Introduction
The Biennale of Sydney is one of the world’s leading international showcases and festivals of contemporary art, and, occuring every two years, an exciting time for Australia’s vibrant art community. This year’s show, titled On reason and emotion, brings together 58 artists from tens of countries around the world, with artworks centered on the process of feeling and how this links with human perception and reality.
This work looks at five key artworks at the Biennale, works which are outstanding in their meaning, presentation and overall impact. Additionally, it provides a brief précis of other works which were part of the Biennale at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Yin Xiuzhen
Portable Cities – Guangzhou, Lisbon, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Wellington, 2002-2004
Suitcases containing found objects, CD player, light, maps and magnifying glass
The concept behind this artwork was very interesting and original, especially considering the materials used. The installation was made up of a series of six suitcases, each containing a representation of a world city (Guangzhou, Lisbon, Paris, San Franisco, Sydney and Wellington) along with its main attractions, landmark and identity. I felt that the work associated on a deep level with people, due to the personal and emotional way in which the suitcases were crafted, using found objects. This represented the free, easygoing spirit of travel very well. Although the entire Biennale exhibition this year did associate with people on fairly emotion level, this work didn’t have the sanitised, cold and ultramodern feel of other artworks. While this was a disadvantage in terms of visual look, it made the artwork a lot more unique, original and one of the highlights of the exhibition.
Another interesting perspective upon this artwork is the fact that the artist was a woman. The work seems to suggest that the modern woman has the role of making today’s world more appropriate for everyday life, by including a more emotional, human dimension to aspects of living, just like Yin Xiuzhen took the concept of travel and made it something friendlier and closer to people’s hearts, especially in today’s context of global terrorism, when the idea of leisure travel is in peril. The materials used in the work also reflect the traditional role of the woman in society of using household resources, as the artist uses found objects and finds an artistic, meaningful use for them.
The author herself claims that “in my work, I like to include the ‘real’ remnants of ‘real’ people’s lives”, hinting that she wants to break down the trend of globalisation and artificiality taking place in the world. It is artworks like these which, although seemingly simple and even unrefined, inject hope and balance into a world dealing with so many problems.
Emiko Kasahara
Pink (edition #2), 1997
Digital c-print photographs
Series of nine
Although simple, this artwork is very abstract and visually-effective. It is a series of nine photographs of what is, in reality, a female cervix. However, the cervix is magnified and constructed in such a way that it represents something otherworldly, virtually unrecognisable and out of context. The original black-and-white photographs were taken by a gynaecologist during a test for cervical answer. The pink tint was then applied by the artist, and it is very effectively used in order to give meaning to the photograph and to suggest that what it depicts is both a feature of the human body and something inherently female. However, the pink, besides depicting carnality, is also the colour of innocence, showing a contradictory image of the female, between sexuality and purity. In the Japanese context of Kasahara, pink is the representation of the cherry blossom, something pure and peaceful, while it is also the colour of the sex industry, which is commonly referred to as the pink industry, again bringing out the contradiction hidden below this seemingly abstract and perfectly-glossy set of photos. The glossy finish, however, helps enhance the visual appeal and context of the photographs as modern artworks.
The artwork also explores the theme of something natural becoming unearthly and unnatural. The work reminds me of I am waiting in the fruit bowl by Helen Quach, which showed magnified pictures of fruit and made them seem sensual and abstract. This work achieves, in effect, the same idea, turning the cervix into something that, at first sight, is unrecognisable.
It seems female themes feature highly in this exhibition, with a wide range of female subjects, feminist-related issues and female artists. It also seems that Asian art is becoming increasingly prominent, with both Kasahara and Xiuzhen (discussed previously) being of East Asian origin.
Helen Almeida
Estudo para um enriquecimento interior, 1977
Black and white photographs, acrylic paint
Series of six
This artwork, although at first glance seeming purely visual, is very deep. In a series of paintings, it depicts the subject (who is the artist herself) swallowing a streak of paint and then crying in out as tears. By showing the streak of paint as it enters the artists body, the work seeks to explore the concept of painting being something very close to the painter, something that actually becomes an integrated part of the body. The ‘paint tears’ then go to show the emotional attachment that the artist feels for her works and the way in which art is a process which goes through the body and mind and then comes out again as a final physical result which can be seen by the viewer. In this way, the artist is also suggesting that the art-making process and result becomes a very integrated physical and emotional component of the painter’s body and psyche.
Besides its meaning, the work is also interesting in the way that the artist has applied the paint streak over the initial photograph. The streak of paint is blue, and this forms a sharp contrast with the black-and-white photograph, preparing the viewer for the fact that this object is the only unnatural, coloured characteristic in this otherwise natural-looking image. The choice of blue is also interesting. Almeida identifies the colour with space and meditation, alluding to the paint streak’s representation of the mental and emotional attachment that the artist feels for her works. Also, blue is a cold colour, and this fits into the context of the images, which are very still and show little use of movement techniques. While the artwork does convey emotion, as explain above, it has a stark and even solemn mood about it, and the blue helps enforce this concept in a seemingly-simple but very complex and meaningful body of work.
