Risk Potential
History
In 2007 Zara Stanhope and Danae Mossman toured Trans Versa a major exhibition of Australian and New Zealand artists to various venues in Santiago, Chile as part of The South Project. During this period Stanhope met artist Catalina Bauer and a group of vibrant Chilean artists operating collectively under the moniker Medium Core. This meeting was the start of an ongoing dialogue between artists from Chile and Australia. Catalina Bauer and her collaborators Rodrigo Canala, Rodrigo Galecio, Gerardo Pulido and Tomás Rivas were then invited to deliver a major site-specific project and residency for the Margaret Lawrence Gallery. This exhibition was became the international showcase for the gallery’s 2009 program.
After the successful exhibition coordinated by Stanhope and Bauer titled Material Ligero: Five Chilean Artists Travelling Light, we have been delighted to discover strong parallels between the critical investigation of contemporary art in Melbourne and Santiago. Now curator Meredith Turnbull and artists Susan Jacobs, Katie Lee and Bridie Lunney have developed a project to further this dialogue and engagement with the Santiago arts community. After discussion and reciprocal invitation from Catalina Bauer, Turnbull has selected these three Melbourne based artists to develop new work for an exhibition at Die Ecke gallery in Santiago that examines these parallels and continues this vital discourse.
The Project
While Material Ligero explored three concerns relating to contemporary practice – the ways in which art circulates; the materiality of artworks; and the ways in which the political and visual may interconnect – the unifying concept became the relationship of art and materials to their socio-economic context. This concept was explored within the particular ideologue of site-specific and installation based art. RISK-POTENTIAL (working title) is the next stage in this growing international dialogue. This exhibition will seek to examine notions of risk and the latent potential in encountering new materials, relationships, situations and environments from physical and conceptual perspectives. Jacobs, Lee and Lunney have each been selected for their ongoing interest in and contribution to artwork that explores site-specificity, relationships between context and material, and risk andpotential as ideas but also modes of operation.
In 2010, we propose to travel Santiago, Chile (as three artists and one curator) to deliver and further develop an exhibition of new work incorporating three major solo projects with accompanying catalogue including images, documentation and critical text. As well as using risk and potential as a starting point to launch this project, the exhibition will also set up a framework to explore the subject’s – be that viewer or maker – relationship to identity, place and space. RISK-POTENTIAL will incorporate physical remnants and objects as traces of implied actions, proximal drawings or performances. These sculptural works will be manufactured on site from materials and objects found on location in Santiago, and specifically developed to allow for unexpected negotiations of the gallery space by artist and viewer alike.
History
In 2007 Zara Stanhope and Danae Mossman toured Trans Versa a major exhibition of Australian and New Zealand artists to various venues in Santiago, Chile as part of The South Project. During this period Stanhope met artist Catalina Bauer and a group of vibrant Chilean artists operating collectively under the moniker Medium Core. This meeting was the start of an ongoing dialogue between artists from Chile and Australia. Catalina Bauer and her collaborators Rodrigo Canala, Rodrigo Galecio, Gerardo Pulido and Tomás Rivas were then invited to deliver a major site-specific project and residency for the Margaret Lawrence Gallery. This exhibition was became the international showcase for the gallery’s 2009 program.
After the successful exhibition coordinated by Stanhope and Bauer titled Material Ligero: Five Chilean Artists Travelling Light, we have been delighted to discover strong parallels between the critical investigation of contemporary art in Melbourne and Santiago. Now curator Meredith Turnbull and artists Susan Jacobs, Katie Lee and Bridie Lunney have developed a project to further this dialogue and engagement with the Santiago arts community. After discussion and reciprocal invitation from Catalina Bauer, Turnbull has selected these three Melbourne based artists to develop new work for an exhibition at Die Ecke gallery in Santiago that examines these parallels and continues this vital discourse.
The Project
While Material Ligero explored three concerns relating to contemporary practice – the ways in which art circulates; the materiality of artworks; and the ways in which the political and visual may interconnect – the unifying concept became the relationship of art and materials to their socio-economic context. This concept was explored within the particular ideologue of site-specific and installation based art. RISK-POTENTIAL (working title) is the next stage in this growing international dialogue. This exhibition will seek to examine notions of risk and the latent potential in encountering new materials, relationships, situations and environments from physical and conceptual perspectives. Jacobs, Lee and Lunney have each been selected for their ongoing interest in and contribution to artwork that explores site-specificity, relationships between context and material, and risk and potential as ideas but also modes of operation.
In 2010, we propose to travel Santiago, Chile (as three artists and one curator) to deliver and further develop an exhibition of new work incorporating three major solo projects with accompanying catalogue including images, documentation and critical text. As well as using risk and potential as a starting point to launch this project, the exhibition will also set up a framework to explore the subject’s – be that viewer or maker – relationship to identity, place and space. RISK-POTENTIAL will incorporate physical remnants and objects as traces of implied actions, proximal drawings or performances. These sculptural works will be manufactured on site from materials and objects found on location in Santiago, and specifically developed to allow for unexpected negotiations of the gallery space by artist and viewer alike.