Judy Millar

Venice Biennale or “Biennale di Venezia” in Italian is a Contemporary Art exhibition that takes place every two years and has been running since 1895. As well as Contemporary Art this festival also includes a Film section and Architecture. In the early 20^th century this event became more international renown and around 1930 even more new sections were added to this event such as Music and Theatre and then in 1999 a Contemporary Dance section.

During World War II it had a six year break and resumed in 1940 with even more interest in the Avant-garde movement and more attention was paid to the Abstract Expression and as time went on Pop Art and the Post Modernist Art movement.

“Harald Szeemann direct two editions in a row (48^th and 49^th) in 1999 and 2001 bring in a larger representation of artists from Asia and Eastern Europe and more young artists than usual and expanded the show into several restored spaces of the Arsenale”

(Venice Biennale – Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/venice_biennal)

Venice Biennale is now one of the most prestigious visual art events in the world and spans over thirty houses.

This year New Zealander Judy Millar along with Francis Upritchard were invited to exhibit work at the 53^rd edition of the Festival. They are the fourth New Zealanders to be asked to show work at Venice Biennale.

Millar graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983 with a masters in Fine Arts. She then returned to Auckland University to study Italian Feminist Artist and became very interested in the culture and was inspired to learn the language.

There were two venues on offer for Millar to show her work “Giraffe-Bottle-Gun” in, one being the “Chiesa di San Fantin” near St Mark’s square and the other which was the chosen one, is the “La Maddelena” Church, which New Zealand artist Michael Stephenson’s exhibited his work “TREKKA” in the 2003 Venice Biennale.

“La Maddalena” is the only circular church in Venice, allowing Millar’s paintings to fit a circular theme. “The largest piece in Millar’s exhibition, sited in the centre of the church will be a painting in the round, bulging and intruding into the viewers space in three dimensions” (NZArt)

“The exhibition Giraffe-Bottle-Gun will instigate a lively dispute with the venue in which it intrudes between the great history of Venetia painting and this contemporary space.” (Art Daily)

"She describes Venice, the place, as “a fiction” – an unreal tourist destination that is as much a figment of our imagination as an actual place – an idea that resonates with the way she sees painting in general. She’s curious to see what will happen when she brings her paintings from the other side of the world and places them in the heart of Italian painting." According to an article by Virginia Were from 'Artnews'.

Millar’s exhibition was curated by Leonhard Emmerling, a resident of New Zealand. He emigrated from Germany to New Zealand to take a job as the Director of St Paul St Gallery, AUT (Auckland University of Technology). Emmerling has a PhD in Art History form the University of Heidelberg, he has had several books published and lectured in Art History, and over his career he has curated over 40 exhibitions.

References:

www.creativenz.govt.nz

http://2009nzatvenice.com/millar.php

www.mindfood.com/at-judy-millar-venice-biennale-culture-art.seo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/venice_biennale

Evolution of Fear

Lynette Wallworth work “Evolution of Fear” is a series of interactive installations that respond to touch.
Wallworths work practice spans from video installation, photography and short film. Her work touches on human relationships with nature, how we become who we are and how we can re-make ourselves by our actions.

This work (exhibition) “Evolution of Fear” is a tribute to woman who have survived war, concentration camps, and other extreme actions of violence. It deals with loss, impact of war, survival and new beginnings.

The picture you see here is of a woman in the Abhaya Mudru, symbolic or ritual gesture. Abhaya meaning “fearlessness” and Abhaya Mudru symbolisies protection, peace and dispelling fear. The gesture its self is a raised right hand to shoulder height, arm bent and palm facing out.

To me this work seem to suggest that we as individuals, people have the power to make and do what we want with each situation, how to over come and get through hard time, re-birth our self with a new way of thinking or living, like starting a new life in Australia like the woman in this exhibition have.

Humanism is a system of thought concerned with human affairs and ethics, pro-motion of human welfare. (Oxford dictionary)
I think Wallworth’s works has offered us an idea of humanism, making us think more about our actions, that we can protect, create peace. “Finding a way to be stronger and to deflect the unforgiving elements encountered daily”.