Verge Gallery

WHO: Vilma Bader, Pamela Brenner, Johannes Muljana, Jason Christopher, Verena Heirich, Allana McAfee, Jonathan McBurnie and Vienna del Rosario Parreno (Sydney). Aleksander Bohnak, Ilah Cookston, Roma Devanbu, Gioia Fonda, Ianna Frisby, Cherilyn Naughton and Katie Thomas (Sacramento).
WHEN: Opening Thursday May 9, 6pm May 10-31. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, University of Sydney
CONTACT: Greg Shapley on 9563-6218 or vergegallery@usu.usyd.edu.au

‘Culturally Bound Syndromes’ by Vilma Bader from instructions by Aleksander Bohnak.

‘Translations’: A Sydney Sacramento Exchange is a combined project between Sydney’s Verge Gallery, and the similarly named Verge Art Center in Sacramento. The project explores how communication through the internet can be misinterpreted by an individual’s cultural and social background. Although sharing a name, these art spaces are separated by oceans and vast distances. Perhaps a metaphor for a gulf in understanding, these chasms, revealed as misunderstandings and misinterpretations, uncover the myth of the internet as a tool that eradicates distance and difference.

Seven artists in Sydney have been blindly paired with seven artists in Sacramento. These pairs have swapped instructions for an artwork which they create with minimal input from corresponding artists. Each of the artists have been challenged to realise artworks in ways that represent the original artists’ intentions, but this is an impossible ask. Artists will bring their own skills, cultures and life experiences to the work, creating a hybridised form.

For instance, Sacramento artist, Alek Bohnak, instructed Sydney artist, Vilma Bader, to “Gradually cover…your actual self…with something that restricts your ability to move and makes you feel restricted or bound and reflects a state of feeling restricted in your life”. Her response was Culturally Bound Syndromes; a performance-based work in which a ‘patient’ is wrapped up by a ‘doctor’ into a roll of over two hundred and fifty metres of psychological disorders. A fundamental recognition of marginalised and silenced people is that all acts of naming are also acts of imperialism (as recently as the 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association still classified homosexuality as a mental illness). Language is intimately tied up with issues of possession and power. In the context of this work, it is something oppressively inscribed on the subject, making ‘her’ intelligible and therefore an object of control.

In another example, Allana McAfee, has been instructed by her Sacramento counterpart, Ianna Frisby, to become a spy, using film, photography and audio to surveil the (Sydney) Verge Gallery, employing ‘moles’ (gallery volunteers) to extract information. To achieve this McAfee will use remote control toy vehicles armed with cameras and audio visual equipment, hi-tech computer surveillance software, and low-tech spy clichés (such as the window washer with the button hole camera and other classic ‘Get Smart’ devices).

‘Translations: A Sydney–Sacramento Exchange’ opens on Thursday May 9, 6pm and runs until May 31.

WHAT: Political Economy: State of the Art
WHO: Sarafina Power, Nicola Edwards, Joy Paton, Zsuzsanna Domenika Ihar, Grace O’Brien, Navid Ghezelayagh, Matte Rochford.
Curated by Joy Paton
WHEN: Opening Thursday March 28, 6pm. March 29-April 12. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, University of Sydney
CONTACT: Greg Shapley on 9563-6218 or g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

We would like to thank the University of Sydney Archives for additional material.

Political Economy: State of the Art

Curated by Joy Paton and participants

From time immemorial economic structures within political frameworks have shaped cultural production: from pre-romantic art, considered worthless and reliant, to Kant’s autonomous art of value; from art that represented status created by the bonded artists of European courts, to the movements of protest and social commentary that proliferated in the 60s and 70s.

To coincide with a conference held by the Department of Political Economy, Verge Gallery will be showing works that creatively address the green economy, cities and regions, economic inequality, contesting economic ideas, economic policy and the pedagogy of political economy. This exhibition brings together political economy and visual arts students to ask some of the bigger questions. Works from a variety of media, including photography, etching and needlework, will be on display.

The exhibition will be held from March 28 to April 12 and archival material from the University of Sydney Archives will also be on display at the gallery for a reflections event on the evening of April 4.

The conference is in honour of the contribution made by Emeritus Professor Frank Stilwell to teaching and research in the discipline of Political Economy as well as to the broader political economy movement.

You can (optionally) RSVP at:

http://www.facebook.com/events/500937679966387/

Verge Presents…

In the last year Verge Gallery has started to develop a reputation for presenting great cutting edge music and performing arts in a gallery context. Continuing this fledging tradition, we are very happy to be hosting a night with two enthralling acts…

Frank “wrong notes ” Dasent

Frank is an up-and-coming trombone player who has played in bands such as The Liberators (afrobeat) who have recently played at The Peats Ridge Festival and also have recently supported Mulatu Astatke, The Midnight Tea Party and other popular Sydney bands. He will play his own entrancing collection of music.

The Head Chefs

Michael Gordon (saxophone) and Finn Ryan (drum set) have been making music together for 5 years in a range of different contexts and environments. The Head Chefs is their most recent project together, originating in the early hours of 2013, they are currently working diligently together on a half an hour piece called ‘Density in Dentistry’ or ‘rhythming thinkic’. It’s all about exploring sonic and rhythmic density with the saxophone and the drums whilst persuading the listener to take part in a ritualistic and party like atmosphere. Another key element of the piece is to make Gordon’s teeth hurt as if he had been at the dentist.

Friday March 22, 7-9pm.

[Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/evoo73/with/4013358422/]

Curator Matt Poll
26 February – 1 March 2013
You are warmly invited to attend the official exhibition event on
Friday 1 March 5-7:30pm

This years students all have varying approaches to their art making from painting, ceramics, sculpture and print making and some developing uniquely personal and expressive styles informed by friends and family who are artists. Nearly thirty years after its formation EORA is training and educating new generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, musicians, photographer’s, film makers and now digital content producers. The EORA 2013 exhibition at Verge gallery is just one of many more to come – and the University of Sydney is proud to host this year’s latest batch of arts students.

Department of Gender and Cultural Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney
‘Widening Participation in the Humanities’

Verge Gallery provided by the University of Sydney Union.

WHAT: A Transposition of Space: An International Exchange between Verge Gallery, Sydney and Concord Gallery, LA
WHO: Artists, actors and writers: (Verge)Cecilia White, Kate Beckingham, Bartholomew Oswald, Heidi Abraham, Sahar Hosseinabadi, Justine Holt, Lucas Davidson, Penelope Cain, Fleur Wiber, Brigitte Gerges, Christopher Hay, Michaela Savina, Harriet Hope Streeter, Finn Davis, Victoria Baldwin, Esther Rolfe, (Concord) Arjuna Neuman, Marco Di Domenico, Erin Schneider, Eirik Schmertmann, Clifford Pun, Francisco Janes, Fabian Euresti, Elizabeth Wiatr, Annie Danis,Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, contributors to the consortium of concord press

WHEN: Opening Thursday February 7, 6pm. Feb 8-22. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, University of Sydney
CONTACT: Greg Shapley, Tel:  (02) 9563-6218 , Email: g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

A Transposition of Space
An International Exchange between Verge Gallery, Sydney and Concord Gallery, LA

Like an archaeological dig, ‘A Transposition of Space’ explores and dissects the multiple layers of social, cultural and environmental history that contour the geographies surrounding Verge Gallery, Sydney and Concord Gallery, LA. Through this collaborative exchange, artists, writers and actors on opposite sides of the globe will seek to understand and interpret their own surroundings and position within the urban landscape by engaging with representations of one another’s historical and environmental fabric.

Working with a wide range of media, artists will blend fact with imagination to compile a series of artefacts, maps and works that will be exchanged between galleries and then reinterpreted (and perhaps misinterpreted) into two fascinating exhibitions. Works include a paste-up of urban mythologies, interpretive maps that personalise immovable terrains, and a sound piece that attempts to reconcile the ghosts of the past with the landscape of the present.

Alongside the exhibition itself, artists will hold a series of performative events that involve storytelling, map reading (and writing), experimental local tours and social experimentation. These will seek to explore our fluid understanding of complex urban geographical histories.

WHAT: Art Alight! Fundraiser for those affected by the NSW Bushfires
WHO: Artwork donations from over 100 artists
Organised by Verena Heirich
WHEN: Monday February 4, 6pm.
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, University of Sydney
CONTACT: Greg Shapley, Tel: (02) 9563-6218, Email: g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

Art Alight!
Fundraiser for the victims of NSW Bushfires

Over 50 homes have been destroyed and 54,000 hectares of land (an area the size of Greater Sydney) have been turned to charcoal in unprecedented bushfires in the Warrumbungle National Park and surrounding areas. Wildlife and stock animal numbers have been decimated.

Artists and art lovers – we need your help!

Verge Gallery and the University of Sydney Union are holding a silent art auction on Monday February 4, 6pm to raise badly needed funds. All proceeds will be distributed to the local community through the Warrumbungle Shire Mayor’s Bushfire Appeal (see http://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/content.php/1080.html).

Artists – please show you care and donate a work to this show (email g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au or phone 0403 127 398 to arrange drop off). Every cent raised will go directly to those who need it most.

Art lovers – come along for a night of art and entertainment and help a worthy cause. There will be over 100 works on sale (some from well known artists) so it’s also an opportunity to pick up a bargain.

Bar and entertainment provided.

WHAT: Queering The Body
WHO: Artists: Delilah Lyses-sApo, Cleo Gardiner, Michael Filocamo, Randall Taylor, Katt Beaton, Rosanna Eid, Bernadette Knight, Willurei, Christina Lucia Giuffrida.
Curated by Cleo Gardiner
WHEN: Opening Thursday January 10, 6pm. Jan 11-Feb 3. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, + Sat/Sun Feb 2-3 10am-5pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, University of Sydney
CONTACT: Greg Shapley, Tel: (02) 9563-6218, Email: g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

Queering the Body

Queering The Body

‘Queering The Body’ is a powerful and eclectic exhibition that reflects upon and deconstructs the temporal, intellectual, erotic, emotional and sexual dissonance that is enmeshed and embodied in gender and the queering of a body/bodies.

The artists examine the internalised and externalised processes around bodily pleasure, experience, representation and deconstruction in a gendered and queer context. Challenging the heterosexist paradigms, which often position the gendered or queer body as “other”.

The contemporary and challenging interpretations by these visual artists are framed within a political and critical narrative that provides opportunities for re-thinking detours, gaps and absences in a post colonialist, post feminist and post modern world. Yet simultaneously, the artists do not blindly accept that the social and political struggles of “othering” are over and relegated to the past.
Judith Butler argues that gender, like sexuality, is not an essential truth derived from the body’s materiality but rather is predicated on a regulatory fiction. Butler discusses the performative dissent implied in enacting and embodying Queerness and argues that, for example, Drag and Butch/ Femme representations contest the current conditions of cultural intelligibility for sexed-gendered subjects through a demonstration of “the utterly constructed status of the so-called heterosexual original”.
The artists in “Queering The Body” enthusiastically and critically take up and extend the queer theoretical and conceptual investigations of non-heteronormative subject positions in Gender and Queerness.