VAULT EXTRA 21 OCTOBER 2022
PAUL YORE: WORD MADE FLESH
Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, an extensive survey exhibition curated by Artistic Director Max Delany, in collaboration with Devon Ackermann and Paul Yore, is now on view at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA). The exhibition is structured around five purpose-designed spaces – Signs, Embodiment, Manifesto, The Horizon and Word Made Flesh – which each present a specific body of work and offer a distinctly discursive context.
The exhibition articulates two key trajectories in the artist’s work. The first charts the development of Yore’s textile practice, spanning across small, embroidered works to large-scale appliquéd quilts referencing a diverse range of classic art traditions, pop-culture motifs and socio-political issues. The second trajectory of the exhibition features a kaleidoscopic, architecturally-sized installation. The large-scale work is anarchically composed of makeshift multimedia structures that build upon the artist’s engagement with religious, artistic, ritual, and queer ideals as well as capitalistic, pop-cultural and neo-liberal histories.
The exhibition is accompanied by a major new 416-page monograph published by Art Ink in association with ACCA. The publication, also titled Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, presents artwork and themes from the artist’s career as well as new work and insights. Featuring commissioned texts by leading artists, scholars and commentators such as Tony Albert, hanna baer, Mikala Dwyer, Daniel Fountain, Helen Hughes and Bruce LaBruce, as well as an extended interview with Paul Yore by Max Delany, Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH encompasses the full scope of the artist’s multidisciplinary practice.
Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH continues at ACCA until November 20, 2022.
Click here to pre-order the upcoming publication.
You can also read more about Paul Yore’s expanded practice in Forbidden Fruits, an interview between the artist and VAULT writer Steve Cox published in Issue 38 (May – July).
Image credit:Installation view, Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, 2022, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Photo: Andrew Curtis
TULLY ARNOT AT ACMI
ACMI will soon premiere Tully Arnot’s latest multi-sensory virtual reality (VR) project: Epiphytes. The multi-sensory VR work explores plant communication, posthumanism and alternate forms of perception.Manipulating the user’s bodily responses within the virtual space, the sense of sight is de-escalated in favour of sound and scent. Set within an abstract depiction of Tully’s childhood backyard, Epiphytes incorporates a diffuse, shifting, magenta palette – suggestive of a phytomorphic (plant-based) interpretation of light and space. Honouring the sentience of plants in this way, the work invites the user to question their own perception.
Developed during the Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, Epiphytes
responds to the ongoing climate crisis, using implied forms of nature (such as shadows from an unseen canopy and mobile and amorphous shapes) to elicit Solastalgia – a feeling of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change.
Generating a conversational dialogue, Epiphytes features interviews with evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano, acoustic archaeologist Umashankar Manthravadi and echolocation teacher/blind researcher and activist Thomas Tajo. By arranging these sonic elements within the VR environment, Tully seeks to rouse curiosity and critical thinking. Field recordings of local birds and other ecological sounds complement the theorists’ recorded conversations, as well as noises of flowing water and bustling trees.
Epiphytes is on view at ACMI from November 4 - 27, 2022.
Image credit:Tully Arnot, Epiphytes (detail), 2022, virtual reality. Courtesy the artist and ACMI
NEIGHBOURHOOD
Neighbourhood Contemporary Art Festival presents a dynamic and thoughtfully curated program inspired by Western Melbourne. Bolstered by cornerstones of place, community and humanity, the program is set to provide unique and engaging insights into the different traditions, practices and demands experienced by the area’s marginalised communities. Co-presented by Footscray Community Arts and The Substation, the festival’s events and exhibitions are hosted across many notable venues including The Bowery Theatre, Incinerator Gallery, West Space, Maddern Square, and the Werribee and Williamstown train lines.
The multi artform program spans live performances, gallery exhibitions and open night street parties. I Am Carisma, an interactive dance-based performance is being staged at Footscray Community Arts, Sub~Lingual is also on view at Incinerator Gallery and Woke in Fright is on displayat The Substation.
