DISAPPEARING PAINTING A painting that looks so real that some people can't see it, is a feature of an exhibition by Queensland Film and Dram a Centre Artist-in-Residence Ray Beattie. In the Library Foyer at Griffith University, students and passers-by can be seen playing guessing games about which elements of the painting are real objects, which are painted acrylic on canvas. This style of illustrative art has an element of surprise and a sense of magic and virtuosity akin to the transmutation of materials of the medieval alchemists. Onlookers ·hanker after the secret. Another piece in this vein is a sculpture produced by Mr. Beattie during his residency in Brisbane. Titled "Homage to Mareel Tutenkamen Duchamp", it is a shining chrome motorbike wheel on a stand. Like all of Mr. Beattie's art it portrays opposing aspects of beauty and brutality, of tradition and up-to-the-minute modernity. The wheel is a piece of contemporary industrial design which relates to earlier wheels in few respects except in its roundness. "A sinister aspect is hidden behind a veneer of beauty",says Mr. Beattie, "Think of how many parents wait up at night worrying about their children's involvement with the speed and violence associated with bikie culture." In addition to the work Mr. Beattie has produced during his stay in Queensland, the show includes an interesting retrospective of his work over the past five years. qighly coloured, detailed and masterly still-life prints give way to serene one-colour soft-ground etchings of domestic tools and utensils which look like lithographs or crayon drawings. Montaged photographs taken during his period of national service in Vietnam and a recent visit to his war-tom homeland of Northern Ireland stand beside screenprinted and etched trad itional style illustrations of gridded organic forms which pay tribute to the modem sciences of archeology and biology. The exhibition which is part of the artist-in-residence program sponsored by the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council,is open to the public and will be on show at Griffith University from 31 October to 21 November weekdays from 9am - 8pm and Saturdays from 12pm - 5pm. The work can be seen in the University's Central Theatres Foyer, Library Foyer and adjacent Humanities Building. For further information phone Margriet Bonnin 275 7414.
A mixed media exhibition of sculptures, prints, photographs and painting by artist-in-residence Ray Beattie will be on shcw at Griffith University until 20 November.
The shcw
includes photoreal art and work with anti-war and rock. and-roll themes. Venues are the University's Central Theatres and Library Foyer as -well as Level (?ne of the Humanities Building.
For further infonnation phone 275 7414.
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Af!S :"';-: _, f?.r.m!f ],mre l'Etrosnectlve� .,:�{\' · _f'-�-?.i • � -= P',": ,t'f:,. i;,,:nttlH:,.n n:- Ray· Beattie :at Id - �-.• ---r ,,� ,i, , el'it:'. th ·uruverslty, c:.-ates er-:{ i.,.��....:.��· �; l·:�·-�..:.',7� -- ·- _; i:tterest. ·' ].. c'., �'idea ...0, r,!'-);;;• ·u:-v,...r;�n�-�\_; IY!!Jbol.fll' iurm. ·a;;--;::-:;<· Eeattie has �n artist�b-??:.,i rlE.nce �t Griffiih', Quee,�land Beattie is an excellent print :!"'.Jm and Drama oenire fGr u:.e maker. He likes the powe!' of the li..,t e1gbt ::.non ths. Illli,,S,S mediu..-rn; therefore, c!ten hi:. more la'borious'eteb-' - Ditri.ng this t!:T,,;, rn, conducl.ed eonvem. lngs inw more easily affordable l<"orii..shc;:is in etching and silil: .screen p.wts. tcreen plinti...".g, � well � treat There 1s·· a �autiful aeries ing a large part of his present ex -·-bibition. where 8. singie kit.c..'le.Il uten.s.i, in reometric si.I.lplicity ls em Perth artist, Beattie vra.s barn its . bedded in free, graphic linework, ll -, .In Belfi.SL gliini LD. J.n..ense and rich iroa.ge. ., , He rnigrs.ted n, Amtrali& IIE a A eontemporary c on e e r n U;ena.ger. served in the Vietnam -a combination of 11.rt and !•>-"War, and then stt.l�ied a.,-;; m �th l!IC�nee, or rather the hum&n tm '"-?l!rt.h and Meloourne. pllcation.� of science, explored. by -� i>�l-cieiajjs are · •rt. 15 seen in an on-going � .. , , impo:-t,.;..'lt l:>ec.l.u.se I.he ex "An lllustnit>ed Under-st.andi...-:.g of ' · Pt"rienre; tmp!J.ed in then. &re in Whole Systems � � .corporaied Jn t..� varlo1.1c i.nier In these graphic &heets, 1<here �; .6ct:s shown b Bu.itle's worlui. oriJ-r,ic fonns � superimp06,ed on grid 1;:;1nc.=, :BeiM.ie ii il)1oeni ,i.J� . •v-e� Of In8&..-iity"-the ti+Je , ·under wbkh wls the �.ile on making' people draw con!,. �lnii1on - it oompr�es print.s, clusioM. dr;,wing6. a&&=l>ia.ge- aculpt-ures, ; _ For CXJIJnilk', tbe 5bi.t.&I form.11 ��-- pa.in;ini:, &nd phO!.ogri..:phi; - .Dt hum.ar. h&rtds are Juxta.palle(i •__ u aure,y &J.tDed at &Ocle't;,. ;. J:D SiIWl.,,r 0� of w whaJe. ;:'.. Besttie's worl.:.s_ are. free from The theme ag-gl"e!!Sion ap'-�l.lc, aelf i.w:huaent bw11- :_ pears_ in � of_tror.ie&l ly wtUed · �ill Life W!th �Lowen," an a& , ,...�J. ' - Be l"l'/$.ctB ltror.g')y t<> t.tme, en- ' setnbl.al?'!. �tL.;_g of 1 two� ITiroru!'Hmt &.nd the numu1 condi- -tff'red tli.b� 'fllnt!'T'l'l a VMle of fluwtion, and is i.ll,o concemed with en shi.� tM top with military "':, cnu'Um&r-.ship e.nd formal as- h&r::lwa.re. liond the lowl!T tier LI m-ewn Yim c.'1!ld.:-en'11 war--toys. .: pec.ts. but :,e1·er to the exclus:on · « aome pi()Jn&nt, or witiy, idea In the palnstu.ing trom_pc
