The COFA Blog

When: Tue, 1 Dec, ‘09 - Thu, 31 Dec, ‘09
Where: Locksmith Projects

When: Thu, 19 Nov, ‘09 - Sun, 6 Dec, ‘09
Where: Gallery Adagio, Glebe NSW

When: Fri, 27 Nov, ‘09 - Sun, 3 Jan, ‘10
Where: Campbelltown City Arts Centre

Britney Love, 2000, digital video still, 11 minutes

When: Fri, 20 Nov, ‘09 - Sun, 20 Dec, ‘09
Where: Artspace gallery, Woolloomooloo

Brad Miller, augument_me, 2008

COFA staff Brad Miller first began augment_me during a research residency at Artspace in 2004. As part of that research, he interviewed a number of young people about identity and materialism, leading to further research on the self in relation to additions or supplements. What Brad discovered is that it seems that the self must be augmented and the reason is that it is seen as inadequate as is for the tasks at hand.
augment_me is comprised of a database of images, sound and videos, accumulated over the past 8 years. Forming sequences in response to audience movement and position, these data ‘moments’ are animated by the augment_me software according to a set of rules applied to a live video camera feed, and then sequentially embedded into a strip of images presented horizontally. These ‘moments’ track relationships with people, places and moments of the everyday, intrinsically measuring change or transformation to produce a kind of memory machine — an attempt at resisting external ideas of what might be augmented.

What: augment_me
When: Opening: Thursday 19 November 2009. Runs from: 20 November to 20 December 2009.
Where: Artspace gallery, Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo

Michaela Gleave, Snowdrift (test), 2009, Shovel & Snow, Photograph by Michaela Gleave

COFA graduate and artists Michaela Gleave will be making a snow storn on the front lawn of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Head down to the Museum of Contemporary Art between 12:30pm to 6pm on Saturday the 14 November to see a Winter wonderland be conjured up a hot sunny Summer day*.

What: Snowfield
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art front lawn
When: 12:30pm to 6pm on Saturday the 14 November

*Weather permitting

The 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize For Painting will be announced on Thursday 5 November, 2009 at MOP projects. COFA graduate and artist Tom Polo has been included as a finalist, along with other COFA graduates Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, Tom Polo, and Tom Polo.
First prize is $10 000, generously donated by the TFP foundation of Australia. Judges are Glenn Barkley, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Vasily Kaliman and Joan Ross.

What: The 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize For Painting, featuring Tom Polo
When: Announcement on Thursday 5 November 2009, exhibition runs until Sunday 22 November 2009. Artist talk Sunday 22 November 3:30pm.
Where: MOP projects, 2/ 39 Abercrombie St Chippendale NSW

Palmer Projects, a venue founded by a recent COFA graduate, will be hosting a group show opening Thursday 5 November, which will include COFA student Jedda Daisy.
Jedda Daisy also has a solo exhibition on at Chalk Horse Gallery, which closes on Saturday 14 November. Check them both out.

Where: Palmer Projects, 2/238 Palmer Street Surry Hills NSW
When: Opening night Thursday 5 November 6pm, to 8pm

For more information on Jedda Daisy’s exhibition at Chalk Horse, please visit: http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/newsevents/events/event_0335.html

Louisa Dawson, Unravel, Taylor Square, 2009

COFA staff and graduate, Louisa Dawson, in conjunction with the City of Sydney presents Unravel at Taylor Square. Unravel is a temporary public artwork which celebrates the history and skin of the city as it rolls out a section of road where Bourke Street once ran. Taylor Square was once one of the busiest intersections in Sydney, where the streets of Oxford, Flinders, Bourke and Forbes crossed. Bourke Street went directly to the
old tanneries near Mascot. In the late 1990s the Eastern Distributor was built and diverted all traffic heading east from the Harbour Bridge under Taylor Square. The sculpture reactivates the current pedestrian site of Taylor Square by suggesting a return to its previous state in a very simple way, by rolling out Bourke Street again.

The project is part of Taylor Suqare’s Plinth Project, which takes inspiration from London’s Fourth Plinth Project in Trafalgar Square London. COFA staff member Allan Giddy also has work included in the Taylor Square plinth Project.
“Oxford Street and its surrounds is an artistic and cultural hub. This public art program will engage the community and give new life to an under-used part of Taylor Square,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said.

For more information on the Taylor Square Plinth Project please visit: http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/staff/news/news_0239.html

Where: Taylor Square, Darlinghurst NSW
When: The work is up for 4 months and will come down at the end of January 2010

Alexander Seton, I...U, bianca marble, resin inlay, 2009

COFA graduate and artist Alexander Seton has been awarded the 2009 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize worth $10,000  for his realistically soft looking hoodie, carved from a slab of bianca marble. Alexander Seton is well known for solid marble sculptures resembling soft fabrics. On Hold Lawnmower, a marble sculpture of a lawnmower draped with a white cloth is available for viewing in the 2009 Sculpture by the Sea exhibition.