TELE-VISION EYES

6 February – 4 April

Curator: Susan Gibb

Tele-vision Eyes is a focused group exhibition of contemporary video art from the mid-1990s to the present that explores the relationship of the individual to the televised image, both as the viewer and the viewed.

The exhibition explores the artists’ various engagement with popular formats and features of film, television and the documentary – including character, script and performance – to critically investigate the deep ties our contemporary culture has to the media and telecommunications and how this shapes and is used to shape ideas of self, world and reality.

Artists in the exhibition include Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn (US), Matthew Griffin (AUS), Kate Murphy (AUS), David Rosetzky (AUS), John Spiteri (AUS) and Ryan Trecartin (US).


BIOGRAPHIES

Curator

SUSAN GIBB b. 1983, Sydney. Lives and works in Sydney. Has a BA (Art History & Theory/Heritage Studies), University of Sydney, Sydney (2007). From 2007–09 Susan Gibb was Curatorial Assistant at Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest where she worked as Project Manager on numerous exhibitions, including Frozen Gestures: The Art of Peter Upward (2007) and Sydney Ball: The Colour Paintings (1963–2007), (2008–09), and curated her first exhibition, Stitched (2007–09), which explored new approaches to needlework by contemporary art practitioners and local embroiderer Betty Parsons. Susan Gibb is currently working as an independent curator of Tele-Vision Eyes for Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest and as a Project Officer for Campbelltown Arts Centre, where she recently was Associate Curator and Project Manager on the interdisciplinary project What I Think About When I Think About Dancing (2009). Susan Gibb has also written for exhibition catalogues, including text on TV Moore for Video Swell Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2009).

Artists

HARRIET ‘HARRY’ DODGE b. 1966, California, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, US. Has an MFA, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, New York, US (2003). STANYA KAHN b. 1968, California, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, US. Has an MFA, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, New York, US (2003); BA, Magna Cum Laude, Interdisciplinary Social Science/Minor in History, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, US (1992). Solo exhibitions include Elizabeth Dee Gallery (2008; 2006). Group exhibitions include Queer Voice, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, US (2010); New Feminist Video, Brooklyn Museum, New York, US (2009); Whitney Biennale 2008, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US (2008); California Video, The Getty Centre, Los Angeles, US (2008), Eden’s Edge, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US (2007). Represented by Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, US.

MATTHEW GRIFFIN b. 1976, Bendigo, Victoria. Lives and works in Melbourne. Has a BFA (Painting), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne (1998). Solo exhibitions include Running Running Regards, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne (2009); We Get Tricks, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne (2007); Das Bogus Journey, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2005). Recent group exhibitions include New ’09, Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne (2009); Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2008); Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2006); High Tide: Currents in Contemporary Australian Art, Zakheta National Gallery of Art, Poland, and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania (2006). Residencies include Gertrude Street Studio Artist (2007–08). Represented by Uplands Gallery, Melbourne.

KATE MURPHY b.1977, Queanbeyan, New South Wales. Lives and works in Sydney. Has an MFA, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney (2005); BA (Visual) (Honours), Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra (1999). Solo exhibitions include Cry Me a Future, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2009); Rehearsal, Virgin Mary Church, Dublin, Ireland (2007); Placing the Camera, Performance Space, Sydney (2005). Recent group exhibitions include Video Swell Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2009); Rising Tide: Films and Video Works from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, US (2009); Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008). Awards and residencies include Greene Street, New York Residency, Australia Council for the Arts (2007); 2004 Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, NSW Ministry for the Arts (2004). Represented by BREENSPACE, Sydney.

DAVID ROSETZKY b. 1970, Melbourne. Lives and works in Melbourne. Has a BFA, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne (1992); MFA, Monash University, Caulfield, Victoria; currently a PHD candidate in Fine Arts, Monash University, Caulfield, Victoria. Solo exhibitions include Think of Yourself as Plural, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (2008); Self Defence, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide (2005), Custom Made, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2000). Recent group exhibitions include The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center for Photography, New York, US (2009); Circle of Friends, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2008); Crowds / Conversations / Confessions, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, US (2006); 21st Century Modern, 2006 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2006). Awards and residencies include Australia Council Residency Milan, Italy (2009); Anne Landa Art Award for Moving Image and New Media Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2005). Represented by Kaliman Gallery, Sydney and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

JOHN SPITERI b. 1967, Sydney. Lives and works in Sydney. Has a BEd (Art), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney (1996); MFA, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney (2001); Associate Research, Goldsmith College, London, UK (1996, 2002). Solo exhibitions include Paint a Rumour, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney (2009); New Paintings, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand (2006); Omm, Front Room, Sydney and Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle (2003). Recent group exhibitions include Persona Non Grata, One in the Other, London, UK (2007); Yours, Mine and Ours: 50 years of ABC TV, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Penrith (2006); Makeover: Painting by Seven Pacific Rim Artists, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (2005); New Contemporaries 2002, Liverpool Biennial and Barbican Curve, London, UK (2002). Awards and grants include New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts (2008); Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship (2001). Represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney and Neon Parc, Melbourne.

RYAN TRECARTIN b. 1981, Webster, Texas, US. Lives and works in Philadelphia, US. Has a BFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, US (2004). Solo exhibitions include Ryan Trecartin, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US (2008); I-Be AREA, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, Sydney (2007); I Smell Pregnant, QED, Los Angeles, US (2006). Recent group exhibitions include The Generational: Younger than Jesus, The New Museum, New York, US (2009); Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea (2008); Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US (2006); USA Today: Works from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens, London, UK (2006). Awards and residencies include Calvin Klein Collection New Artist of the Year Award, The First Annual Art Awards, Guggenheim Museum, New York, US (2009); Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, US (2009). Represented by Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, US.

LIST OF WORKS 

Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn
Winner 2002
video
duration 15:43 minutes
Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Matthew Griffin
See Gee Yikes! 2010
VHS converted to DVD
duration 23:31 minutes
five separate audio tracks
disc one duration 19:49 minutes
disc two duration 10:38 minutes
disc three duration 22:59 minutes
disc four duration 5:07 minutes
disc five duration 13:21 minutes
Courtesy the artist and Uplands Gallery, Melbourne

In his new work See Gee Yikes! (2010), Griffin employs second-hand home-consumable technologies to produce a series of sketches that he aptly describes as ‘a cross between Bas Jan Ader and funniest home videos’. Griffin establishes a dialogue between the popular format of the home video, the conceptual acts of performance artists, and television sketch comedy, challenging our modes of viewing and evaluation.

Kate Murphy
Cry Me a Future (Dublin) 2006
digital video
duration 12 minutes
Courtesy the artist and BREENSPACE, Sydney

David Rosetzky
Luke 1997
video
duration 3:52 minutes
Courtesy the artist, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

John Spiteri
Omm 2002
video
duration 2:20 minutes
Courtesy the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney and Neon Parc, Melbourne

Ryan Trecartin
A Family Find Entertainment 2004
video
duration 41:12 minutes
Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Acknowledgements
Susan Gibb would like to thank the artists for their fine work and support of this project. Special thanks to John Kirkman, CEO, Penrith Performing & Visual Arts and Anne Loxley, Director, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest for their initiative to provide emerging professionals with unique opportunities, Paul Ogier for his invaluable technical advice and commitment to the exhibition and the staff at Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest. Thanks also to Rebecca Cleman and Nick Lesley, Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, US; Sarah Cottier, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney; Fiona Egan; Jarrod Rawlins Uplands Gallery, Melbourne; Adam Sims, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney; TV Moore; Max Berry; Nicolette Rowse and Susannah Wimberley.

Related Events