THE UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS UNIT
Canberra Contemporary Art Space Board and Staff respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Canberra and the ACT region, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples on whose unceded lands our galleries are located; their Ancestors, Elders past and present; and recognise their ongoing connections to Culture and Country. We also respectfully acknowledge all traditional custodians throughout Australia whose art we have exhibited over the past 37 years, and upon whose unceded lands the Board and Staff travel.
Front cover: BERNADETTE KLAVINS Failure Pattern (detail) 2020, Cast concrete form, 60 x 60 x 6.5cm, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
THE UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS UNIT ROY ANANDA JACQUELINE BRADLEY SASKIA HAALEBOS BERNADETTE KLAVINS RAQUEL ORMELLA MARGARET RICHARDS JAMES TYLOR CURATED BY ELEANOR SCICCHITANO
THE UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS UNIT
An unsolicited proposal originates from a private entity (either for profit or not-for-profit) that does not fit into existing procurement processes and is submitted without formally being requested by the government. [Source: Guidelines for the assessment of Unsolicited Proposals, September 2018] Within the State Government of South Australia there exists the Unsolicited Proposals Unit. This crack team of assessors takes in the proposals that arrive unasked for, weighing them against standard guidelines, and giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to their progress. But what of the proposals that are made, but not submitted? Artists work year-round to develop new ideas. Unasked, they explore and present new ways of looking, reflecting and revising our past, present and future. When displayed in a gallery or public space, they are opened up for assessment by viewers. Each of the artists in the exhibition speculate, their works promote questioning and contemplation as they present us with a revised view of what was, and new ways of approaching what could be. Roy Ananda, Jacqueline Bradley, Saskia Haalebos, Bernadette Klavins, Raquel Ormella, Margaret Richards and James Tylor are seven artists who continue to ask questions, reframing our world. Their works are brought together here to present new ways of seeing, proposals submitted to the audience for their assessment.
JAMES TYLOR From an untouched landscape (installation photo) 2018, Framed Inkjet prints on hahnemuhle paper, velvet, acrylic paint, colonial and Indigenous wood objects, dimensions variable, Photo by Davey Barber
JAMES TYLOR From an untouched landscape (detail) 2018, Framed Inkjet prints on hahnemuhle paper, velvet, acrylic paint, colonial and Indigenous wood objects, dimensions variable, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
JAMES TYLOR From an untouched landscape (detail) 2018, Framed Inkjet prints on hahnemuhle paper, velvet, acrylic paint, dimensions variable, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
JAMES TYLOR From an untouched landscape (detail) 2018, Colonial and Indigenous wood objects, acrylic paint, dimensions variable, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
In his photographic series From an untouched landscape (2018), James Tylor draws our attention to the erasure of Indigenous people from the Australian landscape and history. Capturing the natural world in black and white, he uses the language of censorship, black bars and redacted areas, to cover and delete parts of these landscapes. The monochromatic images call back to the early days of photography when the colour process was not yet developed, taking viewers back to the early decades of colonisation when Aboriginal people were moved off their land, and settlers moved in. The settlers removed, broke down and covered over all evidence of the Indigenous people; these actions giving rise to the assumption that the landscape was untouched when they arrived. But the erasure that Tylor speaks of is ongoing, the sections of this story that have been removed are still not returned. On the wall amongst the photographs Tylor has carved tools; a pick, an axe, a cross. They are painted black: ‘shadow’ tools reflecting those once used by settlers to carry out the erasure on the landscape. Displayed apart on another wall, tools used by the Kaurna people. The creation of these tools has taken extensive time, not only to carve but also to discover them and learn how they were made and shaped. With these tools, Tylor continues the process of re-learning, putting back into the landscape all that was erased. He has begun to build this world, with Indigenous peoples reinserted into this place. Perhaps, with time, he will be able to put the features back into the landscapes themselves, and the information re-inserted into the photographs. Tjukula Tjuta (2020) by Pitjantjatjara artist Margaret Richards is a large-scale explosion of energy and colour. Richards has painted the many rockholes (tjukula) that can be found in her desert home of Pipalyatjara, in the far north-west of South Australia, a vital resource for survival. Her painting is teeming with life, a contrast to the traditional settler ideas about the desert and its supposed emptiness. Richards, through her deep connection to Country, corrects this assumption. The circular rockholes spin on the canvas, loose brush strokes capture the teeming life and energy, and the mixing of colours gives a sense of freedom to the landscape. The artist rejects the traditional European-style of landscape painting, doing away with the horizon, using the colours of the desert as it is, with elements of purple, blues and greys that are here in this space, but not always recognised. At this scale, the viewer feels able to step into this landscape, to