Direct links
 
Home → Associated Groups → Wattspace → Exhibitions 7.06

Watt Space     17 May – 4 June 2006

It’s not all black and white…

2006 Watt Space Open Show

 
Curated by Heidi Freihaut, Naomi Gow and Laura Jardine -the current student representatives of the Watt Space  Committee
 
It is not all black and white, there are sometimes grey areas.  Perhaps it is best to read between the lines instead of leaving things unquestioned.  Facts can be right or biased, sometimes newsprint articles can be colourful.  Even with the harmony of yin and yang there are still restricting boundaries. 
Current students of the University of Newcastle were invited respond to this theme and enter artworks in this show.
 
The exhibition was opened by Matthew Tome and Clare Weeks with awards presented by Profeesor Kevin McConkey on Thursday 18 May at 7pm.

The judges…..

Matthew Tome is an artist and Head Teacher, Fine Art at the Newcastle Art School, Hunter St TAFE, Newcastle. He has previously taught at TAFE level in Sydney and Dubbo and has been an exhibiting artist since 1986. In 1997 he was awarded a Paris studio residency by the Art Gallery of NSW and more recently in 2005 Matthew exhibited at John Miller Gallery in Newcastle.  He is represented in numerous public and private collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Clare Weeks is a Newcastle-based artist and until recently was employed as Education Co-ordinator at Maitland Regional Art Gallery.  She is a graduate of University of Newcastle with B. Arts (Communication Studies) and Honours in Photomedia.  Clare was awarded the Faculty Medal for outstanding academic achievement in 2004.   She was Watt Space President in 2002 and Watt Space Gallery Assistant in 2003 and has exhibited in Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane since 2001. 
 

 

 

Some of the 82 artworks:
 
     

Amanda Moss Movie Still (detail) linocut, Belinda Howden The Neither/Neither Series (detail) graphite on waterclour paper, Cheryl Farrell Conversation between Hannah and Pink pinhole photograph and acrylic paint

 

 

   


Erin Woodgate Reflections photograph, Tara Clinton-McHarg Thyme acrylic and spice on canvas

 

 

     

Katelin Wallace Journigan Untitled (detail) photograph, Luke Thompson Blue Moon ( I saw you standing alone) aluminium, Jessica Maiden  Untitled 2 (Hush) photo emulsion on rag

 
     

Maryam Rashidi White= face to face Black=back to backinstallation, Prue Sailer  Do you dream in colour ? oil on canvas, Pernilla Walkhamre Untitled  cyanotype
   

Chris Byrnes Absence of Black II inkjet photograph, Colleen Hoad Untitled ceramic
     

Gillian Thomas Untitled 1&2 photographs, Shane Westernhagen Stolen Delight lithograph, Ahn Wells Life and death (detail) newspaper




The following prizes were awarded :

 

 
Thank you to our sponsors Eckersleys Newcastle, Artisan Express Glendale, The Co-op Bookshop Newcastle and First Creek Wines Pokolbin.
Thanks also to Professor Kevin McConkey from the University of Newcastle for presenting the prizes and Clare and Matthew for judging and opening.



The catalogue essay:
It’s not all black and white…

It took 82 works, 48 hours, 3 lady curators - Heidi Freihaut, Laura Jardine, Naomi Gow - and one premise to bring together this year’s Watt Space Open Show. The Show is based on the idiom It’s not all black and white which commonly exists as an invitation to look deeper, between the lines, beneath the cracks and to blur the traditions of law, solidity, and absoluteness. It is a vague construction that accurately testifies to the theme of an Open Show since it encompasses any concept and can allow for the inclusion of any artwork. Each room in the gallery threads out in different explorations of this theme. The Loading Dock presents an array of diverse works using science desks, newspapers, scrabble cubes and blu-tack as materials from contemporary dadaists. The works are mostly black and white orientated but the clusters of colour dotted throughout hints that this may be more than a monochrome show.
From here the viewer can see the blanketing of all the artworks in The Hoist. A closer look  reveals what comes out of the blue …
 
Rustic measures of sandstone yellow and olive green composes The Long Room. Lyrical and earthy themes set this room with a homely feel. This is also where a lot of the three dimensional work has found its place.The Pit is where the impact of colour is concentrated and is an area devoted to installation work. The Locker Room sees work hung in a semi-Salon, formalistic pattern and also includes an overtode to Malevich’s corner hang. It was the hang, not just the context, that ensured Malevich’s Black Square wasn’t just a black and white square but the window to something much more. The same could be said for this room since the inclusion of the red painting automatically upsets the assumption that this space is solely dedicated to the exhibition of black and white works.
 
The mixing of established black and white styles of hanging in this room to produce a cross-pollinated curatorial approach has proven that it is more than the just the artworks that are exploring the grey area. Also, by taking appropriation outside the frame of the artwork and using it as a vehicle for the expression of curatorial style, this establishes that it is not just aesthetics that are integral to the presentation of the works but also the weight of agenda and intention. While the curators had no control over the work produced for the show, it was their vision in facilitating the spatial construction of the artworks that revealed their creative efforts.
 
Overall, each room in the show is underpinned by a specific curatorial ethic which is that a curator should acknowledge the dialogues set up through the juxtaposition or reflection of artworks.  Artworks enter this dialogue via a contrasting or comparing connections in colour, theme, imagery, size and/or style and it is the curator’s job to piece these dormant features into visible links and to harmonise these connections in a silent and seamless fashion as this is vital to the reception of the work.
 
We hope you enjoy the show and see it as a positive indication of the strength of artworks produced by students from the University of Newcastle.  We can’t take all the glory without specially thanking Anne the director, also Jess, Mandy, both Luke T’s, Sarah, Sam, Colleen, Maryam and Dean for helping us install. Thanks also goes to our sponsors, to Brett for security, Hazel for providing tired curators with lunch and triple shot skim lattes and Jeff (?) for making The Pit floor shiny.                                                                           

Laura Jardine