Friday, May 9, 2014

"MY UNIQUE SELF" self portraits

‘My Unique Self’

Firstly we would like to express our respect and acknowledge the traditional owners, the Aboriginal custodians, of this land where this gathering is taking place.

Artists responded to this callout:
“Challenge the conventional gender/race/skin colour limitations.
Show your unique gender that otherwise would have been the opposite one. Show both your genders as one or a third one. What if your skin is white but you are black, yellow or red? Show your unique skin colour and racial characteristics.
I show my unique self with a photo, painting, sculpture, sketch, painting, a musical piece, a poem, a performance, dance, with my own style of dressing. Whether it is a re-invention of myself or not, it is a representation or metaphor of my genuine self. A self portrait. All experiments welcome.”Artists challenge the conventional gender/race/skin color limitations.

I show my unique gender that otherwise would have been the opposite one. I show both my genders as one or a third one.

What if my skin looks white but I am black, yellow or red? I show my unique skin color and racial characteristics.

Whether it is a re-invention of myself or not, it is a representation or metaphor of my genuine self. Perhaps an autobiography. A self portrait. so experiments are welcome.

I show my unique self with

Poetry Performance Painting Photography Video Music Improvisation Sculpture Glass Costume InstallationArtists challenge the conventional gender/race/skin color limitations.

I show my unique gender that otherwise would have been the opposite one. I show both my genders as one or a third one.

What if my skin looks white but I am black, yellow or red? I show my unique skin color and racial characteristics.

Whether it is a re-invention of myself or not, it is a representation or metaphor of my genuine self. Perhaps an autobiography. A self portrait. so experiments are welcome.

I show my unique self with

Poetry Performance Painting Photography Video Music Improvisation Sculpture Glass Costume Installation


Invitation images :Flora Mavrommati, Marinos Tattaris, Ben Lang, Blake Kendall, Cassandra Daw,
 Chris Bajic, Ameer Zomorroda, Maritza Noa -Cabrera, Mark Elliot,Anne Marie Kelly

images:Philip Ricketson, Gina Roberts,
Paola Talbert, Anna Mary Wheeler,
Bob Newman, Flora Mavrommati

Poetry Performance Painting Photography Video Music Improvisation Sculpture Glass CosA few words from the curator Flora Mavrommati: A very anticipated show since most artworks are still in progress.  In the majority, the artists’ idea of self, is not separated from the body and the natural/ social environment. Main concerns are the liberation from social stereotypes of body/gender/skin color limitations, the need to respect nature and unite with the individual within, especially in difficult personal times. People’s blurred identity is the one fixed by just seeing one’s skin colour or gender. Ultimately, what really counts is that every individual pays respect for the earth and appreciates the fact of being alive.
While the unique self is part and in unity with the world, is seen in relation with our body as part of nature. The self transforms into a new, third gender,  or connects with the universe, the natural laws and the environment, the land, the Goddess, the spirit, plants and animals and eventually with the creativity within.
You can find more information about the artists and artworks and purchase the catalogue for ‘My Unique Self’ online during or after the completion of the exhibition: http://hermaphroditicreforming.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/my-unique-self-group-show.html

"My Unique Self" , book

 
 
 

 artists in alphabetical order: ADAM HILL AKA BLAK DOUGLAS, ANIMALS’ RIGHT TO DANCE, ANNA MARY WHEELER, ANNE MARIE KELLY, BEN LANG, BLAKE PAUL KENDALL AKA BLAKE-PAUL-BUDDHA, BOB NEWMAN, CAMILLA LAWSON,  CASSANDRA DAW, CHRIS BAJIC, DANIEL CLEGHORN, D’ARCY O’CONNOR, DAVIDA ANNE BACHE, ESTHER LOZANO, FLORA MAVROMMATI, GEOFFREY GOODES, GEORGE ONISIFOROU, GINA ROBERTS, KON STRAFIOTIS, LOU STEER, MARINOS TATTARIS, MARITZA NOA-CABRERA, MARK ELLIOT, MARTIN CHARLES, NICOLE EGGERS, NIKOLA KNEZEVIC, PAOLA TALBERT, PHILIP RICKETSON,PRINCE EMERALD AYDIN AKA AMEER ZOMORRODA, SIMON PEART, TREVOR BROWN, TULA TZORAS, VASILIS MAVROMMATIS, VIVIEN EIME, ZIO LEDEUX


