Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Reciprocal Interference: a collaborative art project by Carol Archer with Mary Grehan, Even Mak, Sue Rawlinson, Sue Taylor and Johanna Trainor



Catalogue

Picture 1
Reciprocal Interference: Mary Grehan and Carol Archer 1
, 2007
Collection of Janet Murchie


Picture 2
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 1, 2006
Collection of Janet Donald



Picture 3
Reciprocal Interference: Even Mak and Carol Archer 1, 2008
Picture 4
Reciprocal Interference: Johanna Trainor and Carol Archer 1, 2008
Collection of Janet Murchie



Picture 5
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 1, 2006


Picture 6
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 2, 2006


Picture 7
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 2, 2006
Collection of Janet Donald

Picture 8
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 3, 2006
Picture 9
Reciprocal Interference: Johanna Trainor and Carol Archer 2, 2007
Collection of Terese and Jonti Lambourne


Picture 10
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 3, 2007


Picture 11
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 4, 2006
Collection of Johanna Trainor

Picture 12
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 5, 2006



Picture 13
Reciprocal Interference: Mary Grehan and Carol Archer 2, 2007
Picture 14
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 6, 2006

Picture 15
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 7, 2006


Picture 16
Reciprocal Interference: Mary Grehan and Carol Archer 3, 2008



Picture 17
Reciprocal Interference: Even Mak and Carol Archer 2, 2008



Picture 18
Reciprocal Interference: Mary Grehan and Carol Archer 4, 2007
Picture 19
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 4, 2006


Picture 20
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 5, 2007


Picture 21
Reciprocal Interference: Even Mak and Carol Archer 3, 2008


Picture 22
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 6, 2006
Collection: Magdaline Shenton-Kaleido


Picture 23
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 8, 2006

Picture 24
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Taylor and Carol Archer 7, 2006


Picture 25
Reciprocal Interference: Sue Rawlinson and Carol Archer 9, 2006


Picture 26
Reciprocal Interference: Johanna Trainor and Carol Archer 3, 2008


Picture 27
Reciprocal Interference: Johanna Trainor and Carol Archer 4, 2008


Picture 28
Reciprocal Interference: Mary Grehan and Carol Archer 5, 2007

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Reciprocal Interference Project: Collaborations opens at Newcastle’s Podspace Gallery on Thursday 17 July, 2008.

Images from left to right: Carol Archer and Sue Rawlinson (mixed media on paper), Carol Archer and Mary Grehan(mixed media and moth's wing on paper), Carol Archer and Johanna Trainor (watercolour and photomedia), Carol Archer and Even Mak (acrylic on paper), Carol Archer and Sue Taylor (mixed media on paper) , all A4 sized. To look at the evolution of each collaboration, and works in various stages of their progress, go to www.rawlinsonarcher.blogspot.com, www.grehanarcher.blogspot.com, www.trainorarcher.blogspot.com, www.makarcher.blogspot.com, www.taylorarcher.blogspot.com

Reciprocal Interference Project: Collaborations opens at Newcastle’s Podspace Gallery on Thursday 17 July, 2008. Each piece in the exhibition is by Hong Kong-based artist Carol Archer and one other artist: Sue Rawlinson (Bondi), Sue Taylor (Canberra), Johanna Trainor (Newcastle), Mary Grehan (Ireland), Even Mak (Hong Kong). The first of these collaborations began in 2005, the others in 2006. Packages of works-in-progress have been bouncing back and forth ever since. No written instructions or descriptions arrive with the pictures – the conversation proceeds by means of the visual language in the works.

Reciprocal Interference? The phrase comes from Henri Bergson’s essay on laughter. When “two altogether independent series of events” come together, it may generate a comic effect, “the precise formula of which is very difficult to disentangle, by reason of the extraordinary variety of forms in which it appears”. Like the ingredients of a good joke, the works in the Reciprocal Interference Project are extremely diverse and could not have been predicted by their makers. Two artistic sensibilities meet in each work. Each picture results from a challenge posed by one artist and an answering visual intervention by the other. Process is important: these pictures could not have come into existence in any other way. A series of blogs, each highlighting the work-in-progress of a particular collaboration forms the virtual component of the project. Specific blog addresses are listed to the right of your screen.

