MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
direct democracy
26 april – 6 July 2013
Participating artists
Laylah Ali
Hany Armanious
Natalie Bookchin
A Centre for Everything DAMP
Destiny Deacon
Alicia Frankovich
Will French
Gail Hastings
Alex Martinis Roe
Andrew McQualter
John Miller
Alex Monteith
Raquel Ormella
Mike Parr
Simon Perry
Carl Scrase
Milica Tomic�
Kostis Velonis
Jemima Wyman
Curator: Geraldine Barlow
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Jemima Wyman, Combat 02 2008
image courtesy of the artist and Milani
Gallery, Brisbane
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
Introduction
Direct Democracy explores the changing nature of our engagement with the democratic
tradition and looks to the emergence of new democratic models. The exhibition reflects
contemporary social movements, unrest and the desire for change; modelling key social
dynamics and possible futures. In Direct Democracy destruction and resistance are connected
with the need to collaborate and rebuild. Recent political shifts such as the Arab Spring, the
global financial crisis and movements such as Occupy are considered in relation to earlier
struggles for autonomy and self-definition, as well as the interplay of constructive and corrosive
dynamics in leadership and governance. The exhibition examines the shifting forms of political
agency, in both emerging and foundational democracies.
Direct Democracy continues MUMA’s ongoing series of thematic and discursive exhibitions,
such as Networks (Cells & Silos) and Liquid Archive. Curated by MUMA’s Senior Curator
Geraldine Barlow, Direct Democracy features the work of a number of international artists
together with artists and artist collectives from Australia. An extensive exhibition catalogue will
also be produced in combination with the presentation of Direct Democracy.
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Hany Armanious, Mystery of the plinth
2010 (top: detail; above: installation view)
courtesy of the artist, Roslyn Oxley9
Gallery, Sydney, and Foxy Production,
New York
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
CURATOR BIOGRAPHY
Exhibition Dates
Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow is Senior Curator and Collections Manager at
MUMA, where she has worked since 2004. Geraldine is of Irish, English and
Maori descent, of the Ngapuhi iwi. She worked for the Australian Centre
for Contemporary Art, the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, the
Melbourne International Biennial and Heide Museum of Modern Art before
moving to MUMA. Geraldine’s projects include focus exhibitions with Claire
Lambe, Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, Brook Andrew and Arlene
TextaQueen. Geraldine has developed the major thematic exhibitions Liquid
Archive, exploring how contemporary artists work with the archive as well
as seeking to understand how technological and cultural transformation
impact upon knowledge and memory; Networks (Cells & Silos) surveying
connections between artistic and naturally occurring representations of
networks and the rapidly evolving field of network science; Too Much of
Me: 7 Paths through the Absurd (with Detour)*, an absurdist study of the
excesses of self-reflection; The Ecologies Project, curated together with
Dr Kyla McFarlane and featuring the works of 40 artists from Australia and
New Zealand; Before the Body – Matter, exploring perceptions of the body;
and Ghosts of Self and State, an exhibition interested in drawing out our
constructions of self and state, the citizen and the body politic. She has also
contributed numerous written works to journals, exhibition catalogues and
artists’ monographs.
26 April – 6 July 2013
Opening function: Saturday 4 May 2013, 3-5pm
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
CATALOGUE
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Public Programs
A series of artists’ talks, forums and workshops will be held to coincide
with Direct Democracy.
See MUMA’s website for details: www.monash.edu.au/muma
Media
For all media enquiries please contact Rosemary Forde rosemary.forde@
monash.edu
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Raquel Ormella, Poetic possibilities 2012
courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery,
Brisbane
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
LAYLAH ALI
Born Buffalo, New York 1968, lives and works Williamstown, Massachusetts
Laylah Ali’s paintings are populated with cartoon-like figures in scenes
saturated with tension. Ambiguous and confounding, Ali’s work is often
animated by socio-political issues and current events, juxtaposing everyday
objects such as sneakers, Band-aids and dodgeballs with themes of political
resistance and betrayal.
