Damp
dal 8/11/2001 al 15/12/2001
Segnalato da
8/11/2001
Damp
Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
"More Than A Feeling". Fourteen member artist collective DAMP will present a mini survey of their works which have incorporated group performance and social interactions. In the past few years DAMP have gained a reputation for their inclusive working methods, and audience-involving tactics. DAMP have received assistance from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust for this project. The work of DAMP has become highly regarded due to its directness, emotional impact and thoughtfulness.
Formed through a continuing series of workshops in
collaborative practice, art group DAMP have come to
prominence in the last few years as one of Australia's most
exciting and challenging visual arts practitioners. The work
of DAMP has become highly regarded due to its directness,
emotional impact and thoughtfulness.
The group has exhibited in over 16 exhibitions both locally
and internationally and has also received significant critical
success including published reviews by critics Peter Timms
in The Age and Stuart Koop in Art/Text and feature
articles by Andrew McQualter in Like Art Magazine and by
Peter Hill in Photofile magazine.
Established since 1995 DAMP has become an independent
collaborative art group based in Melbourne. The groups
working practice has always been heavily reliant on video
and photography for the purposes of documentation of
events or finished work. Comprising at times of up to
fifteen members the group currently consists of artists
Johnathan Bailey, Martin Burns, Olivia Dwyer, Sharon
Goodwin, Ry Haskings, Spiro Kalantzis, Lisa Radford, Sean
Samon, Dion Sanderson, Mosato Takasaka, Blair
Trethowan, Neil Wilson
Each DAMP event and exhibitions explore the complex
relationships between contemporary art and audiences.
The research and background to their projects is a
response to an important time, when galleries, funding
bodies and artists are increasing discussing the place and
role of contemporary art in our communities. DAMP breaks
down the distinctions and explores the relationships and
contract between artists and viewers. DAMP also makes
contact with groups and people located outside the
established art discourses thus opening up traditions of
who may participate and enjoy contemporary art.
For example, by converting one of Melbourne's artist run
spaces into a clothing exchange DAMP were able to
convince people to enter the gallery and participate in the
work, not because they wanted too view art but because
they genuinely wanted to have something.
When the group swapped their clothing for some Polaroid
photographs, and stated that clothes and art are the
same, they weren't necessarily dragging the everyday into
the gallery. It was more like putting art into the everyday.
Effectively swapping slides with the audience, they let the
audience make the art and they became the audience
watching the art happen.
Andrew McQualter
Opens 6pm Thursday 8 November to 15 December
The Experimental Art Foundation curates its exhibition program to represent new work
that expands current debates and ideas in contemporary art and culture.
The EAF incorporates a gallery space, bookshop and artists studios.
Street Address
Lion Arts Centre, cnr North Terrace & Morphett Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Postal Address
PO Box 8091, Station Arcade, South Australia, 5000 Telephone +61 (0)8 8211 7505 Facsimile +61 (0)8 8211 7323