The exhibition ends on Saturday 2 August.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

5 collaborations, 5 works


Sue Taylor and Carol Archer, 2007,
mixed media on paper, 30 x 21 cm



Johanna Trainor and Carol Archer
photomedia, 30 x 21 cm, 2008



Suzanne Rawlinson and Carol Archer,
mixed media on paper, 30 x 21 cm, 2005



Mary Grehan and Carol Archer, 2007
mixed media and moth's wing on paper,
30 x 21 cm




Even Mak and Carol Archer, 2006
mixed media on paper, 30 x 21 cm
You are warmly invited to the opening of
Reciprocal Interference Project – collaborative works on paper
by
Carol Archer (HK), Mary Grehan (Waterford, Ireland), Even Mak(HK), Sue Rawlinson (Sydney, Australia), Sue Taylor (Googong, Australia) and Johanna Trainor (Newcastle, Australia)
on
Thursday 17 July - 6-8pm
at
Podspace, 1st floor, 3/231 King St, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Gallery opening times: Wednesday-Saturday 12pm – 5pm

Exhibition runs Wednesday 15 July until Saturday 1 August

Saturday, April 19, 2008

From Maria Lind, "The Collaborative Turn"

"Groups of artists, circles, associations, networks, constellations, partnerships, alliances, coalitions, contexts and teamwork- are all notions buzzing in the air of the artworld. However, cooperation in the art context is by no means new. On the contrary, its genealogy is long and complex, and includes a number of different formats for organising artistic work and its aesthetics. It extends from Rubens and other Baroque artists' hierarchical large-scale studios, which were lucrative businesses, to Surrealists' group experiments, constructivists' theatre projects, Fluxus games and Andy Warhol's pseudo-industrial Factory. It also has been argued that collaboration was crucial in the transition from Modernism to postmodernism, particularly since the advent of Conceptualism in the late 1960s. During the following decade, redefinitions of art tended to go hand in hand with collaborative practices." (16)

"Concepts like collaboration, cooperation, collective action, relationality and participation are used and often confused, although each of them has its own specific connotations. According to the collaboratively-compiled Wikipedia, however, collaboration can be described as follows: 'Collaboration refers abstractly to all processes wherein people work together- applying both to the work of individuals as well as larger collectives and societies. As an intrinsic aspect of human society, the term is used in many varying contexts such as science, art, education, and business.'
'Collaboration' is, as the above definition suggests, an open-ended concept, which in principle encompasses all the others. Collaboration becomes an umbrella term for the diverse working methods that require more than one participant. 'Cooperation', on the other hand, emphasises the notion of working together and mutually benefiting from it. Through its stress on solidarity, the word 'collective' gives an echo of working forms within a socialist social system. 'Collective action' refers precisely to acting together while 'interaction' can mean that several people interact with each other as well as that a single individual interacts with, for example, an apparatus by pressing a button. 'Participation' is more widely associated with the creation of a context in which particpants can take part in something that someone else has created but wherethere are, nevertheless, opportunities to have an impact" (17) .

"...But the result then? Does it make any differecne if diverse forms of artistic collaboration lie behind an artwork or another kind of cultural production? Is collaboration a 'better' method which produces 'better' results? The curatorial collective What, How and For Whom has a clear explanation for choosing collaboration as a method: the motivation to collaborate is that it would otherwise not take place;it simply has to make possible that which is otherwise impossible" (29).

Maria Lind, "The Collaborative Turn" in Johanna Billing, Maria Lind and Lars Nilsson (eds), Taking the Matter into Common Hands: On Contemporary Art and Collaborative Practices . London: Black Dog Publishing. 2007.