1.9 AIRspace Projects

Transcript

Hello Sydney, welcome to Hung Up. I’m Matt. I’m Aiden. This is a lovely, cool and sunny Sunday afternoon.

We’re just walking down this street in Marrickville towards airspace projects. And I actually don’t know what we’re seeing today. What are we seeing today? Yeah, I think there’s like a bunch of shows on. Four or five little ones. Okay, great. Stoked. I’m hyped. Oh, here it is. You can check out all the works that we talk about on this show on our Instagram, which is hungup.au.

Okay, so for this first room, we’re standing in this like little kind of like very low ceiling room with AstroTurf and flowers like on the floor and these little sort of green, they look like pool shapes. Like they’ve like been dripped on in these shapes or something.

Yeah, it’s like a little garden. Yeah. We’re standing in a little garden on the concrete. There’s little patches of AstroTurf with flowers like embedded in them. Okay, so we’ve got like that this garden on the floor and then on the walls and two of the walls is projected these like sort of looping video scenes. A big one of like this animated flower pot with a bunch of blinking eyes and like hands and legs coming out of it.

And then I think the artist like marching around and like tiny little ant scale humans underneath it, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of like I want I want to have this like on the wall and I think the artist like marching around and like tiny little ant scale humans underneath it, which is cool. Yeah.

Yeah. It’s kind of like I want I want to have this like on at all times this projection. Yeah. I kind of did that the other day because my house is so bare because I just moved in and there’s like nothing on the walls. Yeah. And Adam and I felt a bit like just like vast and empty. Yeah. So we just like found some fucking cool like 90s VHS and just like left it on.

That’s what I am talking about. I’ve got a whole playlist of that on my YouTube of projector, projectorable like blank footage or something like that. You gotta share that shit with me, dude. I will. Yeah. So we got this kind of same cool collagey like visual video style and the like line drawing outline of the artists or this figures body is like hidden in the grass.

And then you can see their like eyes and mouth poking up from like a grass mask. It’s kind of like that thing where you like dig a hole and put like a pile of leaves on top. Yeah. I was just kind of doing that. They’re like hiding in the grass. Yeah. Or they are like one with the grass. There’s this like, for all of these works, there’s this real sense of like, I mean, to me like this like at ease with nature and like it’s very like easy, like happy relationship.

Like the, there’s these vines in this screen like coming out and just tickling the other hand and then the hand retracts like the other leg. Like you see. Yeah. Like fun and like play happening in all of these just with like this kind of, what do you call it? It’s this like choppy sort of animation style. Yeah. This fits in like, okay. So it’s like five or six, no, like let’s say seven or eight, like kind of, I would call them like naive looking plates.

Like, um, I was into, I definitely made one of these when I was in like, you know, kindy or whatever with like the teacher’s help. And like, I’ve seen a couple of artists now, um, on Instagram doing like, yeah, big air quotes around naive. Cause it’s like a developed practice. I believe it sort of looks like childlike or something. Yeah.

But it’s like naive. I’m not using it in like a mean sense. I think I’m saying like, there’s some kind of like, um, question or like statement about childhood and like, um, some, maybe like simple times or something like that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I agree. And, uh, I guess maybe there’s also some kind of discussion of like, I don’t know, the value of a work and the value of like a ceramic or a fine object being, you know, beautiful in traditional ways.

Totally true. Yeah. It is something that like, for example, my parents would be like, that’s bad. Yeah, of course, of course. And I think it is potentially like, it can be for me anyway, as a viewer, like a dangerous dial in a sense. Yep. Because you’re giving up like potentially a certain authority by having like, you know, the professional, uh, or, you know, some kind of like more, uh, easy, easily recognizable skill in the work, which is like, you know, people can’t help but latch onto that.

Sure. Yeah. You know, if this doesn’t work, I think people can like really hate it. Yeah. You know what I mean? We’ve like walked up to this, like fairly modest work and like opened up one of the big questions, I think in the like art world, like right now it’s like, and like even just in the world of culture, like this question of authenticity and like trying and, and effort and like showing that.

