GREGORY & WATTS SUPPLEMENT GARY CARSLEY'S 'GARDENESQUE' at CACSA

GREGORY & WATTS FEATURE AUDIO GUIDE IN

GARY CARSLEY'S

'GARDENESQUE'

5 NOVEMBER - 11 DECEMBER, 2011

CACSA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The exhibition 'Gardenesque' represents an overview of the Gary Carsley's recent practice, specifically configured for the CACSA gallery. As a central focus of his pratice, the artist creates large scale digital photographic works created by scanning wood grain laminates which are then used to create highly textured composite images of public gardens and parks. The artist terms the resultant images Draguerrotypes, referencing both the nineteenth-century photographic technique as well as the garden as a drag performance: a site of constant negotiation between nature and culture. Other more recent works include the presence of a black, painterly silhouette in the foreground of these photographic collages. In this series of works the absence of the statue figure relates directly to postcolonialist ideals, addressing the unique position of Australia in relation to European history and our position within the Asia-Pacific region. 

Alongside the work of Gary Carsley, Gardenesque will feature a specially commissioned audio guide by Chalkie's very own Sydney-based artists/theorists Tim Gregoy and Oliver Watts, downloadable here.

OFFSITE PROJECT: ADAM GECZY 'DIASPORA GATHERED' at FIRSTDRAFT DEPOT

ADAM GECZY

'DIASPORA GATHERED'

CHALK HORSE IN COLLABORATION WITH FIRSTDRAFT

7 OCTOBER - 5 NOVEMBER, 2011

Adam Geczy is both an artist and critic-historian. His art practice has been dominated by multimedia installation and video, but he also exhibits regularly in areas of drawing and photomedia. Salient issues have been how to represent political dissent in a non-literal way, and traditional issues of love, death, loss and the fundamental nature of human tactile experience. Recent works have also used beauty as a positive response to disaffection with social alienation. He also has an active ongoing collaborative practice with the performance artist Mike Parr, Australia’s National Treasure, the composer Peter Sculthorpe and the Berlin-based electronic sound composer and installation artist, Thomas Gerwin. 

'Diaspora Gathered' is a project with the Australian Armenian community, and was opened by the Hon. Ms. Gladys Berejiklian, Transport Minister for NSW. Berejiklian spoke very movingly and eloquently about the Armenian Holocaust and the subsequent diaspora. Certain members were moved to tears recalling the horrors of the event and were happy that an artist like Adam Geczy was addressing the terrible Armenian past, and bringing it to greater recognition. See images below, in reference to the opening night and Berejiklian's inaugurating speech.