BETTINA HAMILTON

Chrestomathy

24 April – 25 May

Chrestomathy is a series of composite digital images made up of heroic and majestic landscape photographs and staged portraits from the early 20^th century.
Much of the history of photography has been made up of images that serve as a trophy or treasure – something to bring back from where you’ve been, and as evidence of what you have done. The effect that the availability of free and personal digital images on the Internet has had on this practice is profound.
I have always been of the mind that others’ pictures are far more interesting than those I could take myself. 

Bettina Hamilton’s  practice utilises video installation, photography, appropriation and seriality to explore illusionism and realism, repression and desire.
Hamilton is a current Masters of Fine Art candidate at Monash University.

Innovation Project (Face Value) is an investigative exercise that stems from the opposition of two bank notes – the Zimbabwean One Hundred Trillion Dollar note and the Indian zero rupee note.

Through a range of scenarios, the artist aims to open up dialogue that acts as an alternative discussion surrounding matters of the economy. The notion of face value is explored through a series of found objects, collages, digital imagery, and sculptures.

Lizzy’s practice responds to the social and political conditions of her time. Her work reflects on the social structures we accept and live by as best practice in the Australia and the West.

Lizzy is a current Masters of Fine Art candidate at RMIT University.

http://lizzysampsonart.weebly.com

Metal Detection
Video Still, 2011
Courtesy of the Artist

JOHANNA LEECH

THEY ARE NOT ALBINOS

14 FEBRUARY – 16 MARCH 2012

A kangaroo drying his paws, a pelican statue, pap, a naked nymph, mix and match meat packs, UFOs, skylab, scrotum tobacco pouch, sexy celery, creepy ornaments, weird logos, puppies in windows, teeth grotto, pies, sexy lager, urinating manikins, found hen, interference mitts, big things, old tom, killer whales, and a wombo.

 ’THEY ARE NOT ALBINOS’ is a collection of obscure yet familiar icons, images and stories from across Australia.The exhibition will showcase new drawings created by Irish artist Johanna Leech in response to living and traveling in Australia in 2010 & 2011. These site-specific narratives will take the form of paper, vinyl, wall and window drawings juxtaposed with text. They invite the viewer to decipher their connections as storyline’s merge and emerge. An interactive blog of the project will accompany the project. It invites you to contribute your own stories and will be updated throughout the creation and presentation of the project. 
http://theyarenotalbinos.wordpress.com
http://johannaleech.wordpress.com/

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

 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.

27 September – 28 October 2011

Part of MELBOURNE FRINGE FESTIVAL PROGRAM

IMPACT PRINT SYMPOSIUM

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.