Artists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROJECT: CAVE

 

A two-part video installation that the viewer explores by riding a stationery bicycle which powers a projector. The videos will be made from footage that is filmed within the space, creating a site-specific work that is unique to the festival.

 

About the Artist
Jessica Coughlan is a Newcastle-based artist working in Interactive electronic installation, using low-tech triggers for site-specific projection work. Her interests are based on her research into the ideological origins of installation as a kind of "social" communication, and unravelling the notion of the "passive viewer", particularly as illustrated in Plato's allegory of the Cave.

 

PROJECT: ERADICATION OF THE CORE SET (pteridium esculentum)

 

Human Dreadlocks replace sequins and gold glitz as ‘The Contessa’, Lady Quifonya and Mister Beni Factor bravely weave a new fabric for society. Adapting needle lace technique from Seventeenth Century Venetian Lace Makers, the Kamikaze Couture crew will capture, manipulate, sculpt and stitch Human Dreadlocked hair to make freely formed, heavy, three dimensional fabrics. Inspired by Pteridium esculentum, a rebellious fern that strangles the soil, weaving gridlock patterns through the earth. The crew don dust-suits to undercover a vast network of coiled fronds and spreading root systems. After identifying the core specimen and cutting, significant regrowth must be eradicated. The work is time-consuming and highly-skilled. Cultivation may need to be repeated depending on the subject’s detachment/acceptance response. Based on the hairshirt, a popular medieval torture tool of coarse, organic cloth, which formed a breeding ground for louse, heightening the discomfort of confinement, Kamikaze’s Wearable Art will agitate, rub and rack the skin. Garments to mortify the flesh are advantageous in our modern day comfort commodity society. Latex gloves recommended. Dust masks provided.

 

About the Artists
Tealia Scott, Rebecca Lampard and Benjamin Clive are part of Kamikaze Couture: a carnival of erotic burlesque, a cavalcade of post-modern whimsy. Notorious as a glittering flamboyant portal to the world of decked out designer duds, irreverent humour and glamorous transformation. The on-site theatrical wardrobe department of unbridled extravagance, invites you to challenge who you are and how you dress.
http://www.kamikazecouture.com.au/

 

 

PROJECT: BANAL PEEPSHOW OBSESSION

 

Lime File artist collaborative presents a seemingly ‘banal' set of repetitive performances involving compulsive rental trucks and trivial objects. Left, right, forward and backward it tracks the sustainability of obsession and explores society's lust to give ‘life-sense'.

 

About the Artists
Limn File is a collective of artists defined by the diverse art practices of its members. Melissa Laing and Michele Zarro focus on installation and the performative element of materiality. Joining Limn file for Underbelly is video artist Jillian Gates.

 

PROJECT: THE HANGING GARDENS AND OTHER TALES

 

A site-specific installation made up of pot plants on loan from local residents. Each plant will be accompanied by a letter of introduction from its owner, bringing audiences a little closer to these often-overlooked neighbours. Examining how public places can become catalysts for dialogue and exchange. Being locals who have watched the area around CarriageWorks change over time, these artists are intrigued by the possibility of scratching the surface of this site to reveal something of its past or less visible lives.

 

Check out their Project Blog http://hanginggardens.wordpress.com

www.weedyconnection.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Artists
This project is a first-time collaboration between interdisciplinary artist duo Makeshift (Tessa Rapaport & Karl Logge), who have recently produced work for festivals such as Shifting Ground, This Is Not Art and Next Wave; and Nobody (Diego Bonetto), a creator of the Redfern-Waterloo Tour Of Beauty and the ongoing Weed Tours.
www.makeshift.com.au
www.nobodys.info

PROJECT: MEKANARKY STUDIOS: A RETROSPECTIVE

 

