Sala dei Cavalli (Room of the Horses), Palazzo Te

Wondrous Possessions is an exhibition of exquisite images, created on 4×5” film in the historic palazzi constructed by the Gonzaga family in Mantua, Italy; the Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Te and Palazzo San Sebastiano, as well as the state archives, Archivio di Stato di Mantova. The images were hand-printed at Colour Factory and exhibited in Prato, Italy in mid May 2010. Colour Factory Gallery is very pleased to present these photo masterpieces, illustrating photography at its finest.

Dr Jo-Anne Duggan is an inter-disciplinary researcher and photo-media artist who investigates the complexity of the museum and the multitude of histories that collide in the context of viewing art and material culture. Her work has been created in a number of international cultural institutions where she explores new ways of visually communicating aspects of time, history and memory. Jo-Anne has been the recipient of numerous grants, including three from the Australia Council, and undertaken residencies in Milan, Florence and Prato, in Italy.

David Mitchener is showing Panoramica, a collection of his stunning mural photographs at the Colour Factory Gallery in July.

All the images in this exhibition are taken with the remarkable Hasselblad X-Pan. This small and very portable camera allows shooting with great spontaneity.  It’s very wide film format and superb optics are portrayed beautifully in the mural prints. The panoramic format allows for his unique concept of landscape photography to be viewed in incredible detail. David shoots using a grainy negative film stock, which in combination with some specialised processing techniques, yields a painterly, organic effect. His interpretation of these destinations is as much about the detail and texture as it is about the broader horizon. This often abstract and unexpected view takes the work into a more experiential, epic realm.

Educated at RMIT in Australia and Brooks Institute of Photography in California, his career has included stints in New York and Denmark, and has taken him on shoots in South America, South East Asia, Japan and New Zealand.

Exhibition dates June 3 – 26, 2010

Exhibition opening Thursday May 6, 6-8pm
To be opened by: Stephen Zagala, Curator, Monash Gallery of Art
Artist floor talk: Saturday May 22, 2.00pm
Exhibition dates: May 6 to 29, 2010

Plenty explores the margins of Plenty Road between Bundoora and South Morang, where Melbourne’s outer urban development meets the grassy eucalypt woodland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain. The photographs reveal a strange and compelling mixture of excess and decay, opportunity and loss as the landscape undergoes dramatic change.

Tim Handfield’s work is held in local and international collections including those of the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank and the Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, CA.

Lizzie Hollins
200 Million and Counting
The Colour Factory Gallery

Exhibition runs from March 30-April 30, 2010

200 Million & Counting explores the dynamic of the mass crowd, tourism, consumption, global attraction and narrative there within.

The work is removed from its subjects via distance and by doing so allows the viewer to see within an image the greater narrative and interaction going on within these groupings of people. Abstracted by distance, this ‘birds eye view’ creates intriguing aesthetic patterns.

It’s interesting how monuments, structures, buildings and places of significance in general, can reach such global celebrity status that year round people from far and wide are drawn to them, if only for half an hour, to have a look about, tick an invisible box, get a snap shot and then leave.

Then there are the enthralling items that a large number of people obtain before jet-setting, which are generally considered to aid the hardcore tourist and assist in such box ticking activities. Such as the TEVA or Reef sandal, the fanny-pack or bum bag, the coin-belt, the Legionnaires cap or at extremes, colour coordinated outfits to ensure you don’t loose your significant other.

I’m continually fascinated by the excesses and motivations behind the tourist dollar.

This work was produced in Europe. In contrast to the east, where I have also spent time documenting tourism – observing and trying to understand the way in which economic infrastructure has cleaved to the influx of such a rapidly developing industry – its fascinating to observe and compare the differentiating effects tourism has had economically & culturally.

Exhibition runs from March 4-20, 2010

Allan, a successful commercial photographer for many years, has recently turned his passion for photography into the pursuit of fine art. This body of work presents the graphic beauty of the everyday, illustrating and recording degrees of urban decoration and decay. Mostly shot in the familiar streets of Melbourne, Allan invites the viewer to imagine and interpret these ‘discoveries’ in the same way that an archaeologist discovers the remains of ancient civilizations and reconstructs what life was like.

As you may remember back in our July eNewsletter, we featured an article on analogue projection printing.

The subject of the article was the challenging creation of a 4.2 x 2.7m hand print of STELLARC’s flayed face for his exhibition ‘Skin’ at Scott Livesey Galleries in August. The work is now on show in Luxembourg at the Casino: Forum D’Art Contemporain (see below).

Images courtesy of Scott Livesey Galleries

A small replica of the image will be featured in the Colour Factory Gallery in January.

‘Sustainable Fusion Reactions’ is a very exciting exhibition for the Colour Factory as it pushes the boundaries of what photographic art is. All three artists use photography to communicate their vision even though they may not consider themselves solely as photographers. This differs from the current exhibition, where the artists are well known photographers in the commercial world of fashion and advertising. Marc and Gerard have taken a ‘traditional’ approach in the installation of their work – mural photographs, mounted to Aluminum Composite Board and hung formally in the gallery. The Colour Factory stands by this photographic tradition of the image telling all, presented as a high quality print on the white walls of the gallery.

