The COFA Blog

Nick Waterlow in the Studio of Martin Sharp. Photo: Anthony Browell

It is with immense shock and distress that we heard news this morning of the death of Nick Waterlow,  Director of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery at COFA and a much loved and respected member of staff.

The death of Nick and his daughter are being investigated by police so we are unable to comment  on the circumstances of this tragic event.

Nick was  a leading member of Australia’s arts community, having curated three Sydney Biennales. He has been Director of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery since 1991 and was a senior lecturer in COFA’s School of Art History and Art Education. His current projects included a book exploring the place of Australian art internationally and he was of course closely involved in the planning for COFA’s new art museum.

Nick will be greatly missed by generations of students to whom he was a powerful  mentor, by his colleagues at COFA and many friends and supporters in the arts community.  We extend our deepest sympathy to his partner and other members of his family.

COFA graduate and video blogger Greer Cornish is on a mission to travel the world visiting 206 Countries in 365 days. Expedit 206 is a Coca Cola sponsored competition and adventure where a team of three people will travel the world in one year visiting 206 Countries acting as a happiness ambassadors on a mission to find out what makes people happy. Throughout the year-long journey, the travellers will be sharing their blog posts, tweets, videos, interviews and pictures so you can follow their adventures in some amazing events including the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the World Expo in Shanghai.

Three teams are in the running to go on the mission, taking them from Aruba to Zimbabwe and everywhere in between, and who will go is left up you. Voting closes on the 6 November, with the winning team announced on the 16 November 2009.

To vote visit: http://www.expedition206.com/Default.aspx

Go Team WOW!!!

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

Kings College London, virtual website tour image of Maughan Library

COFA extends a big congratulations to Keren Hammerschlag who has been awarded a three year King’s College PostDoctoral Scholarship, in the Centre for Health and the Humanities, History Department at King’s College London. Hammerschlag will be working closely with Ludmilla Jordanova on her PostDoctoral.  Hammerschlag completed her undergraduate degree at COFA in the department of Art History and education. The scholarship is funded by the Wellcome Trust.

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.

COFA is to feature at The Weekend Australian Art Sydney 2009. Printworks is an exhibition of contemporary printmaking, featuring a working press manned by students from COFA’s Cicada Press to demonstrate the processes and the variety of approaches and techniques associated with the printmaking process.

Works from well known Australian artists will be on display, including:
• Elisabeth Cummings
• Euan Mcleod
• Reg Mombassa
• Noel McKenna
• John Peart
• Nicholas Harding
• Cherry Hood
• Jasper knight
• Norman Hetherington
• Peter Sharp
• Ian Grant
• Idris Murphy
• Roger Law
• Belinda Fox

All works in the exhibition were created with Cicada Press, a custom printmaking research group at COFA. Established by Michael Kempson in 2004 to create a dialogue between the artist and the student, Cicada Press gives practicing artists and COFA students the opportunity to collaboratively explore the medium of printmaking and create prints.
A selection of artists have also made an editioned print exclusively for Art Sydney 09 including Reg Mombassa, Elisabeth Cummings, Euan Macleod, Jasper Knight, Noel McKenna and Ian Grant.

What: PRINTWORKS in association with Cicada Press and COFA at art Sydney 2009
Where: The Royal Hall of Industries, Fox Studios
When: 22- 25 October 2009
Opening Hours:
Thursday 22 October 5 pm – 9 pm
Friday 23 October 12 noon – 9 pm
Saturday 24 October 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday 25 October 10 am – 5 pm

Meet the artists at the Printworks:
Elisabeth Cummings - Friday Oct 22 - 1.30 to 2.30pm
Noel McKenna - Friday Oct 22 – 2pm to 3pm
Ian Grant - Saturday Oct 24 – 2pm to 3pm
Euan Macleod and Reg Mombassa - Sunday Oct 25 – 2pm to 3pm

For more information on ticket prices and Art Sydney 2009 please visit: http://www.artsydney09.com.au/as09/

Ena Lane Napangarti, Lupul (Ena’s father’s country), acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91.5cm. Courtesy the artist and Papunya Tjupi Arts.

In May 2009 the Ivan Dougherty Gallery held an exhibition titled Building Papunya Tjupi. Curated by the Papunya Tjupi art centre’s directors, Kasumi Ejiri and Simon Taylor, Building Papunya Tjupi showcased the talent of the artists who’ve been working at the centre over the last 18 months.
Etchings and relief prints from workshops conducted at Papunya and at the College of Fine Arts’ Cicada Press revealed the progress the artists have made in this new medium. Descendants of the original founders of Papunya painting presented large family canvases and individual works highlighted how the artists have developed with access to a professional environment.

A slide show about the exhibition with a voice over by Vivien Johnson is accessible from: http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/uniken/multimedia/papunya/slideshow.html

COFA Presents Bec Young: Conversation Observation, as part of Art & About 2009, presented by the City of Sydney

COFA Bachelor of Fine Arts student Rebecca Young will have work included in Art & About 2009. The artwork, titled Conversation Observation is a site specific installation using LED moving message signs placed in the windows of various shops along Oxford Street in Darlinghurst. The variable message signs will display snippets of conversations overheard on Oxford Street, and will be constantly changing. The project will have a discrete ‘minder’ who will listen to pedestrians talking and program the signs through a computer or SMS service.

Conversation Observation taps into the way technology has changed our access to private information in recent years. For example, the boundaries between public and private become blurry as people scream the most intimate things into their mobile phones as they walk down the street. This artwork playfully highlights the fact that not only is big brother watching (and listening), everyone else is too.

COFA Presents Bec Young: Conversation Observation, an associated event of Art & About, presented by City of Sydney

For more information on Art & About please visit: artandabout.com.au

Conversation Observation will be available for public viewing at venues during Art & About October 1st to 25th , 2009 :

Beauchamp Hotel 265-267 Oxford St, Sydney NSW 2000

The Falconer Bar Cafe Restaurant 31 Oxford St, Sydney NSW 2000

Iku Wholefood 62-64 Oxford St, Sydney NSW 2000

Gary Galego, Carbonwood

COFA graduate and designer, Gary Galego, has been chosen as one of the Top Ten Finalists in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award 2009. Galego was chosen from over 90 entrants in the competition, more entrants than any previous year, for Carbonwood, an interesting design of a bicycle comprising of both wood and carbon.

“Wood and carbon is a relatively new combination of materials. It allows you to strengthen the structure in areas where wood may not be entirely appropriate. The design aims to highlight the possibilities of a material which is a quality I try to imbue in all my work” explains Galego.

The winner will be judged on the 14 October by a panel of judges including COFA graduate Liane Rossler from Dinosaur Designs, Vogue Living editor David Clark and Object director Steven Pozel.

The award provides opportunities for emerging Australian designers, on a local and international level, culminating in an exhibition hosted at Establishment, Sydney from 9 to 30 November before travelling to Melbourne in February and Brisbane in April.

The Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award was established in 2003 and is one of the most prestigious design awards, with over AU$40 000 worth of prizes to be won, including a trip to the Salone del Mobile, in Milan Italy. The winner receives a $30 000 grant.