Going to Town

Blindside Artist Run Space was established in Melbourne in September 2004 by three Queensland women involved with the arts - Christine Morrow, Pip Haydon and Renai Grace.  For the two month Making Space programme, because of Blindside's geographical history, the current committee decided to mount three exhibitions: the first showcasing the work of Queensland artists, the second the work of Melbourne artists, and this final show the work of regional Victorian artists.

The name Blindside was chosen to reflect the idea that what we are showing are things that are easily overlooked - that hover somewhere just outside the field of vision, and these 3 exhibitions have filled that brief by presenting artists whose works are not often seen in mainstream galleries in and around Melbourne.

Drips and Thickets 5 April - 28 April, curated by Benjamin Milton Hampe, presented two Brisbane-based female artists Kirra Jamison and Alice Lang,
each exploring elements of the grotesque within the theory of the decorative and its relationship
to femininity.

Endurance 3 May - 19 May, curated by Daine Singer, brought together Simon Pericich, Anastasia Klose, Danielle Freakley and Timothy Edser, four Melbourne-based artists whose work has touched on themes of endurance, embarrassment and suffering. Each has pushed themselves to the limits of physical endurance and humiliation, and at times treated their art practice as a public forum for working through their own neuroses. Endurance in their work forms a basis for something more, whether that be proof of fortitude, overcoming shame and embarrassment, catharsis, interrogating the way we communicate, or simply to test their own limits.

Going to Town 24 May - 9 June, curated by Linda Good, highlights the diversity of talent in regional Victoria. It provides an all too rare opportunity for visual artists involved with artist run spaces outside of Melbourne to come together at Blindside. The artists are Marilyn Ardley and Rehgan De Mather from Cowwarr, Lisa Honeychurch from Bendigo, Helen Kelly from Castlemaine, and Caryn Giblin and Nanette Hoysted from Albury/Wodonga.

The title Going to Town refers initially to the arduous physical journey that each of these artists has had to make to arrive at Blindside, to deliver, and to instal their work.  In some cases, even taking longer than a plane flight from Brisbane.

The other more metaphoric sense of the term alludes to the phenomenon that hopefully every person will feel at some time in their lives.  I refer to the sense of flow when a work starts to take shape, and the artist loses sense of time and of self, and is exhilharatingly lost in the act of creativity and participation. 

In his book  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi revisits philosophical ruminations on happiness, an elusive state that cannot be engineered.  It just nsues…..
as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course of action.  Some of the best moments occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult.  To achieve through participation is an extraordinarily joyous and memorable feeling.

It is not necessary to assign a curatorial theme to these works, and indeed it would not be easy.  Each of these artists works from a different inspirational source, and I feel my role has been more that of a facilitator than curator.  And so I have invited the artists to speak for their
own practice.

There exist some vital artist networks in regional Victoria, and though some of  these artists have studied with, worked with, met, or known of, one other artist in the exhibition before, this is the first meeting for most of them. And I have had much pleasure in working with this group of dedicated artists, introducing them to one another,
and to you.

Linda Good
for the Blindside committee
May 2007

Marilyn Ardley

All the way to 100 (2005)
oil, oilstick and enamel on canvas
75cm X 100cm

Living on a dairy farm in South Gippsland has allowed my work to develop osmotically; I explore my sense of place and connection; it is intuitive and visceral. I reference the female in the rural land- and seascape, examining my relationship to my environment.  Various media are used in my paintings to explore issues of connectedness, to each other, to the land and to self.  This spiritual connection with the land and the people who live in it is my inspiration, sometimes expressing the turmoil of existence, attempting to discover the beauty within.

My technique pushes the boundaries of paint and other media; investigating the different layers of existence by building up and rubbing back layers on the canvas, line is sometimes used in my work as a metaphor for journeys.

Reacting to the pressures of living in a modern world, I am continually exploring the ‘space in-between’ – the stillness often lost in life. I believe this exploration produces fresh and exciting work.

(Marilyn Ardley is represented by Cowwarr Art Space, Gippsland)

Rehgan De Mather
Sacred and Wired
acrylic, spray enamel, oilstick, charcoal and letra-set on canvas.
200cm x 130cm. 

With numerous solo and group exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Rehgan De Mather has quickly established himself as a young artist to watch.

Since completing his BVA at Monash University Gippsland in 2001 De Mather has been a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Prometheus Art Award, Araluen Art Prize and John Leslie Art Prize.  He was a semi-finalist in the arts category of the Young Australian of the Year Awards and was also a recipient of the Regional Arts Development Grant through
Arts Victoria.

De Mather was born in Adelaide, grew up in Sale and currently lives and works in Melbourne.