be enveloped and surrounded by the land. The care and knowledge shown by this work speaks to the intimate connection that Richards has to her home. Jacqueline Bradley has long explored the connections between her body and the natural world. Her work in The Unsolicited Proposals Unit began with questions about reproduction and regrowth, the backyard and home gardening, and how we collaborate with nature in these spaces. Her pieces are adorned with eggs and apricot seeds, the product of a species’ need to reproduce, taken by another species in order to feed and sustain itself. Grown in backyard chicken coops and home orchards, green spaces in an urban environment. Despite an attempted control over these spaces, regimenting them, planting where we want the plants to grow, nature inevitably breaks out of these bonds. Seeds, picked up by birds, dropped into the backyard where they are able to take root. Plants growing and spreading not in the neat rows and hedges in which they were planted, but perhaps following the sun or the nutrients. Each backyard becomes a balance between organic and mechanical processes, a negotiation between nature and the gardener. Bradley explores this collaboration, the moments of give and take between human and non-human forces. Her niche (Apricot Niche (2020)), holding almost 800 apricot seeds, is a reminder of jam making, the sweet smell of almost rotting fruit that characterises a hot summers day, the potential for future growth, future jam, held in stasis.
MARGARET RICHARDS Tjukula Tjuta 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 198 x 241cm, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
JACQUELINE BRADLEY Peach Crowns 2020, Bronze, linen, peaches, 124 x 115 x 108cm, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
JACQUELINE BRADLEY Unsolicited Proposals Unit (installation photo) 2020, Mixed media, dimensions variable, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
JACQUELINE BRADLEY Egg Pockets 2020, Eggshell, silicone rubber, linen, 25 x 50 x 5cm, Photo by Brenton McGeachie Apricot Niche 2020, Timber, linen, apricot stones, 210 x 160 x 70cm, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
BERNADETTE KLAVINS Failure Pattern (installation photo) 2020, Nine cast concrete forms, 60 x 60 x 6.5cm each, Photo by Brenton McGeachie
Bernadette Klavins’ series Failure Pattern (2020) draws us back to the urban landscape. Klavins takes as her subject a pot hole, a fracture in what was once a smooth road. It is a visible scar on the urban landscape, a demonstration of the cycles of time, weight, compression and expansion, collapse and growth. It is a hinderance to the smooth running of the urban environment, as well as being considered an eye-sore. Her work cycles through nine stages, beginning with the pot hole in the cement surface, filling it slowly and then mirroring the void with a mountain-like heap. As the viewer walks along this line, there is a rhythmic sense of the hole being filled and emptied, time speeding up and slowing down this process in step with the pace of the walker. As suggested by the title, this is a pattern that is destined to repeat itself, replicated in both man-made environments and those created by nature. The pot hole is created by a coming together of these two forces. Klavins invites contemplation, drawing on minimalist aesthetics to give her audience pause to stop and reflect on these cycles and clashes. In her work Problematic Fragments #2 (Deakin) (2019), Raquel Ormella carefully burns an Australian flag, leaving behind words written by Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second Prime Minister, in his personal journal in 1913. Deakin, considered to be a key figure in the writing of our constitution, reflects on his country at a time when Australia was only in its first years of federation. His journal muses on the new nation state being imperfect, and laments that ‘the promised land of humanity still lies far far out of sight’. Using the symbol of this system, the Australian flag, Ormella suggests that we should be continuously questioning and addressing the injustice at the centre of the constitution and nation. The artist has removed the Union Jack, the Federation Star and the Southern Cross completely, erasing the flag’s ties with not only with Great Britain (our colonisers), but the Federation and the system of governance that continuously disposes Indigenous people and seek to exclude refugees. She leaves this space empty, a gap that sits and waits for a new system to step in and take its place. She is telling us that since the beginning our system has not been perfect, and we need to rethink and continue to improve. Saskia Haalebos injects her work with humour and childhood nostalgia. She attempts to fix a real-world problem: noticing that political debate has increasingly degenerated into petty point scoring, minor arguments, pedantic gripes and name calling, she has helpfully created the Insult Generator (Ya farkin’…) (2020). The insults are random, comprising an adjective, a food and a body part, refreshing and creating a new insult every few seconds. Displayed on screens, the bright green letters are reminiscent of early video games and childhood revelries. The combined effect is one of humour and nostalgia, generating insults that are a gentle ribbing, and an antidote to the vitriol that has characterised recent debate. She has created a means by which we can insult each other, but remain friends as the silliness takes over and the real sting is removed. This work does more than just give us a laugh, it takes us into the tensions that Saskia experiences on a daily basis. Living with dyslexia, she can never be one hundred percent certain what she will say when she goes to speak. Just as we are not sure what the generator is going to produce next.
