Congratulations to Linda Tegg who has been selected as a Samstag Scholar for 2014. Read more about the scholarship HERE.
Still image: Linda TEGG, Tortoise, 2013, HD Video, 11:00 min
Ross Coulter is a finalist in the 2013 Bowness Photography Prize
Ross Coulter is a finalist in this year's Bowness Photography Prize with his photograph "...He walks on water"
Exhibited at the Monash Gallery of Art Friday 4 October - Sunday 3 November 2013
Ross COULTER, "...He walks on water", 2013
from the series Aussie Jesus
chromogenic print
100.0 x 127.0 cm
courtesy of the artist
Artist’s statement:
Drawing on what many consider the first direct self-portrait in the western tradition, the series Aussie Jesus refers to Albrecht Dürer’s iconic painted self-portrait (1500). The photograph attempts to confront the role of the artist, representations of Jesus and notions of Australian identity.
Brook Andrew exhibition '52 Portraits' at Tolarno Galleries
Exhibition dates: 15 June – 20 July 2013
Photograph by Christian Capurro
Installation shot of Brook ANDREW exhibition '52 Portraits'
Image courtesy of the artist & Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Read more about the exhibition HERE.
Whirling Dervishes Spiralling Through the Great Vertical
The Ross Coulter viewing at the State Library of Victoria - 4 July 2011
Last Monday Ross Coulter, the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, managed to pin about sixty people obediently to their seats for forty five minutes in total silence. Nobody spoke – not a squeak was heard as we watched the passage of any amount of white paper planes spiral down through the splendid space of the State Library of Victoria’s reading room –one of the great interiors of Australia.
Timing was all. The slowness was mesmerising. The camera – always turning – followed the first planes as they appeared….these seemed to be mostly tentative, venturing out as if they were casing the joint, sniffing the air and listening up while slowly, slowly winding down.
They were followed by a gradual build up of an increase of spiralling planes always graceful, determinedly individual and as the number grew the camera would move - incrementally - further down through the space as if it were stroking the walls and the balconies while the planes flew and somersaulted towards the floor as if they had been co-opted into celebrating the air itself.
Eventually we could start to see the floor where the drifts of landed planes were scattered in such a way as to echo the irregular dashes of white paper on the books lining the walls of the misleading ‘ground’ floor.
The meditative sense of suspension, of time slowing into another measurement and of a feather-light infinite pleasure, came to a halt, leaving the audience to adjust back to grounded, ordinary life and time.
Ross and his Squadron have achieved something of great beauty and resonance. What’s more he is not finished so now we wait for the next stage in this enervescent display of free floating imagination.
Written by: Caroline Williams Mora, 11 July 2011
Photo credit: Ross Coulter
Blue skies by Trinh Vu at the State Library
Trinh Vu, inaugural recipient of the Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship, is now showing her intricate work, Blue Skies, at the State Library of Victoria.
Trinh drew inspiration for Blue Skies from a bunch of sunflowers drying in her studio during her 2008 residency at Paris's Cités des Arts. She studied the structure of the flower heads and the way they deformed as they dried, and created a 3D digital model to aid her construction of the sculptural form we see on display.
Watch this time-lapse of Trinh installing her intricate work Blue Skies in the Library, or see Blue Skies in situ at the Library's Cowen Gallery until 31 July 2011.
Trinh is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University and is represented by ArtsBank and Chika Gallery (Tokyo). She was the 2007 recipient of the Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship, of which Blue Skies is the outcome.
A time lapse video: watch as artist Trinh Vu installs her work Blue Skies in the State Library of Victoria.
Video and image courtesy of Trinh Vu and the State Library of Victoria.
Ideas in Flight
Ask the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, why his 10,000 paper plane project has resonated with so many people and he answers with the same clarity he’s shown in creating the work itself. “There’s a simple poetry to it that everyone can understand”.
Ten thousand paper planes (Nakamura Lock design; glides easily) slowly and delicately descend through the resonant space of the domed Reading Room at the State Library. Nine cameras record their spiralling descent, including one in the centre which rotates ten times over ten minutes, slowly tilting to reveal the room as each subsequent level releases its paper bounty.
