Inspiration from Simon and Tom Bloor - Kurt Rowland is an arts educator from the 1960's. He has been an significant figure in arts education in the UK. This is an image from his His book 'Learning to See'. Kurt Rowland, Learning to See 1 (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1968).
Uneducated
ROOM 13 (2005) Coal Primary School, documentation of 11 year old artists' studio, courtesy of Robert Fairly and Room 13 International
UNEDUCATED group show held at Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Rd Brunswick, September 5th – October 5th 2014
Opening September 4th 6-8pm
Exhibition / PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Curator KYM MAXWELL
Artists: Annette Krauss (N.L), Tom and Simon Bloor (U.K), Room 13 the early years (with Robert Fairley U.K), Elizabeth Newman, Antonia Sellbach, Nick Selentisch, Annabelle Kingston, Dan Arps, Lane Cormick, Peter Tyndall, Kym Maxwell, Nathan Gray, Sean Peoples, Anastasia Klose, Dr Peter Hill, DAMP and Emily Floyd.
‘Uneducated’ is an ambitious exhibition of artworks and projects that are sociological and educational in nature. It represents active forms of education in or around society, questioning knowledge, truth and the teacher / student dynamic. The exhibit explores education as a challenge to spectatorship in art reflecting on the ‘educational turn’ in contemporary art discourse (in particular, theories of Schiller, Ranciere and Rogoff) and in this way revealing what Australian artists have done, or are doing in relation to how art educates and positions audiences — contemporary European works within this field of inquiry will also be exhibited for the first time in Australia.
Artists within the exhibit represent varying vantage points of ‘knowledge and education’ as either active or passive experiences of learning. All works explore differing accessibilities of arts intellectual codes (subjective or objective) with each production (the making) a form of ‘knowing’, either kinetic or arbitrary. Through autonomous and plural positions the ‘theory of knowledge’ in regards to the ‘educational turn’ is questioned.
Opening Remarks A Constructed World
Talks:
Saturday, September 13th from 2- 3:30pm: The educational philosophies of Frederick Schiller and Jacques Ranciere, a lecture by Sam Cuff Snow and Gene Flenady from Monash University and Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy.
Thursday, September 25th, 6-8pm: The role of cognition in viewing. The importance of not knowing: what the Greek Skeptics might call a suspension from certainty; or cognitive indeterminacy.– Nick Selentisch talks with Dan Arps and Peter Tyndall.
Texts:
These include: Dr Courtney Pedersen —'Challenging educational norms and institutional learning: The works of Annette Krauss, Group Material and Room 13' In addition transcripts of the talk from Week 3 will be available in gallery post September 25th and online.
Re-curation
Emily Floyd and Kym Maxwell re-curate the exhibition with students from Collingwood College, the Reggio Emilia informed program, class 1/2 students. Re-hang from September 23rd - documentation displayed
Closing party
October 4th from 2-3pm sponsored by Counihan Gallery
Field 1968 in the Substation Contemporary Art Award
News
Excited to announce Field 1968 has been selected as a finalist for The Substation Contemporary Art Prize 2014 - a national non-aquisitive award established to recognise and encourage innovation in contemporary practice. The exhibition opens 6pm Friday 15th August at The Substation, 1 Market Street, Newport, Victoria. This year’s judges are Max Delany, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Mark Feary, Curator, ARTSPACE, Sydney. http://www.thesubstation.org.au/
Industrial Estate Publication Launch
The Industrial Estate Publication Launch July 9th from 7-9 pm at Hell Kitchen Level 1, 20 Center Place Melbourne.
Published by Kym Maxwell
Edited by Kym Maxwell and Ziga Testen
Photography by Elliott Lauren
Designed by Ziga Testen
Typeset in FF Balance Bold
Printed in the UK and AU in an edition of 300 ISBN-10 0-9924117-1-8
ISBN-13 978-0-9924117-1-8
Furniture Design Memphis Inspired
Functional Furniture design, 'Trip Trap' Memphis inspired bookshelf - collaboration with Woodcraft Mobiliar fine furniture - March 2014
Olympic Village Launch
Artist in Residence program - Charles La Trobe College - The choreography of play
Newest work #3 Channel Video work 'Field 1968'
In recent times I have been working on a 3 channel video work that will premiere this year. It has involved the participation of 11 families, 3 videographers and visual arts and writers.
I look forward to updating the website with details regarding its presentation. Following are screen shots of the work.
presenting paper at a conference and attending a conference, both pertaining to knowledge and authority
This February I will be attending two conferences the first Authority and Knowledge: People, Policy, Politics at Melbourne University, in which I will be presenting a paper based on Palle's Nielsen's 1968 action 'Model for a Qualitative Society' and discussing agency in children, their first exploration of power and hierarchy through 'play' revealed in Palle's work. Also in early February I will be attending Spectres of Evaluation: rethinking art community value at the Footscray Community Arts Centre which I am very much looking forward too. Rob Ball states, 'Taking its cue from the artwork; Spectre of Evaluation (Thomas Hirschhorn, 2008) the conference looks to reconfigure the relationship between artists, art experts, and what the artist terms the “non-exclusive audience".' There's still conference tickets available at reduced rates for artists, so get onto it and see you there!
