I would like to see these exhibitions in Toronto. One of the bonuses of writing a blog is finding other artists that interest me. I admit I am selective; I don't post about every show that I have come across. The following exhibitions display the uncanny and humorous side of life. The exhibitions are available for touring. Information is available online.
The Australian Centre for Photography always has one or two exhibitions that interests me. I highly recommend visiting the site. I have provided information below about the centre.
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PIETER HUGO: NOLLYWOOD
The Nigerian film industry is the third largest film industry in the world, releasing between 500 and 1000 movies every year. Low budget, violent and excessive, most Nollywood productions take just 10 days to make, yet they are wildly popular in the lucrative African VCD market - an average film sells 50,000 copies. Nollywood movies now outsell Hollywood films in Nigeria and many other African countries.
For this series of portraits, Pieter Hugo collaborated with Nollywood actors to recreate the stereotypical scenarios that characterise their productions. His assortment of characters includes mummies, satanic demons and decomposing corpses, casually posing in the backlots of Enugu. With an eye for the absurd, he pays tribute to a unique industry that has stood up to the giants of the entertainment industry and come out on top.
Accompanying this exhibition will be a selection of Nollywood movie trailers in Gallery 2.
Images courtesy of Michael Stevenson, Cape Town and Yossi Milo, New York
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THE CHRISTMAS TREE BUCKET: TRENT PARKE'S FAMILY ALBUM
"It was there - while staring into that bright red bucket, vomiting every hour on the hour for fifteen hours straight - that I started to think how strange families, suburbia, life, vomit and, in particular, Christmas really was..." Trent Parke
So began Trent Parke's latest and much-anticipated new body of work. The Christmas Tree Bucket is humour of the blackest hue. In a dazzling display of virtuoso storytelling Parke snaps the family rituals of Christmas with the in-laws and builds a gritty gothic tale of a nightmare lurking in the suburban shadows. Operatic in its vision and darkly satirical in its style, The Christmas Tree Bucket is a photographic masterpiece destined for cult status. World premiere.
Trent Parke is represented by Magnum Photos, London, and Stills Gallery, Sydney
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GLENN SLOGGETT: CHEAPER AND DEEPER
There is a dark and off-colour humour at work in Glenn Sloggett's photographs of suburban Australia. Devoid of people, we read the signs and traces of suburban life in his images of dereliction, failed aspiration and abject domesticity. However, these are not pictures of disgust, but a sort of affection. He articulates that quintessential Australian trait, the ability to find the last glimmer of optimism in the midst of inevitable failure.
Glenn Sloggett's offbeat humour and uniquely Australian take on life are sure to be a hit with audiences across the country.
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The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) is the country's leading arts centre for the exhibition and publication of, and education in photo-based practice. It is also the longest running contemporary art space in Australia, with over 35 years of exhibiting experience.
ACP exhibitions have played an important role in identifying and promoting the major artists of Australian photography as well as supporting new practitioners who have, over time, become mainstream national figures. The ACP initiated the first major retrospectives of work by photographers such as Max Dupain, Olive Cotton and Merv Bishop, and organised the early public displays of photographs by Bill Henson, Tracey Moffatt, William Yang and Trent Parke. The Centre has also presented works by international photo-artists such as Bernd & Hilla Becher, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Larry Clark, Joan Fontcuberta, Nan Goldin, Roni Horn, George Platt Lynes, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Duane Michals, Pierre Molinier, Erwin Olaf, Martin Parr, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans and William Wegman.
Increasingly new media have become another focus for the centre. These technologies have not only transformed the commercial photographic industry, but have contributed to a total redefinition of 'the photographic' and the relationship of art and popular culture. The ACP sees its role as facilitating the development of a vocabulary to understand the impact and potential of these technological and cultural changes and to engage the public through both exhibition and education programs.
The ACP is committed to showing Australian photomedia art alongside international work. It also promotes Australian photography overseas through exhibition and artist exchanges, publication and advocacy of Australian work to foreign curators. Touring exhibitions generated by the ACP have travelled to North America, Europe and South and East Asia. The bulk of the Centre's touring exhibitions, however, are shown in regional art galleries, contemporary art spaces, libraries and community venues all over Australia and in New Zealand.
In 1983 the Australian Centre for Photography launched Photofile - Australia's first publicly funded journal of photography. The publication is a vehicle for national debate and new writing around photography. Photofile has developed into a significant Australian magazine with both national and international content. It remains Australia's leading photomedia art magazine. Photofile is published three times a year. It provides representation, promotion and analysis of current practices in Australian photomedia art, ranging from documentary through to new digital technologies and including non-narrative film, video and computer-based work. Coverage is structured around provocative articles, portfolios of artists' work, short opinion pieces and reviews. Photofile is committed to critical writing that is historically and theoretically informed, presented in a stimulating and accessible way.
The Australian Centre for Photography also publishes catalogues and guides for many of its exhibitions. In 2002 it published Photographica Australis, a catalogue surveying the work of 18 Australian photomedia artists to accompany an exhibition of the same name shown at Sala de Exposiciones del Canal de Isabel II, Madrid for ARCO and subsequently touring. In 2003 the book was reformatted for an Asian market to accompany a revised version of the exhibition which, over the next two years, toured to the National Gallery of Thailand, Singapore Art Museum, 11th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
The ACP is a not-for-profit organisation, funded jointly by the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body, and Arts New South Wales. Since 2004 it has also been in receipt of a major new grant under the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (a joint Federal, State and Territory initiative) recognising its leading role and international reputation. The ACP earns half of its own revenue from non-government sources.
257 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW 2021
http://www.acp.org.au/
