Natural Selection17 September - 16 October 2005 Caroline Ho-Bich-Tuyen-Dang (Australia),
Niki Hastings-McFall (New Zealand),
Linde Ivimey (Australia),
Mella Jaarsma (Indonesia),
Sharmila Samant (India) Natural Selection is an exhibition by five artists from Australia, India, Indonesia and Aotearoa/New Zealand who use material culture, their personal environments and social histories to explore local and global issues. Materials such as animal bones, earth, stones, recycled containers and international commodity items are used in subversive and often humorous ways to challenge the notions of memory, obsolescence and cultural authenticity and tease out other inconsistencies in contemporary consumer culture. Caroline Ho-Bich-Tuyen Dang uses stone, paper, string and plastic nets to investigate the idea of memory, permanency and the environment. Dang is interested in the metaphysical life of objects, rather than their functionality. She has participated in many group and solo shows including International touring exhibition Art & Land, 2001 and was invited to take part in the Burragorang International Artists Workshop, 2003. Melbourne based artist Linde Ivimey creates characters that are reliquaries of her contemporary existence. Materials such as bones from meals shared with friends and old pieces of fabric from cherished garments, imbue the works with memory and create symbolic connections between the personal and spiritual sides of her life. A survey of Ivimey's work was seen at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2004, in the same year she was a finalist in the National Gallery of Australia's Sculpture Prize and featured prominently at The Melbourne Art Fair. The notion of cultural authenticity is a strong focus in the work of Mella Jaarsma. Her elaborate costume installations emphasise issues of racial diversity and cultural difference in the context of what she sees as a waning tolerance for multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. Recent exhibitions include the 5th International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, Venice Lido Italy; Site + Sight: translating cultures, Singapore 2002 and Sydney's Asian Traffic in 2004. Niki Hastings-McFall invents new histories for mass-produced consumer items and by products such as plastic flowers and plastic soya sauces containers by turning them into delicate, colourful and strangely quirky, culturally loaded works with a humorous, Pacific skew. Niki has exhibited widely in New Zealand and abroad including Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2002 and Paradise Now? New York, 2004. Her work is in private and public collections including Te Papa, Dowse and Chartwell. Core concerns for Sharmila Samant are consumer capitalism and globalisation. Her work explores the homogenising effect brought on by the exploitation of cheap and highly skilled labour by powerful multinationals. In this installation she exposes the realities of the manufacture of 'designer' labels by re-working garments made in the sweatshops of Mumbai and rejected by European fashion houses. Samant has been selected for international residencies such as Gasworks, London and Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Her installations have been included in major international exhibitions such as Century City at Tate Modern, 2001. All exhibitions continue until Sunday 16 October 2005 Gallery hours are Tuesday - Sunday 1.00pm - 6.00pm. For further information and/or images please contact PUBLIC PROGRAMSNatural SelectionNatural Selection explores the transformative potential of material culture in the varied works of five artists from Australia, India, Indonesia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Each artist, employing a different approach to the material use of objects, investigates alternative applications for items such as animal bones, earth, stones, recycled containers and international commodity items. Drawing on their immediate personal and cultural experiences the works on exhibition bring astute yet sensitive, and at times humorous, approaches to issues that are both local and global in context. Artists Caroline Ho-Bich-Tuyen Dang (Australia, born in Vietnam), Slide talk with exhibiting artist Niki Hastings-McFall 1 :30pm Saturday 17 September Niki Hastings-McFall transforms mass produced items of consumer culture into delicate, colourful and humorous works. Scouring bargain stores allover Auckland, Ishe invents and visualises new histories for seemingly bland, abundant consumer items that surround us in our daily lives. Materials favoured by Hastings-McFall include ~ 1various types of plastic flowers, plastic soya sauce fish, nylon thread, and any other small unit items she can source. Hastings-McFall will give a slide talk about the work in Natural Selection and her broader practice. Natural Selection curator Lisa Byrne will give a walking tour of the exhibition. Lisa Byrne is currently Director of the Canberra Contemporary Art Space where she has worked with numerous artists across varied career levels on the realisation of major solo and group exhibitions. These have included Artificially Reconstructed Habitats, Diet Mon Droit, Howl, Witnessing to Silence with Mella Jaarsma, Nindityo Adipurnomo and Santiago Bose in 2003 and Nadine Christensen's A Specially Built Ruin in 2005. Slide talks with exhibiting artists: 3pm Sunday 16 October Mella Jaarsma (The Netherlands/Indonesia) and Linde Ivimey (Australia) will give illustrated talks about their works in Natural Selection and their broader artistic practices. Dutch-born Mella Jaarsma has lived in Yogyakata, Indonesia for more than twenty years. Her recent practice explores the ideas of considering other people's identities and the notion of shelter. Through her elaborate costume installations Jaarsma plays with preconceived notions of cultural norms and boundaries. She emphasises issues of cultural difference and racial diversity in the context of what she sees as a waning tolerance for multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. Jaarsma's recent exhibitions include the 5th International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, Venice Lido Italy; Site + Sight: translating cultures, Singapore in 2002 and Sydney's Asian Traffic in 2004. Australian artist Linde Ivimey is well known for her fanciful creatures made from used material, bone, teeth and her own hair. Often seen as grotesque, these uneasy yet delicate works are inspired by various stories such as the lives of saints, pagan beliefs and those that are intensely personal. A survey of Ivimey's work was seen at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2003, in the same year she was a finalist in the National Gallery of Australia's Sculpture Prize and last year she featured prominently at The Melbourne Art Fair. Natural Selection curator Christine Clark will give a walking tour of the exhibition. She is currently an independent writer and arts manager, is published widely in Australia and overseas and has worked on a number of significant exhibitions including Canberra Contemporary Art Spaces' Witnessing to Silence in 2003 and The Museum of Brisbane's recent Echoes of Home: memory and mobility in recent austral-asian art. ADMISSION FREE Linden is assisted by the City of Port Phillip
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