The COFA Blog

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.

John A. Douglas, Ask Noeline..... (not the ogre) 2009, pebblecrete and concrete pavers, artificial grass, inflatable plastic, polystyrene, HD pro res video, sound 8 meters squared (approx). Courtesy the artist and Chalk Horse, Sydney. Installation photo: Silversalt.

Reality Check: watching Sylvania Waters, an innovative exhibition inspired by the 1992 cult ‘reality’ TV series Sylvania Waters.
Two years in the making, the Daniel Mudie Cunningham curated exhibition Reality Check: watching Sylvania Waters examines the impact of the series through the work of 10 contemporary artists/ collectives who were commissioned to make new artworks that respond to Sylvania Waters. Artists included COFA graduates John A. Douglas and the Kingpins and Ms & Mr (Richard & Stephanie nova Milne) as well as Carla Cescon and Mitch  Cairns, Luis Martinez, David Lawrey and Jaki Middleton, Archie Moore, Holly Williams, Peter Cooley, and Elvis Richardson.
Each artist was invited to undertake a residency at Hazelhurst throughout 2009 to assist in the development of the work. To aid research, the ABC generously granted access to episodes of the series, as well as archival media material that included news and current affairs segments.
All commissioned artistic outcomes interpret Sylvania Waters from various perspectives and in ways that reveal how visual arts practice often blurs with popular forms of media and entertainment.
For artists John A. Douglas and The Kingpins, Noeline Donaher is an inspiration. Douglas’s video artwork depicts Noeline fading in and out of swimming pool water, accompanied with sound edits that see her as a wise advice columnist. Art group The Kingpins present an inventive installation that sees Noeline as an exemplary alpha matriarch.
Artist collaboration Ms & Mr (Richard & Stephanie nova Milne) present a video featuring the Archibalds of Glebe, one of the families short-listed to star in what became Sylvania Waters.

What: Reality Check: watching Sylvania Waters
When: Saturday 10 October 2009 to Sunday 29 November 2009
Where: Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery

When: Tue, 24 Nov, ‘09 - Sun, 29 Nov, ‘09
Where: COFA Campus: Cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington NSW 2021 Australia

Haidee Ireland (COFA student: BFA/BA), Notstalgia, projected video installation, dimensions variable, 2009.

The COFA ANNUAL 09 is not one, but two dynamic events:

1. The COFA ANNUAL 09 exhibition features a stunning array of animation, ceramics, drawing, digital imaging, environments, graphics, installation, interactive media, jewellery, motion graphics, objects, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, sound, textiles and video works by COFA’s more than 350 graduating students.
November 24-29.

2. In the COFA ANNUAL 09 screening, graduating Digital Media and Time Based Art students show video, animation, motion graphics and time based works on the big screen at the Chauvel cinema.
November 17.

Altogether, the COFA ANNUAL 09 marks an exciting moment of transition. It is a celebration of metamorphosis as graduating students leave COFA’s classrooms and prepare to enter the professional arena.
COFA ANNUAL 09 is an amazing opportunity to see Australia’s next generation of creative talent before they make it big.
After the ANNUAL, COFA’s graduates go on to do great things.
Earlier this year, internationally acclaimed artists and COFA grads Shaun Gladwell, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro represented Australia at the Venice Biennale.
Gladwell was also there in 2007, alongside media artists Rosemary Laing and Susan Norrie. Angelica Mesti, part of the all female performance crew the Kingpins who met at COFA, won the 2009 Blake Prize. The phenomenally successful Dinosaur Designs team started their business while they were still COFA students. And the list goes on and on.

Exhibition: 24 Nov - 29 Nov 2009
COFA Campus: Cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington NSW 2021 Australia

Media Preview: 23 Nov, 6-8pm
COFA, F block, Greens Rd, Paddginton

Screening: 17 Nov, 6-10pm
The Chauvel cinema, Paddington Town Hall

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

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/

Winner Phoebe Boyle with her winning work Second of the Primary #1 and Sarah, 4:40 behind

COFA proudly presents the 2009 Australian Decorative Fine Arts Society (ADFAS) Scholarship Exhibition, showcasing the work of the nine award nominees.

The ADFAS Scholarship Prize, first awarded in 2000, was established to foster interest and excellence in the decorative and fine arts, and to cultivate an appreciation of practice.

The Australian Decorative Fine Arts Society (ADFAS) was formed in 1989 and co-ordinates the activities of the 31 Decorative and Fine Arts Societies located in major cities and regional areas throughout Australia. Their aim is the “promotion and advancement of aesthetic education, the cultivation and study of the decorative and fine arts and the preservation of our cultural and artistic heritage.”

COFA congratulates the 2009 ADFAS award winners.

• The winner of the ADFAS Award 2009 was Pheobe Boyle. Phoebe wins the award with a body of works: Digital Animation, Drawing With Light, The Pinup and the Animals, Second of the Primary #1, and Sarah, 4:40

• The winner of the ADFAS Encouragement Award for 2009 was Dallas Gillespie.

This year, nine nominees were chosen to showcase their exhibits at the COFASpace Gallery. The students chosen to exhibit were:
Gemma Messih
Allison Bishop
Simon Wheeldon
Joshua Lincoln
Pheobe Boyle
Elyse Watkins
Dallas Gillespie
Alicia Wall
Elliott Mackie

Tony Schwensen, Harrowing Plow from the Plough & Harrow, 2007, performance 14 August 2007, commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photo: Silversalt Photography.

When: Tue, 20 Oct, ‘09
Where: College of Fine Arts, cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, lecture theatre: EGO2, 6:00 pm

In the panel discussion, Whose Rights? Artists and the State, a journalist, a curator and an art educator will discuss the relationship between various forms of government and the arts. Is it legitimate for governments, which do to some extent subsidise the arts, to have some say in what is presented and how?

José Borghino

José Borghino has a formidable background in publishing. He is the former editor of New Matilda, a respected online news and commentary site . Borghino has also lectured on literary journalism.

Lisa Havilah

Lisa Havilah is Director of the Campbelltown Arts Centre and a graduate of COFA. She has extensive experience in the arts including six years as Assistant Director of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and Liverpool Regional Museum and as the inaugural Co-Director of Project Contemporary Art Space, Wollongong

Gary Sangster

Gary Sangster currently lecturers in COFA’s school of Art History and Art Education. Sangster has both national and international experience as an art educator, curator and museum director in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the USA. He has also published and lectured on art and museum research internationally.

When: October 20 2009 6:00pm
Where: College of Fine Arts, cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, lecture theatre: EGO2, 6:00 pm

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