotel
Story’ series – which was also published as a book – saw the
artist taking up residency for two years in the Carlton Arms
Hotel, an underground legend where every room is decorated
by artists from all over the world. Daoust’s Frozen in Time
series was produced while undertaking a six-month residency
in Switzerland and was supported by Conseil des arts et des
lettres du Québec.
RACHAEL DEASE
Familiar to local Perth music aficionados as the front-woman
of Schvendes, singer-songwriter Rachael Dease regularly
impresses audiences with her spine-tingling vocals and
innovative neo-gothic arrangements. Her artistic practice
uncomfortably straddles the realms of classical, contemporary
and alternative music, and previous works include orchestral
scores and commissioned compositions for film, theatre and
performance. Rachael freelances as a composer, instrumentalist,
vocalist and soundscape designer, and past collaborators include
director Matthew Lutton (ThinIce), choreographer Chrissie
Parrot, artist Marcus Canning and dancer Rakini. She has
worked closely with the Totally Huge New Music Festival and
Tura New Music as a curator and event manager, and developed
the popular Road Trip events where local bands reinterpreted
and performed film scores. She presents a new string quartet
composition for Dialogues with Landscape, delivered through a
quadraphonic sound system embedded within Winthrop Hall.
GEORGE EGERTON-WARBURTON
Following on from his whimsical Chicken Stampede project
for the 2010 Next Wave Festival, George Egerton-Warburton
presents a series of performances for Dialogues With
Landscape that seek to explore perceptible ley lines within
the UWA campus. Informed by a performative practice that
investigates rarely-probed spectrums of hierarchical Australian
culture and society, his multidisciplinary works have included
staged events presented in squares, streets and supermarkets.
Tangible outcomes incorporate but are not limited by painting,
sculpture, installation and sound. His outcomes are often
simultaneously surreal and sentimental, ironic and pathetic,
and regularly delight the viewer. He has exhibited widely since
completing his Honours degree in Fine Art in 2009 – highlights
include Rounds (PICA), The Yellow Vest Syndrome (Fremantle
Arts Centre), the 2008 and 2009 Fremantle Print Award
and Charlie Sofo and Tom Polo’s Friends exhibition at TCB in
Melbourne. In November 2010 he presented a new body of
performance-driven work at Goddard de Fiddes Gallery.
MASCHI FONTANA
Maschi Fontana is an artistic duo consisting of Tom Muller
and Jean-Thomas Vannotti. Its name derives from the artists’
grandmothers’ maiden names – (Laura) Maschi and (Daisy)
Fontana. Muller who now lives in Perth and Vannotti in Neuchâtel,
Switzerland studied together in the early 1990s and with Lionel
Wyss formed the graffiti collective known as 296 (1990–96).
Maschi Fontana is an optimistic strategy intended to facilitate a
fuller participation in the flow of global ideas and opportunities
by two artists who live away from major art centres. Locating
their practice within a neo-mystic futurist platform, Maschi
Fontana aims to push the boundaries of their cross-hemisphere
collaboration into obscure and uncharted terrain.
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Tom Muller was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1975,
trained in Italy and Australia and was mentored by the
illustrious Ilya Kabakov in New York. His work has been
exhibited in the prestigious Primavera exhibition at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, The Australian
Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia, the
Melbourne Art Fair and at the Art Gallery of Western
Australia. Muller has also been the recipient of numerous
residencies and awards, including the Encouragement
of Australian Contemporary Art Award from the Qantas
Foundation.
Artist’s website: tom-muller.com
Jean-Thomas Vannotti was born in 1974 in Bedigliora,
Switzerland and lives and works in Neuchâtel,
Switzerland. He graduated with a degree in Visual Arts
from École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne in 2000. He
has held six solo exhibitions in Europe since 2000 and
participated in numerous group exhibitions. In 1998
he was commissioned for a wall painting at European
Centre of Silicon Graphics, Cortaillod and in 2001 he was
Scholarship Holder from canton of Neuchâtel to Berlin.
JOHN GERRARD
Born in Dublin in 1974, John Gerrard received a BFA from the
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University in
1997 and an MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in
2000. In 2009 he was a guest resident at the Rijksakademie van
beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam.
