1
Jacobus Capone Consuelo Cavaniglia Sarah Contos Mikala Dwyer Bill Henson Adam Lee Lindy Lee Clare Milledge Jonny Niesche Frances Belle Parker Shireen Taweel Jodie Whalen
IDLE WORSHIP
Paul Yore
IDLE WORSHIP Curated by Natalie Bull + ZoĂŤ Robinson-Kennedy
3
Worship, in all its manifestations, is an increasingly vexed topic in contemporary Australian society. Recent clashes around freedom of speech, religious freedom and hate speech continue to spiral into an increasingly fraught space – surprisingly many with its vitriol and return to the culture wars. Perhaps it is time to step back and re-examine the notion of worship. Idle Worship, curated by Natalie Bull and Zoë RobinsonKennedy has done just that. It seeks to explore what is around us in the everyday to bring us into a closer communion with something. Anything. My sincere thanks to Natalie and Zoë for their dedication to this project, and for bringing an incredible range of emerging and established contemporary artists to our audiences. Thank you to all the artists for working with us on this project: Jacobus Capone, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Sarah Contos, Mikala Dwyer, Bill Henson, Adam Lee, Lindy Lee, Clare Milledge, Jonny Niesche, Frances Belle Parker, Shireen Taweel, Jodie Whalen, Paul Yore. I would also like to thank all the lenders and gallery representatives for supporting this initiative including Station Gallery, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney; Port Phillip Collection, Melbourne; Margaret and Michael Yore and Neon Parc, Melbourne. Projects such as this could never get off the ground without the financial backing of our partners: Lismore City Council and Create NSW.
FOREWORD Brett Adlington, Director, Lismore Regional Gallery 4
I trust this exhibition encourages our audiences to reflect on their own ideas of worship, and to embrace and show empathy for all notions of worship. 5
JODIE WHALEN
7 6
Idle Worship explores contemporary notions of reverence, worship and idolisation. Focusing on personal manifestations, the exhibition examines the intimacy of our idols. Worship presents itself in many forms. The artists feel it, know it, interpret it, challenge it, give in to it and subvert it. Their idols are real and imagined. They come from the past and the future, and are being made right now, taking their power from the present. Each artist’s work attends to a private idolisation filled with idiosyncratic intent and treat it with a respectful recognition of something perceived to be greater than the self. As a prelude to the exhibition Sydney-based artist Jodie Whalen’s overture Declaration of Love (2016) is a onetime only performance, filmed as a declaration of love to the artist’s husband. The video installation is the final in a trilogy, and a celebratory climax of the pairs romantic history – of longing, lust, hate, sadness, frustration and togetherness, all shared through a series of cover songs. Whalen appropriates her own personal history and popular Western culture into symbolically dense immersive environments. These environments are created as a site of contemplation and inward reflection for viewers. Whalen’s practice explores an interest in creating emotionally fraught environments drawn from her studio practice and an interest in ritual as a signifier of the art making process. Ritual, repetition and process – are common themes explored in Whalen’s practice and give temporal form to her work.
IDLE WORSHIP Zoë Robinson-Kennedy Co-Curator 8
From here Melbourne based Paul Yore is the perfect antidote to ‘real’ love, shifting focus on to our magnification of celebrity idols and the plastic wrapped drive-thu gratification we worship. Yore, a trained archaeologist, excavates our current times to produce laboured works that ask questions directly to the viewer, questions they may not always be comfortable in answering. 9
PA U L Y O R E
11 10
JONNY NIESCHE
While modern worship can be fast and fleeting, Yore’s practice is slow, handmade and intricate. He draws on the traditions of classical Greek art, decorative Flemish and French tapestries, trashy pop-culture, gay porn, religious iconography, and the frenzied excesses of rococo style. For Idle Worship Yore has three works; Slave 4 U (2016) is a disorientating psychedelic collage filled with epic references it is a dizzying allegory. Yore always manages to create in his work a mirror that reflects our own insecurities and human misgivings. The two text based banners Bless this Mess (2016) and Know Thy Self (2016) with their heavy text and technicolour borders are provocative statements that both engage in their playfulness and simultaneously create an uncomfortable assertion. Yore’s skill is his ability to be both seething and gentle, leading the viewer into a colourful exploration that pokes fun at our 21st century predicament. Jonny Niesche’s work is transfixing. Untitled (After Morris) (2018), a triangular, vibrating colour-chasm of voile and acrylic mirror, draws you into the corner. At its core, his work explores the expanded field of painting and abstraction, but behind the minimalism Sydney-based Niesche’s works are glamorous. They worship colour. They worship beauty.
