Visit | Naima Morelli

Talk with Haris Purnomo at MiFa Gallery, Melbourne

05-08-2013

Australia, English, Indonesia, News, Research, Visit

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The inevitable destiny of every artists is to be know from the wide public just for a single artwork or an aspect of their more extensive production.
Duchamp is for everyone “the guy of the urinal”, Damien Hirst is the chap who did the shark, Eric Clapton is Layla’s ex boyfriend and so on..
If I say Haris Purnomo, what comes to your mind?
Babies with tattoos, of course.
Haris has painted babies with tattoos for almost 22 years – becoming one of the most popular Indonesian artists in the meantime.

The last solo show of Haris Purnomo “Beyond the Mirror Stage” at the Mifa gallery in Melbourne, Australia, has just finished.
The day of the finissage – you say “finissage” only in Italy and France, what a ridiculous name for “closing”! – the gallery Mifa decided to host a talk with the artist.
It was an interesting talk of 45 minutes with the SBS radio presenter Sri Dean and with frequent interventions from the public. The discussion was focused on the symbols used by the artist and his way of working.

Terra Incognita, the Socialists et cetera

By: Naima Morelli

13-07-2013

Australia, English, Indonesia, Reportage, Research, Visit

In Melbourne one of the first questions people ask you is “where do you come from?”.
It makes sense in a city where hostels are flooding with drunk people swearing in so many different languages.
There are backpackers coming here with a sheer party mentality, europeans seeking for a well-payed job as waiters and wannabe adventures romantically compelled by soil their hair with red dust, possibly riding through the desert on a rusty jeep (that’s me, and I sadly found out that there is not that much desert in Victoria).

The prosaic reality of Melbourne city clashed so hard with my fantasy – eating Kangaroo on a red rock with aboriginals people – that I decided to keep myself busy with what is supposed to be my main job: contemporary art.
Well, the truth was that I was already in Melbourne to complete the last stages of my reportage about Indonesian contemporary art, so I found myself turning on the recorder and listen to the artist Tintin Wulia.
It was the first interview here in Melbourne and one of the last interviews for my reportage about Indonesia Contemporary Art.
Her work and her experience as an artist epitomized the core of my book: there is no such a thing called Indonesian art, there are some practices born in a geographical segment called Indonesia, and there are some artists born in Indonesia that are making art.
The edges are so sharp just on the map – ideas and aesthetic are much more fluid – yet these borders matter incredibly when comes to bureaucracy, biennales pavilions and personal identity.

Richard Long, Text Work from 1990 to 2012

By: Naima Morelli

11-07-2013

English, Italy, Review, Visit

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Leave a trace. Recall a feeling. Mark our own path. These are the key needs of a human being.
Among the centuries men modified things all around them, sometimes without utility, just to fight the sense of loss. Basically, this is the reason why the Art started.
This urgency of conservation could show itself as a quick sketch of a bison in Lascaux Caves, or a line “Anna was here” in your school bathroom.
Many contemporary artists work on that concept as well. We can say without any doubt that Richard Long is one of them.

In a private visit to Locarn O’Neill gallery’s last exhibition with a friend of mine, we were struck by the work in the Locarn’s showcase, in the window display between Via Orti d’Alibert and Via della Lungara.
This display is a secondary space where the Locarn Gallery gives a preview of the main attraction in the primary space. The showcase was of a circle of stones pieces, perfectly in line with Long’s way of working. Land Art and other stories like that.

The installation’s name was “Trastevere Spring Circle”, a name that thrilled my friend Mira, who has an obsession with aliens and crop field circles. “This Richard Long… I never heard of him, but maybe he could be one of the Messengers”
“Who are these Messengers?” I asked her
She stared at me, stunned by my ignorance.