Recent solo exhibitions of Gerrard’s work include Cuban School
(Community 5 th October) at Simon Preston Gallery, New York;
Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2010); Sow Farm: What You
See is Where You’re At, Scottish National Gallery of Modern
Art, Edinburgh (2010); Directions at Hirschorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden Washington DC; and Animated Scene at the
53rd Venice Biennial Venice (2009); John Gerrard at Temple
Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (2008); and Dark Portraits
at Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2006). Recent group
exhibitions include The Fifth Genre, Gallery Lelong, New York;
Invited EV=A, Limerick, Ireland; and In-Finitum at Palazzo
Fortuny, Venice
John Gerrard lives and works in Dublin, Ireland and Vienna,
Austria and is represented by Simon Preston Gallery, New York
and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.
JESPER JUST
Jesper Just was born in 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark and
lives and works in New York.
His distinctive and distinguished career in film work has seen
him hold an extensive and impressive list of solo exhibitions, a
selection of which is listed here beginning with his first major
solo exhibition in Australia for the Perth International Arts
Festival at John Curtin Gallery Australia (2011); Herning Art
Museum, Denmark (2012); BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary
Art, UK (2011); Mongin Art Center, Korea (2011); Museum
Mac/Val, Musée d’art contemporain du Val de Marne, France
(2011); Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, Denmark (2011);
Romantic Delusions, Tampa Museum of Art, USA; With Mixed
Emotions, MOCAD, Detroit, USA; Gulbenkian Foundation,
Portugal; The Retrospective of Jesper Just, X Media Forum,
31st Moscow International Film Festival, MediaArtLab, Moscow,
Russia; Brooklyn Art Museum, New York; ‘Romantic Delusions’
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris; Biennale Liverpool, Liverpool;
’A voyage in Dwelling’, Victoria Miro Gallery, London; La Casa
Encendida, Madrid; U-tum/Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen;
‘S.M.A.K’ Ghent, Belgium; Witte de Witte, Rotterdam, The
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Netherlands; Ursula Blickle Foundation, Kraichtal, Germany;
Miami Art Museum, Miami; ‘Something to love’, Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles,
California; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Herning Art Museum,
Denmark; Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York; and Galleri
Christina Wilson, Copenhagen.
GIAN MANIK
Currently completing his Masters degree in Fine Art at Monash
University, Gian Manik continues to develop an experimental
practice that combines elements of performance, sculpture
and painting. His works explore the function of the body as
a performative device, often combining phantasmal video,
evocative sculpture and prodigious painting. Gian graduated
from Curtin University in 2007 with First Class Honours in
Visual Arts, and has since contributed to numerous exhibitions
including Human Roll (China Heights), The Yellow Vest
Syndrome (Fremantle Arts Centre), the 2008 and 2009
Joondalup Invitational Art Prize and two solo exhibitions – HOW
WORKS (Perth Town Hall) and The Second Blow (Black & Blue).
In 2009 he was awarded Artsource’s residency at the Gunnery,
Sydney, and he has also completed residencies at CIA Studios
and PICA. For Dialogues with Landscape, Gian is developing a
series of large French-knitted sculptures that will be suspended
from ‘the great tree’ on campus. A cacophony of internal ‘bird
calls’ can be activated by the viewer’s movement.
BENNETT MILLER
A celebrated sculptor and installation artist, Bennett regularly
creates awe-inspiring large-scale installation works, notably the
Golf War series (2003–2007), which retold Iraq war narratives
through nine playable mini-golf courses, and the Dachshund
UN project, first staged at the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne
2010 and represented at PICA later that year. In addition to
solo exhibitions at IASKA (2006), Canberra Contemporary
Art Space (2007) and Chalk Horse (2009), Bennett created
a dachshund topiary maze for 2010’s Garden Art Action in
the Stirling Gardens and a dachshund habitat for the popular
Rounds exhibition and publication at PICA, two of his many
group shows. For Dialogues with Landscape Miller takes a brief
reprieve from working with capricious canines to develop a
sculptural deep blue colour field environment within the UWA
grounds. One intention of the artist in developing the work is to
find ways to coax the resident peacocks into the site.
DIOKNO PASILAN
Since immigrating to Australia from the Philippines, Diokno
Pasilan has maintained a practice that encompasses installation,
performance, video, painting, photography and music-making,
sharing his mix of cultural influences with communities through
skills-sharing workshops and collaborative practice. He regularly
undertakes residencies in Palawan (Philippines) that inform
events, actions and exhibitions in Perth and beyond. Skilled
in traditional batik techniques and the creation of East-Asian
instruments, Diokno imparts his techniques through community
workshops as well as concerts with a group of peers, who
perform as The Gong Band. For Dialogues with Landscape,
Diokno will create Memory House through a series of workshops
with the Filipino community in an effort to revive the essence
of social interaction inherent within the tradition of ‘Bayanihan’.
