Pussyland
10 January – 10 February 2012
A series of embellished photographs of ornamental cats that inhabit a kitsch and colourful suburban feline fantasy world. Inspired by the magical home of Phyllis Chambers (1930-2010), Pussyland celebrates the life of an eccentric Cat Lady and dearly departed friend.
Part of the 2012 Midsumma Festival Program.
Nada Polsjki
The Lonely Hearts Column
6 December 2011 – 10 January 2012
The Lonely Hearts Column is a vivid and eccentric portrayal of finding a companion or lover.
The mailbox serves as a vessel storing classified ads from the reclusive gigolo.
Finding love is no longer a private crusade but a public flaunt of ones personal quest to unearth sexual desires and chance upon new friendships.
Owen Hammond
The Wonderful House
1 November – 2 December 2011
I am fascinated with the places in which people live, the shelter they have made for themselves and where they have made it.
I am curious about the circumstances that have dictated their choices, whether it is political, environmental, traditional or accidental.
The construction of the place can be myriad, from leaves to concrete, from cars to crashed aeroplanes. They can be made with love or with madness.
I am intrigued with how people live within their houses. They are full of a multitude of feelings, connections, histories and memories. The material “stuff” contained within can be minimal, functional, wasteful or inseparable from their psyche.
I love to explore the relationship a person has with their house and the larger relationship of that house with the world around it.
Images L-R: Rick’s House, Newton’s House, Cave, 2011. Photography by Rae & Bennett.
Owen Hammond image gallery: HERE
Symon McVilly
Judgement Day? Or Just Bad Weather
10 May – 10 June
Part of NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
Over the past year Symon McVilly’s practice has been principally concerned with the subject of society and its perceived decline, exploring the idea of social entropy as a natural process of civilisation. He questions whether decline is unique to our generation or whether it is a pattern seen throughout history as different societies become aware of the self-destructive nature of humanity.
Scott Lyon
27 September – 28 October 2011
Part of MELBOURNE FRINGE FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Ian MacTilstra
EKNEB
23 August – 23 September 2011
Somewhere between conceptual text-based art, structural poetry, and
inspired by linguistic studies of globalized commodity-based trading
languages in antiquity, exists this experimental project: an attempt
to convey a sense of narrative within such language. That it fails to
do this in any conventional sense of “narrative” is a feature of its
deconstruction of consumerist language, and relating more directly to
what has been termed “social commentary and observation” (Paper Radio,
Melbourne), while being disguised as a poetic exploration of emergent linguistic systems of globalized trade. The shifting dynamic between
the linguistic and the discursive, between the material effects of
language and the meanings it subtends, makes this work both visually
unconventional and semantically compelling.
Melissa Reidy
Birds of Prey
19 July – 19 August 2011
Birds of Prey is a collection of hybrid birds presented in 19 different handmade antique books. Each hybrid creature has been born out of a bird and it’s prey, exploring what happens when two enemies become the same creature. Each creature is displayed on the page of a handmade book, 19 of which will fill the cabinets of Mailbox 141. The series of books will create the feel of looking at an ornithologist’s library and is partly inspired by Neville W Cayley’s, ‘What Bird Is That?’
Melissa Reidy is a Melbourne based artist who works with HB pencils on paper. She has a fascination for creating hybrid creatures in her drawings, taking two or three seperate species and fusing them into one strange creature. Her drawings also feature men’s suits, people in improbable situations and a lot of feathers. Her work has appeared in the Tango comics anthology and her first solo exhibition was held at NineOnSeven in November 2010.
A note to the stallholder
14 June – 15 July 2011
Like postcards home, these drawings capture odd and enchanting encounters from the artist’s travels.
Fleeting impressions of city streets and the familiar gestures of travelling companions are documented in pencil and thread. Strung together they tell stories of people and places.
Installation detail, 2011.
I steal from work and I steal from You Tube
NOW Sally Tape & Candice Cranmer
5 APRIL – 6 MAY 2011
OPENING Tuesday 5 April 5.30pm
NOW is the collaborative practice of Sally Tape and Candice Cranmer.
In the unique Mailbox space, they present a collection of collage and photographs. The artists perceive the space as an apparatus by which to explore and invite voyeuristic pleasure. Tape’s images take the appearance of venetian blinds, allowing partial glimpses. They are composed abstractly using the remnant strips found in the photo-printing machinery of a workplace.
Cranmer’s are directly taken from ‘the funniest falls ever (I think)’, a You Tube collection. Whilst Tape collects, archives and reflects on memory relative to the ‘now’ point in time, Cranmer investigates fulfilled expectation and anticipation. This extends her research into the futile and voyeuristic pleasure of watching people’s slapstick failings on You Tube.
Sarah Blundell
PART B Contemporary Jewellery
1 March – 1 April 2011
CURATOR Dianne Beevers
Jana Roman, Earring + Gray’s Anatomy, 2010
lend me your ears addresses the small site of the ear, in a showcase exhibition of jewellery for the ear supported on ironic postcard works, found, or artist generated. The exhibition installation adopts the suite of 19 original mailboxes converted to deliver engaging artworks at MAILBOX 141, an address resonant with decades of Melbourne’s fashion, design and art associations. The exhibition will changeover midway on 17 March to accommodate two sessions, representing 38 contributing jewellers.
PART B is a recently established (mid 2009) and fluid collective of ‘research jewellery’ artists, from Melbourne’s extensive community of jewellers. Representing emerging and established practitioners animating the field of contemporary jewellery, PART B promotes a lively connectivity for its members and audience, encouraging discourse and engagement in exhibitions and events, looking, writing, technical discussions and making sessions. www.part-b.crimsoncactus.net
MELISSA CAMERON JACQUI CHAN ALI ALEXANDER CHRISTINE SCOTT-YOUNG JUSTIN SIOW KAREN THOMPSON HELEN DILKES JANA ROMAN STEPHEN ROBB
FEMI COPPI REGINA MIDDLETON JUSTINE AUSTEN SUSAN FRISCH CLAIRE MCARDLE PAMELA CHAN JILL HERMANS SARAH BLUNDELL JIN AH JO DIANNE BEEVERS
from 17 March – KARYN NANKIVELL MISAKO SAKAI MARY HACKETT INARI KIURU COCONUT LU JESSICA MORRISON KATHRYN WARDILL ANNIE BROADWAY
JOANNA HARRIS MACNEIL SUSE SCHOLEM LYNN JACOB MICHELLE KELLY LINDY MCSWAN TASSIA JOANNIDES EVA GAITATZIS GILLIAN HILLMAN REBECCA HANNAH
PUNEET JODHKA LUCINDA KNIGHT
lend me your ears ia a participant of the 2011 L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program. 