2014 YEAR IN REVIEW

2014 was an ambitious year for UTS ART with real advances made towards broadening engagement across our programs. As UTS continues to expand and meet the needs of a dynamic tertiary landscape, UTS ART is committed to presenting programs that highlight innovation and diversity, and support a creative learning environment.

Our exhibition program at UTS Gallery was curatorially strong and reached new audiences. Through the support of our many new partners and collaborators, new work by more than fifty talented artists was presented. An estimated 21,000 gallery visitors enjoyed diverse artistic programs including an Artist in Residency, thought-provoking public programs and engaging Education & Outreach activities. We continued to benefit from the insight and advice provided by independent art consultant Barbara Flynn on the Public Art Strategy and made key collection acquisitions to enhance new public spaces developed through the Campus Master Plan. Our activity in 2014 was underscored by the successful rollout of a newly designed UTS ART website and suite of print collateral to enhance the face of our public engagement.

HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

We staged eight exhibitions at UTS Gallery in 2014, including an ambitious offsite project which activated the abandoned rail tunnel behind the Peter Johnson building at the foot of the Goods Line South. This major installation by 2014 Artist-in-Residence Ian Burns was visited by 3000 people over the exhibition’s nine day duration. This event attracted new audiences and excellent media coverage across radio, print and online.

Other exhibition highlights included Joonba Junba Juju: Song and Dance Cycles of the Kimberley which saw UTS ART work in collaboration with Jumbunna IHL and four remote Kimberley art centres, and gave rare insight into the cultural practices of the region.

UTS Gallery continued to support the development of innovative creative practice with solo presentations by Izabela Pluta, Paul Greedy and duo Michele Barker and Anna Munster. Group exhibitions far and wide: Narrative into Idea and Sideshow explored complex concepts about the presentation and dissemination of images, stories and ideas. These exhibitions attracted diverse audiences and media coverage and were complemented by well-attended public events and engagement programs. In December, UTS Gallery hosted the inaugural Honours exhibition for graduating students from the Photography and Situated Media undergraduate degree. Our Education and Outreach program was recognised for its innovation and impact in the 2014 IMAGINE Awards, hosted by Museums and Galleries NSW, and received a Highly Commended for workshops delivered in collaboration with Jumbunna and Sydney Story Factory. The Outreach program continued in its aim to produce progressive educational resources and

2014 YEAR IN REVIEW

Previous page: Installation view, évasion. Photo by David Lawrey

workshops, particularly targeting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage aspiration to tertiary study, and in 2014, nearly 500 people benefited from this program.

The UTS Art Collection was in high circulation in 2014, with the opening of three major buildings. Positive consultation with staff, architects, project teams particularly for the Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building, the Faculty of Science and the Graduate School of Health were ongoing. UTS ART engaged Banyan Wood Design to produce a robust and innovative display system for UTS’ unique collection of Leonardo da Vinci models, to be unveiled in the FEIT building in 2015.

We acquired six new works by Australian artists to complement the strengths of the collection, including works by Jude Rae, Daniel von Sturmer and Robyn Stacey. We received generous donations valued at over $180,000 via the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program from long-term patron Patrick Corrigan, Su-Ming Wong and Craig Edwards.

UTS ART made important progress in 2014 for securing recognition for the value and significance of the UTS Art Collection. Former UTS Curator Tony Geddes submitted a Significance Assessment to the Australian Government’s Community Heritage Grants program to register the national significance of the UTS Art Collection. This project will remain a priority for 2015.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, warm thanks to the more than fifty artists who contributed to a successful year of outstanding exhibitions at UTS Gallery. Thanks must also go to Patrick Corrigan, whose long-term commitment and support are much appreciated. I’d like to thank Mark Lillis and the UTS Senior

Executive Management team for their support, and time and counsel provided by the Art Advisory Committee, particularly to committee chair Luca Belgiorno-Nettis.

We received valuable support for our gallery and engagement activities, both financial and in-kind, from a generous group of sponsors in 2014. The Widening Participating Strategy is assisted by the Australian Government through funding from the Higher Education and Participation Partnerships Program. We also benefited from support to our program by the Australia Council for the Arts, City of Sydney, the Ministry for the Arts and DCA Western Australia. Our external partners included Bunnings Alexandria, Sydney Trains, RailCorp and Wembly House Pty Ltd, UAMA and Art Month Sydney. Our internal engagement partners included Marketing and Communications Unit, the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences and Design, Architecture and the Built Environment, ActivateUTS, UTS Library and project management teams across the Campus Masterplan.