Derived from a village tradition where the community would
come together to move a house to a new location, it has since
developed to encompass the act of beautifying a house. An
initiative of reflection designed to challenge the surrounding
poverty and imbue the community with pride for their homes
and their environment, the concept of Bayanihan will undergo
another permutation during the 2011 Perth Festival.
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TOMAS SARACENO
Tomas Saraceno was born in 1973 in Tucamen, Argentina and
currently lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. He graduated in
Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires in 1999 and
studied post-graduate Fine Arts at the Staatliche Hochschule
fur Bildende Künst in Frankfurt (2001–03). In 2003/04 he held
the Stipendium Hessische Kuturstiftung in Rotterdam. He has
held numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the
USA since 1998 and has participated in many significant group
exhibitions that include Radical Nature: Art and Architecture
for a Changing Planet at the Barbican in London (2009–10),
RETHINK Relations, Statens Museum for Kunst Copenhagen,
Denmark 2009-10, Making Worlds at the 53rd Venice Biennale
(2009) and Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Centre Minneapolis
(2007). In 2008 he created On Clouds (Air-Port City), a
permanent installation at Towada Arts Centre, Japan. In 2009 he
attended the International Space Studies Program at NASA and
in the same year was awarded the prestigious Calder Prize and
Residency at Atlelier Calder in Sache, France. His commission
for the Perth International Arts Festival in 2011 is the first time
Saraceno has presented his work in Australia.

RODERICK SPRIGG
Roderick Sprigg was born in Merredin in 1979 and currently
lives and works between Leonora and Mukinbudin in Western
Australia. He is a multi-disciplinary artist whose process and
community-based art practice is often concerned with the
politics of masculinity in regional communities.
Sprigg received his Bachelor of Arts (Visual Art) from Curtin
University in 2006, which included an exchange at the Ecole
Nationale Superior d’Art in Dijon, France. Since graduating, the
artist held a solo exhibition, Mechanical Nuisance at the Fremantle
Art Centre (2008), and has also participated in numerous group
exhibitions, including: The now recent past at Heathcote Museum
& Gallery, WA (2010); Family Guy at Lake Macquarie City Art
Gallery, NSW (2009); Occasional Tables, Craft Victoria, Melbourne,
Vic (2008). Sprigg was selected for PRIMAVERA – the survey of
emerging talent at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
(2009) and was also commissioned for Melbourne’s Next Wave
Festival (2008).
Sprigg has been the recipient of residencies at Perth Institute
of Contemporary Arts (2008), The Cannery, Esperance (2007)
and most recently completed a residency based in Jakarta
developing his new project at the Faculty of Art, Institut
Kesenian Jakarta as part of IASKA’s cultural exchange program
developed in partnership with the Jakarta Biennale.
NIEN SCHWARZ
Born in the Netherlands, raised in Canada and settled in
Australia since 1994, acclaimed artist Dr Nien Schwarz imbues
her practice with a life-long passion for geography, earth
sciences and the environment. Her work can be seen as a
continual reflection of her relationships to the ground beneath
our feet. For Dialogues with Landscape, Nien has developed
Radicle, a multivalent mapping project consisting of sleeping
bags, tents, camping mattresses and backpacks rolled to
form soft-sculptural planters. The vessels support the growth
of native plants to form a temporary arboretum, with each
plant fitted with an identifying tag. The work is designed to
complement UWA’s centenary, its heritage-listed gardens and
its vast chambers of research while provoking consideration of
historical and contemporary relationships to WA flora. Radicle
was preceded by numerous celebrated exhibitions, including
Promised Land (2001 Perth International Arts Festival), which
saw the artist create 800 hand-made shopping bags from
topographic maps, and Over My Shoulder, a vast wall and floor
work of air reconnaissance photos presented within PICA in
2006. In addition to maintaining her practice, Nien works a
Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts at Edith Cowan University.
ANDREW SHOBEN
Andrew Shoben is the founder of greyworld, a world renowned
artists’ collective based in London that creates art in public
spaces. His work finds expression through the mediums of
installation, sculpture and multiples. His primary objective is to
create public art that involves the human in an urban context.
greyworld has created works in some hugely coveted locations
across the world, and they now have permanent installations
in 12 countries. In 2004 he launched The Source, a permanent
installation for the London Stock Exchange. It was unveiled
by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is watched by millions
everyday on television around the world as the markets open.
