What do the colours of the cushions on our couch and the type of music in our CD collection say about us? Could those empty beer bottles and pizza boxes from last Friday night be the making of a masterpiece?
Over seven separate one-day events across the Festival, residents around Melbourne are inviting viewers into their homes to view site-specific installations created by seven exciting emerging artists from Melbourne. Each artist’s work responds to the different elements of the residential space, the people that live there, their personal belongings, their collections and styles. Much like a real estate open-house inspection, each home displays a red flag attracting curious audiences and inviting people to experience a one off event that challenges the very notions of collecting artwork and of personal space. This is infinitely more interesting than snooping around that open house next door on a Saturday morning.
Conrad Dudley Bateman, Kotoe Ishii, Alex Martinis Roe, Rowan McNaught, Miso and Ghostpatrol, Carl Scrase, Emile Zile
About the artist/s:
Conrad Dudely-Bateman
Upon completing his Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) RMIT engineering degree Conrad studied Fine Art (Sculpture). Continuing from the widespread use of the found object in 20th century art he began using materials that we are surrounded by in everyday life. These include credit cards, bread crates, maps, books and keys. These are not refuse or pre-loved and discarded objects, but items that we use every day without ever actually seeing them. Conrad believes that much beauty has been lost in modern conceptual art and hopes to put some of that back, through his own aesthetic. Unlike in engineering he does not work with large and concrete forms, yet he does utilise the engineering skills of spatial perception and project management. In the future Conrad hopes to be able to bring some of his artistic skills back into the world of engineering.
Kotoe Ishii
Born in Akita, Japan, Kotoe Ishii came to Australia in 2001 at 17 years of age. As an international student, Kotoe finished VCE at St. Michael’s Grammar School, majoring in art and music. With the advice of her Year 12 photography teacher, Kotoe went on to study for her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Photography) at the Victorian College of the Arts, which she completed in 2006. Kotoe completed her Honours degree in 2007. During her studies, Kotoe’s artistic practice has shifted and changed from photographic imagery to 3D installations and video pieces. Her work is usually based on childhood memories and suppressed emotions.
Alex Martinis Roe
Alex is a current candidate for a Master of Fine Arts at Monash University, having been awarded the Silver Jubilee Scholarship. Alex has exhibited at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Conical Gallery, CareOf Centre in Milan, Salzburg International Academy of Fine Arts, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Spectrum Project Space in Perth, Spacement Gallery, Linden St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts, TCB art inc, and Bus gallery.
Alex has been published in Eyeline and been featured in Un Magazine, Realtime, the West Australian newspaper and MCV. She is also a studio artist representative on the GCAS Board of Management, curator of Slide for 2007 and part of the curatorial selection committee for the 2008 Next Wave Festival. Alex was a panellist for Drag Mash in 2006 and the Feminism Never Happened in the 2007 forums at GCAS. Alex was also a speaker at the Pompidou Talks at ACMI in 2007. She is the recipient of a City of Melbourne Grant for 2007 and is co-reviewer of Art Attack on Triple R FM’s Smart Arts Program.
Rowan McNaught
I am a young art maker thinking mostly about home, strategy, the 21st century, friends, death.
Miso and Ghostpatrol
This duo is made up to two Melbourne based, self-taught artists who take their detailed and very imaginary illustrations to city streets and gallery walls. Whilst a block of their work is based around ink and pencil drawings, these are sometimes just beginnings for their larger and more ambitious projects: from life-size paste ups, to transforming their drawings into sewn 3D installations, graffiti murals, tiny woodcuts and prints. Though Miso and Ghostpatrol only started drawing four years ago, their work can now be found on walls and in galleries worldwide. Both are inspired by tidy lines, David Attenborough and watching their work decay.
Carl Scrase
In 2007 Carl participated in the hugely successful show Floats like a brick doesn’t at Bus gallery as part of the Making Space Festival and he finished of the year with a solo show at TCB art inc. titled Hallucinatory façade.
2008 promises to be just as frantic for Carl: he has been included in two exciting projects for the 2008 Next Wave Festival (House Proud and Objects in Space) and has been curated into shows at Seventh Gallery and John Buckley galleries. Carl has also taken on the ambitious role of starting an experimental artist run space above an old bar in Brunswick, due to open in early 2008.
Emile Zile
Latvian-Australian Young Adult seeks Happy Medium for Audio Visual Fun/Relationship. All contexts considered. My studio or yours. No reasonable medium refused. Happy to appropriate and sample. Humour an advantage. Must send pics of Happy Medium. See my full profile and documentation at www.artnews.info/emilezile or http://www.emilezile.com
