Olafur Eliasson's 'Take Your Time' to come to Sydney

Olafur Eliasson, One-way colour tunnel, 2007 (digital rendering of interior view); site-specific sculpture to be made at SFMOMA on the occasion of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson; stainless steel, color-effect acrylic, and acrylic mirrors; 100 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 413 3/8 in.; Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin; © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

This amazing retrospective of Olafur Eliasson's work 'Take Your Time' is coming to Sydney in December. A massive coop for the MCA the exhibition has been shown at the MOMA, NY and MOMA, San Francisco and an unlike the many times I have seen his work as one stand alone installation some of his most inspiring works will now be shown alongside each other. Below is a video that they showed at the media preview last night.

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/15

Only in his 40's Eliasson has created some my favourite public works including the waterfalls he installed in NY last year through the New York Public Art Fund. This is possibly the MCA's biggest and most expensive exhibition to date and I am personally so excited that an installation of this quality is coming to Sydney. The exhibition is set to include some of his maquettes and models which should be an amazing insight in the way his team of 30-35 staff members work.

Take Your Time, MCA Sydney
10 December 2009 - 11 April 2010

James Angus wins WA's most expensive public art commission

Images (pdfs of proposal submission to situate prize 2009 by James Angus)

situate an international sculpture prize in Perth, Western Australia announced yesterday that James Angus' proposal has won a $1 million public art commission. To be located in Perth's CBD - it is the largest ever public art project in WA and will be produced by some of Australia's great public art and engineering talents. Although the principal artist and designer is James Angus, Douglas Knox (Principal Engineer), Peter Mclean (Lighting Engineer), Sebastian Adams, (Industrial Designer), Tony Oxley (from Oxley9 Gallery and Angus' representing gallery and project coordinator) and Jaime Marina, (Fabrication) will help the project to come to fruition and hopefully produce an artwork that the public really enjoy. Both a state and local council venture it is a glimmer of hope that often expendable public art funding is still available and open to new techniques and ideas. Check out the finalists online as the project has attracted some great proposals and concepts well beyond the typical promenade style city art.

Frieze Magazine "Whatever happened to art theory?"

Frieze Magazine has dedicated its latest edition to the state of art theory. Although this might seem ironic coming from the magazine that has brought us a highly commercial and personality driven art fair, which champions seemingly superficial artists such as Damien Hirst. It is probably a good place to start when looking at the current ways in which artists and writers approach art theory. Sam Thorne the associate editor of Frieze has the lead article entitled "Back & Forward" which looks at the controversies and discussions around art theory that many modern art student are not exposed to. Artists who work within particular parameters are unlikely to be challenged on their view of art theory or history and as Thorne suggests "we should pay attention to its past – not only how it has been marketed and circulated internationally, but how it has been misunderstood." Essentially when artists do not have to question these artistic concepts on a base level they do not have to have the hard conversation and that is clearly where the best art theories have sprouted.

Behind the Art of Fashion

"It's a famine of beauty, honey," said Andre Leon Tally (editor-in-chief of Vogue) in The September Issue, a new documentary on Vogue and their biggest edition in history. However it is certainly not the case in Australia with our online fashion culture gaining momentum and producing some beautiful behind the scenes footage along the way. These videos (a few examples below) becomes art pieces and marketing opportunites all wrapped into one, but most importantly bring a little depth to online fashion.



There is a major clothes swapping event, Rethreads planned at Carriageworks at the end of September, through the Clothing Exchange with 2SER and FBI radio.




And the launch of Fashion magazine Tangent and its blog which has behind the scenes videos and photos.

Seaside Cultural Renewal

Boscombe Pier, Bournemouth, Dorset. Bournemouth Borough Council architects, reopened in 2008. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex Features, Guardian.co.uk.

The Guardian has released an article discussing the merits of cultural and artistic investment in England's impoverished seaside towns, Can art put new heart into our seaside towns?. And although Newcastle in Northen NSW could not be seen as a direct comparison - it is a city which main source of income has been mostly removed, and an economic situation that has resulted in many empty commercial spaces. Whilst the article discusses large and architecturally over the top investments, Renew Newcastle has taken a more grass roots approach and worked with the empty space directly rather than adding another possible white elephant. Clearly a top heavy cultural investment does not always best serve the artistic community despite increasing tourists.

NEW EVENT ANNOUNCED: ART MONTH SYDNEY 2010

Vasili Kaliman (Co-Founder and a member of the Advisory Board for the event and Director of Kaliman Gallery) has announced via his facebook page a new art event Art Month Sydney. Art Month Sydney 2010 will take place from 1-30 March 2010 where "Fifty art galleries, art auction houses and public art institutions across Sydney will join together to demonstrate the importance and diversity of Australia’s art scene."

The event will function similarly to Sydney Design Festival as it promotes and links art events across the city. Although the elements have yet to be announced is will be very interesting to see the depth of this event and whether it will provide a real contribution to the Sydney art scene. Although I am very excited to see the what this esteemed group of galleries and art lovers will produce, we will have to see whether the Sydney audience can sustain enthusiasm for the many events that will happen across the year including the 2010 Biennale of Sydney in May.

ADVISORY BOARD

Julia Champtaloup
Kate Dernezaulds
Sarah Hetherington
Vasili Kaliman
Dr Dick Quan
Michael Reid
Andrew Rothery

PARTICIPATING GALLERIES INCLUDE:
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Annandale Galleries
Artbank
Australian Galleries
BREENSPACE
Chalk Horse
Charles Hewitt
Christopher Day Gallery
Conny Dietzschold Gallery
Darren Knight Gallery
Dominik Mersch Gallery
Eva Breuer Art Dealer
Firstdraft
Flinders Street Gallery
Gallery Barry Keldoulis
GRANTPIRRIE
Hordern House
James Dorahy Project Space
Josef Lebovic Gallery
Kaliman Gallery
Liverpool Street Gallery
Martin Browne Fine Art
Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries
Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay
MOP
Museum of Contemporary Art
N G Art Gallery
Rex Irwin Art Dealer
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Sarah Cottier Gallery
SH Ervin Gallery
SNO
Stills Gallery
Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art
Tim Olsen Gallery
Utopia Art Sydney
Watters Gallery


PARTICIPATING AUCTION HOUSES INCLUDE:
Christie’s Australia
Deutscher + Hackett
Shapiro
Sotheby’s Australia


ART MONTH IS SPONSORED BY:
King & Wilson
Best Cellars
Bresic Whitney


ALLIANCE PARTNERS:
Allens Arthur Robinson
MBT
Hayman Design
Tsuki


Information Art Month Sydney

McGregor Coxall Ballast Point Park Design

McGregor Coxall is currently involved in some of Australia's most important and interesting Landscape Architecture projects including the Green Square Town Centre Public Domain, commissioned by the City of Sydney in which the landscaping and urban design will be an essential part of the puzzle in making Green Square a community environment. As well the redesign of the public space and landscaping at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra as part of the general revamp and a new wing.

However possibly their greatest project is the Ballast Point redevelopment which is one of Sydney's best new Harbour parks. Having grown up near Ballast Point I remember it in its unused and sad state that separated the other great parks surrounding it.

The highly successful Ballast Point Park revamp is being hailed as one of Sydney's best new public spaces and was an amazingly enjoyable place to visit especially with the great Sydney's weather of late. This beautiful space both acknowledges and goes beyond the sites original use as a Caltex Oil property.
















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