Employing innovative forms of collaboration over a period of nine months, Gippsland and Melbourne-based artists have been brought together in the exhibition Hockey Plot to explore socio-cultural landscapes and notions of territory, boundary and environmental politics.
Actively bridging the geographical and socio-cultural space between regional and metropolitan based artists, this project brings artists from disparate art practices together, transcending artistic boundaries and forging new partnerships and using innovative means of communication to achieve this.
Seeking to broaden the notion of an artist’s practice as being more than a solitary enterprise driven by a singular set of aesthetics and preconceived creative values, artists were challenged throughout the project by multiple, varied and sometimes conflicting interests—the outcome of which will be displayed in both Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Rehgan De Mather, Brodie Ellis, Karen Heath, Kylie Ligertwood, Maria-Luisa Marino, Simon Pericich
About the artist/s:
Claire Watson (Curator) has a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art and a Graduate Certificate in Public Art from RMIT. Passionate about creating new opportunities for young emerging artists, Claire has a wealth of experience in project management having worked as a Curator and Arts Project Leader since graduating in 2000.
Claire has co-ordinated arts projects both nationally and internationally that have included projects Next Time the Ocean, installations on the Black Sea in Turkey; and Weft, interventions in the once derelict Hardwick Building in Brunswick (both in 2005). In 2008 she will be in Finland completing an arts residency. Claire works as a curator, artist and writer. She is currently Curator at Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale.
Brodie Ellis graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2005. Her solo exhibitions include: Swarming Behavior, West Space, Melbourne (2006); and Thin Red Line, three site specific projects in Melbourne’s CBD (2004). Her work has featured in a number of group exhibitions including Wallara Traveling Scholarship Exhibition at the VCA Gallery (2005); Hurt Couture at Blindside Gallery (2005); Lurking There at Red Gallery (2005); and Landed, Domain House at the Royal Botanical Gardens (2004).
Brodie has also collaborated with fellow artist Tony Cran on exhibitions including Under Embargo at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces in 2006, and Half Way at the George Patton Gallery in 2005.
Simon Pericich completed a Masters of Art (Sculpture) from the Victoria College of the Arts in 2006 as well as a Masters in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2004.
Simon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Curtin University and was a recipient of the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2003. He has received various grants and residencies and participated in exhibitions, including Squat at Spectrum Gallery, Perth (2007); Sad Little Prick Pains in the Artist, Blindside (2007); Looker, Dark Portraiture at the Centre of Contemporary Photography, Perth (2006); Lost Garden Found as part of the 2006 Next Wave Festival; Lost Dogs, West Space Gallery (2005); and Super-glued pennies, TATE Modern London (2004). He was born in Geraldton, WA.
Karen Heath is an active performer and composer of contemporary classical music. Having completed her Masters degree in music performance with First Class Honours in 2005, Karen has presented original compositions that feature ‘choreographic music’—that is, dancing and playing an instrument at the same time. Especially drawn to the choreographic music compositions of luminary German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, Karen attended the annual Stockhausen courses in Germany in both 2004 and 2005, studying works by the composer with virtuosic clarinetist Suzanne Stephens. Upon her return in 2005 on a scholarship offered by Stockhausen, Karen had the opportunity to work directly with Stockhausen, and presented his 1977 piece In Freundschaft (In Friendship) at the course.
Maria-Luisa Marino is fast becoming one of the Gippsland’s most exciting emerging artists. Her practice incorporates mixed media and forges connections with her cultural heritage. In exploring the function of nostalgia as it relates to migrant cultures, Maria-Luisa views her Italo-Australian culture as suffering from an identity crisis.
Tensions between the experience of marginality and belonging and a reverence for times past are given voice through her work which incorporates painting and installation. Her current artist residency at Cowwarr Art Space has seen her work take on new and exciting innovations. Her work has been exhibited at La Trobe Regional Gallery and at Cowwarr Art Space. Maria-Luisa completed a Bachelor of Visual Art in 2006 at Monash University, Gippsland.
Kylie Ligertwood is a new media-driven artist whose practice is diverse, interdisciplinary, and in some instances of a truly hybrid nature. The use of sound is an underlying premise throughout her work, and is one element of a complex matrix of mediums and methodologies including a recurring interest in and exploration of the zones of reception, participation and social collectivism that a work can explore as well as create.
Having previously completed her Honours in Medical Science, Ligertwood graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Electronic Arts) from Edith Cowan University in 2005. She has maintained a consistent exhibition history since 2004, including a commissioned work for the 2008 Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth (BEAP), commissioned works for 2006 and 2005 Artrage Festival, participation in PICA’s Studio Program in 2006, and inclusion in the Hatched National Graduate Show of the same year. Kylie has also undertaken curatorial work, including “You are Here…entangle” for Tura New Music’s 7th Totally Huge New Music Festival (in association with SoundCulture WA) and was an Associate Producer of the 2006 Artrage/City of Perth Northbridge Festival.
Since completing his BVA at Monash University Gippsland in 2001, Rehgan De Mather has been a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, the Araluen Art Prize, the John Leslie Art Prize and the Prometheus Art Award. He was a semi finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards, Art Category, and was a recipient of a Regional Arts Development Grant through Arts Victoria. Rehgan De Mather is represented by the Cowwarr Art Space in Victoria and Groundfloor Gallery in New South Wales.
Rehgan De Mather’s paintings replicate the traces of industry, and the cryptograms of graffiti, on walls of contemporary spaces. They flash with comic book exclamations, bleed with paint scrawled behind alleyways, and are seared by an essence of New York grit.
David O’Halloran is Curator at the Glen Eira City Gallery.
