Urban Meditations
Anke Stacker, Jude Williams, Karen Benton, Melinda Hunt, Molly Wagner, Paraskevy Begetis
Upstairs | Opens on Aug 31 until Sep 22 | Fri, Sat & Sun
Urban Meditations brings together the work of six artists who engage with the urban environment by walking, observing, collecting, tracing and reinventing.
Anke Stäcker,
Invisible Cities,
Video
This work is inspired by the imagined conversations between the explorer Marco Polo and the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan in Italo Calvino’s novel 'Invisible Cities'.
Anke Stäcker‘s video examines Sydney from the viewpoint of Marco Polo‘s tales about the many cities he has seen on his travels in Italo Calvino‘s Invisible Cities.
While each of the descriptions in the novel are aspects of Venice, a conquering nation, Stäcker applies these to a city that was created as a convict colony.
Jude Williams
I know you’ve seen me!
Painting
‘I know you’ve seen me!’ began as a photographic installation whilst I was still at Uni. The painting studio floors were laden with drips and marks from years of activity. They were in constant flux as people and objects moved across their surfaces leaving their own trace. Some marks and drips truly captured my attention, nudging at me to take a closer look. This is one such mark.
Karen Benton
Ode to Opposites
Wall Installation
My movement through the urban environment is accompanied by encounters with opposites. It is a space in which I feel and observe the push and pull of dualities. ‘Ode to Opposites’ explores the space between tension and balance in the artwork itself, with the contrast of hard and soft materials and their manipulations, embodying the opposites experienced when moving through the urban: Fixed and Ephemeral; Resilient and Vulnerable; Constrained and Detached.
Melinda Hunt
Maps of Being
Drawing
My drawing practice is an exploration of forms of thinking, feeling and knowing. I draw while walking as a distinctive strategy that brings perception and visualisation to the forefront. What do I know of my surroundings in the moment of encounter and how is this shaped by memory? My drawings, therefore, are not about things or places or myself but about the relational space between them and the energy created in the interstitial.
Molly Wagner
A walk along the Queen Victoria Building on a rainy, Saturday morning.
A Walking-Drawing
It was the first day of winter, cold, grey and rainy, and my first time drawing with the Urban Sketch Club. I followed their rule of drawing from life, no photographs, and the walking prompt from Kel Portman, to walk slowly for 10 paces. At the end of the 10 paces (sometimes more) I stopped to make a sketch. I used the runner’s app Strava to draw the line of my walk.
Paraskevy Begetis
Photography
Chance encounters with the interestingly arranged. Appearing without the artist's intervention. These short-lived compositions, possessing alluring qualities of alignment, are captured before they move on to their next destination.
Invisible Cities,
Video
This work is inspired by the imagined conversations between the explorer Marco Polo and the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan in Italo Calvino’s novel 'Invisible Cities'.
Anke Stäcker‘s video examines Sydney from the viewpoint of Marco Polo‘s tales about the many cities he has seen on his travels in Italo Calvino‘s Invisible Cities.
While each of the descriptions in the novel are aspects of Venice, a conquering nation, Stäcker applies these to a city that was created as a convict colony.
Jude Williams
I know you’ve seen me!
Painting
‘I know you’ve seen me!’ began as a photographic installation whilst I was still at Uni. The painting studio floors were laden with drips and marks from years of activity. They were in constant flux as people and objects moved across their surfaces leaving their own trace. Some marks and drips truly captured my attention, nudging at me to take a closer look. This is one such mark.
Karen Benton
Ode to Opposites
Wall Installation
My movement through the urban environment is accompanied by encounters with opposites. It is a space in which I feel and observe the push and pull of dualities. ‘Ode to Opposites’ explores the space between tension and balance in the artwork itself, with the contrast of hard and soft materials and their manipulations, embodying the opposites experienced when moving through the urban: Fixed and Ephemeral; Resilient and Vulnerable; Constrained and Detached.
Melinda Hunt
Maps of Being
Drawing
My drawing practice is an exploration of forms of thinking, feeling and knowing. I draw while walking as a distinctive strategy that brings perception and visualisation to the forefront. What do I know of my surroundings in the moment of encounter and how is this shaped by memory? My drawings, therefore, are not about things or places or myself but about the relational space between them and the energy created in the interstitial.
Molly Wagner
A walk along the Queen Victoria Building on a rainy, Saturday morning.
A Walking-Drawing
It was the first day of winter, cold, grey and rainy, and my first time drawing with the Urban Sketch Club. I followed their rule of drawing from life, no photographs, and the walking prompt from Kel Portman, to walk slowly for 10 paces. At the end of the 10 paces (sometimes more) I stopped to make a sketch. I used the runner’s app Strava to draw the line of my walk.
Paraskevy Begetis
Photography
Chance encounters with the interestingly arranged. Appearing without the artist's intervention. These short-lived compositions, possessing alluring qualities of alignment, are captured before they move on to their next destination.
Opening | Sat Aug 31, 3-5pm
Join us for the opening for group show 'PAPER FORM'; group show 'Urban Meditations'; and 'Edges, ledges, spaces' by Susan Andrews
Closing drinks | Sun Sep 22, 3-5 pm
Closing drinks for group show 'PAPER FORM'; group show 'Urban Meditations'; and 'Edges, ledges, spaces' by Susan Andrews