Mm-hmm . It’s like a little fucking scribble drawing of a fish and like a rose and it just says my fish didn’t live very long. Yeah. That’s great. That actually would be fun to have around the house. That one is cool. Yeah. I like the little X on its eye, like a cartoon, cartoon dead fish. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Can we talk about the thermal printer?

Um, so this is like this little printer that would print like an order at a, at a restaurant or something like that. Mm-hmm . Um, and I actually just got one of these for myself. I got a little Dymo labeler to do promo for a show. So cool. And, um, yeah, it’s, it’s not actually laying ink down. It, um, it just like shoots a little laser at this paper that reacts. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm .

Um, and the, the one other thing that I know about this format is that the ink doesn’t, um, last. Very long. Like it’ll fade in the sunlight. Okay. So this like, we’ve got a, uh, cool. Uh, a, um, video of the artist, like, or someone pressing the print button on this thing.

And it’s printing out a whole bunch of like, look how fast it prints as well. It’s just throwing out a whole bunch of, um, uh, they look like lino cuts, just black and white. They’re making the work in this video. Yeah. In this video, the, the, the work is being sort of enacted. We could say maybe. Cool.

Well, I was thinking when we were watching the video of, you know, the artist making this work, there’s this kind of sense of like, I don’t know, play and like silliness, just this, like, you know, printing your stuff just out onto the floor.

Yeah. To kind of coil up. Yeah. And then usually very functional. Like you were saying like a ticket printer or something. Yeah. It’s just like, it’s just got like orders for a restaurant or something like, yeah. And that has these, well, we should talk about what’s on them. Like the drawings are really cool. True. Yeah. The first one that I can see here is this pair of hands. Um, and there’s like a date, 5th of August, 2017, that’s been stamped on.

And then, um, this really cool portrait, um, of someone that I like. And then two errors, which have, it’s like error, error, which is like also been hand, like lino cut. Really cool. There’s like a line of poetry. Tears really tighten the pores. Hmm. Love that. And then a little, it looks like, is there something in that wine glass?

Like there’s a little wine glass and it just says, he he he. Yeah. These little like, uh, what do you call that style? It’s just these little kind of, yeah, like lino cut scratches. Yeah. It’s great. I love the little. Yeah. It almost looks like a straw, but maybe it’s a cocktail. I wasn’t sure if it was like a worm. The worm is laughing. Yeah.

And I like this last one, just this really simple outline of like a tree and leaves. Yeah. That’s really beautiful. And then the rest, you know, you don’t get to see them because, oh, you can see the back. I can see like a clothes hanger. Yeah. But, uh, they just, just this really simple kind of like performance of this work. Like I’m kind of thinking of it as like a drawing or something.

Yeah. Just like to print it and just see what, see where it falls. And if you get to see what you get to see. That’s true. Yeah. It’s kind of got this really cool element of chance. Like it could have gone the other way and we could have seen the other poem. Yeah. It rocks. And then this, the kind of folding of this work, um, is like speaking to, and I believe this is the same artist that like folding of this other work.

And there’s also this long strip of, um, like drawing that, that, um, is being draped and like folded over this little step ladder. It looks like a kid sized step ladder or something. Like, I don’t think it could take your weight. Fatso. Just kidding. Gotcha. Fuck.

I’m going to kick you down these stairs, like all the way down and then you roll down the slope track. Um, yeah, it’s cool. It kind of looks like, what does this look like? It’s like houses. I can see like chitneys and scaffolding. Yeah. It looks like a bits of architecture, like all jumbled up together. So it’s like one big, like, I don’t know, one big sort of, um, collage of, of, um, like pieces of houses.

It’s got this really nice, like play with the space of this room. We’re saying, as you come into the gallery, everything’s quite small and you can see like the exposed rafters. And then as you walk down the stairs, this printing is like walking down the stairs or walking up the stairs. Yeah. Cause it’s actually been laid across the stairs. That’s true. It touches on the flats of the stairs. Exactly.

It kind of walks up the stairs and then goes up this step ladder and then loops up and over the ladder. Yeah. It’s really nice. Kind of like, uh, what would you call that? Like drapery. Yes. Kind of like the play of the material, like laid in the space. Yeah. It’s a good way of putting it play. Like it’s really like using the space. Like it’s cool.