In 2014 we welcomed Eleanor Zeichner to the team as Assistant Curator (Gallery) and I take this opportunity to acknowledge and personally thank Holly Williams for her significant contribution made over five years. I’d also like to thank dynamic UTS ART team for their hard work this year: Janet Ollevou (Assistant Curator, Collection) Alice McAuliffe (Education and Outreach Co-ordinator), and the support of Felicity Sheehan and Anita Marosszeky.

Thank you again to the many artists, guest curators, lenders, visitors and partners as well as students and staff of UTS who were involved in our 2014 program and who help us to build a vibrant community.

TANIA CREIGHTON

TOO MUCH IS REAL 5 March - 6 April 2014

Inventive New York-based Australian artist, Ian Burns was UTS Gallery’s 2014 Artist-in-Residence. He creates curious and playful kinetic assemblages that combine mass-produced domestic objects with customised electronics. His first solo in Sydney Too Much is Real brought together recent kinetic light sculptures alongside new works which explored design’s aesthetics of denial.

Over ten weeks, Burns took over the gallery, developing the exhibition and the site-specific project Extended Stage for the tunnel at the end of The Goods Line South just behind the gallery.

Participants:Ian Burns

Public Programs:Artist Talk Monday 24th MarchArtMonth Open Studio Thursday 6th March

Press Highlights:“The melancholy poetry of machines”, Gail Priest, RealTime, Issue 121,June/July 2014

Strategic Relationships:ArtMonth Sydney

Image: Ian Burns, Too Much is Real, installation view. Photo by David Lawrey

UTS GALLERY 2014 PROGRAM

EXTENDED STAGE(off site installation)8 April – 17 April

Extended Stage was a off-site installation produced by Ian Burns during his artist residency and solo exhibition Too Much is Real. This new body of work was developed especially for The Goods Line South Tunnel and its 1853 sandstone bridge.

Intertwining unexpected phenomena with a wry mix of new media and nostalgia, the project drew on the atmosphere and history of this overlooked site. This project was made possible through support from Patrick Woods, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources).

Participants:Ian Burns

Public Programs:Artist Talk with Ian Burns, Monday 24th MarchArtMonth Open Studio with Ian Burns, Thursday 6th March

Strategic Relationships:City of Sydney, Bunnings Alexandria, Sydney Trains, RailCorp and Wembly House Pty Ltd

Press Highlights:Das Platforms, Nick Garner, April 2014“Tunnel vision makes all the underworld a stage”, Sydney Morning Herald, Joel Meares, 9 April 2014‘Exhibition inside historic rail tunnel’, ABC Radio 702 Sydney, Mornings with Linda Mottram, April 2014‘Ultimo tunnel hosts artexhibition’, Sydney Morning Herald, Belinda Kontominas, 9 April 2014

Image: Ian Burns, Extended Stage, installation view. Photo by Alex Davies.

JOONBA JUNBA JUJU29 April – 23 May

Joonba, junba and juju are three names from Kimberley Aboriginal languages for a specific form of performance driven by narrative. Bringing together different countries and language groups from across the Kimberley, Joonba, Junba, Juju was exhibition focused on the power of material objects made and used for these song and dance cycles, complemented by digital media presentations of these performances.

This exhibition was one in a series by an alliance of four leading Aboriginal-owned art centres in the Kimberley, Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, Mowanjum Arts and Culture Centre, Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Warmun Art Centre, working together as Kimberley Aboriginal Artists (KAA).

Participants:Kimberley Aboriginal Artists (KAA): Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, Mowanjum Arts and Culture Centre, Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Warmun Art Centre.

Strategic Relationships:Department of Culture and the Arts, Western Australia; Federal Government through the Ministry for the Arts; UTS Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning

Publication:Accompanied by an A5 exhibition catalogue.Public Program:Opening launch performances by senior Gija singer Phyllis Thomas, accompanied by Shirley Drill (Gija), Gabriel Nodea (Gija) and Chris Griffiths (Miriwoong). KAA also invited Richard Green (Darug), Matthew Doyle (Muruwari) and Clarence Slockee (Bundjalung) to perform.

Image: Installation view. Photo by David Lawrey.

BLUE DISTANCE3 June – 4 July

Blue Distance explored the disparity between spatial and temporal experience by looking at the prefabricated ruin as a catalyst for the psychological resonances implicit in architectural follies and eye-catchers of classical structures.

The exhibition highlighted the ways in which Izabela Pluta adopts different mediums and diverse forms of imagery which relate to and overlap each other in tradition, function and materiality.

This eclectic collection of works connoted her conceptual interest in serendipitous encounters, the effects of time and how the photographic image operates as a vehicle for witnessing various states of ruin.

