When all your favourite things come together, you can’t help writing about them. In the case of this interview with the great video art and new media pioneer Krisna Murti, which has been just published by CoBo, these things are contemporary art, Indonesia and martial arts.
Here is the link to the interview
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The 2016 Taipei Biennal is the most important contemporary art event in Taiwan, and this year it has been curated by French curator Corinne Diserens. In this interview for Cobo we tackle many topics, including the role of the museum and a subject that I’m currently researching on right now: bureaucracy.
What the National Gallery of Victoria is trying to do with the Melbourne Now exhibition is to define the identity of Melbourne through its cultural practices, with a special focus on contemporary art.
I’m in Italy now, ironically writing my book about emerging artists in Melbourne, so I couldn’t visit the exhibition. Luckily my Australian friends and the artists that I have interviewed always keep me updated.
Some time ago I got a mail from artist Danius Kesminas, who told me about his new project with Slave Pianos for Melbourne Now, called Gamelan sisters (Sedulur gamelan). I posted some images, which gives you the feeling of this evocative machinery. On Slave Pianos’ website I find more information about it:
“Sedulur Gamelan (Gamelan Sisters) consists of two interlocking wooden structures that reconfigure elements of traditional Javanese architecture through the De Stijl philosophical principles of neoplasticism to create an abstraction of an 18th century double grand piano.
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My interview with artist Bindi Cole is the cover story of the Australian magazine Trouble.
The interview is part of my research about contemporary art in Melbourne.
You can read the magazine online at this link
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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.
Read MoreApparently there’s nothing new with it.
Apparently it’s something going on since 2003 or something.
Apparently it’s just me, a country-mouse from Italy not informed about the new trends.
All right, I get that, but still it’s difficult to me to be impassible whit this bunch of people stirring awkwardly on the crowded sidewalk for no reason.
If I were back in my Campania countryside, I would mistake the whole thing for a collective exorcism. But of course, the square in front of Flinder Street Station has very little in common with the Campania countryside.
So, these people are dancing with no music but with a lot of concentration in their absurd outfits.
With a more accurate observation I notice that they all wear headphones, so what is happening is that everyone is dancing with their own playlist.
The obvious consequence is that everyone is doing his own moves charmly out of sync.
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:
I always sought a day-routine, the only way to get things done, like my graphics novel and, currently, my book about Contemporary Art in Indonesia.
I was very much inspired by this articles on the amazing Brain Pickings website and, of course, I didn’t miss the opportunity of breaking the routine that I made for myself to read it and share, and write this post… Whatever!
I always was the kind of girl making daily schedule to force me doing my work during the day. It started when I was in the High School because I didn’t have a lot of time to draw, between school and homework.
I drew and thinking and building the stories during school time and I realized it after homework.
The calm after the storm.
After escaping the Post-it Pandemonium, I moved to Parioli, Rome.
Before that I lived in Piazza Mancini, surrounded by post its that scream to be turned into book chapters all day long, and sometimes even in the night. In my new writing location I finally managed to organize all the information so i could archive the post its. I put a band to each stack divided by subject.
Of course, I’m still writing other post-its but now that the structure is done I’m doing just small bunches of them on few sheets and I’m adding the information time by time.
My book about Contemporary Art in Indonesia is shaping up.
Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al-Jazeera, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
Reach out: contact [at] naimamorelli.com
