Judith Blackall — LANDSEASKY: National Art School Gallery, Sydney

LANDSEASKY: National Art School Gallery, Sydney

Artists have long been infuenced by the vastness of nature, with the distant horizon – bound by land, sea and sky – as the embodiment of this fascination. Contemporary artists working in the digital era are no exception. Curator Kim Machan brought a rigorous conceptual and spatial approach to her selections of screen-based artworks for the exhibition LANDSEASKY at the National Art School Gallery.

The gallery is housed in a two-storey sandstone building that dates from 1841, a former cell-block for male prisoners in Sydney’s Darlinghurst Gaol. Since 1922 the site has been occupied by one of Australia’s earliest and most respected art schools. The gallery, a well-proportioned space with high ceilings and timber foors, presented work by twelve artists: Paul Bai, Lauren Brincat, Barbara Campbell, Jan Dibbets, Shilpa Gupta, Kimsooja, Derek Kreckler, Giovanni Ozzola, João Vasco Paiva, Wang Gongxin, Wang Peng and Zhu Jia.

The artists share a commitment to working beyond the two-dimensions of the projected frame, incorporating sculptural, environmental, architectural and conceptual concerns. In LANDSEASKY they explored a range of themes and experiences by utilising the gallery spaces to present three dimensional engagement. The careful positioning resulted in a visually rich and thought-provoking exhibition of artwork by leading Australian and international contemporary artists.

LANDSEASKY was anchored by the seminal work of pioneering conceptual artist Jan Dibbets. Horizon I, II & III – Sea (1971) was presented in the upper space along a single, ten metre length of wall, exhibited as a seven-channel installation. Dibbets’ experimental flm in three parts dates from the early 1970s, shot in 36mm and 16mm flm. The altered horizon line produced by the artist tilting his camera at various angles, and the random dips and juxtapositions of sea and sky were clearly visible in this singular, mesmerising layout.

Still in the upstairs gallery, Derek Kreckler’s major site-specifc work Littoral (2014) featured a huge projection of a vast, heaving ocean. The title refers to the ‘littoral zone’, the valuable stretch between shoreline and water, recognised as a zone of abundance for life. The screen comprised strips, which wafted in the breeze of a fan, moving and fragmenting the image of the waves rolling to shore. Combining sophisticated hi- and low-f technologies, Kreckler’s work created a large-scale, immersive experience, with audiences interacting with the screen and the space behind it.

As visitors entered the downstairs gallery, they experienced Barbara Campbell’s work close, close (2014), a deep space with a horizontal band of projected imagery on the end wall. Reminiscent of the view from a bird watcher’s hide, the screen revealed focks of wading birds. As the visitor moved closer, the audio of the bird cry was activated, and the horizon responded by moving up, revealing more of the scene. Campbell is concerned with migratory birds and their journey from non-breeding grounds in Australia and New Zealand, north to the feeding and resting sites in Korea and China’s east coast, and on up to their breeding grounds in Siberia and the Arctic.

Many of the works in LANDSEASKY explored the horizon-line as a timeless metaphor for humanity’s relationship to the world. Others drew connections between history and society with a fresh perspective, and others, such as Zhu Jia’s work Beyond My Control (2014) simply articulated a poetic, visual experience. Occupying a quiet, easily-missed landing at the top of the stairs, a projector pointed into a corner. The video showed a hand busily tracing the contours of the corner between foor and wall. The work delivered a refreshing and memorable juxtaposition of moving imagery and every-day space.

LANDSEASKY demonstrated ways artists working with video can extend to incorporate a range of other approaches. All the works contributed strong physical and visual impact with rigorous focus on the formal qualities. This approach enabled viewers to experience the works primarily as fne art objects — eloquent interventions in space rather than video narratives.

In Sydney a range of public programs were offered. They included artist talks in the gallery with Barbara Campbell, Lauren Brincat and Derek Kreckler; an Art Forum Lecture by Kim Machan in which she discussed her curatorial approach to LANDSEASKY; she also delivered a tutorial to NAS Post-Graduate

students on digital media and its application in gallery-based installations. Sydney-based artist Emma Hicks conducted a three-hour workshop, Space without Edges, drawing on themes in LANDSEASKY and using experimental video sequences. A comprehensive education resource for primary and secondary school visual arts students — available in PDF format on-line — provided background notes, resources and suggestions for practical art-making. National Art School drawing lecturers recognised the potential for creative investigation and inspiration for students, and conducted workshops in the gallery. Based on Shilpa Gupta’s work 100 Hand-Drawn Maps of India (2007-8), art students spent hours drawing in the dark, exercises utilising mark-making and memory, to broaden their approaches and ideas.

Judith Blackall

National Art School Curator and Gallery Manager

Above: installation view of Jan Dibbets’ Horizon I – Sea, Horizon II – Sea, Horizon III – Sea & Derek Kreckler Littoral at National Art School Gallery. Left: visitors looking at Shilpa Gupta’s 100 Hand Drawn Maps of India.

上图： 扬·迪波茨的《地平线 — 海》，1，2，3 与 德里克·克雷克勒的《沿海》 在澳 洲国家艺术学院美术馆的装置现场。

左图：参观者正在欣赏库普塔的 《100幅手绘印度地图》