“Rehgan De Mather's paintings replicate the traces of industry, and the cryptograms of graffiti, on walls of contemporary spaces. They flash with comic book exclamations, bleed with paint scrawled behind alleyways, and are seared by an essence of New York grit. Rehgan's prolific output of work, for such a young artist, seems to be riding on a distinctly serious but fun attitude. His work is exciting because it is raw and has a genuine interest in the noises and signs that clutter urban spaces.” David O'Halloran, Curator, Glen Eira City Gallery

To see more works visit De Mather’s website at www.busyplayingart.com

(Rehgan De Mather is  represented by Cowwarr Art Space, Gippsland and Groundfloor Gallery, Sydney)

Lisa Honeychurch

The Cube Tree (an interactive piece that can be played rhythmically)
mild steel
90 cm x 50cm x 50cm

Lisa's first job was working as a press photographer for the Bendigo Advertiser. She began her artistic career after employment as a youth worker. During this time Lisa experienced a plethora of people and experiences.  She sees these experiences as a rich tapestry providing the perfect melting pot to inform her work. 

Lisa is fascinated by the many layers of consciousness that dwell within the human experience. We cannot know the full extent to which art and our environment touches us, it is impossible for us to take into consideration all the variables.  It is this level of consciousness that fascinates Lisa, combined with the ever changing range of perception created by society’s rules. 

Through her journey Lisa has found that the work is an outcome of a process.  It is the process that has given her a new found sense of life. 

Lisa is just beginning to find her feet as a creative being as she undergoes a transition from main stream professional life to an artistic life.  She seeks to move the view of the observer. She believes her job as an artist is to make you think, even just for a moment. 

Above all Lisa believes in living a balanced life that is in tune with the earth.

Helen Kelly

SPHERES – an ongoing multi dimensional project (2007)
mild steel, fabric, copper wire
75cm diameter

The work exhibited here is an extension of a project called SPHERES, which Helen Kelly exhibited recently in the Castlemaine State Festival. SPHERES came out of a call for proposals from the Festival Visual Arts Program on the theme of ‘Intervention’. Helen made a series of sculptural spherical balls, and randomly installed, de-installed and re-installed them in Festival locations throughout Castlemaine. SPHERES is a cross-disciplinary work combining aspects of conceptual, sculptural, performative
and multimedia art.

The Festival SPHERES ranged in size from 0.1 to 1.8m in diameter. Some examples of where they appeared were:

-piled up on the back of a ute in a used caryard
-as an installation of small spheres wrapped in plastic on a meat tray in a butcher’s shop
-rigged on to the tip of  the Bourke & Wills Monument, an obelisk overlooking the town
-lit up in red in front of the Police Station.
Three of the white spheres were tied to the back of a ute, which was driven to different Festival locations, and used as film screens. The images included a film, made specifically for SPHERES.

The Castlemaine community was invited to be involved, with sphere making occurring as part of workshops prior to and during the Festival.  Local artists worked with Helen on many aspects of the project: making the film, lighting and welding.
Shop keepers joined in, both providing and creating space for SPHERES.

SPHERES is intended to be an ongoing project which can be adapted to many different situations such as sculptural exhibition pieces, architectural features, or as a framework (literally and conceptually) for future Festival work in other locations.

Helen runs a business out of Castlemaine called unqualified. She works predominantly with glass, metal and textiles. SPHERES incorporated many aspects of Helen’s multi-disciplinary work (www.unqualified.com.au).

Caryn Giblin

Treescape (detail) (consisting of 12 panels)
digital prints with watercolour on watercolour paper
160 cm x 90 cm

I live beside Lake Hume (part of the Murray river system) and over the 4 years that I have lived up here I have observed the water level drop drastically to 3%. This work is my response to my observations of a world revealed once the water level drops.

This landscape depicts the world of fragile trees that are revealed on artificial lakes when the water level drops. Once majestic trees these trees are now dead. Or are they? On closer observation this is an enchanted world of tree creatures scuttling across the lake bed. Are they fleeing from the destruction of their place? Fragile worlds are places of measureless depth. Awe, wonder and captivation leads us to consider our relationship and impact with the visible, the invisible, the living and the non living, our world and other worlds.

 Nanette Hoysted

'Dying Light'    
print - drypoint/ monoprint / collograph    
100 x 120cm

Printmaking allows me to explore the landscape through layering and experimentation, with the works evolving over time. Surfaces build up, are scarred, rubbed back and added to - just as the land alters over time. My current works are unique prints rather than editioned, as I prefer to experiment with multiple plates, chine colle and layering.  I focus on a micro view of a section of landscape, but the work often comes to represent a larger view, often in aerial perspective