A room “like a big cranium”, lined with “all those books, all that thinking flying around” is filled with different paper activated by visual–spatial imagination, experiment and teamwork. A huge chamber of thinking in flight. He’s right. There is a simple poetry to it.
Text by Robyn Winslow
The idea that launched 10,000 planes
One day, back in the late 90s, artist Ross Coulter was working in the photocopy room at the State Library of Victoria when he had an idea. He folded a piece of discarded photocopy paper into a paper plane, took it to the domed Reading Room and released it into the air currents of magnificent space.
As he watched it float and swirl to the ground, he had no idea that he would one day be coordinating the choreographed release of 10,000 paper planes in the same room, an extraordinary feat of imagination and dedication made possible by the Georges Mora Foundation, Arts Victoria and the State Library of Victoria. But on that day the seed of a great artwork was planted.
Now Ross as the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow thinks of the Reading Room as a “big cranium full of information, ideas and thinking all flying around in the space”. That single paper plane all those years ago was an early attempt to represent the concept in physical form. A development in 2004 while Ross was at art school was the forerunner of the current project. “I had this idea to release 1000 paper planes”. So why 10,000 now? “I used 2000 planes in another project and realised that it wasn’t enough.”
The final artwork is in two parts: the performance of the plane release on March 14th 2011, and a video taken on the day using 9 cameras, resulting in a multi-screen, unedited view of the planes as they spiral their way through the space.
Asked where the current work fits into his artistic practice, Ross talks about watching two elderly Greek women sitting in a tram, swinging their feet off the ground like children as they watched younger women in their 30s climb on board. And of watching a man on a bridge run backwards while looking forwards, his comb-over standing up in the breeze. This latter image became a video work where the man was sometimes near the back of the frame, or near the front, or occupying the middle ground.
These ideas arriving from the simultaneous surprise and timelessness of the incidental are recurring themes in Ross’ art: No wonder then that the Reading Room, itself a splendid architectural and social representation of Empire providing scholarly civic space for the people of Melbourne has inspired this delightful happening.
Text by- Robyn Winslow 2011
How to fly a paper plane a la Ross Coulter
What do you learn when you think up and execute an artwork involving the filmed release of 10,000 paper planes in the domed Reading Room of the State Library? Ross Coulter, the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, learned a few things you might expect.
The right material is important. “The final planes were made with A3 AA paper because it was stronger than the rest,” says Ross.
Design is critical, especially when you’re relying on 180 volunteers who may or may not have received detention for flying paper planes in class while at school. James Norton, international paper plane expert, provided advice and Ross finally decided on a Japanese design called the Nakamura Lock. “The Nakamura glides easily and rights itself. Anyone can fly them.” Phew.
The choreography of objects in space is essential. Ross consulted Rusty Johnson, choreographer of fireworks displays with Howard Brothers. He also cites a project with dance choreographer Lucy Guerin as influential.
Rehearsal and being prepared was a lesson learned when Ross was a field marshal for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. “I (wasn’t) worried about the release of the planes because I’d tested it, first with 16 people, then 35, then 60.”
Ross also talks of the impact on his skill development. “It’s the largest thing I’ve made to date. It’s extended my people skills; negotiating, boardroom conversations, public speaking. I’ve been able to focus on research, learning from cinematographers about the technical capacities of cameras, learning about flight.”
But Ross also says there have been “profound changes which I can’t describe. The conversations while folding the planes…like quilting, the craft activity goes into the background and the stories are what are important.” Many of the folders were fellow artists; “we talked about our artistic practice, about projects, relationships … we set and achieved small goals, like making another 480 planes before we stopped for the night … working in teams to achieve something …”
And the future? “That an idea I’ve had for so many years has come to fruition feels unreal. It’s given me hope, and reminded me that I have to keep my ideas pushing along. It’s given me confidence to experiment.”
text by Robyn Winslow 2011