Participants:Izabela Pluta

Press Highlights:“Preview: Izabela Pluta”, Art Guide Australia, Toby Fehily, 2 May 2014“Artist in conversation: Izabela Pluta”, Try Hard Magazine, Andrew Yip, Issue 4 2014

Publication:Accompanied by am A5 print exhibition catalogue with essay by Andrew Frost.

Strategic Relationships:Australia Council for the Arts

Image: Izabela Pluta, Blue Distance. Install photo David Lawrey.

PRESSURE VESSEL29 July – 29 August

Paul Greedy’s Pressure Vessel was an audio installation that explored the dynamics of sound propagation in architectural space.

By mapping the gallery’s resonances, modes and dominant frequencies Greedy created instruments tailored to the particular acoustic qualities of the gallery.

Ultrasonic rangefinders tracked a viewer’s movements through the gallery, activating sets of instruments that correspond to their locations.

The viewer became both audience and performer, activating and embodying the experience of its characteristic resonances.

Participants: Paul Greedy

Strategic Relationships: Australia Council for the Arts

Online Education Resource:Video: Paul Greedy speaks about his work ‘Pressure Vessel’https://vimeo.com/113457984Video:In the studio with Paul Greedy https://vimeo.com/113457770

Image: Paul Greedy, Pressure Vessel. Photo by David Lawrey

FAR AND WIDE: NARRATIVE INTO IDEA9 September – 10 October

far and wide: Narrative into Idea explored the relationship between narrative and conceptual thinking in the work of five Australian artists. Drawn to the momentum associated with any story, these artists use forms such as oral history, sign writing, the open letter and the diorama to devise and set in train processes that harness and extend the narratives they are working with.

The exhibition considersed how they produce a heightened awareness of their thought processes at the same time as creating work that anticipates viewers’ own narratives.

Participants: Barbara Campbell, George Egerton-Warburton, Michael Lindeman, Alex Martinis Roe and Tom Nicholson. Curated by Jasmin Stephens.

Public Programs:Curator talks, 11th September & 13th September 2014

Press Highlights: “Far and wide: Narrative into Idea”, The Art Life, Stella Rosa McDonald, 13 September 2014

Publication:A5 exhibition guide with essay by Jasmin Stephens

Image: George Egerton-Warburton, far and wide. Installation view, David Lawrey.

évasion28 October – 28 November

évasion was a multichannel moving image and responsive audio installation exploring contemporary and historical cultures and practices of illusionism.

An escape artist seems to be breaking free from a straightjacket but the installation ‘traps’ him and the audience within its 8 channels of endlessly unfolding yet responsive performance.

Drawing inspiration from pre-cinematographic devices such as the praxinoscope and zoetrope, they reworked the footage so as to reposition the way we think about vision and movement in both perception and media.

Participants: Michele Barker and Anna Munster

Public Programs: In Conversation: Isobel Parker Philip, Michele Barker & Anna Munster, with Megan Heyward. A discussion on their shared themes: escape, reveal and the power of suggestion in historical and contemporary spectacle. Wednesday 19th November 2014.

Image: évasion, installation view. Photo by David Lawrey.

Publication:A5 exhibition guide with essay by Lone Bertelsen

Press Highlights:“The art of evasion”, (radio interview), 2ser, 7 October 2014“Review: evasion and Sideshow”, RAVEN Contemporary, Chloe Wolifson, 5 November 2014

Strategic Partnerships:Australia Council for the Arts

SIDESHOW28 October – 28 November

Sideshow adopted the spatial logic of the circus sideshow as an allegorical blueprint for exhibition display. Popular from the 1850s until the mid 20th century, circus sideshows situated each individual ‘exhibit’ within a makeshift tent structure. The architectural logic of these self-enclosed spaces exploited the tension between concealment and revelation.

Sideshow re-staged the exchange between the unseen and the exposed. A series of micro-exhibitions are contained within freestanding tents erected in the gallery. In these partitioned and screened spaces the body becomes a curiosity and the object becomes a performative agent.

Participants: Pat Brassington, David Capra, Christopher Day, Charles Dennington, Heath Franco, Andrew Hazewinkel, Matthew Hopkins, Emily Hunt, Anna John, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Polixeni Papapetrou, Sarah Parker, Tom Polo. Curated by Isobel Parker Philip.

Public Programs:In Conversation: Isobel Parker Philip, Michele Barker & Anna Munster, with Megan Heyward. Image: Andrew Hazewinkel, Sideshow installation view.

Photo by David Lawrey.

