The COFA Blog

COFA graduate, Ella Barclay, has co-curated with Adrianne Tasker + Kelly Robson, Appear Offline, an exhibition of new work by 12 young Sydney artists that all engage with ideas, events and customs prevalent to today.

Ever since the version of Skype was released that allowed video conferencing, not unlike what we saw as children on The Jetsons, we have resolved that we are now living in ‘the future’. Everyday we jump quickly between screens and machinery incessantly, from emails to SMS, chat boxes, Facebook notifications, Tweets, and RSS feeds, constantly thinking and working along multiple overlapping channels. To think, on top of this, citizens of Sydney often do all these things on their phones whilst walking down its laneways, stopping for a beer or waiting for a bus. While some have speculated that this will lead to generations of people with fried attention spans, never able to focus on one project or task at a time, others have said this is giving us heightened awareness of a multiplicity of new concurrent possibilities.

Appear Offline is a command from the almost outdated MSN Messenger program that allows users to seem as if they are offline, whilst simultaneously being able to see who is online and who is not. The artists here are cast as sleuths, seeing but themselves unseen, presenting their findings about this current predicament in Albion Place.

Exhibiting artists include COFA graduates Ella Barclay, Jessica Maurer, Emma Elizabeth Ramsay and Wade Marynowsky and artists Dan Animal, Kate Carr, Adrianne Tasker + Kelly Robson, Jaki Middleton + David Lawrey, and Sumugan Sivanesan + Melletios Kyriakdis.

When: Opening Wednesday 29 April 2009. Exhibition runs until July 2009.
Where: Albion Place, CBD Sydney. In between Liverpool Street & George Street Hoyts.

This exhibtion is presented by Gaffa and The City of Sydney Temporary Art Program.

Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Life Span (detail), 2009, VHS videos, silicone, 625 x 320 x 524 cm. Photo: Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro. Courtesy the artists and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney.

Story by Fran Strachan

Archibald Prize winner Guy Maestri in front of his work. Photo: Carley Wright, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Why do particular artists receive so much media coverage, and others none at all? How do editors choose which stories to run, and which to ignore? Why do journalists write about particular events? Does anyone read art criticism any more? Is a picture in a newspaper really worth 1000 words?
In the revealing panel discussion, The Arts and the Media, experienced arts media professionals, Lisa Corsi, Elizabeth Fortescue and Clare Morgan, expose the secrets of their trade.

Lisa Corsi
Lisa Corsi is a COFA alumnus with over 10 years experience within the visual arts and crafts sector. She is the founder and director of ARTCELL which provides a diverse range of arts administration and management services to individuals, businesses and organisations.

Elizabeth Fortescue
Elizabeth Fortescue is the visual arts writer for the Daily Telegraph, Sydney. She is also a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper in London, as well as to numerous Australian art magazines.

Clare Morgan
Clare Morgan is the current arts editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, and has also written extensively on the arts.

When: Tuesday April 21, 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/

Vaughan O'Connor

Vaughan O’Connor is a COFA graduate who is currently working at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. After completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts, O’Connor received a combined College of Fine Arts/ UWS/ Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre Scholarship to study Master of Arts Administration at COFA in 2007.  The Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre/ UWS scholarship was created as a way of building local professional expertise for students from Western Sydney and is awarded to a student who has the tools to take leadership positions within the community.  The awarded scholarship included tuition fee sponsorship from COFA and also offered a paid internship with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, which provided a practical application for the theories and concepts of Arts Administration being learnt through the COFA sponsored Masters degree.  O’Connor started out as an intern and has since become more and more involved with the operations of the centre.  One of the first tasks O’Connor undertook during his internship was assisting with the relocation of the Casula Powerhouse’s Collection in late 2007/ early 2008, as the gallery had recently had a $13 million dollar makeover after a 22 month closure. When the Casula Powerhouse re opened, it did so with a grand scale exhibition entitled Australian, which O’Connor also worked on, featuring artists and COFA graduates Sean Codeiro & Claire Healy, Shaun Gladwell and David Griggs. O’Connor has since been the leading hand on the restaging of Vietnam Voices at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.  More recently, O’Connor has coordinated the international, interstate & local freight and logistics for Casula Powerhouses’ current show ‘Nam Bang!’, featuring artists Peter Daly, Dinh Q. Le, Kelly Manning, Liza Nguyen, William Short, My Le Thi, Le Thua Tien, Dennis Trew, and Tran Trong Vu.
At present O’Connor has taken on the role of his mentor and supervisor, Georgia Connolly, also a COFA Art Administration graduate who has moved on to the National Gallery of Australia, and is now Collections Assistant/ Exhibitions Registrar at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.
O’Connor has contributed to Artlink Magazine with a review of the 2008 Campbelltown Arts Centre exhibition Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context curated by Glenn Barkley and Peter Fay.
Also, in the traditional COFA style of students growing into staff, O’Connor has also guest lectured in the Master of Arts Administration Registration and Handling unit.