Helen Almeida
Untitled, 2003
Black and white photographs
Series of six
Like Pink (edition #2), this artwork represents the abstraction of a natural being. At first glance, the viewer cannot sense what the subject of the photographs is, and only upon closer inspection can parts such as the hands or feet be noticed, and it can be seen that the subject is actually human.
It is also interesting to note that the subject is actually the artist herself, this being a trademark style of Helen Almeida. The form of the human is black, like a silhouette, with no variations in colour, and the positions that the person is pictured in are unnatural though inherently artistic, helping support the abstract, even unrecognisable nature of the work. Even after detailed observation, the subject seems masculine (in reality, it is not), and this explores perceptions of masculinity and femininity, suggesting human gender is not something natural but constructed by society. About her paintings where she models as the subject, she says, “I create a composition and then place myself in it exactly as I’ve envisioned and with the expression I want. But it’s not me. It’s as if I were another person”, embodying the way she portrays herself as if she is someone totally different, not feminine, not even human, but without identity or gender.
The way in which the photographs are black and white and seem very flat and still gives an almost depressed yet emotionless and serene mood to the artwork. This helps to establish the atmosphere of the work as something displaying abstract volumes, shapes and visuals yet still breathing the life of humanity and sentiment, and enables the viewer to quietly reflect on what they see in front of them.
Daniel von Sturmer
The Truth Effect, 2003
Installation: MDF table, steel structure, five DVD players, five video projectors
The Truth Effect was one of the most remarkable and unique artworks at this year’s Biennale, and in my opinion the best work, although seemingly simple and nonsensical. Consisting of five different but related videos showing random gravity-defying household objects moving around, situated on a table the size of a room, this work was not only large but very distinctive in the way it approached art.
The screens showing the videos of objects were placed on a tilted table, and this enforced the way in which the moving objects (which were, in reality, virtual, being only projections of screens) defied gravity and displayed a peculiar sense of motion. Random images like a continuous, looping video of the pages of a book turning, as well as sounds to accompany the movements in the videos added a quirky touch and a very original edge to this highly creative piece of art which seems to explore the rules and forces of movement and nature, and how odd it seems not to have them respected. The artist himself claims that “[his] work involves a range of media to experiment with the relationship between… expectation and perception”.
What was also notable in the installation was the use of everyday, household objects to convey something artistic. For example, there were looping projections of rolls of tape and plastic cups, seemingly plain objects, for which meaning and notability were only created by the artistic context of the work, the irregular, anti-gravitational movements and the viewer’s imagination. Essentially, the work explored the theme of the ordinary becoming extraordinary when it is presented differently, in an installation that was not only addictive to view but also provoked the viewer the question his perceptions about the properties of objects, materials, space and physics.
Other works
Besides the artworks already analysed in this book, the Biennale 2004 was host to many other fascinating pieces of art. Yin Xiuzhen’s second artwork at the gallery, titled International flight, depicted a suspended aeroplane with dump of clothes underneath, realised in the same style as Portable Cities – Guangzhou, Lisbon, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Wellington and also dealing with the theme of travel and its jovial reality.
Also clever in terms of concept was Pat Brassington’s work, My father’s house II, which was made up of a series of four doors in wall, which viewers could open up to reveal small painting or photograph, each representing something different that the artist associated with his father’s house. The presentation of the work was very interesting, as the concept of using doors was something innovative, especially to present five paintings. Additionally, it did not only engage the sense of sight, something traditionally used in visual arts, but also the sense of touch, making the viewer (or, in this case, the responder) interact with the work on more dimensions rather than just the visual one.
Yet another piece of art worth mentioning is Colemna Negra Il by Spanish artists MP & MP Rosado. Colemna Negra Il, a life-size sculptural remake of a man attached to the wall upside-down, knees bent, was eye-catching and, in a similar way to The Truth Effect, defied the laws of gravity. It invites viewers to think about why the man is there and why he is in that certain position. Also, the sculpture is surrounded by other MP & MP Rosado works, including paintings, which also show the human body in various positions. This helps viewers relate what they see to their own bodies and how they connect to the mind and ones feelings and actions. In this way, while not representing anything significant in particular, the body of work stimulates viewers to think and feel, which, in essence, is what this year’s Biennale is all about.
Conclusion
The Sydney Biennale this year was diverse yet all of the works were united by creativity and an extraordinary amount of originality, which made the exhibition a pleasure to attend. There was a wide range of media used, ranging from videos to photographs to conventional painting. It was also refreshing to see such innovative use of common or found objects such as doors, suitcases and electronics. In fact, an excellent characteristic of the exhibition was the use of ordinary objects, taken out of context or abstracted to convey something artistically-meaningful. Although the theme of this year’s exhibition was “On reason and emotion”, direct meaning or profound symbolism was relatively scarce in many works, even though all of them possessed subtle meaning and reflections of society, constructed in an ingenious and visually-appealing way.
Raymond Roca
