The year was 1999, things were going well in my art career. I had run an artists run space, I had a studio at 200 Gertrude Street, I was in an artist run initiative with cool people, I had a teaching job at theVCA. I had finally cracked a show at first floor. Well then, you know what had to come next don't you? Yes, of course, Primavera. Me, Andrew McQualter, Nell, David Noonan, Darren Sylvester, Tim Silver and Matthew Bradley.
Rachel Kent was the curator, and it was a really great, well organised show. She had in mind one of the linear works I had been doing around that time, like "Last of the Big Spenders" at 1st floor, or "Gladiator" at Grey Area, but I had this really strong idea for a new work where a sneaker would be able to regenerate itself and would shed its own skin to reveal its new form. Everyone was mad on sneakers back then, and from 1998-99 the style had changed from this kind of organic, curvaceous type of shape to this hard edged but bulbous, space age type of thing. So I was extrapolating from that that the sneaker itself mutated into something else in a kind of techno/organic evolution. I used the transparent contact from Nylex for the shed skin part (on the left of the picture) and close up below.
It was a big success! And Monash University bought it for their collection, when Linda Michael and Jenepher Duncan were there. You can see it today at the Art and Design Building at Monash Caulfield Campus in Dandenong Road.
Photos by Andrius Lipsys
No comments:
Post a Comment