In 2009 Shoben launched Invisible, a large scale and multi-sited
work in Burnley, UK with the support of Channel 4’s Big Art
Project. Working with a large group of children to create the
work, Andrew spent two years mentoring and inspiring the
children to get excited by art. The documentary to accompany
the artwork was aired on Channel 4 in May 2009.
Andrew is a regular contributor to television, radio and print
and lectures extensively around the world. After lecturing at
the Royal College of Art for four years, he became Professor of
Public Art at Goldsmiths University. More information at
www.greyworld.org.
JULIAN STADON
Julian Stadon’s multi-disciplinary practice is grounded within
his engagement with electronic and multimedia art. Often
developing digital outcomes, he is equally comfortable working
within Second Life as he is within a traditional gallery space. For
Dialogues with Landscape, Julian will develop real time tracking
technologies to embed visitors to the exhibition within UWA’s
Second Life environment. Incorporated into this system is a
live cellular community that will enable the artist to juxtapose
similar biological and digital constructions. The work articulates
how collaborative discourse and open source digital networks
deterritorialise and reterritorialise the body under a new
paradigm of post-biological representation. A PhD student, his
research has been informed by residencies with the Interface
Cultures program in Linz; Salford University, Manchester; Human
Interface Technologies Lab, New Zealand (HITLabNZ); and at
The Fogscreen Research Centre, Finland. Julian is the Director
of Dorkbot Perth and the organiser of Re:Live: The Third
International Conference on Media Art History. He is currently
attending the ninth International Symposium on Mixed and
Augmented Reality in Korea.
GENEVIEVE THAUVETTE
Canadian artist Genevieve Thauvette has studied at Studio
Arts at Concordia University and received her Diploma in
Photography at Algonquin College in 2007. In October of 2009,
she won the gold medal in photography for Canada at the ‘VIe
Jeux de la Francophonie’ in Beirut, Lebanon. Genevieve was
also present at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games as
both artist in residence and francophone ambassador of the
photographic arts in Canada.
Her series ‘Les quintuplées Dionne’ was exhibited during these
two events. They have also been shown at the Anna Leonowens
Gallery in Halifax, the Gladstone Hotel as part of the Contact
photography festival in Toronto and at the Dale Smith Gallery,
her representative in Ottawa. She has always been drawn to this
medium, as her unusual perspective of life asserts itself with a
surrealist nature on the figurative reality it can present.
www.gthauvette.com
12

ARTIST TALKS & PUBLIC PROGRAMS
All Artist Talks & Public Events are free unless otherwise
indicated.
ART:CITY Keynote Address
Andrew Shoben
The founder of renowned artist collective greyworld presents
an illustrated excursion through some of his group’s significant
and influential urban arts projects.
Thur 17 Feb, 6pm
Perth Concert Hall
Tomas Saraceno: Cloud City
Artist Tomas Saraceno in conversation with Margaret Moore.
Sat 19 Feb, 2pm
Perth Concert Hall
John Gerrard, PICA
Artist John Gerrard presents a public lecture.
Sat 5 March, 6pm
PICA
Bookings required www.pica.org.au or 08 9228 6300
Maschi Fontana: Rising Lotus, Fremantle Art Centre
Artist Tom Muller participates in the Open Studios event, which
also features artists in residence and studio artists currently
working at Fremantle Art Centre.
Thur 24 Feb, 6.30pm
Fremantle Art Centre
Jesper Just, John Curtin Art Gallery
Artist Jesper Just in discussion with Curator and Gallery
Director Chris Malcolm.
Sun 13 Feb, 2pm
Bankwest Lecture Theatre, Curtin University, Bentley
Bookings essential Gallery@Curtin.edu.au or 9266 4155
Margaret Moore
Margaret Moore (Perth Festival Program Manager: Visual Arts)
responds to works by Jesper Just.
Wed 23 Feb, 12.30pm
John Curtin Art Gallery, Curtin University, Bentley
Bookings essential Gallery@Curtin.edu.au or 9266 4155
Dr Cat Hope
Dr Cat Hope discusses the music and musicality in
Jesper Just’s films.