War is bad and animals are dying: Fiona Hall at Heide Museum

By: Naima Morelli

24-06-2013

Australia, English, Review, Visit

When you visit a museum in Australia, you have to consider the snake danger.
According to the Australian mentality, which is close to Hinduism in this sense, you shouldn’t kill any snake – after all a snake is still part of the wildlife and you have to respect it.
Anyways, being aware of the snake danger, I decided to go to the Heide Museum equipped with my Crocodile Dundee hat.
I hoped that my Indonesian boyfriend Lucas would have bring with him a kris and my Japanese friend Minako a katana but, alas, they didn’t.
“What about you? Didn’t you bring a mandolino with you?” Lucas asked me referring to my Neapolitan origins.
“How you supposed to kill a snake with a mandolino, genius?”
“Unless…” I mumbled making my way through the lianas separating us from the museum “you charm the snake playing Torna a Surriento or something like that.”
Walking carefully, we finally arrived at the door of the Heide Museum without being bitten, which was good.
The current show was titled “Fiona Hall: Big game hunting”
Coming into the exhibition I took off my hat and I rapidly switched my attitude from adventurer to art critic.

Alasdair McLuckie Studio Visit, Fitzroy, Melbourne

By: Naima Morelli

07-06-2013

Australia, English, Reportage, Research, Visit

During my researche on the contemporary art scene in Melbourne, I had the chance to visit the studio of the artist Alasdair McLuckie at Gertrude Contemporary, in Fitzroy.
The artist moved in recently, in January, and he is very happy to have plenty of space to work.
Alasdair’s first inspiration is primitive art and cultures, an interest that he had inherited from his father. Recently he has re-discovered modernism, that had itself a very close relation with tribal art.
Looking Alasdair’s beads works, you can tell that he is very concerned with the formal aspect of art, and his artworks are accurates in every detail.
There is also storyteller aspect in his work. Some of his collages, prints and drawings are infact collected in notebooks made to be browsed.
Coming into the studio, you can see the artist’s favourite palette everywhere: deep blue, orange, saffron yellow, pink, pale violet, grey, black and mustard green.
The interview is coming soon, in the meantime here you are some pictures from my studio visit.

Peter Dailey Studio Visit, Woodbridge, Perth

By: Naima Morelli

29-05-2013

Australia, English, Research, Visit

I just come back to Melbourne after two weeks in Perth. I was there for a reportage on the Perth contemporary art scene.
Through the Turner Galleries I came in contact with the artist Peter Daily, an established and very generous artist who has his studio in Woodbridge.
I meet him at a floor talk for his exhibition at the Fremantle Art Centre and he gives me many precious information about the artistic situation in Western Australia and about his highly imaginative work.

Visiting his studio I notice how much importance Peter gave to the materials in his works. He seem to experiment new techniques all the time, daring to use also unexpected and unorthodox material with great results.
The interview I had with him will be out soon, in the meantime here you are the pictures I took from my visit to the artist’s studio.

Mark Hilton Studio Visit, Abbotsford, Melbourne

By: Naima Morelli

14-05-2013

Australia, English, Reportage, Visit

I recently visited the studio of the Australian artist Mark Hilton in Melbourne.
He just moved from his old studio in Fitzroy to a new one in Abbotsford, so unfortunately he did’t have many past works to show me.
Anyways the one he was currently working on was complex enough to monopolize my attention.

The project is a continuation of “Hunting Where The Ducks Are”, a series of high reliefs depicting the darkest issues of contemporary society.
Every piece was shaped like a letter. In the end they will form the sentence:”Don’t Worry”.
In this work there is a striking contrast between appearance and truth, something in which Mark has always been interested.
Some of the scenes represented on the high reliefs are inspired to current affairs, like often happen in the previous production of the artist, other ones are drawn from the artist’s personal memories. There is no narrative connection between the pieces, although we can find a train as recurrent element.

The aesthetic look of the artwork is inspired by the decoration of the doors of the Duomo in Milan, where the artists had a residency in 2007.

Monet’s Garden at the National Gallery of Victoria, The Media Preview

By: Naima Morelli

10-05-2013

Australia, English, Reportage, Research, Review, Visit

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Media Previews, along with the free catalogues of the exhibitions, are among the advantages to be part of the “media”.
I have no idea how the NGV has come to know that I’m a journalist, but you know, I got this mail and the object was “Monet’s Garden Media Preview”. I couldn’t say no.

The ingredients were all there.
The National Gallery of Victoria. One of the most famous modern painters of all the times. Pastels colors Frenchness. I was sure the dynamic NGV would adjust itself to the élégance et finesse required from such event.
So I wore my little back dress with fuchsia stockings and I invited my boyfriend to come with me.
He was not sure he wanted to came. It was too early for him, I mean, nine o’ clock!
“The whole thing would be to classy for me anyways!”, he mumbled curling up in the sheets.
“Come on! Since we are in the City, we can also go do groceries at your favorite Mall after!” I told him.
This convinced him and he finally woke up. He wore his never washed second world war German coat, he grabbed his grannish blue and grey groceries trolley and we were ready to go.

