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Stelarc suspensions donated to Art and Design

3 August 2005

A series of nine black and white prints showing acclaimed international performance artist and Monash alumnus Stelarc suspended in various poses has been donated to the Faculty of Art and Design Collection.

Dr Gene Sherman, director and proprietor of the Sherman Galleries in Sydney, and her husband Mr Brian Sherman have donated the Stelarc Suspensions Folio to the collection.

The occasion was celebrated at a luncheon at the Faculty Gallery at the Caulfield campus last week attended by Stelarc, Dr Sherman, Art and Design faculty dean Professor John Redmond, and 140 university staff, media, art patrons and art industry representatives.

Professor Redmond said he was delighted with the donation and Sterlarc's ongoing connection with Monash.

"Stelarc has developed into a truly international artist and an important figure within the contemporary arts scene," Professor Redmond said. "His work is confronting, difficult and challenging, and he asks questions that other people don't."

Dr Sherman, who is at the forefront of Australia's contemporary art scene, said she was pleased to donate the folio to Monash.

"Stelarc sees the body not as a subject, but as an object -- not as an object of desire, but as an object for designing," she said. "He has redesigned the body and stretched it to the limits. Today we celebrate Stelarc's life as a professional artist, his career as a performing artist, and the suspension event series."

Stelarc's suspension events unfolded during a 13-year period during the 1970s and 1980s, while living in Japan. He describes the events as physically and conceptually challenging.

Stelarc (Stelios Arcadiou) was born in Cyprus in 1946 and migrated to Australia in 1950. He trained at the Caulfield Technical College in the 1960s, an antecedent of Monash, and has gone on to achieve a high level of international recognition in the field of conceptual, performance and body art.

In 2002 Stelarc participated in the Faculty of Art and Design's Artist in Residence program and Monash awarded an Honorary Doctorate to him that same year.

Stelarc, 'Sitting/Swaying: Event for rock suspension', Maki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1980. Courtesy the artist and Sherman Galleries, Sydney