The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (Inaugural Exhibition)
Blindside Artist Run Initiative, Melbourne
25 January — 11 February 2017
The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (Inaugural Exhibition) interrogated the problematic nature of representing Australian national identity through various artistic and performative gestures emanating from and embodied within, the administrative model of a bureau.
As political attitudes shift towards the insular, notions of belonging to a nation-state become increasingly problematic for various communities and demographic groups. In direct correspondence with the fervour surrounding ‘Australia Day’ in 2017, The BOO staged a series of participatory and collaborative gestures at Blindside AR in Melbourne city and its immediate precinct. Through the extensive exhibition, The BOO began its speculation on the specific preoccupation with national identity by examining Australia’s cultural self-evaluation surrounding, and ‘celebrated’ on, Australia Day.
Comprising a foyer and back room office, Blindside’s two galleries were activated as working spaces for performances, installation, video and drawing practices, informal discussions and a recorded forum event. The juxtaposition of objects and actions worked to unpack the attitudes and actions that flood popular media platforms on Australia Day.
Above: Foyer installation with work by Wandjuk Marika OBE, Raafat Ishak and Tom Nicholson, Carly Fischer, and Nick Waddel
Above: Linda Choi's screen and Nick Waddel's table in foreground
Above: Carly Fischer with incidental visitation
Above: Megan Evans framed images with chair, Raafat Ishak and Tom Nicholson's sandwich boards, and Dale Collier's prints on the rear wall
Above: Sean Lowry's wall didactic with didactic
Above: View to the working bureau from the foyer
Above: The mess of the working bureau with work by Benjamin Sheppard's working drawing on studio tables, Rushdi Anwar's matrix print on the wall, Peter Burke and Adele Varcoe's piniata and Elmedin Žunić's typewritten scroll
Above: Peter Burke and Adele Varcoe's piniata
Above: Vin Ryan and Benjamin Sheppard's installation
Above: Working bureau
Above: Office plant — Peace Lily
EXHIBITION ROOM SHEET The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (BOO)
Dates
Wednesday 25 January – 11 February 2017
Opening Event
6:00 pm 26 January (Australia Day/Invasion Day)
Forum
6:00 pm 2 February
Gallery One — BOO Foyer
Wandjuk Marika OBE
Order of the British Empire OBE 1979
Framed certificate signed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip
60 x 54 cm
Mawalan and Sunrise 1983
Natural pigments on bark
100 x 47 cm irregular
This painting shows the Djang ‘kawu’s sacred digging sticks, mawalan, and the
waterholes they created with them (circles). The Djang ‘kawu’s creative acts
began with the rising of the sum over the Yalangbara (top semicircle)
Carly Fischer
Make Australia Great Again 2017
From the series 'From Little Things, Big Things Grow'
Found wooden household objects, Tasmanian Oak, Pine, Jelutong, MDF,
adhesives, acrylic paint and varnish
50 x 50 x 190 cm
Nick Waddel
Political Entropy 2016
Marble, aluminium, budgie-smugglers, glass, party poppers
0 x 80 x 60cm
Sean Lowry
Australia, 2017
Foam core wall label
29 x 21 cm
Edition 1/1
Not for sale
Linda Choi
Untitled 2017
Found image with Powerpoint transitions (looped)
Variable dimensions
Megan Evans
Isabella Kelly ne Robertson (elder) 2012
Digital print on rag, pins, eucalyptus leaves
104 x 70 x 10 cm
Megan Evans
Patrick John Kelly (elder) 2012
Digital print on rag, pins, eucalyptus leaves
104 x 70 x 10 cm
Megan Evans
Victorian Seat 2016
Found ballon back chair, velvet, glass beads, cotton
86 x 47 x 51 cm
Dale Collier
Memories Redact! Wasn’t the devil in you when you brought me here
6 Neglected tools, 6 Staged Photographs
70 x 300 x 30 cm approx.
Raafat Ishak and Tom Nicholson
Proposition for a banner march
and a black cube hot air balloon
(A frames) 2012
5 of 20 sandwich boards, each consisting of 2 Type C photographs
mounted on dibond and MDF, hinges
82 x 60 x 40 cm (variable)
Photograph: Christian Capurro
Gallery Two — BOO office
Elmedin Žunić
Untitled 2015
Archaic typewriters and paper
Dimensions variable
Jaye Early
BlackFaceDoingWhiteFaceDoing... 2017
5 min 40 sec looped video projection with original certificate of Aboriginality
Variable dimensions
Rushdi Anwar
Ambiguous Identity 2014-15
Digital print on paper
Variable dimensions
Peter Drew
Aussie (Poster) 2016
Hand printed poster
104 x 74 cm framed
Peter Burke & Adele Varcoe
Untitled 2017
Interactive artwork—piñata
Post-it notes, paper, cardboard, string, wooden ruler
60 cm x 70 cm x 15 cm
Performprint
ABBA 2017
Interactive stamped A5 flyer (print your own!)
A5 printed pages, vinyl print blocks
Vin Ryan and Benjamin Sheppard
Ways and Means 'Red and the Blue V2' 2017
Rubber bands
Dimensions variable
Benjamin Sheppard artist/curator
The BOO Occupation 2017
Various studio materials, office equipment, drawings, notes,
sculptures paraphernalia