RALLY, Contemporary Indonesian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria

By: Naima Morelli

23-04-2013

Australia, English, Indonesia, Reportage, Review, Visit

Two ladies in their fifties were chatting amiably in the hall of the National Gallery of Victoria.
They dressed casually, both with sandals and baggy pants. They had decided to turn their usual boring Saturday afternoon into an entertaining on, why not, a cultural walk through one of the most interesting museums of Melbourne is not a crime.
With all the National Gallery has to offer, they have been lulled by the pastel shades of the paintings of the New Impressionists, in a new exhibition called “Radiance”. They have also visited the European Masters section and the Asian Art section at the second floor and they were quite content with what they saw.
Since the two ladies don’t feel conservative at all, they felt no disdain towards a visit to the contemporary art exhibition on the ground floor.

The world’s smallest gallery

By: Naima Morelli

07-04-2013

Australia, English, Review, Uncategorized, Visit

My understanding of Melbourne so far it that everything is about the lanes. The graffiti, the social life, the art exhibitions.
A week ago I was searching for this Trink Tank gallery and, guess what, I ended up in a blind alley. In a blind lane to be precise.

I asked a bunch of people in front of a bar if they know where this Trink Tank gallery was.
A guy with a chef hat smirked:”You just passed it. It’s there!” and he guided me without fail to a shrine in the wall.
Inside the small shrine, like a Neapolitan Madonna, there was Marc Standing’s artwork “The Duchess Of Avon”.
I read the press release that you could take off from a stack of papers. Apparently the shape of the statuette was from a 1970s Avon perfume bottle, which ironically contained Sweet Honesty perfume: “Her tribal painted face is a stark contrast to her Eurocentric bridal ensemble. Coloured thread emanates from her bouquet, enfolding her in an almost suffocating embrace. However, her stoic stance is one of pride and reverence.'” stated the press release.

“So… that’s it!”
“Yeeee!” said proudly the guy “This is the gallery!”

Australia. You can have huge streets, kilometers of nothing just outside the city, the broadest spaces ever and at the same time, in a shady lane in Melbourne, the Trink Tank gallery, probably the one of the world’s smallest gallery.

It’s all about Bamboo – Visual confrontation between Rome’s Big Bambù and Yogyakarta’s ART/JOG bamboo structure

By: Naima Morelli

23-03-2013

English, Indonesia, Italy, Research, Uncategorized, Visit

bigbamboo1

Within few months I’ve appreciated two artworks that look similar but that are very different in the concept.
The first one is at MACRO Testaccio, Rome, Italy and it’s called Big Bambù, by the American artists Mike e Doug Starn.
The second is site-specific installation covering the pavillion of ART/JOG12, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and it’s by the Indonesian artist Joko Dwi Avianto.

Enjoy the photogallery:

bigbamboo

South Yarra Opening Day

By: Naima Morelli

21-03-2013

Australia, English, Review, Visit

Dysfunctional Camouflage right lo res

I was ready to go to the beach, but then I came to know about this “South Yarra Opening Day” from the mother of my boyfriend, who invited me to the event on Facebook.
Actually the mother of my boyfriend, at sixty seems to have a life much more cool than me, in my twenties. So, if my boyfriend’s mother suggested me to go to the South Yarra Opening Day, I should go.
I unpacked my beach stuff and I made up my mind for an afternoon of contemporary art.

Naima Morelli

Talk with Haris Purnomo at MiFa Gallery, Melbourne

Terra Incognita, the Socialists et cetera

Richard Long, Text Work from 1990 to 2012

Alasdair McLuckie Studio Visit, Fitzroy, Melbourne

Peter Dailey Studio Visit, Woodbridge, Perth

Mark Hilton Studio Visit, Abbotsford, Melbourne

Monet’s Garden at the National Gallery of Victoria, The Media Preview

It’s all about Bamboo – Visual confrontation between Rome’s Big Bambù and Yogyakarta’s ART/JOG bamboo structure

South Yarra Opening Day

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