The 2010 John Fries Memorial Prize @ Viscopy

The winners of the inaugural John Fries Memorial Prize were announced at the opening of the exhibition, held at Viscopy’s new contemporary art space, Blackfriars off Broadway last night.

The competition was open to emerging Australian artists of all ages and disciplines who are not represented in a public art collection.  Initially the John Fries Memorial Prize offered a first prize of $10,000 to the winning artist and a solo exhibition at Blackfriars off Broadway.
Hannah Bertram, An Ordinary Kind Of Ornament, 2010
© Hannah Bertram. Licensed by Viscopy 2010
Viscopy and the organisers of the John Fries Memorial Prize thanked the 300 artists who submitted entries. Sixteen finalists were selected and their work is now on exhibit at Blackfriars off Broadway until 30 September 2010. The calibre of the work submitted was of such a high standard that selecting just one winner too difficult so the judges decided a first and second prize should be awarded.
The winners of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2010 are:
First Prize $10,000 Hannah Bertram.
Second prize $5,000 Melanie Irwin.
Melanie Irwin, untitled (action_structure_drawing) 2010
© Melanie Irwin. Licensed by Viscopy 2010 
The John Fries Memorial Prize has been donated by the Fries family in memory of former Viscopy Director and Honorary Treasurer, John Fries, who made a remarkable contribution to the life and success of Viscopy. Vivienne Fries, John’s wife, announced the winners and presented the prizes. She said “John was a very supportive and generous person, always encouraging people to pursue their dreams and ambitions. I’m sure John would be very proud of this award.” Viscopy chair, Jeremy Thorpe said the prize “...acknowledges the difficulty many visual artists face in making a living through their art.”


Award presentation, left to right: Hannah Bertram, Vivienne Fries and Lewis Kaplan
The JFMP Finalists exhibition featuring artwork by Hannah Bertram, Jessica Bradford, Deidre But-husaim, Susan Frisch, Christopher Fulham, Ike Glatz, Sarah Goffman, Melanie Irwin, Chrissie Ianssen, Emily McIntosh, Sanné Mestrom, Jamie North, Kenzee Patterson, Gary Smith, Kurt Sorensen and Layla Vardo, continues until 30 September.
Blackfriars off Broadway, 1 Blackfriars St, Chippendale, Sydney, NSW 2008. Opening hours: Wednesday to Friday 1 – 5 pm. Phone (02) 9310 2018. http://www.viscopy.org.au/current-exhibition

Viscopy is Australia and New Zealand’s not-for-profit copyright collecting organisation for the visual arts providing copyright licensing services on behalf of our members to a wide and varied customer base. Viscopy represents approximately 43% of Australian and New Zealand artists and their beneficiaries and 40,000 international artists and beneficiaries in Australian and New Zealand territories through reciprocal agreements with 45 visual arts rights management agencies around the world. For further information contact Viscopy on (02) 9310 2018 or www.viscopy.org.au

Proliferation installation - final days, Gaffa Gallery


Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney. Installation of feathers, dimensions variable and changing daily, from 1st to 13th July 2010. more info

Masses of feathers seemingly bursting out of the corners and cascading over the top of the false wall from a dark cavity beyond.






Feathers creeping across floorboards, trickling out of corners and gaps in the walls, encroaching into the space - interpreted as playful by some and threatening by others.





Proliferation installation - feather details, Gaffa



Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney. Feathers, dimensions variable and changing daily, from 1st to 13th July 2010. 

The gallery is divided into two sections, the bigger space filled with masses of feathers seemingly bursting out of the corners and cascading over the top of the false wall from a dark cavity beyond. In contrast to this, suspended in the second space is a single white feather, just above eye-level almost hovering in the spotlight and inviting focused contemplation. (Above images)






Amongst the amassing feathers scattering up the walls, a few white ones are almost camouflaged, seemingly visibly demonstrating a more substantial existence via their shadows than in their physical tangible reality.

Proliferation installation - days nine and ten, Gaffa Gallery Sydney






Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence St Sydney.
Feathers dimensions variable and changing daily, from 1st to 13th July 2010. more info

These images are of the installation on days nine and ten, if you look closely you can see the little feathers creeping up the corner on the right.

Proliferation installation - days five to eight, Gaffa Gallery Sydney



Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence St Sydney.
Feathers - dimensions variable and changing daily, from 1-13 July 2010. These images are of the installation on day five (below) to day eight (above).

Proliferation installation - feather interactivity, Gaffa


Jane was a delightful performer/assistant - collecting handfuls of feathers from Proliferation and distributing them into the hands of other more tentative viewers, engaging them in the wonders of tactility and helping the installation to move and spread around the gallery space.



Proliferation installation floor details, Gaffa



Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence St Sydney.
feathers, dimensions variable and changing daily
installation and detail views of the floor, 5 July 2010

The pre-existing rope laid between the heritage floor-boards, adding an interesting additional layer of texture and inviting subtle feather interventions.

