West Space End of Year Show

Posted by Natalie Thomas on November 18, 2014 in Australian Art, Melbourne Art | Leave a comment

Proudly straddling two cities, Salote Tawale is a prolific artist who knows the Hume Highway like the back of her bust. That’s a self-portrait bust, not a breast bust. She’s a member of a small group of Industry Leaders who are helping help us develop a grassroots Sydney/Melbourne art dialogue, one couch surf at a time.

By uprooting and heading north (or alternately relocating south), artists like Tawale invite interstate friends to have a look around an art scene that’s similar to what they know, but different. This familiarity threatens the media beat up that is the traditional Sydney/Melbourne rivalry. One based on ideas of supremacy, cultural or otherwise: real estate; ocean views; comparisons based on landscape; weather; residents; fashion and vice. It’s a futile and often hilarious never-ending debate for numpties about intangibles and well worth rising above. One of those news stories rehashed when one can’t think of anything else to say: “What’s Australia’s best city? Who’s got the best galleries, bars, babes, laneways and shit?” Personally I’m sick of laneways and that most sexist of genres, Street art. It’s just not safe for women to participate in this out-late art form.

Leaving town is always a great way of upping your value back home; people love you more when you ‘up yours’ them and move away. Salote headed back down the Hume, direct to us from her scholarship at the University of Sydney. She brought a balmy night with her, setting the scene for a few shared bevvies for her most recent show, Colonising West Space. It takes a scatological approach with art treasures to be found in every available nook and cranny.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nikos Pantazopoulos proved that Greeks do it better and that even some doctors can make good art. His work Sun shines out of his Ass (I made that title up but please refer to photographs to see the popular work) is a photograph of the artist’s own dramatically hairy ass, back light through the legs. It definitely got the punters talking. The large scale of the work in relation to a gobsmacked, leering audience heightened the appeal. A hairy ass is a real conversation starter. And the slow reveal: the work is situated so it’s probably viewed last (but not least). The image was a late addition and proves there’s nothing like a looming deadline to force a breakthrough.

Nicki Wynnychuk came down from the hills inland from Byron and was tanned, relaxed and showing a series of photo’s of PNG where he sometimes lives. Nicole Breedon showed an impressive group of sculptural works including Column of Pornography that her Dad offered to store when the show comes down. DAAAAADD!!

http://westspace.org.au