Radical Individualism | Callum Morton: In Memoriam | Heide Museum of Modern Art | Melbourne

Text by Emily Bour

“This isn't the right place, why are we at a funeral home?” To have driven the 30 minutes to go to visit Callum Morton: In Memoriam at the iconic Heide Museum of Modern Art, I must admit slight frustration when confronted with the imposing 'Le Pine Funerals' sign at our arrival. This was, of course, our first taste of Melbourne artist, Morton's, part site-specific project, part mid-career survey show. Drawing upon almost 20 years of Morton’s work, and also presenting a number of exciting new projects, including Monument #25: Vortex, a glass-fronted shop constructed by the artist onsite, In Memoriam certainly lives up to expectation.

The less than welcoming mock replica sculpture In the Pines (2008) is a work that must be taken with a pinch of salt. Drawing on the history of the affectionately termed Heide, Morton plays with the idea of the historical sight as a “tragic and haunted place, or a repository for a series of ghost stories.” Humour is an appropriate drawcard here, especially when many of the works (including installations, scaled models and photographic prints), quite literally, re-construct a heavy architecture of our past.

The forty-five year old, Canadian-born and Melbourne-raised Morton is the son of an architect. His works reflect a thorough understanding of built space, evidenced by the accuracy and immaculate constructions of his models. Nestled in one of the darkened rooms separated by custom built walls copying the architecture of the Heide II, we find International Style (2009). We see a model replica of the famous Farnsworth House by modernist giant, Mies Van Der Rohe, and signs of a party are clear. A soundtrack of chatter and music, and the sight of colourful lights behind the drawn curtains of a house so renowned for its transparency of living point to this, until the sound of a gunshot is heard, followed by screams. The injection of narrative here is mirrored in a smaller, more primitive maquette of a shack by Le Corbusier. Cabanon and on and on (2002-3) depicts the home where the architect passed away from a heart attack. When peering into the cut-out house, the significant architect's personal history is referenced by a seductive plasma globe which alights with the sound of a quickening heartbeat, until it flatlines and all goes dark.

Morton’s work often requires the visitor to look twice In contrast to the immaculate models elsewhere in the show, I'm thrown by Monument #26: Settlement (2010). A crudely constructed cardboard box, covered with vivid tarpaulin that is all held together with orange string and tape - an aesthetic that seems out of place. The placard for the work lists materials of; epoxy resin and polystyrene, all anomalies considering its appearance. But of course, it is a counterfeit. With the same awe normally reserved for copied luxury brands, you can't help but go back to it, and admire the paint job.

This kind of double-take is less apparent in what seems like the more decorative, and therefore collectable, Screens series, which Morton has developed over the years. A gallery goer fittingly points to one of the mirrored screens with cut-outs, and states that this room is her favourite, because she can see her reflection and a photo here would look good on her Facebook profile. Of course I have to laugh, but really, it is admirable that Morton's work reaches out to such a diverse audience; one that would be willing to travel for the art.

This kind of radical individualism, so definitive of our contemporaneity, stands in sharp contrast to the ideological optimism of post-war modernism in architecture. New materials and processes conjoined to the idea that design could change the world for the better. Government constructed public housing represented an attempt at improving social welfare, ideals that Morton says he is “reconditioning” rather than abusing.

It may not be abuse, but it's definitely calling out a message for change, somewhat like the soundtrack attached to the 1:34 scale replica commissioned apartment, Gas and Fuel (2010) where a child begs: “Help me, help me.”

Callum Morton: In Memoriam, continues until 16 October.

heide.com.au

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Image:
Courtesy of the artist, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

Spires and Squires | FLOW | Oxford Canal.

In 2008, the Department for Culture Media and Sport announced the Cultural Olympiad. A four year programme of cultural activity, it includes national and local projects as part of a UK-wide cultural festival. There has already been a lot of noise about the project from both sides. There’s the party-line suggesting that the Cultural Olympiad is a unique proposition, tracing a seamless path between sport, education and culture, and then the dissenters who are asking the age-old question – who is paying for it? What are the benefits in real terms?

