1.3 Mixed Business 2 - Pari

Transcript

Thank you. Thanks man, see you later.

Hey, I’m Matt. And I’m Aiden. This is Hung Up, coming to you from Sydney. Each week we’re going to go to a gallery and talk about what we see. When we talk about art, it feels like there’s too much emphasis on getting it. That makes it feel like you need to be qualified just to be in a gallery. Why can’t we talk about art the way we talk about music and movies? Follow us at hungup.au on Instagram so you can see the pictures from this show.

This week we’re visiting Pari in Parramatta for Mixed Business 2. The show runs until the 14th of March.

So we’re looking at this pair of photographs and a pair of manhole covers like Telstra concrete utility covers. This works by Samuel Kirby and it’s kind of on the far left-hand side of the

gallery. It’s like two pictures, one of them. Oh no, there’s like tank treads. So that might be the bottom of like a digger that’s like doing some council works on your street kind of thing. Yeah, and the digger is absolutely caked in this like clay, this like earthy clay, right? To the point where it almost camouflaged into the image for you. Yeah, it’s really beautiful. And yeah, there’s some kind of… we’re just standing in front of, yeah, these two…

what are these like manholes? Yeah. Just for covering the wires. They cover up the like, yeah, the bits where they they need to go down and work on the wires. So like when they’re installing the NBN maybe on your street? Like I really, really want to stand on it because I’m like, I’m allowed to stand on these. But like now we’re in the gallery, I’m not allowed to stand on it. But like my foot is like edging closer to it.

Yeah. There’s some kind of really pleasing like ancient stone sense about them now that they’re here. And now that they’re like against the orange wall and they’re underneath these beautiful glossy images. Have you seen the rest of the work out there? Oh, I knew it. Oh, okay. He’s replaced the… I see. Gorgeous. Yeah.

That’s what I saw on Instagram. And that was, that was the one work that I was most excited to see because… Yeah. So that’s the sort of very handmade ones that he made specially for this site. And then he’s, yeah, he’s brought the Telstra pit covers temporarily into the space, which we’re just hoping that no one notices.

I was wondering about that because I’ve always wanted something like that. You know, I would love a big metal, like to make maybe a little outside table or something, you know, but it’s stealing, you know, it’s stealing from the government. So I don’t want to get in trouble, but this seems something less than stealing. He’s not really… Well, it’s a temporary replacement. Here, we’ll put these back afterwards. And someone’s actually purchased that artwork.

Oh, cool. I just walked right over there and didn’t even notice. It’s a great age. Yeah. Anyway, yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I think we should go outside and look at those ones. Yeah. I want to go outside and look at those. Yeah.

They’re so beautiful, like really beautiful. I honestly, if I had the money, I would also, I’d be like, I want to buy this. It’s gorgeous. Yeah. Okay. So now we’re outside and we’re looking at what Samuel Kirby’s made for the, um, the, cause you have to replace those two Telstra covers with something. Right. Um, and he’s got these, um, two, um, ceramic tile, uh, covers that are exactly the same shape, but they’ve got this kind of brown, like 1970s brown, like tile sort of tessellation pattern on them.

Yeah. Yeah. The super seventies. Um, yeah, the super seventies and they’ve got the Telstra stamp in the middle too, which is really cool. There’s like a little bit of humor there, right? You’re like, let’s replace this ugly functional thing, put it in a gallery. And then us two fucking nerds are like, look how beautiful this is. And then someone taps us on the shoulder. It’s like, Hey, the artwork’s outside kind of thing.

And then yeah, out here in this really ugly, like, you know, it’s got this gray frame around it, just where the two big pieces slot in, there’s like a ciggy butt and it’s like right next to the bin and yeah, the fucking cars are going by and there’s cars and trucks going. There’s a fucking car parallel parking right here. It’s like couples walking by on their Sunday afternoon. It’s this, this is where the work is for me.

Yes. And like this, it’s like being stored in the gallery, like some, some kind of negative version of the work. You’re not allowed to walk on that one. This one’s where, this one was where the rubber meets the road. So this week, and like, I don’t know if this was there before this happened, but like in one of the panels, the ceramics have been like chipped off. So it’s actually been like damaged.

Show me where just here. Oh, there. Yeah. Yeah. That looks like it’s just happened. You know, someone dropped their fucking razor scooter on it. And they’re saying inside that someone already bought these. So like, yeah, what about when, yeah, someone fucking skates over it and smashes it? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I was, I’ve been thinking about this idea too, of like, you know, these artistic forms and how you can use the forms that the artist has made to inform the way you start seeing, you know, forms in the world. Yeah.