IDLE WORSHIP
Niesche remembers being introduced to the dazzling beauty floor of a women’s department store by his mother. Somewhere between the maze of mirrors and kaleidoscopic compacts Niesche formed the ability to harness colours and bind them to feelings. There is a seductive quality that emanates from his work. If allowed, the work can be a transcendental experience, losing oneself in the vibrations and ushering the viewer into the sublime. For Clare Milledge the figure of the artist-shaman is a tool to create visions and prompts viewers to reconsider our relationship to objects, materials, nature and language. 12
13
Milledge completed her Doctor of Philosophy “The ArtistShaman” and “The Gift of Sight” at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 2013. Imbued with her unique sorcery, Lunar Declension (2014), is like a secret the artist knows and created for the viewer to decode.
CLARE MILLEDGE
Milledge explains that, “Throughout the history of art, the role of the artist has been compared to the role of the shaman. This is because the artist’s role has always been one of mediator, transformer and most prominently visionary. The role of both the artist and shaman has always been to stand between two worlds: that of the visible and the invisible. The viewers, or the community in the case of the shaman, entrust the artist to go forth into the realm of the invisible and return with a gift: the invisible transformed into the visible.” As an offering to the universe Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee addresses the vast sweep of time that is intrinsic to all nature and life and draws on the cosmos as the totality of everything that has happened in the past, present and future. Cosmos is the eternal unfolding of time – of course, condition and process. From an ego standpoint, the individual is insignificant in comparison to this unfathomable magnitude, yet from an absolute perspective, each life is a living unit of cosmological time. Lee’s practice explores her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism. Invoking the elements by repeatedly piercing, scorching and drenching them with fire and water her two enormous paper works, The length of the night (2018) and Flowing waters disappearing into the mist (2018), take the form of suspended scrolls. The length of the night is scarred and pitted by a constellation of perforations made by a soldering iron, resembling pinpricks of light, or stars against a cosmic background. Flowing waters disappearing into the mist is augmented by Chinese ink, rain and fire stains, from exposure to the elements resulting in a weathered
14
15
LINDY LEE
17
BILL HENSON
19 18
resistance and delicate effect. Time lies at the heart of Lee’s art, from the momentary flicker of a human life to that of the universe: an unimaginably vast web through which all is interconnected.
ADAM LEE
Inviting further contemplation of how the terrestrial is informed by the heavens Bill Henson’s landscape Untitled (2008-09) presents an open-ended narrative and captures an intriguing feeling of transition; of crossing over, moving through and transcending beyond. His large format photograph is otherworldly, evoking a mythology and placing the viewer on the bank of Hades where from they slip through the ravine into sublime reverie. Part of a greater series taken over a period of 7 years, the photograph reads like a poetic encounter, again distinguishable by the artists mastery of light. The velvet like shadows pose a powerful sense of mystery and ambiguity that selectively obscure and reveal.
IDLE WORSHIP
Mythology of the landscape can also be seen in the work of Melbourne based painter Adam Lee. Lee focuses on a re-interpretation of painting and drawing traditions and references a wide range of sources, incorporating biblical narratives, natural history, historical and colonial documentary photography. Employing new evaluations of landscape painting and old world portraiture Lee investigates humanity’s interface with the environment, of the natural world and its relationship to ideas of a timeless zone of the divine. Lee’s work adapts symbols and codes from religious antiquity in an attempt to facilitate the experience of traversing to another world. In his two part work Transfiguration (2016), what at first is discernible as religious iconography becomes a questionable reference point. The framed oil and synthetic polymer painting, a shrouded figure, head cast slightly down can become a mountain – humans can worship nature more easily when we see human characteristics. The accompanying layer to 21
MIKALA DWYER
23 22
the work is a traditional kneel or prayer cushion; covered in Granny Square crochet this element brings the task of worship into a place where we are comfortable to kneel down and consider our own icons. Mikala Dwyer looks directly at her own personal mythologies, and how her Catholic upbringing shaped her thinking. In her work Mary and Future Relic (2018) Mary stands patiently, embalmed in her lurid acrylic reliquary, arms extended and palms exposed, calmly facing the stark white monolith. This unformed stone is perhaps a future icon that will too become a relic, but is yet to be formed and perhaps never will be. Here with a sort of instagram filter around her we can begin to contemplate the strength of Mary and bring her with us into the future.