Neighbourhood Contemporary Art Festival takes place from November 11 - 27, 2022. The program is mostly free, with special events fairly ticketed. Best practice considerations for access and accessibility communications underpin the entire program.
neighbourhoodfest.com.au
footscrayarts.com
thesubstation.org.au
Image credit: Footscray Community Arts
SPEECH PATTERNS: NADIA HERNÁNDEZ AND JON CAMPBELL
The Art Gallery of Western Australia’s exhibition Speech Patterns presents a layered dialogue between contemporary artists Nadia Hernández and Jon Campbell. The exhibition poetically navigates national value systems, experiences of relocation, and questions surrounding identity, class, and culture. Featuring paintings, paste-ups, drawings, posters, banners and flags from both artists’ practices, the exhibition mobilises the rhythms and harmonies of written and pictorial language.
Born in Mérida, Venezuela, and now based between Melbourne and Sydney, Hernández’s work allows her to stay connected to close friends, family and place, all the while harnessing the spirit of protest to unsettle the global disorder that displaced her and her family. Belfast-born and Melbourne-raised, Campbell, comparably reflects Australia’s complicated cultural condition. Snippets of conversation and argument are transformed using the conventions of both formal abstraction and graphic design. Drawn to social notions of language and locality, both artists present a cohesive yet nuances exhibition that is at once proving and familiar.
Speech Patterns continues until January 8, 2023.
Image credit: Nadia Hernández, Cae el telón de la noche, un ejército de luces entretejen la ciudad (The curtain of the night falls, an army of lights interlace the city),2018, wool, cotton, seeds, ribbon, clay, wood, metals, canvas, oil stick, wool felt, vintage pins, acrylic, grommets, thread and rope, 166 x 197 cm. Courtesy the artist and STATION© Nadia Hernández
POMMERY
The 16th iteration of Experience Pommery is now showing at the Domaine Vranken-Pommery in Reims. Taking the theme Rêveries, the exhibition amplifies the wonder and transformative power of art. Reflecting on the natural human capacity to dream, Rêveries features work from over 50 artists – including Camille Corot, Ange Leccia, Philippe Parreno, Philippe Rousseau and Lionel Sabatté. Their sculptural and installation works intend to show the landscapes of reverie, its destinations, vistas and labyrinthine spaces that lie beneath.
Installed across the gardens, cellars and passes, Rêveries is part of the Domaine Vranken-Pommery’s ongoing EXPERIENCE POMMERY initiative, which seeks to engage the Museum of Fine Arts of Reims and re-engage the district’s interest and admiration for contemporary art.
Rêveries continue until November 8, 2022.
Image credit: Ange Leccia, La Mer (The Sea) (detail), 1991-2021, video (still). Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris
BIG SCULPTURE BIENNALE
The 2022 iteration of the BIG Sculpture Biennale will see 22 exciting new sculptures exhibited in St Kilda. The works will be installed in the Veg Out Community Gardens as an immersive display, tying together art and nature. The Biennale incorporates an awards component with several prizes, including a Grand Prize of $6,000, a Highly Commended Prize of $2,000 and the Fundere Foundry Bronze Fabrication Prize valued at $2500.
The biennale is on show from November 5 until December 11, 2022.
Image credit: Brigit Heller, Annulus, 109 x 90 cm. Courtesy the artist
UAP UNVEILS MAJOR NEW SCULPTURAL COMMISSIONS WITH SHANGHAI LIBRARY EAST
Shanghai Library East, a new 115,000 m² building designed by SHL Architects Shanghai, has recently unveiled its public art program in collaboration with UAP. The project’s central curatorial theme is ‘Mediums: The Development of Writing’, a premise that takes inspiration from the existing Shanghai Library’s reputation as an iconic city landmark, recognised for its digital conservation of ancient archives and collections, including genealogical records. The public art program features a global selection of ten artists who were commissioned to create site-specific permanent works. Together, the works engage a diverse selection of disciplines, mediums and perspectives. The commissioned artists include Gu Wenda (China), Simon Ma (Hong Kong SAR), Mia Liu (Taiwan), Ni Youyu (China), Shen Fan (China), Xu Bing (China), Yang Zhenzhong (China) and Zheng Chongbin (China), Emily Floyd (Australia) and Plummer & Smith (Australia). Located throughout the state-of-the-art building, this compelling series of artworks explores different textual mediums and the evolution of writing.
uapcompany.com
shl.dk/shanghai-east-library
Image credit:Installation view, Mia Liu, Tower of Knowledge, 2022 at Shanghai Library East. Courtesy of the artist and UAP