Thomas Hirschhorn, Spectre of Evaluation, 2008. access
Shot of Julian Williams performance on the night
Interview in The Age
For further details relating to the event follow here
The ’Industrial Estate’ group exhibition presented at Woodcraft Mobiliar, a fine furniture workshop in the industrial estate of Heidelberg West. The exhibition will present the works of 14 artists (Ash Kilmartin, Claire Lambe, Christopher L. G. Hill, Dan Bell, Helen Grogan, Isadora Vaughan, Jordan Marani, Julian Williams, Lane Cormick, Kiera Brew Kurec, Kym Maxwell, Madeline Kidd, Sean Peoples and Virginia Overell) and converse around the themes of commercial as opposed to handmade production, artists as opposed to industry based work, the aesthetics of workplace additionally how smaller communities set their gaze fearlessly at the modern city setting the agenda.
Curated by Kym Maxwell, the project is an ambitious curation of Contemporary Art for 2014 in Melbourne’s north (11 klms from the CBD).
Address: (Woodcraft Mobiliar) 12 Kolora Rd, Heidelberg West.
Opening: Janurary 10th, 2014 5pm onwards with perofrmances by Wet Kiss, Waterfall Person, People Person
Exhibition Dates: Janurary 10th - 13th 10am - 6pm.
3RRR interview
A short interiew on RRR's Smart Arts promoting Industrial Estate
Industrial Estate Open
The Industrial Estate opens to big crowds, January 10th 2014.
Promotional Materials - Industrial Estate
Industrial Estate is in 4 weeks!
Industrial Estate
Opening Event January 10th, 2014 from 5pm — All Wlecome
The ’Industrial Estate’ group exhibition will be presented in Woodcraft Mobiliar, a fine furniture workshop in the industrial estate of Heidelberg West. The exhibition will present the works of 14 artists and converse around the themes of commercial as opposed to handmade production, additionally how smaller communities set their gaze fearlessly at the modern city setting the agenda.
Curated by Kym Maxwell, the project is an ambitious curation of Contemporary Art for 2014. Presented in the inner most fringes of Melbourne’s evolving suburb Heidelberg West.
Presented at Workshop Woodcraft Mobiliar, 12 Kolora Rd, Heidelberg West.
Opening Janurary 10th 5pm
Dates and hours : January 10th, 11th, 12th, 12th, 10 am – 6pm
Visual Artists
Ash Kilmartin
Claire Lambe
Christopher L G Hill
Dan Bell
Helen Grogan
Isadora Vaughan
Jordan Marani
Kym Maxwell
Madeline Kidd
Virginia Overell
Sean Peoples
Sound Art
People Person
Wet Kiss
Waterfall Person
Performance Artists
Julian Williams
Lane Cormick
Kiera Brew Kurec
Curated by Kym Maxwell
Sponsored by Banyule City Council, Community Development Grant, Woodcraft Mobiliar and Kooinda Brewery
The location of the workshop is off the Darebin Creek Trail next to Northland, a 20 min bike ride from Northcote.
Curatorial Premise:
The idea of a society without qualities is an indictment of a state that fails to provide a life of quality for its citizens. A society without qualities is an example of capitalisms’ ambition now free to claim victory over the people. And so the idea of the state as a caretaker and an educator, an alleviator of pain is no longer believable.1
What happens when capitalism consumes the values it fought to free through the union of soul and economy? Yet with innumerable groups living on the margins with businesses producing at micro-scales that exist on the fringes affected, within this site (the industrial estate of Heidelberg West) the hypothesis is apparent, a marginal group living adjacent businesses working for the economy, creating materials and services for this capitalist agenda.
A group exhibition with opening performances, the ’Industrial Estate’ is set to be presented in a furniture workshop on the fringe of Heidelberg West; converses around the themes of production and a dystopian community that sets its gaze fearlessly at the modern city setting the agenda.
1. Lars Bang Larsen, The Society Without Qualities, e-flux #47
GOODWILL Exhibition and Publication Launch
Exhibition and Publication Launch for participatory arts project, GOODWILL: Memoirs of Yard Play (2013)
Top Shelf Gallery , 3rd Floor, 369 Lonsdale St, Melbourne (Above Dean's Art, 3rd floor, via the middle stairwell) - December 5th - December 12th.
12pm - 4pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
OPENING Thursday December 5th , 6-8 pm
The publication is a 42 page colour booklet, introduction by Helen Hughes and beautifully designed by Ross Paxman — It's really something else!! Additionally two essays by myself, full interview with unidentified participants and records of tableaux.
The project is informed by institutional practice-led research, Vygotsky’s social constructivist theories and Palle Nielsen’s 1968 ‘Model for a Qualitative Society’.
The exhibition consists of sculpture, photography and installation.
Tableaux for sculpture design