For more information, see
www.ellenmillergallery.com
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
selected exhibitions
Recent individual exhibitions include: The Greenheads Series, Williams
College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA, 2012; Note Drawings,
Spencer Gallery, Endicott College, Massachusetts, 2012; Drawings,
Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center for the Arts, New Hampshire,
USA, 2012. Recent group exhibitions include: Thenceforward, and
Forever Free, Haggerty Museum of Art, Wisconsin, USA, 2012; Under
the Influence: The Comics, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York,
USA, 2012; The Air We Breathe, San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art, USA, 2011; Painting Between the Lines, CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts, California, USA, 2011.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Layla Ali, Note drawings 284-290,
213-224, 142-149, 204-212, 225-226
& 40-45 2008
courtesy of the artist
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
Natalie Bookchin
Born USA 1962, lives and works Los Angeles
Natalie Bookchin works at the intersection of documentary, narrative,
social issues and new media, creating video installations covering subjects
ranging from globalisation, social isolation and mass connectivity, to labour,
technology, and online DIY dance videos. Through editing and compiling
extracts of video blogs Bookchin reimagines separate speakers as
collectives taking form as a public body in physical space.
For more information, see
bookchin.net
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
selected exhibitions
Recent individual exhibitions include: Now he’s out in public and
everyone can see, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, USA,
2012; Testament, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA, 2009.
Recent group exhibitions include: Experimenta Speak to Me, 5th
International Biennial of Media Art, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2012;
TV Night: Cookies (or: a Eulogy to Privacy), Loving Art. Making Art,
Tel Aviv, Israel, 2012; The Whole World is Watching, Centre National
d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France, 2012; Networks (Cells & Silos),
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2011.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Natalie Bookchin, Now he’s out in public
and everyone can see 2012 (detail)
courtesy of the artist
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
A centre for everything
(Gabrielle de Vietri & Will Foster)
Established Melbourne, 2012
A Centre for Everything is a collaborative project run by Gabrielle de
Vietri and Will Foster. Open to anyone who wishes to participate,
the project takes form as a series of regular evening events that
bring together a Venn diagram of disparate interests that manifest as
workshops, discussions or activities, and always involve something to
eat.
De Vietri’s own art practice involves people and language, often in
video and performance. Recent projects look at self-presentation
through non-verbal and verbal communication; and the ways in which
language is used, interpreted and manipulated to create or distort
meaning. De Vietri recently returned from the Australia Council’s
Künstlerhaus Bethanien residency in Berlin.
British-born, Foster is an artist and independent curator with a
background in environmental and socially engaged arts practice. His
projects have taken form as temporary and mobile structures and the
curation of multifunctional social spaces and events in both urban
and rural environments. Major projects have taken place in Glasgow,
Berlin, Istanbul, Fykse and Melbourne.
For more information, see
www.centreforeverything.com
www.gabrielledevietri.com
www.willfoster.co.uk
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
A Centre for Everything, Group 4: SHOW
& TELL, ETHIOPIAN CUISINE and
VERBAL GEOGRAPHY, 30 January 2013
courtesy of the artists
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
DAMP
(Narelle Desmond, Sharon Goodwin,
Debra Kunda & James Lynch)
Established Melbourne, 1995
Originally formed as a drawing workshop at the Victorian College of the
Arts, DAMP has maintained a fluid membership over the years with an
alumnus numbering over seventy. DAMP’s performances, actions and
installations explore the potential of working collaboratively. Frequently
irreverent and occasionally anarchic, DAMP’s projects are always imbued
with a sense of fun.
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
selected exhibitions
Recent individual exhibitions include: Some Like It Boxed, TCB Art
Inc. Melbourne, 2010; Scene 1, Heide Museum of Modern Art,
Melbourne, 2008. Recent group exhibitions include: Bristol Biennial
2012: Storytelling, Bristol, UK, 2012; or either silver lining, TCB Art Inc.
