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Myth, Abjection, Otherness: Contemporary Australian Art

Justin Clemens October 07

Provocative, bizarre, wonderful, moving and disturbing – these are just some of the words that could be used to describe the contemporary arts scene in Australia today. Love it or hate it, it is undeniable that modern art continues to confront and to make us question, yet its controversial nature also means that many works remain misunderstood. In the latest CAL/Meanjin essay, Justin Clemens takes an in-depth look at the vibrant, sometimes perplexing world of modern art, and its role in contributing to (or tearing down) Australia culture. A short extract is below, and you can now read the full essay on our editions page.



To enter any of the contemporary art galleries in any of Australia’s major cities is to be confronted by a dizzying array of works. In one, you might find a recognisable yet abstracted horse’s skull, slightly larger than life-size, riveted together from pale aluminium and named Colt, its folded blank teeth at once comforting and menacing, the shadows of its sockets sucking in the idle glance. A few flights of stairs will have you entering to a sequence of large photographs of a young indigenous Australian dressed in an absurd tartan costume with an outrageous false beard, acting out the myth of Isaac and Abraham in a lush European forest. In one photo he stands, arms crossed, by a log against which an axe has been propped; in another, he cowers beneath a luminous parody of a humpy. At the back of a large public gallery, a gargantuan gleaming assemblage of spotlights and speakers like adult Meccano—entirely dominating the large white exhibition space—sporadically erupts with a blinding and deafening violence. In yet another art space, quiet ambient sounds recorded in Iceland and in New York issue from a series of small speakers nestled in the joints of an angular construction of wooden struts, the whole crowned by imageless rectangular cool colour projections above. Another short walk and a lift ride up a few floors will get you into a small darkened room with a looped split-screen projection that splices scenes from the original 1980s Miami Vice TV show on the left, together with scenes from the movie remake on the right.[1]

This sort of range doesn’t happen only between galleries, but also within the same gallery space. There’s a promiscuous commingling of painting, photography, video and installation, among other productions, depicting all manner of events, and concocted from a mind-blowing range of materials. The range of influences, directions, relationships and ambitions is extraordinary. In fact, you don’t even have to enter a gallery to see art, since art’s long since taken itself out of such spaces, into real and virtual universes such as inner-urban backstreets and outer-suburban housing estates and real-time immersive digital environments such as SecondLife. Even more disturbingly, art’s long taken itself beyond being linked to the senses of sight and sound.

It is not just that we live in a world in which lots of different people are doing lots of different things and showing them in lots of different places to lots of different audiences with lots of different kinds of evaluative procedures (although that’s of course true). This drive to divergent multiplicity is essential to the practice of contemporary art, and not just an external happenstance. Also, Australian contemporary art is, for a number of reasons, an epicentre of this kind of thing—and all the more exemplary for hardly being recognised at all.



1. This is a telescopic diary entry from an afternoon visit to several Melbourne galleries. The works described are, in order: Alexander Knox, Colt, at Murray White Room; Christian Thompson, Lost Together, at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi; Marco Fusinato, Aetheric Plexus at ‘New 09’, ACCA; Geoff Robinson, North, at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces; and Damiano Bertoli, Continuous Moment: Bad Infinity, at The Narrows. Back to article


 

Comments

by Paul Squires
08 Oct 09 at 8:50

"all the more exemplary for hardly being recognised at all." Here here, well said.

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by foontaitaSync
16 Feb 11 at 21:30

Bert Tassoni, a native of Adelaide Australia has for 10 years now was employed in an little known consumer products industry. At his early age, he graduated from The University of Melbourne holding an Entrepreneurial Marketing degree and later on took Accounting. He achieved his Master’s degree in Business Management from Harvard University in the USA. Mr. Umberto Tassoni became a member of PSO Brands, Inc in 1995 as it’s President where he successfully control most of its major businesses and put PSO Brands straight into the market. With Twenty five years in company, he provides outstanding global leadership experiences in brand management to his workers. Tassoni believes that in the course of his company’s change, PSO Brands will continually improve its top quality product diversity to all of its loyal customers. Mr. Bert Tassoni oversees almost all the facets of the company’s operations like sales and marketing services. It is extremely apparent that Mr. Umberto Tassoni’s strategy builds within the sense of success as well as foundation while capitalizing on the latest market shifts to improve PSO Brands business effectiveness.