RAQUEL ORMELLA Problematic Fragments #2 (Deakin) 2019, Reworked nylon flag, 150 x 250cm Photo by Brenton McGeachie Following pages: SASKIA HAALEBOS Insult Generator (Ya farkin’...) 2020, Three laptops with 150 words on random code, duration: infinite Photo by Brenton McGeachie
ROMANY FAIRALL Weft Belt 2020, Glitter and gel medium on board, 40 x 120cm Photo by Brenton McGeachie
Roy Ananda’s series of annotated images also draw our attention to Parliament, while connecting these systems to a multitude of fictional counterparts. Beginning with images of the government, the Senate and the House of Representatives, he has expanded the series to include other artefacts that go to support this system and its work. Running the length of the wall, Ananda highlights the expanse of the political system itself, and the many ways in which it is supported and padded. Each annotation is filled by popular culture references, fictional systems, orders and departments. A self-confessed obsessive fan, Ananda not only pays homage to these fictional worlds, but connects us to a multitude of stories and alternative realities. The viewer is prompted to not only understand their world by drawing examples from fiction, but also to reflect on alternative methods. What if we ran our parliament like the Galactic Republic? Who is the real-life Sir Humphrey Appleby who manipulates Ministers from behind-the-scenes? There are five guidelines that govern the assessment of proposals by the unit: community need and government priority; uniqueness of the proposal; whether there are any competing proposals; value for money; and capacity of the proponent to carry out their ideas. Evaluating the work of these artists through these guidelines, it feels like they would ‘pass’, though at the same time, stand to be rejected. They each address an urgent and ongoing need that, while being a priority for the community, may not yet be a priority for the government. There are certainly other artists and communities who are creating not competing but perhaps parallel proposals. The concerns that the artists address are universal – the environment, government, history – though told through the local, addressing these problems through intimate, personal stories. By asking questions, the artists do not cost their viewer a cent, but leave it open to them to formulate a solution that is cost effective. And the final guideline, the capacity of the them to carry out their ideas. These proposals put this firmly in the hands of the audience. They ask us to think on these new ways, to reflect on these ideas, but put the onus on us, the viewer, to act on them. We are in a time when the world is being forced to stop and contemplate, but also to move continuously and flexibly at a moment’s notice. These works have come at a pivotal time, when we should be taking note, thinking about our future, and using the universal pause to restart and reset the world. Now is the time to submit these proposals, to bring to the attention of the team, and to ask them to take notice. Eleanor Scicchitano December 2020 Roy Ananda would like to thank Julia Robinson and Jenna Pippett for their fabrication and graphic design assistance.
ROY ANANDA Annotated exchange rate graph 2020, Giclee print and ink on paper, 37 x 37cm Photo by Alexander Boynes
ROY ANANDA The Annotated Series (installation photo) 2020, Giclee print and ink on paper, dimensions variable Photo by Brenton McGeachie
THE UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS UNIT ROY ANANDA JACQUELINE BRADLEY SASKIA HAALEBOS BERNADETTE KLAVINS RAQUEL ORMELLA MARGARET RICHARDS JAMES TYLOR CURATED BY ELEANOR SCICCHITANO
Arts South Australia
5 TH DECEMBER 2020 28 TH FEBRUARY 2021
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE 44 QUEEN ELIZABETH TERRACE, PARKES, CANBERRA ACT 2602 TUESDAY - SUNDAY, 11am - 5pm
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www.ccas.com.au