For more information on Casual Powerhouse Arts Centre exhibitions and events please visit: http://www.casulapowerhouse.com/
For more information on COFA offered masters degrees, including the Master of Art Administration, refer to: http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/futurestudents/postgradcoursework/
For more information on scholarships on offer at COFA please visit: http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/futurestudents/scholarships/

Jenny Birt and Tom Ferson standing in front of his winning works.

Congratulatios to Tom Ferson, this year’s winner of the Jenny Birt Award, and to Yiwon Park, who was Highly Commended for her artwork Journey of mermaid (underwater and overwater view).

The Jenny Birt award is presented each year to an outstanding COFA- UNSW coursework student, majoring in the fields of painting and drawing.

Named in honour of Jenny Birt, a committed supporter of the visual arts, the prestigious annual award was initiated by the U Committee in 1995.

2009 finalists include Seiko Furuse, Korshi Dosoo, Melanie Boreham, Cybele Wong, Brittany De Bono, Sarah Eddowes, Sarah Contos and James McMahon Dale.

Exhibition dates: Monday April 6 to Thursday May 9 2009
Where: COFAspace (Ground Floor E Block)

COFA Dean Ian Howard will exhibit in a group show at Watters Gallery entitled North Korea- War with Flowers. The show is about work undertaken by Charles Firth, Meredith Burgmann and Ian Howard during a visit to Pyongyang. The exhibition also includes related work by Colonel Xing and North Korean artist, Ri Dong Kouk.

“In Pyongyang we did our thing: Charles, his instinctive, insightful and usually instantaneous larrikinism that somehow miraculously avoids offence; Meredith, her longer term construction of improved relations between North and South, wanting most to change mindsets; and myself, talking artistic and cultural development with the odd reference to military artists and hardware.” - COFA Dean, Ian Howard

Opening night will include a talk by Tim Gartrell, former National Secretary of the ALP.

What: North Korea- War with Flowers
When: Opening night, Wednesday 22 April 2009 6pm to 8pm
Exhibition runs from 21 April to 16 May 2009
Where: Watters Gallery, 109 Riley Street East Sydney

Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chit-chat. Devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dyhtam (of Klein Dytham Architecture), it was conceived as a place for young artist and designers to meet and show their work in a public space. The main element of Pecha Kucha is about creative people talking about creative things in a quick, informal and concise format- each presenter is allowed to use 20 slides, which are shown on screen for 20 seconds each, equalling a 6 minute, 40 second presentation.
Starting in Japan, Pecha Kucha Night is worldwide in 182 cities. The Sydney Pecha Kucha Night is currently up to Volume 11, with four scheduled for this year.
Come along to the next Pecha Kucha Night held at Chalk Horse Gallery, and hear COFA graduate Kate Mitchell, of artist collective Greedy Hen, give a brief presentation on creative projects. Scheduled speakers include: Matthew Huynh, Bert Bongers, Kate Mitchell and Katherine Brickman, Koji Ryui, Aaron Seeto, Jaki Middleton and David Lawrey, Marcus Piper, Gerard Reinmuth, Michael Lugmayr, Jess Dixon, Tony Curran and Hamish Watt.

What: Pecha Kucha Night

Where: Chalk Horse Gallery, 94 Cooper Street, Surry Hills

When: Thursday 2 April 2009, 6:30pm to 10pm

For more information on Pecha Kucha, please visit http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/sydney/11

Penelope Benton, Jane Naylor and Amy Griffiths. Image of Penelope Benton courtesy of Wilk.

Many creative people have extensive experience in developing strategies to deal with a shortage of money or other resources; taking the initiative is business as usual. So a recession does not necessarily mean opportunities dry up, instead it can be a chance to reconfigure; to work out creative solutions in finding opportunities to exhibit work. Penelope Benton, Amy Griffiths and Jane Naylor discuss how artists can take the initiative.

Penelope Benton
Penelope Benton is a photographic artist, curator, arts administrator and COFA alumni. On top of running Arc@COFA, the local student organisation, she has just completed a two year term on the Board of Directors at Sydney’s longest running ARI, Firstdraft Gallery. In the last year, Benton and four other women have converted an empty inner-west warehouse into The Red Rattler, an artist and activist run space with an eco-plan.

Amy Griffiths
Amy Griffiths is currently undertaking a Master of Art Administration Honours at COFA and her thesis is titled, ‘The Systemisation of Australian Artist Run Initiatives’. Formerly, she was the gallery manager of Sydney ARI, Chalk Horse. Currently, Griffiths works in the marketing and communications department at COFA. In addition she works freelance, managing artists, occasionally teaching art to school students, and at times writing for various publications.

Jane Naylor
Jane Naylor describes herself as an Independent Art Tactician. She holds the titles of Administrative Branch Manager of The Ekphrastic Agency, (a free art service which conducts ‘ customisations’ in non gallery venues), the Local Area Network Administrator of Snack Art (vending machines which work as alternative art galleries) and the Operations Research Director of The Leichhardt Academy of Style and Health. Naylor is currently undertaking her PhD in Fine Arts at COFA.

When: Tuesday 7 April, 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/