 

Adam Hill aka Blak Douglas (painting) : ..a non- stereotypical appearing person identifies themselves as being Aboriginal (‘what percentage of Aboriginal are you?’ ‘but you don’t look Aboriginal’). ....try this next time - ‘well I’m honoured to meet a descendant of a peoples whom hold a deep seeded spirituality to the very earth I’m standing upon right this very moment’. He has won several awards and his latest solo exhibitions were in 2013 Smellin’ it like it is, Tandanya Adelaide,2012 ONEinFOUR (Dec) Damien Minton Gallery, NSW,2010 Not a proper Aborigine, ‘10yr Survey’ (Sept) Mosman Art Gallery NSW, Caste-ing Call, Harrison Galleries, Paddington (July) NSW, I’m not racist but, Arc One Gallery- Melbourne (March) VIC
Animals’ Right To Dance (Cyprus, music and lyrics) : ‘the  song expresses my feelings about the way we treat our planet. How this affects my life and how I feel about others who destroy the earth without guilt.’ I have a youtube channel,check my music. A kindergarten teacher, children’s parties, puppet theatre, shadow theatre and backlight theatre.
Anna Mary Wheeler (painting), ‘by linking the cow with a human image I am telling my story.I love animals and the cow represents something fun and playful.Bachelor of Fine Arts National Art School. Multiple finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship & Mosman Art Prize
Anne Marie Kelly -England (painting), ‘expresses love, beauty and femininity inspired in Cyprus, Aphrodite`s Island, “The Island of Love”, teeming with ancient artefacts and symbols of fertility’. She has exhibited frequently in both mixed and solo exhibitions, and her paintings exist in many private collections in the UK, Europe, America, the Middle East and Australia.
Ben Lang (video, https://cargocollective.com/benlang, https://vimeo.com/lenbang ), He seeks correlations in structures that perpetuate across scales and contexts, embracing nature as imparting metaphorical and spiritual guidance. 2013 Zelda Stedman Young Student Scholarship Award.2011 University of Sydney Academic Merit Prize. Bachelor of Visual Arts Honours (First Class), Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney
Blake Paul Kendall aka Blake Paul buddha (collage, www.blakepaulkendall.com) : ‘an erotic binary of form...The celebration of the sexualized conceptions of self, where a genderless attraction is caught in the crowds of the face(less)s. I am a gender-nomad, climbing amongst Himalaya steps, desert sands and jungle-thicket...’
Bob Newman (photography, www.notnewman.com): confusion and loathing about materiality Photographer
Camilla Lawson (sculpture , www.camillalawson.com.au , www.messwithit.com.au , ) ‘the work was created in Darwin when a I became a mother. It reflects a crisis of identity and my struggle to allow a new ''self" to emerge in the face of crushing social mores of what a ''mother'' should be and the domesticity that she inhabits.’ From a career in genetic research to art, studying visual arts at Charles Darwin University. Her most recent art ventures are decorations of festivals and music stages and now Camilla runs a collective of artist studios in Marrickville.
Cassandra Daw (sculpture, https://cassandradaw.see.me/ )The artwork of Cassandra Daw explores prehistoric imagery, extinct Australian megafauna and mythological images. Conceptually the work explores the existential nature of bones, how they can reference the absent body and act as a symbolic referential of life, death and the extinction cycle. She holds a doctorate in Fine Arts , SCA
Chris Bajic (sculpture,performance- photography), His work is from a performance, genderless and transformation into nature. Exhibits in Sydney since 1998.Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons), Master of Studio Art, Sydney College of the Arts,Major: Sculpture/Performance/Installation
Daniel Cleghorn -Canada (video), ‘What creates an individual is beyond genetics and gender, but one’s experiences. Mouths subconsciously react to the memory, giving indications of the feeling of the time. Though the stories cannot be heard they can be understood through these abstract gestures.’He has won several awards. 2014 Bachelor of Visual Arts (exchange program) Sydney College of Arts, Sydney, Australia,2013/14 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sculpture (Third year) Alberta
D’ Arcy O’Connor (photo).Painter, poet, rapper. City Desert Black White Chaos Order Fella.  New York City to Outback New South Wales.He invites us to close our eyes...Where the old story can never be told. ....To understand the concept of gravity one only would have to perceive the motion of Mars and the Morning Star.  Where there is no graviton there is magnetism.....  Dreamtime.’