SARAH CONTOS
Dwyer has said that her interest in objects, “is based on their ability to act like props, as three-dimensional mark making in space, which hold ideas or become repositories of the memories we project onto them. They also have their own kind of voices and qualities and consciousness”. “I’m always trying to crack open an extra space that’s like an extra dimension within these object-laden rituals”. Sarah Contos is ritual in her practice. The multidisciplinary artist works across various modes of collage, sculpture and installation and unpacks notions of primitivism, eroticism and history – whether cultural or personal, utilising formal and referential counterpoints to explore ideas of identity, sensuality and myth. The Golden Age (2018) speaks to the mysticism of cinema as both a shared and intimate space of worship. The soft sculptural tapestry, as much of Contos’ practice, is a beautiful assault on the senses. Using unpredictability and ambiguity as strength in her work, Contos re-imagines screen dwelling heroes to create her own mythologies, characters and histories. 25
C O N S U E LO C AVA N I G L I A
Melding the totemic with the kinky and the real with the unnatural, Contos is at once highly personal. An avid researcher, her ability to truly and with deep honesty mine her own imagination, creates uncanny works that are like remembering a surreal dream.
This idea of sacred spaces is a constant source of inspiration for Shireen Taweel whose practice is born from her Lebanese-Australian cultural heritage and utilises techniques from within the Islamic decorative art of copper-smithing. Taweel’s forms sit in a space between jewellery, sculpture and architecture, bringing traditional ideas into a contemporary context to begin a crosscultural discourse.
IDLE WORSHIP
While not widely discussed, the connection of Islam and Australia predates European settlement, there are records as early as the 16th century showing Muslim fishermen trading with Aboriginal fishermen. Tomorrow Inshallah series (2017), is a meditation. The triad of meticulously pierced metal objects form a sacred space within the walls of the exhibition and offer a place of intercultural reverence and homage to the sacredness of our ever overlapping and connected cultures. 28
S H I R E E N TAW E E L
Taking cues from film, photography and architecture, Consuelo Cavaniglia is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on how we see and understand space. In Untitled (Simultaneous Spaces) (2014), Cavaniglia employs simple visual effects. The galvanised steel structure uses mirrors to distort perception and unsettle the relationship between viewer and the space. The shape of her installation feels like walking into a sort of divine space that reorders our expectation of a single perspective, providing multiple and disorienting viewpoints. As Cavaniglia explains, “this is not evident or ‘activated’ until someone steps into the space, so in some ways it could be said that the work is not complete until a person steps into the space of the reflection.”
F R A N C E S B E L L E PA R K E R
Aboriginal worship is deeply linked to the land. Mapping Ulgundahi (2005), first conceived by Yaegl artist Frances Belle Parker in 2005, is an installation of mass proportions – conceptually and spatially. Yaegl people are the traditional custodians of Yaegl country in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. The country runs 75km from Black Rock in the north to Red Rock in the south and inland to Ullamurra. Yaegl land was fertile, and focused on resources provided by the Clarence River. After the British settlement of the 18th century Yaegl country was ‘given’ to Scottish immigrants to settle and farm. During the 19th and 20th century, the government rounded up about 150 Yaegl people and placed them on Ulgundahi Island to live under white management and abide by the rules of the Island’s missionary and church. Parker’s installation of ten thousand pegs washed in plaster represents the ‘whitewashing’ of Aboriginal culture, history and religion. Forming the shape of the island in the river, on each peg the words ‘Ulgundahi Island’ are handwritten then hidden by the plaster. As time goes on, the plaster is designed to flake off and reveal the name of the island the artwork takes its form from.
The waters of Cockburn Sound were Capone’s, his fathers and grandfathers fishing grounds. In the unfolding performative 2-channel video Capone kneels on the shoreline facing his grandfather’s last fishing vessel “Buffalo”. As the tide slowly recedes away from the shore, stooped and in a position of ignominy, Jacobus’s gesture is but one of simple and silent reverence. To allow oneself to worship is to be able to let go of the self. The title Idle Worship and the exhibition acts as both a tongue in cheek reminder of our contemporary frivolousness of worship, of fleeting adoration of celebrity idols and gadgets, and at the same time it considers an idle worship, one so deep and true that it will continue to run slowly through time and across centuries.
