Ocula Conversation Hito Steyerl: How To Build a Sustainable Art World 'A Picture of War is Not War', we read in Hito Steyerl's iconic film November (2004), an essayistic Super 8 film tackling the definition of terrorism constructed around the figure of the artist's best friend Andrea Wolf, who was killed as a terrorist in 1998 in Eastern Anatolia after she joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Mixing documentary...
Ocula Report Aichi to Okayama: Art in Japan Looks to the Future 11 Oct 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula There has been a flurry of triennial and biennial art activity in Japan this year. The Aichi Triennale opened in Nagoya this August, sparking a national debate about the shutting down of a display of formerly censored works—the result of public backlash against a burnt image of Emperor Hirohito and a statue commemorating the women forced into...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
Ocula Report The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial Keeps Up With The Zeitgeist 8 Dec 2018 : Susan Acret for Ocula Looking through the windows that front Indonesian artist Aditya Novali's wall installation The Wall: Asian (Un)Real Estate Project (2011), a series of miniature apartments come into view: private interiors that are sometimes bland, strange or garish (Hello Kitty decor characterises one space, for example, while multiple Duchamp-like toilets appear...
Ocula Conversation Patricia Piccinini Artist On the occasion of Patricia Piccinini's multisensory and epic retrospective, Curious Affection at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA, 24 March–5 August 2018), this interview covers Piccinini's meticulous and collaborative studio practice, and the role of narrative in her work. Curated by Peter McKay, the exhibition occupies the ground floor and...
Ocula Conversation Ellie Buttrose Associate Curator of Contemporary International Art, QAGOMA In 1977 Cindy Sherman began her most critically acclaimed body of work called the Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980). This series—in which Sherman photographs herself posed in different roles and settings producing a result reminiscent of Italian neorealism or American film noir—became famous for challenging the dominant gaze...
Ocula Report APT8: A fragmenting vision of the future 14 Dec 2015 : Susan Acret for Ocula It is 16 years since I last visited an Asia Pacific Triennial and it is heartening to see that although APT8 is a very different beast from the ground-breaking APTs of the 1990s, this edition has stayed true to the triennial’s philosophy of interacting with the region’s artists in a sustained and very localised way. When the APT was...
Ocula Conversation Aaron Seeto Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art, QAGOMA This month the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, Australia, plays host to the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8). Renowned as a platform for surveying the vast geographic expanse of Asian and Pacific contemporary art, the triennial continues to uphold a long-term commitment to the region....
