CHRISTIAN THOMPSON
'BROTHER'
2011
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| Brother, 2011, Digital Video, 2:19min (Film Stills) |
Showing posts with label Video Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Art. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
RECENT PRESS - Adam Cullen
Adam Cullen - 'Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk)' in association with Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, curated by Andre de Borde and Jasper Knight
'Cullen aims for the brutal beauty of ballistics'
Adam Fulton, August 17, 2011
SEE VIDEO
ADAM CULLEN'S detractors have been trying for years to shoot down his work. Now he has beaten them to it.
For his latest exhibition the maverick artist lined up spray cans and paint tubs on top of a television. Behind them he placed large canvases with crude bull's-eyes. Then he started firing bullets, sending splatters of colour and debris onto the white backdrops.
The ballistic exercise on a rural property near Goulburn was filmed and the footage is being shown in Chalk Horse's spiffy new gallery along with the two lashed canvases, a bullet-riddled smaller panel and a textual reference to the death of his mother a year ago.
"Look at this, mate, this is huge," Cullen says admiringly as he moves a finger around a hole the size of a fist, one of many dotting the canvases.
''This whole thing, I suppose, is some form of lactic exercise in ballistics. So it's sort of lactic ballistics. It's like, if you can imagine, tits as guns. Thus the title,'' he says of Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk)....
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AS SEEN IN DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Cullen aims for the brutal beauty of ballistics'
Adam Fulton, August 17, 2011
... Yoko Ono and the late William S. Burroughs have used ballistics in art. American artist Chris Burden was once shot in the arm as a deliberate part of an art performance.
AS SEEN IN DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Cullen aims for the brutal beauty of ballistics'
Adam Fulton, August 17, 2011
... Yoko Ono and the late William S. Burroughs have used ballistics in art. American artist Chris Burden was once shot in the arm as a deliberate part of an art performance.
But Cullen says no other Australian artist has created paintings with guns.
The exhibition of paintings, titled Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk), is on view from today at Chalk Horse, where Clementine Blackman is gallery manager.
Cullen, who has delighted in delivering artistic shocks since his student days, is clearly chuffed to be showing at Chalk Horse.In Sydney, Cullen normally shows his work at the upmarket Michael Reid gallery at Elizabeth Bay. But Reid was happy to collaborate with Chalk Horse on this exhibition, since his gallery was too small to house it.
Cullen, who has delighted in delivering artistic shocks since his student days, is clearly chuffed to be showing at Chalk Horse. It shows that, in his mid-40s, his art is still experimental enough for a gallery in touch with its roots as an artist-run space...
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Christian Thompson on BBC News
Bursary for Aboriginal students 
Christian Thompson and Paul Gray are both doing doctorates thanks to the inaugural Charlie Perkins scholarship.
Charlie Perkins was the first indigenous Australian to graduate from university.
Mr Gray said: "Prior to this opportunity being announced it wasn't something that I thought was possible for me."
He said that in Australia the statistics suggest that a smaller percentage of indigenous Australians went to university and a place at Oxford seemed so distance it was unachievable.
The opportunity of a scholarship changed his expectations.
"It encouraged me to take the risk to apply; I don't think I'd have applied if the scholarship wasn't there."
He is now studying for a DPhil in Experimental Psychology.
'Marginalised communities'
Christian Thompson is already an acclaimed artist and holds a Masters of Fine Art.
He is taking a DPhil in Fine Art using exhibits at the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford as inspiration.
Mr Thompson said: "The scholarship has provided the opportunity to work very intimately with this collection and regain the knowledge that has been almost lost."
His work has already attracted the interest of actress Cate Blanchett, who recently purchased three of his photographs.
"The scales of historical injustice are being rebalanced."
As seen on BBC news 22/10/10
Heat 2010
In honour of his having been selected to attend Oxford University under the Charles Perkins scholarship, Christian Thompson created a new body of work featuring his granddaughters Madeleine, Thea and Lille. The exhibition featured a three channel projection depicting the girls positioned in a staged desert zone accompanied by the elegance of the harp: The work is truly a just appreciation ode to the Perkins' and an important articulation of post-colonial Aboriginal art history.
Christian Thompson and Paul Gray are the first Aboriginal students at Oxford
The first indigenous Australians to attend Oxford University are starting their studies this term.Christian Thompson and Paul Gray are both doing doctorates thanks to the inaugural Charlie Perkins scholarship.
Charlie Perkins was the first indigenous Australian to graduate from university.
Mr Gray said: "Prior to this opportunity being announced it wasn't something that I thought was possible for me."
He said that in Australia the statistics suggest that a smaller percentage of indigenous Australians went to university and a place at Oxford seemed so distance it was unachievable.
The opportunity of a scholarship changed his expectations.
"It encouraged me to take the risk to apply; I don't think I'd have applied if the scholarship wasn't there."
He is now studying for a DPhil in Experimental Psychology.
'Marginalised communities'
Christian Thompson is already an acclaimed artist and holds a Masters of Fine Art.
He is taking a DPhil in Fine Art using exhibits at the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford as inspiration.
Mr Thompson said: "The scholarship has provided the opportunity to work very intimately with this collection and regain the knowledge that has been almost lost."
His work has already attracted the interest of actress Cate Blanchett, who recently purchased three of his photographs.
Christian Thompson Black Gum II
Elleke Boehmer, a member of the Charlie Perkins Trust's Board, said: "It is incredibly moving and significant that these talented postgraduate students from one of the world's most deprived and marginalised communities now have the opportunity, through Charlie Perkins, to study at one of the modern world's oldest centres of learning."The scales of historical injustice are being rebalanced."
As seen on BBC news 22/10/10
Heat 2010
In honour of his having been selected to attend Oxford University under the Charles Perkins scholarship, Christian Thompson created a new body of work featuring his granddaughters Madeleine, Thea and Lille. The exhibition featured a three channel projection depicting the girls positioned in a staged desert zone accompanied by the elegance of the harp: The work is truly a just appreciation ode to the Perkins' and an important articulation of post-colonial Aboriginal art history.
Heat I, Digital Photograph 2010, 60 x 60cm
Heat II, Digital Photograph 2010, 60 x 60cm
Heat III, Digital Photograph 2010, 60 x 60cm
In his most recent series of videos and stills, Heat, Thompson has again adopted the role of director over that of the actor to capture the affective experience of the desert climate in the Queensland outback. "I love the mysticism and the seductive cruelty of the desert, my home, and how it can be so illusive and alluring and potentially life threatening", Christian Thompson, SMH, September 2010... Thompson's artistic practice successfully navigates and suggests the complexities of the post-colonial situation in Australia today. Thompson constantly plays on the boundary of binaries associated with these issues – black/white, exotic/mainstream, art/anthropology, primitive/futuristic - and never ceases to surprise with his multivalent images. The oppositions are played with and reversed and other alternative spaces are suggested. It is these alternative spaces, those that exist just outside of our central consciousness, that are universal to "the human condition" and are highlighted so poignantly through Thompson's work.
-Kat Sapera 2010
To enquire about Christian Thompson please click here
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