It’s cool to see this feels like to have this, this, um, I don’t know, more serious kind of version next to, like above the kind of, you know, Epsom printer. Yeah. It’s really nice. Like a pair of, pair of works. Yeah. There’s, there’s, yeah, there’s kind of like, um, I mean, I, I can see a lot of like really fun, really fun.

Like just by the, the, the duality of it. There’s like these two sort of opposites. Like there’s like the high and the low and like, I don’t know, just this is fun. Like a work of duality. Like I don’t even think I need to get into like, cause you could go like forever with something so like simple and strong, but it’s really cool combination.

For sure. For sure. Mate, now you’re getting calls.

Sorry. Can’t talk right now. I’m running a famous podcast. Nice. See, these feel kind of related. It looks like kind of like egg carton cardboard material.

So I think it could be that. Yeah. It could also be, um, someone’s like made their own pulp for paper. Oh yeah. That’s what I was thinking it is. Yeah. So we’re looking at these eight, um, hand sort of made pieces of, I guess you could call it paper. It’s like they’re really coarse, um, sort of egg carton texture type pulp.

Um, and, uh, on them are these like very, very faint, uh, prints or transfers or something. Um, and there it’s, it’s really nicely obscure. What, what the subject of them is. I can see a pair of lips here, but also like the other, um, uh, seven are really unclear.

And, and really, it’s like this really beautiful visual puzzle. Like I kind of, my, my brain is sort of half making that into an object that I recognize and half not. Yeah. It’s an interesting thing, right? Like they’re abstract and obscured, like you’re saying, but it’s not this like infinite abstract. You, you are like, they’re, uh, representational enough that you are kind of forced to lean in and like look closer.

And like, you kind of like want to do some of that work of like, huh, what is that? Like there’s enough kind of shapes and forms and like suggestions of like the real world in each one. Even just these kind of fuzzy blurs give me a sense of like, I don’t know, some kind of like old like news footage or something. Or like maybe something that I shouldn’t be seeing, like this kind of censorship bars.

Like the way the tape and it kind of looks like it’s like got this charcoal effect on the stuff. Like it’s like on the pulp or on the tape, there’s these, it’s like black graphite or charcoal and it’s, um, kind of getting obscured by the tape, right? In these little bars. Do you think these are, these are transfers?

It’s like they’ve drawn something with charcoal and then like tape and then sticky tape, unsticky taped it. I think there’s something really cool about this like transfer process. I’m like, yeah, I love this work. It really, it’s funny. We walked right past it and I was like, whatever. Yeah. Ha! And then on the way back, I’m like, wow. It rocks. Yeah, it rocks.

I think there’s a lot of, um, nice textural play going on with like the coarseness of the pulp. Yeah. And then there’s like the tackiness and then the smear of the, whatever the drawing material is underneath the tape that kind of like makes it all the more alluring. I like these. Can we see the artist’s fingerprint in the corner there? See like where they’ve got a graphite on their hands.

Oh yeah, that’s cool. So beautiful. What a good work. Okay. Well, Aiden’s over there ruining the board. I’ll introduce this work opposite, which is, um, these three, uh, and they couldn’t be more different in terms of size and like vibe. Um, these three like multicolor, like rainbow creatures, all with these great, like, uh, sort of dead pan.

Like, uh, I don’t know. I don’t know. It feels like a very like internet web comics expression on the faces, but they’re these totally fantastical creatures, like impossible interdimensional beings, like, I don’t know, 3d generated bodies. Mm. And they’ve been like Rizzo printed or something. And they look like, um, like, I don’t know, a visualizer or like a weird nineties film clip or something like that.

Totally. Ah, cool. And it’s like an AR overlay too. We’re just getting the QR code scanned over here. Are you on that? Or is that my job? I got it. So these works are, um, are handmade paper and charcoal. And they’re not for sale. Damn. I was going to ask. Yeah. Like I really want one. Yeah.

I really want one too. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That’s clever. It’s cool. It’s like this thing that we have, like we were saying in the car on the way over here, you like printed your gig poster out on a QR code. Cause like QR codes are now just comfortable. Yeah. They’re not these fucking like dorky alien. Yeah. Like weird. Like bro stuff.