With any project of this scale, it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly the Cultural Olympiad is. However, it’s certainly ambitious. Part of the programme, FLOW, Northamptonshire’s lead project, will deliver a series of new site specific artworks that explore and respond to the journey of water through the country focusing on different aspects of the country’s waterways, from its major canals and rivers, to its iconic water towers and reservoirs.

The rhetoric is hard to keep up with at times, but the works speak for themselves. Opening tomorrow, August 18, is a major commission by environmental artist Steve Messam. This work, entitled Seven Spires, sees seven 4-metre high red spires installed in the Oxford Canal on the approach to the Grand Union Canal junction and the historic narrow boating village of Braunston. Exploring both the county’s relationship to its canal network and its long standing reputation for being the county of spires and squires, Seven Spires uses solar technology and LED lighting to transform the landscape.

Seven Spires and 84 Spires, by Steve Messam, can be seen 18-29 August as part of FLOW, a countywide series of new site specific artworks set in Northamptonshire’s rivers, canals and waterways. FLOW is part of the Igniting Ambition Festival 2011 and UK Cultural Olympiad.

flow-northamptonshire.com
london2012.com

Image:
Courtesy the artist

Construction | Destruction | Nostalgia | Memory of a Hope | Ceri Hand Gallery | Liverpool

Text by Kenn Taylor

Devised with gallery artist Matthew Houlding, this exhibition at Ceri Hand Gallery draws on a key text by Henri Lefebvre and the autobiographical writing of JG Ballard, reflecting spaces caught between construction, destruction and nostalgia. Each gallery artist was invited to select two artists in response to Houlding’s concept. The resulting exhibition includes 36 artists and over 100 art works, including film, photography, painting, sculpture, text and audio work – much of it seen for the first time in the UK.

The resulting group show, Memory of a Hope, is crammed and complex, meaning the level of dialogue allowed between pieces varies. The highlight of the show, Geraint Evans’ Homebase (2011), selected by Mel Brimfield, is a vivid portrayal of a log cabin display in the corner of a DIY store. Commenting on the concept of the ‘take-home’ aesthetic, Evans’ depiction of a collapsed corner of the cabin’s flimsy picket fence and the shop’s grim utility, lays bare the facile nature of this idealised way of living.

Curious in its technique and vision is Kim Rugg’s This is War Kid (2008) a comic book carefully cut up and re-assembled as a fractured, multi-textured work that is almost sculpture. Also of note is Mary Griffiths’ Where Few Dwelled (2010/2011) series, a collection of detailed graphite on paper works, formed from interlinked patterns and shapes, which moodily recall the infinite world of space and physics. A highlight is Riccardo Baruzzi’s B_2134567 (2011). Apparently a screen grab from the head-up display of a military aircraft after its weapons have hit their target, the materials are shaped into a stark 3D topography that could be a representation of the landscape that is being devastated. Its content, form and colour are all riveting.

Oddly compelling is Tessa Power’s A Happy Death (2011) a 16mm celluloid film work across three separate CRT monitors of a horse, on each monitor red, blue and green respectively, collapsing, dying and then getting back up. Another work fascinating in its detail and technique is Elizabeth Rowe’s Rock Walks and Nail House (both 2011) made from newspaper sheets obliterated and enhanced by colour and patternation, a complex and intense re-appropriation of a mass media product.

Memory of a Hope is an interesting curatorial experiment which has created a varied and interesting show that has managed, just, not to be overwhelming, in this compact space.

Memory of a Hope continues at Ceri Hand until 3 September.

cerihand.co.uk

Aesthetica Magazine
We hope you enjoy reading the Aesthetica Blog, if you want to explore more of the best in contemporary arts and culture you should read us in print too. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Image:
Courtesy Ceri Hand Gallery
Photography by Helen Palmer