And so here, like, you know, as you look down the street, you’ve just got these big crappy, like street bricks and there’s this kind of, yeah, interesting interplay between the little, they’re like mosaics, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. All these little mosaics, yeah. But like, like, you know, just shattered, like little shards of irregular mosaics, little triangles and with like these little kind of like almost look like the way rivers look on a map, like segmenting the forms.

But yeah, I love the way that I can like look at this artwork or whatever, which is doing all this clever stuff with the Telstra panels and the replacements. And then I can like look down the street and almost read the rest of the street markings with the same, like, you know, relationship in mind or some kind of effect. For sure. Yeah, for sure.

It really informs the way you live. Yeah. Or like the way you feel. Yeah, this is true. This, this work, I think maybe one thing that we’re so fond of with it is that it’s, it’s really drawing like away from the gallery and out into parts. And into the public and into the world, you know, because one thing that, that you and I always complain about is how special and like sort of cloistered and safe a gallery space is.

Like it’s good to have a safe space for, for works and for expression. And like that obviously should be a permanent part of any functioning society. But I think we’re both concerned that there’s such a separation between the gallery and the street. And this, this is just this really beautiful, like, it’s almost obvious, like so obvious, this like pulling the gallery out onto the street right out the front, you know, and it kind of lights the gallery up from the streets perspective.

Because this is, these are the two, like, we’ve got the special Telstra box like covers here, you know, but yeah, really, really gorgeous work. Yeah, I agree. It’s something that is like so important that, yeah, that kind of, yeah. Yeah. Let’s go outside. Yeah.

Yeah. So I really, I like that point a lot. And I completely agree, like something about limiting this kind of reverence of the gallery or like at least sharing that reverence and taking it with you, like onto the street and into life and, you know, finding the mixed business, like super beautiful or whatever, like is, is a really, I think, powerful tool to have and feel comfortable using.

Everything’s really popping off actually. Yeah, it’s really. Yeah. Let’s look at some more stuff. Yeah, let’s look at some more stuff.

We’ve got these like two QR codes and each of them underneath has the word hero in a box. H-I-R-O. This is by Nathan Rattan.

And I’m curious if my phone will open one of the QR codes. Beautiful. Okay. So I scanned one of the QR codes and now my phone has taken me to this like VR version of a mixed business. I love this. Yeah. The first thing in front of us is like packets of whiskers.

Cat food. Cat food. And special. Does it do that well? And candles. Not really. It’s like you kind of have to have the QR code in the shot or something. So cool. It’s like this kind of jittery, wobbly. Maybe my phone’s just bad. Yeah. I want to do candles. Either way. It’s like this sort of homewares section.

Yes. This is so clever. I see. It’s like it kind of has a little bit of a border. It does. When we move too far, either right or left, the actual gallery wall clips in. Well, it’s like that’s the bounds of the work on this wall. Like, you know, it’s not allowed to take up the whole gallery. For sure.

So we’re up against one of the long walls of the gallery. It’s this beautiful, big purple wall. And we’re looking at a little mantelpiece with about 20 pieces of ceramics on them. This work is by E.J. Sohn. Okay. Well, for me, they looked initially like those little like collectible like monster guys.

Crazy bones. Yeah. Crazy bones. Yeah. They look like crazy bones. But yeah, they’re these really like really fun, like sort of ceramic. I’m going to say they’re about two, three inches high. These little ceramic dudes. These little ceramic.

How would you describe them? Like little pieces. Yeah, exactly. They look like little, yeah, like a crazy bone, like grown up and like abstracted because there’s not really like faces or anything. But there is some kind of like common alien form. Yes. That you kind of like impose. Let me take some photos. These are really fun.

They look collectible. A hundred percent. And the way they’re shown as well, like you, this kind of looks like, you know, a platform or a shelf in your house. Like you have it above the fireplace or in the kitchen. Like they’re kind of displayed with some pride. A lot of these look like quite like traditional glazing techniques.

So like these really beautiful, like these, the second, the last three, let’s say on the right hand side, that like you can see a lot of examples of Japanese and like Asian pottery that has that kind of glaze. It’s kind of like not quite glossy, like surface layer of glazing.

And then beneath that, there’s these different sort of minerals that can interact and like create these kind of splotches of like sort of burnished, like bronze looking color. And then like dark, dark, dark, sort of maybe a really old pot brown kind of thing. But there’s a really like fun collection of like visual textures here.