Proliferation installation, Gaffa Gallery

Kath Fries, Proliferation, Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence St Sydney.
Feathers dimensions variable and changing daily, 1-13 July 2010.
Installation and detail views from days one to four.






Proliferation review, The Sun-Herald, page 36, 4 July 2010

Feathers find their fill in a 'disgusting' room.
Andrew Taylor, Culture, The Sun-Herald, page 36, 4 July 2010.
Kath Fries admits that some people will find her room full of feathers "quite disgusting". "They all come from dead birds and it could look quite alarming, like the aftermath of a fox in a hen house" she said. Fries' Proliferation fills Gaffa Gallery in the city with thousands of feathers recovered from an old sofa. "They're not pretty like the ones you find in a boa," she said. "They're a bit more mangled and [have] got a lot more history on them." The 30-year-old artist said the installation was an abstract reflection on humanity's destructive relationship with the environment. The feathers, which she suspects are from battery hens, bring to mind birds dripping in the oil still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Feathers will appear to seep from the walls and floors of the gallery, gradually invading the space day after day. Fries suspects the installation will change as the feathers drift outside or get stuck to viewers' clothing or hair. "It's not really what you imagine coming out of the white walls of a gallery," she said. "Galleries are usually slick and controlled. But here it will be chaos." It's a possibility that may not please the gallery's cleaners.
Review written by Andrew Taylor.
Photographs by Anthony Johnson.

Proliferation, 1 - 13 July 2010, Gaffa Gallery

Opening: Thurs 1 July, 6-8 pm
Artist talk: Sat 10 July, 2 pm

Proliferation is a new installation by Kath Fries at Gaffa Sydney, that fills the gallery space with hundreds of feathers. The gallery space will appear to be bursting at the seams as hidden stuffing spews forth and strands of feathers trail down the walls and explode out of the cracks between floorboards. The artist will tend the installation daily and viewers will be able to see the installation change and grow over this period.

Feathers have featured as a consistent motif in Fries’ work over the past three years. In Proliferation the artist has used recycled feathers — reclaimed stuffing from an old sofa, an inconsequential material usually dismissed as debris — to comment on humanity's destructive urges and continued environmental abuse. The use of feathers within this context provokes emotionally volatile responses from attraction to repulsion.

In this installation Fries creates a space that conjures dreamlike connections and evokes cautionary myths and fables. Proliferation’s fleeting and temporal qualities resonate a sense of tension, balancing between the immediate present and the possibilities of the unknown.

An artist’s book titled Feather will also accompany the installation. This publication features a selection of photographs taken by the artist that present an illuminating insight into her ongoing explorations of this material. Fries’ photography is both informed and complementary to her installation practice and offers a unique perspective of her art practice.

Kath Fries completed a Masters of Visual Art at Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney in 2008. She has been exhibiting at Gaffa Gallery since 2006 and has created site-sensitive temporal installations for numerous national art festivals including Rockingham WA, Hunter Valley NSW, Drummoyne NSW, Lake George NSW and Bryon Bay NSW. She recently completed an artist-residency at Laughing Waters VIC and was awarded a ‘Facetnate’ scholarship from the Japan Foundation’s Emerging Artist Program.

For more information please contact Kath Fries kathfries@gmail.com

Above image: Kath Fries, Feather (detail), 2010, artist book

Gaffa

Gallery Three, Level One

281 Clarence St, Sydney CBD, NSW 2000

Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm.

Ph 02 9283 4273 www.gaffa.com.au

Kath Fries' new artist book, Feather, will be launched at the opening of Proliferation, Thurs 1 July, 6-8pm, Gaffa Galleries 281 Clarence St Sydney.

Preview the book now -

PechaKucha Comments

"Congratulations on your pechakucha presentation yesterday. Evon and I both really enjoyed it. All the presentations had a different style and delivery and it was fantastic that yours also boasted a unique quality - which was the beautiful reading of the story of the bamboo cutter to the backdrop of your wonderful artwork. As I said, being up on stage isn't the best seat in the house so its very hard to guage the full experience yourself. I can assure you, it was a really nice part of the night and everyone was all ears. Plus I think yours had the cleanest ending because the instant you finished your last word, the final slide ended which seemed do ring out like a sort of 'silent gunshot' around the room which quite honestly was very cool. I'm sure you'll agree that the others were really fun and interesting too. It's a really good thing to go to. I'm looking forward to the next one. おつかれさまでした！"
David Freeman, Programme Coordinator | Arts & Culture Dept.
The Japan Foundation, Sydney www.jpf.org.au

Image: Kath Fries, PechaKucha # 16 slideshow 17/06/10

PechaKucha Night | 17.6.10

On Thursday 17th June, I'll be speaking at PechaKucha about Grove, my upcoming 'Facenate' project at the Japan Foundation.

PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, passions, quirky collections and just about anything else. The popular PechaKucha Nights have now spread to over 280 cities worldwide. As part of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, the people of Sydney have an opportunity to contribute their creativity and perspectives into the mix.

Bookings are not necessary and entry is free!
Thursday 17 June 2010, 7.30 pm - 10 pm
SuperDeluxe@Artspace 43 - 51 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo

Entwine, artist-book

Preview a selection of pages from Entwine, my new open edition artist-book. Featuring 80 pages of documentation photographs from my temporal site-sensitive installation Sentinel 2007-2008, at Stonehurst Cedar Creek Vineyards Wollombi, Hunter Valley NSW. This installation of red yarn interwoven into grapevine trellises formed a pulse of rhythm and repetition. My documentation photographs follow the vines growth into lush living tunnels completely enveloping the trajectories of thread that eventually died back to reveal the red yarn beneath. Entwine navigates cycles of growth and decline as stretching strands reach out tracking seasonal cycles, echoing Ariadne’s thread leading through the Cretan labyrinth.

Buy a copy online here or at Gaffa Galleries (281 Clarence St, Sydney), Retrospect Galleries (52 Jonson St, Byron Bay) or A Coffee and a Yarn (413 King Street, Newtown).

Kath Fries retains the copyright of all images and text in this artist-book.

Sirens' Song - Byron Bay, 26 June - 11 July 2010


In ancient Greek mythology Sirens were seductive dangerous bird-women, whose beautiful singing lured passing sailors into dangerous waters. These strands of feathers echo the Sirens' wings, indicating our inability to heed warnings of environmental catastrophe.

Images: Kath Fries, Sirens' Song - Byron Bay, 2010, feathers and nylon in a pandanas tree, dimensions variable.




ArtsCape Bienniale 26 June - 11 July 2010
an exhibition of environmental sculpture 
Clarkes Beach Reserve, Byron Bay.
http://artscapebiennial.org/


There is endless appeal in the essentially symbiotic relationship between the host landscape and the guest sculpture, each complimenting and enhancing the other. With every change of surrounding light, shadow and movement, a new image forms, unique to that moment in time and adding a temporal dimension for the observer to enjoy.
—Julian Beaumont, 2010

Facetnate Finalist Exhibition - September 2010


As one of three finalists in the 2010 Japan Foundation's Facenate Emerging Artist Grant Program, in September I'll be exhibiting Grove, a multimedia installation playing with notions of internal and external spaces, bringing the outside within. Exploring possibilities of locating magical possibilities within what may at first appear to be ordinary and common; chicken feathers, mirrors and bamboo. The work suggests a sense of timelessness and reflection conjured by memories of moonlight.


My point of departure for this installation is the oldest surviving Japanese work of fiction, the 10th Century fairytale ‘Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’, drawing on universal human experiences of time, aging, attachment and loss.


Grove, 8 - 30 September 2010

The Japan Foundation Gallery

Level 1, Chifley Plaza, Sydney



Facetnate! is a grant program designed to support emerging visual artists whose work is strongly influenced by Japan by assisting three finalists to present solo exhibitions at the Japan Foundation Galley Sydney.




Kath Fries, installation view, 2008, bamboo, feathers, DVD projection, mirrors and charcoal on walls

Open Fields

A forum of creative research, experimentation and practice.
April 28-30 : University of Technology, Sydney, and Serial Space Gallery, Chippendale.

As part of Open Fields at Serial Space Gallery, I'm presenting video documentation and photographic research from my experiences as a Laughing Waters Artist-in-Residence.
And I'll be interviewed by Katherine Lim live on EastSide 89.7FM, Friday 30 April, 11.30am-12noon. http://eastsidefm.org/blogs/somethingelse/

Kath Fries, Worlds above and worlds below, Laughing Waters Artist Residency VIC 2009

Call for entries - John Fries Memorial Prize 2010

The John Fries Memorial Prize 2010 is an award of $10,000 and a solo exhibition at Viscopy's contemporary art space, Blackfriars off Broadway.

This annual prize is open to all artists resident in Australia whose work is not represented in the collection of a regional, state, territory or national public art gallery. Viscopy invites artists of all ages and disciplines, whether members of Viscopy or not, to enter.

The prize has been donated by the Fries family in memory of former Viscopy director and honorary treasurer, John Fries, who made a remarkable contribution to the life and success of Viscopy.

http://www.viscopy.org.au/john-fries-prize

Viscopy is Australia and New Zealand's not-for-profit copyright collecting organisation for the visual arts providing copyright licensing services on behalf of our members to a wide and varied customer base. Representing approximately 43% of Australian and New Zealand artists and their beneficiaries and 40,000 international artists and beneficiaries in Australian and New Zealand territories through reciprocal agreements with 45 visual arts rights management agencies around the world.

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