The COFA Blog

In the panel discussion, Reason and Emotion in Art, a curator, a gallery director and a senior lecturer in psychology explore the tension between reason and emotion in art and in other expressions of creativity. This event is a preview of the special Reason/Emotion issue of Artlink magazine due to hit the stands on September 16.

Glenn Barkley
Glenn Barkley is a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. His recent projects include Avoiding Myth & Message and Making it New – Focus on Contemporary Australian Art. Barkely was curator of the University of Wollongong Art collection from 1996 - 2008. In 2008, he co-curatred, with Peter Fay, Without Borders, an exhibition of international and national outsider art.

Mary Knights
Mary Knights is the Director of SASA Gallery, School of Art, Architecture & Design, University of South Australia. Before moving to Adelaide to take up this position, she was Manager and Art-coordinator at Irrunytju Arts, a remote art centre at the edge of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. She is currently completing her PhD with the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania.

Doris McIlwain
Doris McIlwain is a senior lecturer in psychology at Macquarie University, teaching personality and philosophy of psychoanalysis. Researching emotion and personality, she profiles narcissism, machiavellianisn and psychopathy in terms of affective personality dispositions. McIlwain is interested in self-reflective awareness of the bodily broadcast and pursues this new interest exploring colonising the body via yoga.

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

To listen to the past COFA Talks please visit UNSW TV:
Semester One Talks: http://tv.unsw.edu.au/collection/cofa-talks-sem-1-2009
Semester Two Talks: http://tv.unsw.edu.au/collection/cofa-talks-sem-2-2009

Aboriginal Art and Politics examines the complexities of the indigenous art scene, and a range of other issues facing indigenous artists in contemporary society, from two different perspectives. Djon Mundine, whose his Father is Bundjalang and Mother is Ngaku, speaks from within the indigenous community, while John von Strurmer discusses the topics as a white Australian.

Djon Mundine is a curator and art historian, originally from the Northern Rivers area of NSW. He is currently Indigenous Curator, Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Mundine is well known as the concept curator of the permanent Aboriginal Memorial installation at the National Gallery of Australia and was awarded an OAM in 1993. Previous positions have included: Senior Curator, Gallery of Aboriginal Australia, National Museum of Australia, Senior Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs, MCA, and Art Adviser for the Ramingining Community of Central Arnhem Land.

John von Sturmer is an anthropologist with a particular interest in Aboriginal art. Fieldwork in the western Cape York Peninsula formed the basis of his PhD research. In 1970 he was appointed the first lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at the University of Queensland, in association with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. In the 1970s, he was active in the promotion of Aboriginal dance and ceremonial life. In more recent years, he has been involved in negotiating the nexus between government, big business and traditional owner groups.

The Ladies of Bigotbri Concerned Women’s Association (aka Tess Allas and Lina Kastoumis) are a tongue in cheek comedy duo who raise serious issues by taking the mickey in the guise of their alter egos Mrs Beryl Myers and Mrs Coral Henderson. Allas has a Bachelor of Creative Arts and a Masters in Curatorship and Modern Art. She currently works at COFA where she researchs and write biographies for the Storylines Project which are published on the Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. Kastoumis has worked extensively with emerging artists as an instructor, deviser and director at companies such as Shopfront, Sidetrack and Powerhouse Youth Theatre. She is currently Artistic Associate at Urban Theatre Projects.

When: Tuesday 25 August, 6:00pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

Live Futures 2020: A World of Convergence is a futures festival which is in it’s third year, with previous festivals covering the themes of A World Without Borders and A World with Possibility.  The festival looks to explore possible futures and technology with artist, scientists, climate experts, students, performers and anyone else interested in what the future may hold and how we can create a better future together.  This years festival, A World of Convergence, COFA and UNSW students are being asked to participate in an experimental collaboration project between practitioners, artists and designers from COFA and UNSW with scientists, technologists and researchers from Academia and Industry. The idea is for a collaboration to form in these pairings resulting in a creative work embodying the knowledge, skills and creativity of the collaborators.

The timeline of the collaboration will be over 6 - 8 weeks with resultant works being selected and curated into an exhibition held over Science Week (August 15 - 23, 2009) as part of Live Futures 2020: A World of Convergence festival. The event will run on 15 ^th August 2009 at the College of Fine Arts, Paddington Campus, corner of Oxford Street and Greens Road.

This year’s Live Futures 2020 symbol is C as in Convergence, Collision, Community, Collaboration, Collusion, Collection, Communication, Celebration …

Fore more information and list of events visit: http://livefutures2020.com/about/

In April 2009, a suite of sculptural garments designed by Michael Esson, an artist known for his obsessive drawings of human anatomy, featured in, Outside In, a dramatic catwalk show on the opening night of the Shanghai Fashion and Cultural Festival.
Esson took inspiration from anatomical diagrams, acupuncture charts and surgical procedures. He will discuss the process of translating drawings of the body into garments which occupy a space on the body. Esson will also elaborate on his use of drawing as a means of communication between himself as the designer and the talented staff at Dong Hua University in Shanghai who fabricated his garments. As he says, “Cross-cultural collaboration is complex and demanding, and an acceptance of the potential for misinterpretation and ambiguity offers exciting unexpected solutions to the design process.”

