Past exhibitions -- 2004

Instinct

At the Faculty Gallery, Faculty of Art and Design, Caulfield

Opening Function: Wednesday 8 September, 6-8pm. With opening remarks by Larissa Hjorth, Artist and Lecturer, Victorian College of the Arts
Exhibition dates: 9 September - 5 November 2004
Curator: Liza Vasiliou

Featuring the work of Emily Floyd, Sharon Goodwin, Irene Hanenbergh, Louise Hearman, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Ronnie van Hout, David Noonan, Lisa Roet and Kathy Temin

Ronnie van Hout, Sculp D. Dog 1999 Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Instinct explores the work of contemporary artists involved with the representation of animals and who identify with the animal form as a metaphor or allegory for exploring identity and humanity.

Presented by the Monash University Museum of Art at the Faculty Gallery, Faculty of Art and Design, Instinct engages with the mysterious and curious characteristics of the animal form to explore the equally uncanny and ambiguous character of the human psyche and behavior.

Throughout art history, animals have been employed by artists to symbolically represent human character traits, vices and virtues; as well as figuring in fantasy, myth, and the supernatural, where animals act as mediators or harbingers of the future and the unseen.

Curator Ms Liza Vasiliou said animals possess a confounding curiosity and instinct, which remain mysterious to humans.

'Instinct approaches the animal form from private, psychological perspectives that extend into the mysterious realm of the subconscious, allowing artists to explore alternative experience and subjectivities she said.

Instinct reanimates the visionary possibilities of the animal form, suggesting metaphors or allegories for aspects of creativity and change, while presenting an insight into the influence of animals upon human understanding and being.

Where: Monash University Museum of Art presents Instinct at:
Faculty Gallery
Faculty of Art and Design
Monash University Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East 3145
Tel: +61 3 9903 2882

Exhibition dates: 9 September - 5 November 2004
Opening: Wednesday 8 September, 6-8pm
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 1-5pm, Free Entry
Media Inquiries: Max Delany, Artistic Director +61 3 9905 1644 or Wendy West, +61 3 9905 1683

Artists

Emily Floyd presents a new sculptural work that continues the artists interest in Modernist anthropomorphic literature, such as George Orwell's Animal Farm. Recent exhibitions include ARCO, Madrid, Spain, 2002; New 03, ACCA, 2003; Anna Schwartz Gallery, 2003; Still Life, AGNSW, 2003; Fraught Tales, NGV, Ian Potter Centre, 2003; and forthcoming, Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia, ACCA, 2004.

Sharon Goodwin's aberrant cartoon sculptures explore the history of horror, science-fiction and the representation of monsters in film and literature. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Uplands Gallery, 2004, and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, 2002.

Irene Hanenbergh's digital prints explore an affinity with the supernatural and magical representation of animals in myths, folklore, fairytales, fantasy and religion. She has held recent exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2003, MOP Projects, Sydney 2003 and TCB Art Inc., Melbourne 2002.

Louise Hearman's strangely atmospheric paintings of human-animal hybrid forms delve into ambiguous and disturbing realms of the unknown. Hearman is one of Australia's leading painters, whose recent exhibitions include a solo show at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and participation in Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968-2002, National Gallery of Victoria, Ian Potter Centre, 2002.

Rebecca Ann Hobbs' intimate photographic self-portraits explore the humanist aspirations of animal identification, focusing on the secret language of animal and human collaboration and experience. In 2002 Hobbs held exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Photography and Linden - St. Kilda Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2003 she was awarded the prestigious Samstag Scholarship, allowing her to undertake further studies abroad.

Ronnie van Hout's video works adopt the animal figure to elicit feelings of empathy and pathos, at the same time asserting an undeniable sense of his own humanity, ego and insecurities about being an artist. Van Hout has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, with a current survey of his work I've abandoned me, mounted by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery touring New Zealand and Australia 2003-5. He has held international residencies in New York; Los Angeles; Holland and Wellington and was recently awarded an Australia Council residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

David Noonan's paintings, and a new video work, repeatedly feature the motif of the owl, the mysterious bird of prey and possessor of alchemical powers, to portray narratives of nocturnal melodrama, horror and the supernatural. Noonan's recent individual exhibitions include Foxy Productions, forthcoming in New York, 2004; Three Walls, Chicago, 2004; Uplands Gallery, 2004; and Artspace, Sydney 2003. His work is currently represented in the group exhibition Supernatural Artificial at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan, 2004. David Noonan's work will be the feature of a forthcoming monograph published by Thames and Hudson in 2005.

Lisa Roet's disconcerting video explores the uncanny conjunction between human and ape, science and nature, in which the roles of the expert 'scientist' and 'subject' are reversed to become the focus of speculation and observation. Recent individual exhibitions include Karen Woodbury Gallery, 2004 and Lisa Roet: The Finger of Suspicion, McClelland Gallery, 2004. Roet has been awarded numerous prestigious international art awards and residencies and has shown extensively nationally and internationally, including New York, Kuala Lumpur, Russia and Belgium. She was awarded the National Gallery of Australia's National Sculpture prize, 2003, and will feature in a forthcoming monograph published by Thames and Hudson in 2005.

Kathy Temin's video installation documents a recent performance work in which actors were auditioned by the artist to perform mating rituals in koala suits, exploring questions of national identity and individual subjectivity with humour and pathos. Temin's recent exhibitions include Iconic Moments, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2004, Auditions For a Pair of Koalas, Galerie von Gelder, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2003, Kylie Project, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 2003, and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne 2003.

Liza Vasiliou is currently assistant curator at the Monash University Museum of Art. Previously curated group exhibitions include In The Making, Ist Floor and Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, and Pure Negativity, West Space. She has contributed to a number of magazines and journals including ACCA online mag., Eyeline and LIKE Art Magazine.