Melbourne, 2012; Gertrude Studios 2010, Gertrude Contemporary,
Melbourne, 2010; 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art,
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009; Wayfaring, La Trobe University
Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2009.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
DAMP, Untitled pencil 2010
courtesy of the artists
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
Will French
Born Melbourne 1981, lives and works Sydney
Will French’s work carries a common thread of a wry humour and
playfulness. Addressing the personal, popular and political, his work spans
traditional, mechanical and conceptual manifestations. French examines
his own position in relation to these concepts and showcases them in a
manner that encourages the viewer to accept his terms. He often utilises
accessible objects and amplifies their reading through a slight tweak or
blatant upending.
selected exhibitions
Recent individual exhibitions include: Feint Echo, Firstdraft Gallery,
Sydney, 2012; Winner Take All, Grantpirrie, Sydney, 2010; Frank-ophile / Velo-style, Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, 2009. Recent
group exhibitions include: Like, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre,
Sydney, 2012; The Drawing Show, Breenspace, Sydney, 2012;
Nothing Like Performance, Artspace, Sydney, 2011; 1.85 Million – Art
Peripheries, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 2011; Luxurious Time
& Space, Tokyo Wonder Site Project, Tokyo, Japan, 2010.
For more information, see
www.willfrench.com.au
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Will French, Black Jack 2008
courtesy of the artist
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
Kostis Velonis
Born Athens 1968, lives and works Athens
Kostis Velonis is a sculptor with a background in architecture. Velonis takes
up the grand narratives and edifices of ideas – from the May 1968 protests,
to Russian constructivism, or the cultural legacy of antiquity – and carries
them into the sub-narratives of personal struggles, passion and solitude. By
colliding references from the history of civilization with more fragile personal
moments, he depicts life as an oscillation between sociability and loneliness,
affectation and naivety, knowledge and natural instinct.
For more information, see
kostisvelonis.blogspot.com
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
selected exhibitions
Recent solo exhibitions include: Building the Stage, Omikron Gallery,
Nicosia, Cyprus, 2011; The Promise of Happiness, Signal Center
for Contemporary Art, IASPIS Artist in Residence, Malmo, Sweden,
2011; Loneliness on Common Ground: How Can Society Do What
Each Person Dreams, National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST,
Athens, Greece, 2010; How Can One Think Freely in the Shadow
of A Temple, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany, 2009. Recent group
exhibitions include: Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, Kazerne
Dossin Museum and Documentation Centre of the Holocaust and of
Human Rights, Mechelen, Belgium, 2012; Melanchotopia, Witte de
With Contemporary Art Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2011; A Rock
and a Hard Place, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, State
Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2011; Pastoral
Dreams in the Days of Bankruptcy, Dana Charkasi Gallery, Vienna,
Austria, 2010; The Marathon Marathon Project, Acropolis Museum,
Athens, 2010; Politics of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art,
Athens, 2010.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Kostis Velonis, Life without tragedy 2009
courtesy of the artist
MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
direct democracy
Jemima Wyman
Born Sydney 1977, lives and works in Brisbane and Los Angeles
Jemima Wyman works across installation, video, performance, photography
and painting. Through these media Wyman examines visually based
resistance strategies employed within protest culture and zones of conflict.
Her works explore the formal and psychological potentiality of camouflage
and masking in reference to collective identity.
For more information, see
jemimawyman.wordpress.com
milanigallery.com.au
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
selected exhibitions
Recent solo exhibitions include: Piecing Together Core Concerns,
Milani Gallery, Brisbane, 2012; The Will to Deceive, Milani Gallery,
Brisbane, 2010; The Declaration of Resemblance and Fluid Insurgents,
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009; Combat Drag: Lessons in
Unlimited Expansion, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, 2008. Recent group
exhibitions include: The Unexpected Guest, Liverpool Biennial FACT,
Liverpool, UK, 2012; Panorama, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, 2012;
Inner Voices, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa,
Japan, 2011; New Psychedelia, University of Queensland Art Museum,
Brisbane, 2011; The Open Day Book Exhibition, LACE, Los Angeles,
USA, 2011; 17th Biennial of Sydney, The Beauty of Distance: Songs of
Survival in a Precarious Age, Sydney, 2010.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Jemima Wyman, Combat drag 2008
courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery,
Brisbane