Sept 29th – Sam Fox (Hydra Poesis) + Minaxi May – click to view respective sites 

Sam Fox – Performance maker, interdisciplinary artist and director of Hydra Poesis, Sam Fox, will talk about research and critical engagements with audiences through his pedagogically mongrel practice of Magic Political Realism. Sam will also introduce a new collaboration platform called WASTE that launches in November as a dinner within a parallel project led by Japanese activist and organiser Sakiko Sugawa - International Conference for the Reconstruction of Japan at PICA.

Minaxi May – ‘Drawing on Spirograph’ – felt/ink markers on Canson paper, created with drawing machine, 2011.

Minaxi will be expanding on her residency (AIR) at St Hildas Anglican School for Girls and the corresponding exhibition A Spin on Fandom. This work is a result of exploring the space, installation, ‘everyday’ materials and an expansion from previous work she produced for her solo show, Kaleidoscope. ‘I wanted to create interactive work that was kinetic and had a sense of the spectacular’ says May.

Previously …

Sept 1st Simon Gilby and Ben Forster

Simon Gilby graduated from the Claremont School of Art in 1989 with a Diploma of Fine Arts. Simon continues to participate in regular group

shows and undertake public art commissions and lecture at various Universities. He has worked with towns and communities across Western Australia

Ben Forster – Drawings bundled in black plastic – 2010

Benjamin Forster’s practice explores drawing, bringing together digital and bio technologies, installation and print to trace the boundaries of logic, economy and the role of the artist in art making. He received a Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours from the Australian National University, and was an artist in residence at Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 2009. In 2010 he relocated to Perth to complete simultaneous residencies at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) and SymbioticA

Tom Freeman (click on image below to view more of Tom’s work)

Image: ‘model of model’ Porcelain, mixed media. 303 x 30cm 2010

Tom Freeman is a local visual artist who’s been practicing steadily since graduation from Curtin University in 2007. He will talk about his practice to date and his current ongoing body of work exploring ideas of memory, nostalgia, truth and fiction, tangents and connections, mums and dads and a heavy dose of material affection and crafty process.

Chris Pratt

‘A Common Aesthetic’ 2011

A perfect circle? ‘Boomtown’ has the opportunity to transform the face of this city and state.

However, how is the profit from this resource driven boom being invested by the part population

who are enjoying its benefits? And what part does the public library, the art gallery, the museum

and the public square play in an increasingly more uninterested and ‘drawbridge’ social culture of

Perth? Is it in state commissioned public architecture [such as education and health facilities],

places in which the public interact with on a more regular basis, where opportunities lie for an

intersection [+ exposure] of art/ architecture and Perth?

Chris will summarise past, and current involvement in state funded projects, looking at the

opportunities and restrictions provided by public architecture in Perth.

David Bromfield (click on image below to be directed to David’s site, Brown Art Consultants) will be presenting with Martin Heine on…

‘Fears and Miseries of the WA Art Industry and the Resistible Rise of the Schlock Jock curator’

David Bromfield at Kurb Gallery Entrance

Martin Heine (click on image below to view more of Martin’s work) Image: Performance, Kurb Gallery, 2006

‘My work comments on the dissonance between optimistic modern sensibilities and the egocentric chaos of a present, which can only live, like a vampire, on the slowly melting ghost of the modern’ Heine

Rose Skinner – New work – click image to view Rose’s website

Rose will be talking on her experiences as an emerging visual artist in Perth

Brad Ladyman – Talks on ASTERISMS – click to view Brad’s site

These ideas aim to tease out a range of ontological links and patterns which are formed by the juxtaposition of architectural and urban formations that are in close proximity to one another. By taking an experiential position, we can thus work towards a more profound understanding of those potential outcomes that are located beyond our usual and accepted sense of urban reality and experience.

Jon Tarry – Dialogue In Two Parts: ‘Runways of the World’

(Image below: ‘Perth Runway’ 2011 concept image, Jon Tarry, Kirrilea Birch. Click to visit Jon’s site)

“I suspect that the airport will be the true city of the 21st century………………. a centripetal city whose population forever circles its notional centre, and will never need to gain access to its dark heart”. – j. g. ballard.
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Merrick Belyea – Solo Shows (Fallen Man VI, 2010. Oil paint, canvas) click to see more works

Merrick will talk about his last two solo exhibitions (Spanish Landscape and recent work) and the evolution of his practice between the two shows. He will also include the transition into the “Belyea St” film and how that relates to current obsessions: worrying the surface of an object until one is left with the essentials of an idea.

Lee Mainsbridge – new work (image ‘Parihaka 41 Chapters’, 2009 John Curtin Gallery 2010)

Janine DellaBosca – current practice (image below – detail, 2010)