Davida Bache_England (painting,audience participation and performance art). ‘We are a part of this universe and the landscape.. People are always looking down into their phones as they walk..the work invites us to look this way  at the universe and connect in a different way. 2003-2012 Studied Bachelor of Visual Arts Specialisation Painting and Drawing.
Esther Lozano (photography, www.estherlozano.net ). The work is about the creativity of an artist in times of personal turbulence. Photojournalism, documentaries. Her work as a photographer has been developed in the freelance photo journalism field, shooting for a range of magazines, newspapers and websites. Member of collective SOMA, solo and collective exhibitions across Spain. A series of her works is about the female body in modern society.
Flora Mavrommati (photography, www.floramavrommati.com, http://hermaphroditicreforming.blogspot.com.au/)‘A photographic collage of Flora Cypris and flora Australis. The flora take over her body turning her into an endemic species that is both male and female in a ritual of transformation and union with Earth.’ This work is about place and belonging. Flora Mavrommati was born in Cyprus. In 1974, her family forcibly became refugees and internal migrants in their own country. Flora is a permanent resident of planet Earth. She uses universal symbols, Aphrodite’s being the most prominent.
She is the curator of  the show ‘My unique self’. Individual shows in Sydney and Cyprus: ‘Dualities’-2009, ‘Biomorphy’-2012, ‘Bio-Anthropomorphic Symmetries’-2012. Studies :MA of Fine Arts, MA Contemporary Art for Educators (Distinction) at SCA, University of Sydney. Residency at Gernot Bubenik's studio, Berlin,2008, excavations at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite 2012.
Geoffrey Goodes,a wry observation on self-identity’. Life drawer, has participated in many group shows, upcoming solo show 23rd May 2014< Newsagency Gallery.
George Onisiforou (poetry, www.instagram.com/onisiforou ), ‘The writer is undergoing a transformation — from male to female, from human to deity, from mortal to eternal — to find his 'unique' self. The transformation begins through a search , then fatalism, rebirth, and finally the realisation of the other self.’
Gina Roberts (painting) “I am what I eat.” ‘This is my daily ritual that I perform which involves preparing a mix of seeds and nuts and various fruits. It is a ritual I usually perform alone. There have been times when I have shared this ritual. It is something that has developed and evolved over the course of my life….influenced by study of Aboriginal,Bush Tucker art’. Studies in Sculpture, Performance and Installation, painting, printmaking, photography, film and sound at Sydney College of The Arts, international traditional dance studies, Butoh, Japan,as part of Katsura Kan’s company Saltimbanque. Flamenco dancing and singing. Gina has just completed her Graduate Diploma in Education.
 Kon Strafiotis (painting) MA Fine Art s COFA,Solo show at ‘Drawing Room ‘2013, various group shows.  Identification with comic characters from Tin Tin,a return to childhood.
Lou Steer (poetry-performance, painting), www.futuresoftware.com.au/lou/), Lou Steer is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist – painter, sculptor, poet. She is also a founding director of ESP Gallery in Marrickville. Her artwork is known for bold, minimal distorted geometric forms and witty word play.
Marinos Tattaris -Cyprus (video),filmmaker and digital artist born and raised in Cyprus. I studied film and worked for a period of time in New York, Athens Greece.’ His video work is a comment about the many selves we have nowadays when we appear in the media.
Maritza Noa –Cabrera - Peru (costume, photography, dance performance). This work is about my exploration of my indigenous Peruvian ancestry and how    living away from my native land has inspired and made me more aware and proud of who I really am. BVA, Honours, Sydney College of the Arts,  Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts, Meadowbank,TAFE, Sydney
Mark Elliot-New Zealand (glass, performance and improvisation , markeliottglass.com) ...my ‘older self is a light child spirit, beyond identity, beyond gender, beyond age, perhaps even beyond time.’ my self is a proud male inheritor of at least 3.6 billion years of life history on planet Earth.’
Martin Charles (Medius Sociopathis Orstrarrlyan Dominatus Insanitas)'Middle-Class Marty' is a Satirical Musical Portrait about Australians, and explored through the character 'Marty'. A Bourgeois disaster and represents our collective Unconscious. His darkness is the Shadow Self of Western Culture and it's dominating ego. A song from Martin's upcoming EP 'Starseeds'.  Martin Charles is a Poet, Singer and Songwriter. He has been described as the 'Metaphysical Musician with a philosophical subject matter and sweeping classical voice' by the Sydney Street Press SX magazine. 'A Hymn of awesomeness' by 2Ser Radio and 'One of Sydney's most talented Singer Songwriters' by Fbi Radio. www.facebook.com/martincharlesmusic  