Publication:Letterpress poster designed by Daryl Prondoso with essay by Isobel Parker Philip.

Press Highlights:Interview with Isobel Parker Philip, Canvas, FBi Radio, 26 October 2014“Review: evasion and Sideshow”, RAVEN Contemporary, Chloe Wolifson, 5 November 2014“Sideshow”, The Art Life, Sharne Wolff, 7 November 2014

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

In 2014, UTS ART Education and Outreach programs benefitted from additional funding from the Widening Participation Strategy (WPS) that began in 2013. This WPS funding combined with continued funding from UTS enabled a greater number of events and strong student participation in the program.

The goals of the program—to encourage aspiration to tertiary education in Low Socio Economic Status (LSES) and Indigenous students and to create positive links between UTS, UTS ART and the local community—were sustained in 2014.

In 2014, 495 people took part in the Education and Outreach program across 35 different events. Participants included students from UTS coursework, UTS

Insearch, Ultimo TAFE and Eora TAFE as well as Shanghai University, 11 individual high schools from south-west Sydney, students from concurrent WPS programs from across UTS and teachers from WPS schools. Programs were extended to local primary schools and communities to ensure the sustainability of the program.

Primary and LSES secondary schools were invited to participate in hands-on workshops connected with four UTS Gallery exhibitions throughout the year- Too Much is Real, Joonba Junba Juju, Pressure Vessel and far and wide: Narrative into idea. Each session involved artist-led exploration of the exhibition and its themes in discursive and participatory activities, followed by practical workshops extending students’

understanding of the exhibitions’ themes and artists’ practices. All LSES students and teachers received education resources aligned with the Stage 5 Visual Art Syllabus for post exhibition research, reference and in classroom teaching.

A selection of Indigenous works from the UTS Collection were exhibited in semi-permanent display on Level 6 and the foyer gallery space in the Tower building in 2014. This selection was used as the basis for tours and literacy workshops for Indigneous and non-Indigenous TAFE, mature age, primary and high schools students, visiting International university groups and two other WPS funded programs; How Big Are Your Dreams and Sky High. Creative writing workshops were produced in consultation with Jumbuna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS and Sydney Story Factory, Redfern. This workshop received a Highly Commended in the Museums and Galleries Australia IMAGine awards for engagement projects.

Another highlight of 2014 was the development of online content and learning resources that compliment high school

learning experiences and support visual art teachers’ syllabus goals. Six online resources were produced by UTS Art Education and Outreach in 2014. These resources aligned with the needs and directives identified by a representative group of teachers in 2013. Five of the ten teachers involved in the 2013 teachers consultation workshop and an Indigenous art consultant evaluated the design and content implementation of the online resources produced in 2014, in light of the outcomes of the 2013 workshop.

The new resources have easily searchable content for in classroom teaching and individual student research, they are relevant, interactive, written in accessible language, provide comparisons to other students’ work from similar demographics, contain quotes from artists and curators, include 27 videos produced by UTS ART Education and focus on specifically requested areas of the CAPA syllabus. One of the six online resources focuses specifically on selected works from UTS ART Collection including an extensive resource produced in collaboration with an Indigenous art consultant and Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Images: Students from Chester Hill Hill School participate in weaving workshop for Joonba Junba Juju. Students from Eora College participate in creative writing workshop based on works from UTS Art Collection.

UTS ART COLLECTION

2014 was marked by the launch of the new UTS ART website, giving a fresh look for UTS Art Collection highlights and better integration of collection content into exhibitions and education materials on the site. The successful presentation of indigenous art from the collection through Education and Outreach workshops continued throughout the year. The regular spotlight column in U: magazine, Art & U, continues to profile collection highlights in each monthly issue.

Another major achievement at the start of the year was the completion of a Significance Assessment for the entire UTS Art Collection, funded through the Federal Government’s Community Heritage Grant Program. The report prepared by Tony Geddes identified key works and strengths in the Collection as well as providing

recommendations for its development, presentation, and preservation. Although a second grant application for a Preservation Needs Assessment was not funded in 2014, this will be a priority for the Collection in 2015.

Once again the UTS City Master Plan was a guiding factor in the circulation of the collection, as three major Faculty buildings opening in 2014 and early 2015. Major movements of artworks within these Faculties as well as other areas affected by refurbishments continued throughout the year. One extraordinary move was of a large steel sculpture Danae by Jan King to its new location in the new Broadway building CB11.

New AcquisitionsSix new artworks, including a still life painting by Jude Rae and photographs by

Daniel Von Sturmer, Cherine Fahd, Sarah Mosca and Robyn Stacey were acquired to complement the existing Collection and the new spaces on campus.