You’ve got like shiny ones. You’ve got like matte ones. And you’ve got ones with like little holes in them. It looks like they’ve kind of bubbled up like baking soda reaction or something. Like shells. Yeah. A piece of crap you’d find on the beach. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And like this one looks like really dry. You know, it looks porous, but it’s not bubbly like that one is.

And there’s like the shiny egg, which is just a glaze. Yeah, these are really fun. They’re so beautiful. And they have such a personality as well. They do. And like I was thinking of like chess pieces, because I think one of us said they look a bit like pieces before. But like a chess piece is like significant, not only because of its forms and its colors and like how well made.

Maybe, you know, it’s a super expensive set or maybe you’ve just played a bunch. So you’ve like put that significance on your shit pieces. But like it’s also powerful because you know what they do. Like, you know, the queen like has a power because you’re like she’s fucking really strong. But then these like aren’t doing anything. So I was just kind of impressed at the way they like stand up tall and like make you interested in them.

They’re like they have value. Like, yes, but they’re doing all that work on their own. Like they don’t know how to do anything. Yes, exactly. Yeah, they don’t. They’re still they’re still got like the queen’s kind of countenance. If I can like throw back to like last week’s episode, we were talking about Amy Fu’s objects,

like the objects of the artworks themselves, like outperforming their material destiny. I’m saying I was saying that last week and this week it’s like these these little figurines are still like standing up so tall and proud, you know, despite their tiny little two inch scale. They’re like you could close one in your hand. It’s a real theme of this show, I think, like looking around, there’s so much being done with such simple materials.

Like everything’s been given this not sparseness, but this real like it feels a bit like restraint to me. Like we don’t have any massive pictures. We don’t have any serious frames. Yeah.

Yeah. So we’re standing in front of this work by Fei Gao, which is like you’ve got to take a little BB ball and you’ve got to navigate it by rotating the two planes of this kind of wooden box. And you’ve got to get the ball from one point to the other and you’re navigating like a series of Chinese characters and trying to make sure that your precious ball character doesn’t fall into one of the dangerously placed holes in the maze.

Oh my God, this is so fun. Yeah, it’s so good. Okay. Okay, cool. I’ll give you three tries. You’ve already used one. So it’s like a handmade wooden puzzle board with two knobs on the side to rotate the little silver BB ball and you’ve got to get it to the end without falling down the hole.

All right, Matt’s going to take one more shot. Okay, one more shot. This is the hungover Olympics.

Bing. How’s that? Awesome, dude. You’re the best. So clever. Do you want to turn? Yeah, sure. Give me a crack.

Yeah, there’s a bunch of like characters on the board like sort of that obstruct the ball. These all look like laser cut plywood sections. Hey, is this your second try? This is my third. Oh, okay. I think. It could be my second. Bing. All right. Oh my God, that was so cool.

Yeah. Yeah, it’s such a fun game. It’s such a pretty way to like look at these characters from the top down. Yeah, totally. I really love the way the board like is just… It’s nearly dropped a BB. It’s just so handmade. It’s so pretty. Yeah, it’s beautiful. The way it kind of swivels. Yeah. So this was like what? Like a year on from the first one or something.

Yeah. So we’ve decided that we’re going to do a version of this show every year and it’s all of like our, I guess, everyone who helps out with the space. So the people who like sit the gallery and run it and like do, you know, help paint the walls. And so we sort of, I guess, yeah, reach out to the, we’re going to reach out to like that

group of people each year, whoever that group is, and invite them to work into mixed business. Amazing. Oh, so this is like everyone here’s work. Yeah. That’s so cool. It’s such good work as well. Okay. Is this yours? Um, we all have work in it. Yeah. Amazing. Cool. Yeah. So just talking about your work, boy.

Yeah. I fucking hate this one. This is not the bad one. That’s perfect. Awesome, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. See you later. Bye, guys.

Okay, I’m thirsty. It’s a chicken dog. We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this episode was recorded and pay our respects to their elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today.

You can find us on Instagram at hungup.au. Next week, we’re at Bumali Aboriginal Artists Co-op in Leichhardt for Heart. Thanks for listening. Bye. See ya.

Bye.

Show notes

This week Aiden and Matt visit Pari in Parramatta for Mixed Business 2. They talk about works by Samuel Kirby, Nathan Wratten, EJ Son and Fei Gao. The show runs until 14th March Find us on instagram to see the pics from this show :)