Just as valid and interesting is the way artists’ who use photography think outside the square and use the installation process as a way of communicating their ideas by transforming a space. The artists in ‘Sustainable Fusion Reactions’ will manipulate the gallery space in a completely different manner involving projections, photo based sculpture, books and photographs, using not only the wall space but the floor as well.

A benefit of exhibiting a variety of ways in which artists use photography is to educate and inspire, showing the diverse and creative methods being used by contemporary artists. Having the Colour Factory business attached to the gallery is advantageous for the public, in particular students, who are interested in the technical possibilities of the medium and challenges faced by artists and technicians alike in bringing an idea to fruition. The experienced Colour Factory staff are available to assist and provide information on how the artwork was produced, the technical requirements, the archival quality of the material and much more.  Just ask us!

Some technical details: photo techniques, printing devices

Gerard and Marc have printed their images as Lightjet photographs on Flex paper then mounted to 2mm Aluminum Composite Board, which floats off the wall. The Flex paper is high gloss and has incredible depth, fooling many to believe that the prints are face mounted to acrylic. This option, although aesthetically similar is more cost effective and light weight.  This process produces a collectable museum quality archival artwork.

In the next exhibition Utako Shindo will create a sculptural floor piece that has images printed onto clear vinyl and adhered to squares of mirror. This process is usually for commercial applications, printed on the large format OCE CS7070 with UV ink. This means the work is not museum quality archival however, it affectively achieves Utako’s creative vision and aesthetic purpose.

As one exhibition closes another opens…‘Sustainable Fusion Reactions’ curated by artist Jill Orr will be opening on Thursday November 19, 6 – 8pm.  This innovative and experimental exhibition by three local artists seeks to link eco-sustainability, Indigenous sustainability and cross- cultural sustainability as different aspects of the same challenge. Japanese artist Utako Shindo, Indigenous artist Bindi Cole and environmental artist Ash Keating join forces to find solutions to sustainability through understanding and education. The exhibition runs from November 19 to December 18. All are welcome!

The curator of this photographic exhibition, Jill Orr, describes the artists works on display:

“Sustainable Fusion Reactions has been initiated by the Art Academy, University of Ballarat and is linked to RMIT and the Avoca Eco-Living Festival.

Solutions to sustainability and climate change will possibly be found
and implemented at the interface between science, art, culture and the
community. This project visualises emerging innovations and ideas
that can be experienced and embodied through art. Understanding
and education is a vital link in the paradigm shift that is necessary to
implement sustainable futures. Sustainable Fusion Reactions seeks to
link eco-sustainability, Indigenous sustainability and cross- cultural
sustainability as different aspects of the same challenge.

The three artists first developed their works in the Ballarat region by
drawing on both colonial, Indigenous and Japanese heritage and linking
this to present ecological imperatives and cultural sustainability”.

Ash Keating: EurEco Revolution
“The new green eureka flag is visual catalyst for a much-needed united environmental revolution, also acting as a symbol of freedom for the environment.

I believe the Eureka Stockade could be seen as an historic blueprint, for the people of Australia today to rise up against our current governments who continue to fail in re-structuring our country in response to the most challenging issue humanity faces, Climate Change.

This project, EurEco Revolution, changes the colour of the Eureka Southern Cross flag from Royal Blue to Bright Green, to act as a visual symbol for the coming together of the broader community to begin to significantly speak out about the issues we continue to face. The flag has been jointly laid upon a stack of railway sleepers by both Val D’Angri who is the restorer of the original eureka flag and myself”.

Ash Keating

Bindi Cole: Disposable Words

“Disposable Words uses rubbish collected from Wathurung country to create a sculptural text installation that spells out Wathaurung words. There is a link between the plastic rubbish that is thrown away daily by commuters along the freeways and the language that was thrown away like rubbish. Right here, where we stand, exists a community of Wathurung people and a history of ancestry that dates back tens of thousands of years. That community had a language and culture all of its own. Through colonisation, much of that knowledge was deemed unimportant.Disposable Words looks at the death of the language through the
revival of it.”

Bindi Cole

Utako Shindo: It Drops, it reflects

“Cultural sustainability may be discussed in the context of discovering one’s own tradition. However, for someone who inhabits the process of globalisation, it may be an issue to name what is your own culture. It seems that it is, in fact, more manageable to discover a root that is deep in the earth yet growing towards unaccountable future. I have entered the journey of discovery through my Japanese heritage and now attempt through my art practice to pursue something universally in common, like water: a linkage of our spirit; it drops, it reflects, our feelings of joy and sadness in living and death. Global Climate Change may shift not only the water level of the planet but the degree of our engagement to our own being. Simultaneously, Globalisation may shift the importance of sustaining culture from what is individual to what is universal”.

Utako Shindo