Inward & Outward loansInward loans in 2014 comprised a further 31 photographs and paintings from the collection of Patrick Corrigan, including 11 paintings by Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda (Mrs Gabori) who sadly passed away in early 2015. Outward loans included a photograph by Trent Parke to the Penrith Regional Gallery where it was included in the exhibition Holiday and Memory.

A photograph by Tony Albert was to be loaned to UQ Art Museum, for inclusion in an exhibition Conflict: Contemporary responses

to war. Both of these photographs are on loan to UTS from the Corrigan Collection.

Other activitiesThroughout the year, a selection of artworks from the collection by indigenous artists were used for a series of workshops and talks in the UTS ART Education and Outreach program.

Conservation was carried out by the artist Chris Langlois, on surface issues with his painting Ocean, (blue and blue) no 2, which had been on long term loan to the Vice Chancellors residence.

At the end of 2014, valuer Colin McWilliam inspected 130 high-value artworks from the Collection in preparation for the annual Assets valuation for the university.

Above: Robyn Stacey, Room 1306 Mercure Potts Point, Jodi, 2013. UTS Art Collection.Previous page: Jude Rae, SL 342 2014. UTS Art Collection.

UTS ART COLLECTION 2014 ACCESSIONS

2014.001Brenda CroftThe Messenger (from the series Trace) 1998infachrome digital colour photographTransfer from Jumbunna IHL, gift of the artist

2014.002Sarah MoscaUntitled walk #1 (absent gesture) 2014pigment printPurchased from Galerie Pompom$1,800

2014.003Cherine FahdCamouflage (chroma hair) 2013lambda printPurchased from Galerie Pompom$1,900

2014.004Jude RaeSL 342 2014oil on linenPurchased from Jensen Gallery$24,000

2014.005Robyn StaceyRoom 1306 Mercure Potts Point, Jodi (from the series Guest Relations)2013Type C printPurchased from Stills Gallery$6,250

2014.006Daniel Von SturmerProduction Still, The Cinema Complex (Sequence 1) 5 2011archival pigment printPurchased from Anna Schwartz Gallery$4,000

2014.007Daniel Von SturmerProduction Still, The Cinema Complex (Sequence 1) 3 2011archival pigment printPurchased from Anna Schwartz Gallery$4,000.00

2014 INWARD LOANSThe following loans were accepted from theCorrigan Collection

L2014.001Sally GaboriDibirdibi Country 2012vsynthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.002Willy MartinNgintaka Tjurkurpa 2013synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.003Yaritji YoungNgayuku ngura - My Country 2013synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.004Barbara Mbitjana MooreNgayuku ngura - My Country 2013synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.005Ray KenTali - Sand dune 2013synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.006Mitjili GibsonParrailpit 2007synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.007Yata YaddaTarpu 2012acrylic paint on paper

L2014.008Jimmy DoneganPukara 2013acrylic on linen

L2014.009Wankurta FordDesert Country 2012acrylic on paper

L2014.010Nora NungabarUntitled 2013acrylic on linen

L2014.011Karina WikamatoOey Oen Hok My Father 2012digital print on rag paper

L2014.012Bindi ColeKoorimite Kiddigital print on rag paper

L2014.013Pat BrassingtonPort Out 2013pigment print

L2014.014Anna CareyPacific Moon 2012giclee print

L2014.015Anna CareyLove Shadow 2010giclee print

L2014.016Tony AlbertBrother (Our Present) 2013pigment print on paper

L2014.017Wawinya Burton(Untitled) 2013synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.018Sally GaboriDibirdibi Countrysynthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.019Sally GaboriDibirdibi Countrysynthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.020Sally GaboriThundisynthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.021Sally Gabori[7402-L-SG-1011]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.022Sally Gabori[3380-L-SG-0708]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.023Sally Gabori[3778-L-SG-1108]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.024Sally GaboriDibirdibi Country [7246-L-SG-0811]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.025Sally GaboriMy Country [6124-L-SG-0910]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.026Sally GaboriMy Country [4630-L-SG-0809]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.027Daniel Walbidi(Untitled)synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.028Lorna Fencer NapurrulaBush Potatosynthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.029Sally Gabori[6284-L-SG-1110]synthetic polymer paint on linen

L2014.049Michael CookMajority Rule, Memorial 2014inkjet print on archival paper

L2014.050Lorna Fencer NapurrulaYam Dreaming 2001acrylic on linen

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Reporting Period: January - December 2014Contact Person: Tania Creighton

Cover image: Ian Burns, Extended Stage, installation view. Photo Alex Davies.