Before being acknowledged as President, Tassoni was a senior Finance Officer in severa small companies in United States. He has been the President and Secretary of Opalt World Inc. between 1980 and 1988 and he served being a Chief Financial Officer of the ROWTS Corporation from 1988 to April 1995. Tassoni was responsible for business operations including the marketing and distribution as well as brand management. Mr. Bert Tassoni joined TWM as the Vice President of Textile Manufacturing Inc in Plano, Texas before as being a CEO of TWM, he worked as the Senior Vice President of Finance.

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27 Feb 11 at 14:18

As Chief Financial Officer, Bert Tassoni is in charge on managing all of the finances and financial operations for United States Echos Company. His key duties comprises primarily on the company’s financial planning, supervision of recordkeeping, and also the involvement with short- and long-term planning. Similar to bookkeeping, Doe maintains accurate records of their company’s business transactions and accounts. He is also in charge of the interpretations of the financial records and materials compiled. Doe, as one of the member of the Board of Directors generally reports on to the company’s chief executive officer also known as CEO concerning to the company’s overall financial performance within a given period. With this he’ll be analyzing the trends and directions set for the company.

At his late 40’s, Mr. Bert Tassoni has been employed in Echos Company since January 2005, prior to which he served as Corporate Controller and Treasurer for exactly three years before he was promoted and selected as Chief Financial Officer position on the said company within 2008. This was all due to his dedication on the company’s goal and vision. His commendations include that he got that certain knack on increasing money and sharp intuition on how to properly work with the funds accumulated. Along with his excellent communication skills, Umberto Tassoni also made his way to the position with his remarkable leadership when it comes to handling such big organizations.

At his late 40’s, Mr. umberto Tassoni has been working in Echos Company since January 2005, prior to which he served as Corporate Controller and Treasurer for three years before he was promoted and selected as Chief Financial Officer position on the said company within 2008. This was because of his dedication to the company’s goal and vision. His commendations include that he got that certain knack on bringing up money and sharp intuition on how to productively utilize the funds accumulated. Along with his exceptional communication skills, Bert Tassoni also made his way to the position because of his remarkable leadership regarding on handling such big organizations.

In just 25 years of financial management experience, Mr. Bert Tassoni spent some time working with lots of industry’s leading companies around the state. He has been currently affiliated with the ABC Financials and was one of the responsible to the company’s reorganization.

Bert Tassoni is definitely a native of Perth, Australia and before working in Echos Company, he is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) for the State of Arizona in the USA and holds a degree of Master of Science in Accountancy in University of Phoenix.

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by Squimihix
28 Feb 11 at 8:15

Mugna Motion Pictures’ fulfillment within the past few years has been attributed to their Senior Executive Vice President and at the same time member of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Bert Tassoni . Right after his succession with the previous Senior VP, Bert Tassoni started out performing outstanding moves in uplifting Mugna Pictures right from its drastic fall. With Tassoni’s vital position, he was able to assist and guide the business into successful acquisition of GearBox Studios which afterwards became an additional asset for the company. After this event, the company announced the release of the 3d animated video Esfre-Ketek which has dramatically scaled up the company’s profits.

Before having his position in Mugna Motion Pictures, Bert Tassoni was associated with Echos Pictures, an Australian company. There he both served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, at the same time. He manages the financial operations proceedings of Echos. In the duration of his stay in the said movie company, Doe played a vital role in its venturing to the other format of filmmaking; that is, from live-action filming to animation. Such works that resulted was the Echos’ animated series, The Real Papi. Bert Tassoni first joined the Mugna Motions in 1992 as an official assistant director for the Committee on Strategic Planning and for only few years in the position rose to senior vice president.

Bert Tassoni organization in film making industries can be traced back together with his personal interest and passion on theaters and movies in Melbourne Australia . As a matter of fact, Bert Tassoni made a special appearance in the 1998 film Kataposang Siyaget sa Amang produced of course under Mugna Motion Pictures. That was some of a breakthrough that Tassoni made for himself. But the calling for business executive profession is prevalent on him. Tassoni attained his degree in Business Administration from Xavier Institute and afterwards an MBA from the University of Mississippi.

...
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