Michael Esson is a senior lecturer in COFA’s School of Art. He is also the director of the International Drawing Research Institute, an initiative comprised of three founding members: COFA, UNSW in Sydney, China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and Glasgow School of Art. Esson’s research is part of a wider cultural climate, forging links between art, anatomy and surgery. In 2005, he received the position of honorary Visiting Professor of Drawing at Dong Hua University, Shanghai, leading eventually to his participation in the 2009 Shanghai Fashion and Cultural Festival.

When: Tuesday 4 August, 6:00pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

Do artists really need dealers? Ever wondered what an art dealer actually does? Three of Sydney’s prominent commercial art dealers discuss the sometimes fraught relationship between the people who make art and the people who sell it. Speakers: Melissa Collins, Stella Downer and Stuart Purves

Melissa Collins
Melissa Collins recently left her position as director of Hogarth Galleries, which specialises in Indigenous art, to pursue further postgraduate research in Aboriginal art. Prior to her five years at Hogarth she was gallery director of Blaxland Galleries.

Stella Downer
Stella Downer is a well respected art dealer, consultant and valuer. She has worked with leading contemporary galleries for over 25 years. Downer was the manager of the well known Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery, Macquarie Galleries and Australian Galleries before opening her own gallery, Stella Downer Fine Art, in 2001.

Stuart Purves
Stuart Purves, director of Australian Galleries in both Sydney and Melbourne, continues to strengthen and diversify the thriving enterprise started in 1956 by his parents Anne and Tam. From the beginning, Australian Galleries developed a reputation for representing prominent Australian artists and since joining the business in 1966, Purves has continued this tradition.

When: Tuesday 2 June 2009, 6:30pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

While the making of Aboriginal art predates modern definitions of art, in recent years Aboriginal artists have adapted their visual culture to suit the contemporary art market. In this they have been spectacularly successful. In the panel discussion The Survival of Aboriginal Art, both indigenous and non indigenous artists and curators explore the best ways of ensuring the continuity and the integrity of Aboriginal culture.

Djon Mundine
Originally from the Northern Rivers of NSW - his father is Bundjalang and his mother Ngaku - Djon Mundine is a curator and art historian. He is currently Indigenous Curator, Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Mundine is well known as the concept curator of the permanent Aboriginal Memorial installation at the National Gallery of Australia and was awarded an OAM in 1993.

Vivien Johnson
Proffessor Vivien Johnson’s ongoing advocacy for contemporary Aboriginal art and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights has helped to revolutionise the Australian artistic landscape. She recently published, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists (IAD Press, Alice Springs, 2008) Her curatorial credits include the Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri retrospective and Papunya Painting: Out of the Desert. Johnson is currently a Global Professor at UNSW.

Kelli Ryan
Kelli Ryan is a practising artist. In 1995, Ryan received an OAM for showing leadership to the youth of Australia. In 2007, she became CEO / Director of Boolarng Nangamai Aboriginal Corporation where she works towards empowering the Aboriginal community. Ryan has travelled extensively into remote Aboriginal communities and established links with regional art bodies including Arts NSW, Regional Arts NSW and Arts Law.

When: Tuesday 12 May, 6:30pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

Shaun Gladwell, Approach to Mundi Mundi 2007 production still HD/DVD, 2-channel, 3:50 and 4:40 minutes, 16:9, silent videography: Gotaro Uematsu photography: Josh Raymond courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery

The symposium Figuring Landscapes explores the use of landscapes in moving image works by artists from Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as notions of movement, stasis and change in landscape, politics and art. The symposium accompanies the exhibition Figuring Landscapes, which was recently shown at London’s Tate Modern and is a remarkable collection of moving image works that has grown from the political and cultural history that links Australia and the United Kingdom.

WHO
Speakers include the artists Vernon Ah Kee and John Gillies, Deborah Kelly, John Conomos and exhibition curators Pat Hoffie and Danni Zuvela.
Convened by Ross Harley and Margaret Farmer of UNSW College of Fine Arts, in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art and dLux Media.
This event is supported under the Australian Research Council’s Linkage scheme.

WHEN
Thursday 2 April, 10 am – 4 pm

WHERE
EG02 (main lecture theatre) COFA UNSW

REGISTRATION
Please register for this free event by contacting Karen Ryan at karenryan@cofa.unsw.edu.au or on (02) 9385 0758.

EXHIBITION
Figuring Landscapes
2 - 25 April 2009, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
To be opened by Vernon Ah Kee on Wednesday 1 April, 5-8pm.