Wed 16 March, 12.30pm
John Curtin Art Gallery, Curtin University, Bentley
Bookings essential Gallery@Curtin.edu.au or 9266 4155
DIALOGUES WITH LANDSCAPE
PUBLIC PROGRAM
Bang the Gong Workshop with Diokno Pasilan
Bring a picnic and create music inside Memory House
(kid friendly).
Wed 16 Feb, 5.30–7pm
Sat 19 & Sat 26 Feb, Sat 5 March, 3–5pm
Sun 20 & Sun 27 Feb, Sat 6 March, 3–5pm
Tropical Grove
Bennett Miller
Watch Bennett Miller feed the University’s peacocks in a
custom-designed environment (kid friendly).
Wed 16, Fri 18 Wed 23, Fri 25, Sun 27 Feb, 6pm
Wed 2, Fri 4, Sun 6 March, 6pm
Outside New Fortune Theatre, UWA
The Stalactite Love Review by George Egerton-Warburton
A series of performances seek to explore perceptible ley lines
within the UWA campus. Groups of five will take an artist-driven
buggy ride around campus. (maximum 5 participants)
Wed 16 & Sat 26 Feb, Wed 2 & Sun 6 March, 6pm for
6.15pm start
Sat 19, Sun 20, Sat 26, Sun 27 Feb & Sat 5 March, 4pm for
4.15pm start
Reid Library Lawn, UWA
Nien Schwarz
Nien Schwarz speaks about Radicle (L. radix, root), her
installation of 100 native plants.
Sun 20 Feb & Sun 6 March, 2pm
Reid Library Lawn, UWA
Julian Stadon ‘Social Symphony’
Converge, flash-mob style, to participate in a ‘social symphony’
with Julian Stadon (kid friendly).
Fri Feb 25, 4pm & Sun 6 March, 12.30pm
Outside Somerville Theatre, UWA
Julian Stadon
Bring laptops and converge, flash-mob style, within Second Life
with Julian Stadon. Second Life newbies will receive tutorship
from Julian.
Fri Feb 25, 4.30pm & Sun 6 March, 1pm
Outside Somerville Theatre, UWA
Rachael Dease
Rachael Dease discusses 4 Part History, her quadraphonic
sound installation created for Winthrop Hall Foyer.
Sun 27 Feb, 2pm
Winthrop Hall Foyer, UWA
13

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THE FESTIVAL WISHES TO THANK
14
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Perth International Arts Festival expresses gratitude to all the
Client City of Perth (COP) Insert Date 2010-10-01
artists whose work is presented in the Visual Arts Program
in 2011. Campaign The following organisations and individuals Size (HxW)
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warmly acknowledged for their contribution and support.
Description
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PIAF festivals
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Wesfarmers Arts Helen Carroll-Fairhall, Larissa Fernandez
Publication
Date/Time
URS Kylie Pepper and staff
Department of Culture and the Arts Wendy Robertson
City of Perth Paola Anselmi and Helen Curtis
Studio Tomas Saraceno Frankfurt, Emek Ulusay, Adrian Krell,
Liane Nussbaum
GEO Robert Meyknecht and his team
Wolfgang Mainzer, Mainzair
The Cultural Precinct, UWA Professor Ted Snell, Pier Leach,
Katie Lenanton
John Curtin Gallery Chris Malcolm, Pauline Williams, Patti
Bellety and staff
PICA Amy Barrett-Lennard, Leigh Robb and staff
Fremantle Arts Centre Jim Cathcart, Erin Coates, Jessica
Darlow, Kathryn Doust and staff
Perth Centre for Photography, Christine Tomas
Helen Whitbread
Jasmin Stephens
PIAF Prog 2011-02-01 11:09
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1048
Wesfarmers Arts is proud to present
Art:City — a unique visual arts program
as part of the 2011 Perth international
Arts Festival that will challenge perceptions
and capture your imagination with works by:
• tomas Saraceno (ArG)
‘Cloud City’ — a giant poetic structure
that will float in the city exploring visions
of a better world.
• John Gerrard (irE) / roderick Sprigg (AU)
re-visioning the rural landscape and our
experience and perception of it.
• Dialogues with Landscape (AU)
Local artists re-imagining the UWA grounds.
• Greyworld (UK)
Greyworld is changing the face of public
art by redefining dreary urban spaces
into places of wonder, play and interaction.
Founder Andrew Shoben gives the 2011
Art:City Keynote Address.