Like shitty marketing campaign stuff. It’s just like, okay, we know how to do it now. And then coming to the gallery, like us physically coming to the gallery when we know that probably most art is seen on your phone. Yeah. And we’re just thinking about these like mediated and unmediated experiences. There’s still something a little bit funny to me to come to a physical space and then like put my phone back in front of me and the thing.

Like totally. It’s kind of cool though. It’s kind of exciting in a way. It’s also, um, it’s kind of fun or like funny to me how your phone screens all fucked up and like, the, um, the artwork still kind of got to shine through that. Yes. Totally. Wow. So, so basically what happens is like we put this air overlay on and it like,

it kind of melts all these creatures into their, like just into their colors. Uh, and then the melting gets washed away. There’s, there seems to be some kind of like, like foggy logic that I don’t like really follow, but, um, I really like it a lot. Is your phone better than my phone? Yes. And let me put the, fix the glass on yours.

Sure. You got a deal. You heard it here first folks. You can just hold, you can hold us to that deal. Nice. Yeah. So this is cool. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. I’m just watching this, uh, last of the three works, like sort of morph on the AR, like iPhone screen here.

There is this kind of like visualizer element, right? Yeah. Like we kind of like zonked out and chatting like under it or over it. Yeah. Which is kind of nice. Yeah. So the figure, if I kind of don’t move my screen, that like bright pink, like curly headed alien figure. Yeah. Um, gets, yeah. Like as you were saying, like melted into all of its colors and then it kind of washes away.

Yeah. It’s just this endless loop of like construction and degradation construction. Yeah. It’s very, um, like you and me to just start right at the end and work our way backwards. We want to like run through the gallery first.

Yeah. We always get like a tour. Um, this is really cool stuff. It’s like, um, like dark painting works. Yeah. This feels like quite different to some of the like indigenous stuff we saw recently. Yeah. Like at first draft, like the big colorful bang, this feels like for me more traditional.

Sure. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. There’s some like really, um, cool, like evocation of the, um, is it bottle brush or what are those like bright yellow, like sulfur yellow flowers, these little, um, dots here surrounding those, but it’s like, it’s very, um, like, um, it’s abstract in like a way that I haven’t really

seen before. Like this one also, like it has, um, similar kind of like structures that we were talking about. Um, a couple of at boom Mali. Yes. Um, but the arrangement of the dots around them seems to be like something I’ve never really seen. Like this kind of, it’s, it’s very organic looking, but it’s kind of also this very random, like, um, pattern.

Um, pattern. If you could call it a pattern. Yeah, totally. The dots feel like super close together. Like they’re actually like smearing and like touching and forming like blobs. Yeah. Which I don’t think I’ve seen before. Yeah. A lot of them have these, like all the ones that we’ve kind of seen, like maybe I’ll take that again. Like this one we’re standing in front of does have that like really kind of enticing play

that a lot of the kind of, uh, paintings in this style we’ve seen have of like, you know, the textural stuff, like all these little dots and then these kind of two big smooth sort of circles in the middle, breaking it up. And I feel like it does like, there’s definitely like, um, what do you call this? Uh, the way you lay out a painting.

The composition. Yeah. There’s definitely like, I feel some like similar compositional elements in terms of things we’ve seen before. Yeah. Circles and spaces. This, this one though is like, it’s such, it’s such a like cool, um, uh, sort of show of gesture. Like these two sort of donut shape, like O’s are these single smooth, like you can see where

the artist picked up their brush here, but then the rest of the work aside from the background is this very meticulous dotting. I want to talk about the little red and white one. Oh yeah, sure. Oh, that’s stunning. Yeah, that rocks. It’s also lit like beautifully right now. Hold the mic. Hold the mic. Hold the mic.

This one’s cool. It’s got like a similar kind of like red ochre background and then just like a billion little like paint dots. And they’re actually kind of like heaped up on each other. So they’re kind of doming. It’s a really like cool effect that I’ve never seen before. We’re really lucky to see it in this light. It’s like just being lit from a very sharp angle on the left.