Mekanarky Studios was created in 2001 out of necessity when a group of ten artists were pushed to the city limits by over zealous real estate developers. In the search for affordable workshop space they discovered the old Streets Ice Cream factory in Turrella. In its heyday, Mekanarky Studios housed over 40 working artists and artisans and provided art, sculpture, metal, wood, multi-media workshop facilities and gallery space. Sadly Mekanarky Studios melted under the fierce glare of the developers’ sights, pooling disconsolately into the gutters of the inner west, still pulsing with promise. The Ice Cream Factory shut up shop and the members of Mekanarky Studios have set out to forge new artist run initiatives in smaller, less sticky premises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mekanarky Studios: A Retrospective seeks to recreate the rise and fall of this infamous artist run space, showcasing the talent and triumph of those involved. Exhibiting industrial sculptural art, raw footage of the life of Mekanarky projected onto the rusting remnants of the building, interviews with the artists, photography, art, and performance pieces, this project takes visitors on a journey through a factory brimming with talent.

Artists
Ran Stanton, H Morgan-Harris, Dillon MacEwan, Ed Horne, Terra Reeck (Terra Incognita), Pete Strong, Terry Archer, Hiske Weijers, Herbie Peppard, Vix Brown, Sarah Harvey, Tealia Scott and Anthony Sawrey

 

 

 

PROJECT: SKETCH THE RHYME

 

Hip Hop meets visual art in this interactive and improvised musical performance. Working with a live band rappers will freestyle while artists simultaneously sketch their responses, projected onto a wall for the audience to watch. Using each other as stimulus as well as photographs and words collected from the audience this will be a visual and aural experience not to be missed featuring music by Sydney's best dressed hip hop band The Phonies.

 

About the Artists

Visual Artists are Tony Gilfoyle, Edgar K.H.F Bodley, Gerrard Cranney, Claire Nakazawa and Pauly Gilsenan

The Phonies are Campbell McGuinness (keys), Chris Irvine (Drums), Josh Ahern (Bass), Ryan Wilmott (guitar)

Rappers are Joel Rapaport, Larry Prichard, Brendan Tuckerman, Gabi Maurice and Bravo Child

 

 

 

PROJECT: SHADOW

 

An installation of projection and sound that comments on the effects of human civilisation on our native habitat. Original photographs and audio soundscapes create an artificial world disrupted by the audience casting shadows and triggering noises with their presence.

 

About the Artists
Nick, with a background in mixed media and Witold, a musician, come together in a collaboration out of concern for the native wilderness. They have worked together on exhibitions and projects for organizations such as Amnesty International and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loosie Craig and Mark Alston of pie full of blackbirds are a video production and design duo. Their Underbelly project will be an artistic documentary about Underbelly, the artists, the processes, the logistics, the personalities, the spaces. During the lab they will also be producing videos for the POOL Underbelly account, documenting and reporting on the progress of work at the lab online in the lead up to the festival. Pie Full of Blackbirds has created an arsenal of music videos, award-winning short films and video-art projects, and is currently developing feature scripts and long-form documentaries.

 

 

30 performance artists that may or may not perform in the guise of dancers, aerialists, beasts, hula hoopists, teachers, doctors, nuns, rally car drivers, reform school dropouts, statues, booty shakers, stilt walkers, flowers, zombies and radioactive rainbows. Pork aims to produce artistic and theatrical works that invite audiences into worlds that exist on the borderlines of imagination and reality.

 

PROJECT: SUBNAMBULISM

 

A new collaboration between a band, a photographer and a VJ taking you deep into the ocean. This project explores the swirling imagery of Paola Talbert’s underwater photography projected by VJ Jax onto the mighty Figureight Dome with an oceanographic soundtrack by Psychic Date.

About the Artists
Psychic Date is one of Sydney’s prime exponents of 21st century ambient psychedelica having existed in one form or other for 12 years. Its current line up is Pete Jones, Hiske Weijers and Adam Roche.
Paula Talbert is a Sydney based photographer who has exhibited work since 1989 and is represented by United Galleries in Sydney and Perth. Her photography featured at Underbelly comes from an ongoing series that began in 2000.
VJ Jax aka Jack Barton is a Sydney based visual artist exploring the correlations and conflicts between the organic and mechanica, fusing analogue with digital!

 

http://www.myspace.com/psychicdate
http://www.unitedgalleries.com.au
http://jbdd.com