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l'oe'. p2.l?lt1n;:, ·-wa.¥ a.rid 1>e_aee." ·' varu,ug z-uaon& .a!'f eno!iied. .... �"''een -t�-.llire � � ·nt>-• ,. •jec\,l symh-.l4JT;g � bo,t:"'een _en,r� res.l.iKm a.nd mu_i� •11'.tie VJ:e'IIJJ)i..,i.nu,. �� IlUD�-..., lY Cll!Wc.lled e>£1Jecl4� tht- �-·-,c !m.BJ.-a!"'., anstenty � ,theiJ: .a.r•.-:-.; �• �'..:' •,. • r.-,,. �tAs !t 1s �lble -to dft!l m · the many intriguing ob,ieel:8 iti. thi.S shov,, I mould m&k:e men- • ,., t1on e.t least o'I tbe phou,...lX!Oll-' • _'"' ta.�. The phot.ogn.phs W!N! . ta.ken pe.rtly in I.relAnd, partly in Viet, r.ll.ll:l, t.nd. some 1n Austra.li&. Ill spite of � dilt"ttrbmr; sub ject mAtkr, the I'� t.he.?Mel,. a.re beautiful. 4t the opening I could aee t.ha.t people � f�nz.ted. .rJ.h fue beauty t.tw rssulte:l eYe.n ·· trom such a.n �· 51.ib.,iect- '-S & , , schtx>l'& l&Tatarj ":i}ock"~m a."sta.ts- • of mid-dem.olltlo::.. - DB- CiEE�UDE IANGE:& .. .
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RAY BEATTIE
Ray was born in Ireland, has lived in Perth for the last _eleven years and is a printmaker, paint.,,r, si:11lpL"r and pont. /Ill.hough lw li:t.H attended art colleges in Perth and Melbourne, his is basically self taught - pouring over books while working as a medical orderly, and applying the regimen of rigorous practice he learnt as a rhilct in th0 study of music.
During his stay :it
GriIJiLh, l{ay will be co.nducting workshops ln etching and silkscreen printing with a stress on accuracy
of perception and technique.
For the student of art, Ray believes, an under standing of immediate environment is of great importance,
"Perception more than talent is
really the issue."
One of his projects is to
publish a folio of etchings entitled "An Illustrated Understanding of Whole Systems" in which he uses graphics techniques to look at
- artist in residence
Ray Beattie, the.Queensland Film and Drama
Centre's Artist-in-Residence for the next six months, is involved in producing art that is accessible to a new and wider audience than
structures ranging from the origins of life, through to man-made objects. He also hopes to print a series of comic-style magazines of juxtaposed equivocal images from his own scrapbooks. Using different media he
normally looks at and buys pictures.
hopes to reproduce the still photographs of guerilla warfare he took in Vietnam during Nation
Ray is probably best known for a series of
al Service in 1970-1971 and in Ireland on a trip
delicately coloured and finely executed stilllife limited edition etchings of everyday objects and implf>m,,nts such as an umbrella, a slice of watermelon, and an array of tools and weapons. But at Griffith he hopes to exploit the mass production possibilities of the Centre's silkscreen workshop to make a cheaper product in larger numbers. This "poster art" he hopes will be be like a P.A. system popularising and makin[ viewers more familiar with the �e�tures and structures through which he communicatps his ideas as an artist.
in 1979 to experiment with video and light/sound shows in the bush. "I'm not interested in
the arty mystique," Ray
said last week, sipping vegetable juice fresh from a juicer he keeps wherever he is working. "I'm commenting in my own way on the things that are going on in the world.
These comments may not
have immediate political or temporal meanings, but they're about universal values and problems such as wars, lying and cheating which are not going to go away in a hurry."
The Art_ist-ln-ResidE:nce sc�eme !s assisted by the Visual Arts Board of the A�strall� Counc,_ I with the mtent1on of providing artists with secure and. _ _ _ st1mulatmg working cond1t1ons in which they can contribute to the artistic _ consc1o�sness of the community. In order that our University and local commun�ty !'lay have a �o�e direct and intimate acquaintance with the ideas a�d asp1rat1ons of �ract1smg artists, the Q.F.D.C. studios are open to . , v�s1tors. If you d_ l�ke to talk to Ray Beattie, or look at his work, phone him on 7584, or v1s1t the Etching Workshop.
March 81