So the, um, the texture of the paint is being like thrown up towards us. Very cool. Yeah. This one’s great as well. Wow. Yeah. These ones are kind of hard to like get at on the mic, but it’s like these really subtle kind of like textural and color plays.

I love the way these like smaller paintings like kind of make you lean in and like, yeah. Yeah. And all the stuff we’ve been saying about like series of artworks, how you kind of get more comfortable seeing them like when they’re in a series. Cause you kind of got like a jumping off point. True. You’re not just like, it’s not just like, you know, you and, and like a new image for the first time.

It’s like you in a world of images that you’re kind of already dipped a foot into. Yeah. It’s kind of a bit more like, um, it’s sort of like friendly and invitational when there’s like a series of smaller works. Like it’s true. You got, you got, you got kind of your hand held a bit more, which I think it’s a bit more a bit more, which I find very pleasant. Yeah. Even like the curation of this whole show. I feel like there was some very kind of like cool placing like things together to kind of

like let you into worlds. Yeah. But yeah, it’s interesting. Cause it’s like four or five different shows, I guess. Yeah. At once. Yeah. True. Yeah. Yeah. This is really like, I’m quite a modern purple color. Oh yeah. That’s true. Yeah. It’s like fucking grape cordial.

Yeah. It’s like grape vape purple. Yeah. And it almost, the way these, uh, like dots are kind of forming and that kind of like bright, uh, purple color or like deep purple color is almost taking me to that, like AR work in the other. Totally. Yeah. You know, the dragging out of that, whatever that digital effect.

Yeah. That sort of smearing. Yeah. A couple more like big works here. Same colors. Yeah. Similar colors. We’ve got that purple again. Yeah. These are kind of, yeah, they are sort of, it looks like they’re dots. It’s like this kind of like orange, like sandy sunset background. And then these kinds of lines, like, uh, what are they called?

Like, you know, subtle wiggles kind of making their way from left to right. Yeah. Again, they feel like waves. Yeah. Like waves or like those kinds of nature lines. Yeah. That could be the, uh, red desert background. Yeah. I love like the way this paint is laid out when you get close and you see these little, like, uh, little bubbles or here you can see this little crack.

Yeah. Like it’s just got this real, like, kind of like exciting tension in those little moments, those like miniature moments. Totally. And like, um, it’s just doing so much, uh, really like good abstract work here. Like this, there’s, um, this thing about, um, so each of these waves as doing that, um,

it affects the wave next to it kind of thing. So like maybe you, you go across one by one and each one develops a bump and then the bump sort of gets exaggerated, but it’s kind of got this, it gives, um, this extra dimension to this whole series where like, it’s not just the individual waves themselves, but the, the waves, um, that are shared between them.

Like you can see this kind of back and forth, like undulation. Yes. And like, yeah. It’s totally happening. Like with my eyes now. Yeah. And it’s kind of other, like, um, a very like organic type of like, um, optical sort of like interface illusion thing. So what I was thinking, like, there’s this like organic abstraction that really like lets

you in compared to, we saw Brandon van Heck a couple of weeks ago. And you think of these like completely digital, perfect bands of abstraction and how kind of wordless that makes you. Yeah. And not to say there isn’t a place for that. Sure. But I think for most viewers having something that feels organic that you can latch onto in the abstract, just, you know, as a, as a person, you can kind of connect with that,

you know, natural sort of, yeah, composition and feeling. All right. I think it might be time to wrap this up. That’s a wrap. Yeah. It’s a wrap. Fuck. This is a beautiful little space. Yeah. It’s really cool. 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. See you today. Bye.

Show notes

EPISODE 9 💐 🖨 ☀️ 📜 This week visited @airspaceprojects in Marrickville on a cute sunny afternoon. It’s a really cool space with all sorts of different ~zones~ to explore. We talked about ‘bad’ art, sexy printers and the inviting abstraction of indigenous painting. Artists in this episode (in order): Maya Kilic @_mayakilic Dani Southcombe @danisouthcombe Bea Buckland-Willis @beadoesntknowwhatshesdoing Sarah Catania @melty.mirage April Phillips @_april.p_ Tiarna Herczeg @tiarna.herczeg