Parker has said that, “Ulgundahi Island is the heart of our people and I see the river as the veins and the blood flow that support that heart in surviving. By drawing this Island again and again, I reclaim it and bring it back into our dayto-day lives”. Jacobus Capone’s work Heartsstone (2017) is an act of deep veneration, dedicated to his late grandfather Vincenzo Capone who was born in Fremantle in 1910, and when 3 years old emigrated back to Capo D’ Orlando with his parents, to their homeland. By 13 Vincenzo travelled back to Fremantle by ship where he spent the remainder of his life working as a fisherman and was one of the founding members of the Fremantle Fishing Co-operative. 32
33
JACOBUS CAPONE
35 34
ARTWORKS
Jacobus Capone Heartsstone, 2017 2 channel HD video, 26 minutes, courtesy the artist Consuelo Cavaniglia Untitled (Simultaneous Spaces), 2016 galvanised steel, grey mirror and black acrylic, 200 x 221 x 124cm, courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne. Photograph: Zan Wimbley Sarah Contos The Golden Age, 2018 digital printed fabrics and various found fabrics, found gloves, 188 x 173cm, courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Mikala Dwyer Mary and Future Relic, 2018 Mary, polystyrene, plaster, acrylic, 85 x 100 x 110cm, courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photograph: Jessica Maurer Mikala Dwyer Sun Paintings, 2018 painted fabric, 205 Ă— 240cm, courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photograph: Jessica Maurer
36
Bill Henson Untitled, 2008-09 archival inkjet pigment print, Edition of 5 + AP 2, 127 x 180cm, courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
Jonny Niesche Untitled (After Morris), 2018 voile and acrylic mirror, 110 x 70 x 6cm, courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne. Photograph: Jessica Maurer
Paul Yore Know Thyself, 2016 wool needlepoint, 60 x 40cm, courtesy the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne, Private Collection.
Adam Lee Transfiguration, 2016 oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, hand crocheted prayer cushion, made by the artist’s Mother, painting: 46.5 x 57.5cm cushion: 41 x 38 x 12cm, courtesy the artist, STATION, Melbourne, Port Phillip Collection, Melbourne.
Frances Belle Parker Mapping Ulgundahi, 2005 10,000 wooden clothes pegs, ink, plaster, 300 x 400cm, courtesy the artist.
Paul Yore, Slave 4 U, 2016 mixed media tapestry, 158 x 234cm, courtesy the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne, Private Collection.
Lindy Lee The length of the night, 2018 chinese ink, fire, on paper, 247 x 141cm, courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney. Lindy Lee Flowing waters disappearing into the mist, 2018 Chinese ink, rain and fire on paper, 247 x 141cm, courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney . Clare Milledge Lunar Declension, 2014 oil on tempered glass, frame, 52.5 x 47.5 x 6cm, courtesy the artist and Station Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Jessica Maurer
Shireen Taweel Tomorrow Inshallah series, 2017 pierced copper, dimensions variable, courtesy the artist and The Lock-Up, Newcastle. Photograph: Dean Beletich Jodie Whalen Declaration of Love, 2016 HD video 16:9, hand cut confetti, tinsel curtain, duration 17min 27sec, dimensions variable, courtesy the artist, installed at Firstdraft, Sydney. Photograph Zan Wimberley. Paul Yore Bless This Mess, 2016 wool needlepoint, 47 x 28cm, courtesy
the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne, Collection of Margaret and Michael Yore.
37
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Idle Worship 17 August – 13 October 2019 Curated by Natalie Bull and ZoÍ Robinson-Kennedy Featuring Jacobus Capone, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Sarah Contos, Mikala Dwyer, Bill Henson, Adam Lee, Lindy Lee, Clare Milledge, Jonny Niesche, Frances Belle Parker, Shireen Taweel, Jodie Whalen, Paul Yore
Catalogue published by Lismore Regional Gallery 11 Rural Street, Lismore NSW Australia 2480 T. +61(2) 6627 4600 E. artgallery@lismore.nsw.gov.au www.lismoregallery.org ISBN-13: 978-0-6481226-4-7 Catalogue Design: Natalie Bull Lismore Regional Gallery staff Brett Adlington, Director Kezia Geddes, Curator Fiona Fraser, Curator Sarah Harvey, Administration Manager Claudie Frock, Learning Officer Marisa Snow, Placemaking Officer (Lismore Quadrangle) Catalogue credits: The artworks and images are courtesy the artists and their galleries. Images and text are copyright of the artists, writers, photographers and Lismore Regional Gallery. All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact Lismore Regional Gallery for all permission requests.
38
40