Friday, October 23, 2009

CASHMERE IF YOU CAN / SERIES-3




C.I.U.C. S-3
BLINDSIDE
Level 7, Room 14, Nicholas Building,
37 Swanston Street,
Melbourne, Victoria.

Dates: 5 - 21 Nov 2009

Artists:
KRISTEN PHILLIPS
FEDERICO JONI
JAMIE BOYS

This year's exhibition looked at 15-21 year olds, where the offspring are coming of age, gaining independence and acquiring excessive amounts of wealth. The exhibition also looked at the parallel's associated with the pressures placed on artist's to "make it". Artist's are, of course, not alone on this journey - the pressure to 'be someone' is a major Western narrative and Progress is probably the single most influential idea to be fostered in the West 1. In many ways the journey of the artist is not dissimilar to any other career within a capitalistic context, parallel's the growth of a human from cradle to grave with the cultural initiations that are interspersed at various times throughout life.

Kristen Phillips used the history and significance of objects to form a commentary on familial and social pressures imposed on the young. Her small sculptures are three dimensional collages. Moulds were taken from family antiques as well as everyday objects such as balls and soft furnishings with the resultant wax impressions rearranged, melded and cast in bronze. The mysterious intent that is embedded in the raw physicality of these artful conglomerates is, therefore, not distinguished from that which inheres to the everyday objects we feel compelled to consume. Sitting on plinths like a teenager’s collection of sporting trophies, these pop-rococo works nod to the shifting value of an object and its associated memories over time.


Federico Joni describes his work, Easy Target, as collage installation yet not much gluing takes place and the installation factor is of a provisional kind. The work comprises of cut-outs of heads of celebrities sourced from magazines loosely placed on a shelf. Peppering the glossy surface of the cut-outs are droppings from his budgerigar. The images spent some time accruing their markings whilst in the form of cage litter tray lining, further bird shit embellishments were gleefully orchestrated by the artist. Easy Target can be seen as a meditation on the removed yet often passionate relationships that we form with celebrities and pets alike. Having undergone only slight alteration from being bird cage lining Joni’s work resonates with Massimillano Gioni’s insight that “Collage is a dirty medium, infected as it is by waste” and that it “appropriates residues and leftovers, trafficking with what is deemed to be valueless”2.
Jamie Boys is fascinated with the potential eccentric socialization of people who have inherited masses of wealth and luxurious lifestyles. Boys presented a large, seven sided, cut gem-like structure lined with fake-fur serving as an elaborate mounting device for seven manipulated photos of young people surrounded by a world of wealth in his installation Heir, Heir! The young heirs are depicted with their faces obscured by absurd mask-like compositional elements that allude to the fantasies of haute couture design. What are these fictional rich-kids hiding? Perhaps, their anxieties about being written out of the will or the pressure to remain anonymous in a world perpetually interested in the minutiae of their private lives. Maybe the masks are just blatant displays of excess. Above the main body of the installation a rotating spoon of the proverbial silver variety hangs and directs visual traffic around the contraption lending a low level hum of anxiety to Heir, Heir!
1 Nisbet, Robert. History of the Idea of Progress, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick NJ,1994. p.4.

2 Gioni Massimiliano, "It's Not the Glue That Makes the Collage," in Collage: The Unmonumental Picture, ed. New Museum, Merrell, NY, 2007. p.11.
* Information extracted from Jonas Ropponen's catalogue essay 2009.

THE AGE / 6th NOVEMBER 2009 / EG / THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE / ROHAN TROLLOPE / Pg.3













THE AGE / 6th NOVEMBER 2009 / EG /
THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE / ROHAN TROLLOPE / Pg.3

MELBOURNE'S CITY WEEKLY / 5th NOVEMBER 2009 /
DIARY - WHAT'S ON / GROWING PAINS / KATHRYN KERNOHAN / Pg.8


THE AGE / 4th NOVEMBER 2009 / THE ARTS -
SPACE VISUAL ARTS / PENNY MODRA / Pg.16


CASHMERE IF YOU CAN / SERIES-2





C.I.U.C. S-2
OFF THE KERB
66b Johnston St,
Collingwood, Victoria.

DATES: 12 Sept - 10 Oct 2008

Artists:
FEDERICO JONI
JAMIE BOYS


C.I.U.C. S-2 featured as part of the 2008 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

This year's exhibition explored the behavioral foundations of 8-14 year olds and the power of the new commercial market for "TWEENS" creating and satisfying their every desire. Boys presented affirming slogan t-shirts such as "I'M TOTALLY GORGEOUS" for ten year old girls, to images of Jean Bennet Ramsey, (the child model who's life came to an unjustly end) to extravagant gold chained skipping ropes. Joni on the other hand displayed a collection of make-shift musical instruments constructed from objects and rubbish found around the house such as a shovel, a spirit level, to kids toys, transformed into make-shift guitars. Joni also featured a series of collages depicting elaborate guitars constructed from images such as designer suitcases, security locks and pearls. This year saw the first "Cashmere Sacred Initiation" ceremony where Federico Joni was inducted into the Cashmere collective. (See video below)












MELBOURNE COMMUNITY VOICE / 17th SEPTEMBER /
ART MATTERS - CASHMERE IF YOU CAN S-2 / LUCY ELLIOT / Pg.18

CASHMERE IF YOU CAN / SERIES-1


C.I.U.C. S-1
TCB art inc
Level 1/12 Waratah Place,
Melbourne, Victoria.

DATES: 31 Jan - 18 Feb 2007

Artists:
JAMIE BOYS

The first in the series of 7 exhibitions began as a solo show by Jamie Boys held at TCB Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria. Covering the years from birth to seven, the show explored the embryonic form entering the world as an individual and having to compete with one's self in order to attain the necessary life skills to adapt, survive and maintain a competitive edge. The show featured 7 paintings of babies observing a world of competitive, self-obsessed adults and children striving to win. The babies look on in awe, subconsciously acquiring the knowledge that will assist them later in life. Beneath each painting, plastic dummy's were suspended on gold chains from a collection of kitsch plastic flowers. In the centre of the room a vintage baby carriage was positioned facing a list of "TEN STEPS TO SUCCESS" stenciled on the wall.