Nicole Eggers (painting/drawing) Identity embedded by the artists experience of ‘blossoming’ when  moving  from Germany to Australia  during her childhood and her love for her  dog transform her into a half human half plant/animal.  Masters of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking,College of Fine Arts, U.N.S.W.Bachelor of Fine Arts, Post Technician in Printmaking, Diploma of Fine Arts, National Art School
Nikola Knezevic –Serbia. Outsider artist from Belgrade. His work is ‘an allegory of the successful human struggle. Struggle to become human. Turning undead human back into an ideal. Going through a wall evokes violent, yet comical images. ... ‘  Solo shows :2012 Damien Minton,2009 Bon Marche Studio
Paola Talbert (sculpture,prints, www.paolatalbert.com ), ...’Focuses on the human body interacting with the ‘found’ plastic materials..A quest to highlight the need to draw attention to the calamity of pollution in our global ocean environments, there are four ocean gyres in the world ‘found’ objects from walks along the Cooks River and mostly organic plant litter from public walkways... journeys and observations the artist makes daily- the patterns that are created by the weather and the urban environment.’ Most recent solo 2014 Pelagos (Open Sea) was held at Platform 72. Private and public collections which include Broken Hill Art Gallery, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, State Library of NSW. She lectures photography at University of Sydney. 
Philip Ricketson (song writing, performance, painting), gender identity and animal transformation. Philip will perform during the opening night.
Prince Aydin Emerarl aka Ameer Zomorroda (photography)..dark and personal
themes reflecting and commenting on gender, social, political and family issues, yet
also are cleverly camouflaged by punchy lines, garish icons, and references to art and
popular culture.’ Bachelor of Visual Arts (w/ honours, First Class), Sydney College of the Arts’
Simon Peart (sculpture).Performer, musician, sculptor. He sculpts an inter wining shape on a wood from a laurel tree, an invasive plant in Australia. The work is a metaphor for the artist and his Identity as a European in Australia. I like to work with materials that slowly reveal their form through sustained physical processes. I enjoy the way physical activity stills and occupies the mind allowing imagination to play. Studies in National Art School
Trevor Brown (A temporal and semi-performative work for objects and video.)’ Inspired by the work of Scottish botanist Robert Brown , whose work reveal naturally occurring random vectors later called Brownian Motion , used by Einstein and others to explain stochastic processes.' Associate Lecturer Performance Studies School of Communication RMIT DJ and presenter on Eastside Radio 89.7fm,Mondays 9.30-11
Tula Tzoras (video, http://www.tulatzoras.com/) writer of book The Truth About Acting .Touch ups with Tula’ is Tula's alter ego, superficial, OTT and politically incorrect. Tula accosts celebs with her stylists to the stars and touches them up finding out the nitty gritty. Tula Tzoras is an Actor, Film Maker, Author, Speaker with many credits to her name.
 
Vasilis Mavrommatis-Cyprus (music and lyrics, https://soundcloud.com/vasilis-mavrommatis ) writes about the overcoming of one state to the new more bright side of self.

Vivien Eime (installation, photos and drawings), A poet who went into theatre and then into performance installation work in artist run galleries; satellite bodies in the greater constellation.   In this strange adventure life, we are organic entities involved in energetic transactions within a world made up of 90% dark matter.  It is only 10% of light that makes a difference.’ Studies in Performance, Philosophy of Science and a general staffer at Sydney University culminating in a presentation at Performance Space.

Zio Ledeux (sculpture-object) 'I am very domestic...My artistic interests are to make work in 3D be it costumes , sculpture or installation'. Zio is a master designer in elegant men’s wear.


 

GALLERY:Alpha House Gallery @ Alpha House Artist Cooperative

                  – 226 Union St.,Newtown, just off King Street South.

Opening: Thursday 22nd May 2014, 6-9pm

 Closing: Saturday 31st May 2014, 6-9pm

GALLERY HOURS: Frid. 23rd May 4-8pm, Sat. 24th May 12-6pm,

 Wed. +Thurs.28th-29th May 2-5pm, Frid.30th May 4-8pm, Sat.31st 12-9pm