Mentor Mentored 3
Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia
Season Closed

25th Anniversary ACSA teaching faculty survey
Adelaide Central School of Art
Until Sat 8 Sept


Since the first marks were made on cave walls, drawing and visual representation has always acted as a mediator for teaching, story telling and learning. These first paintings, from the Upper Paleolithic age, are thought to be up to twenty-five thousand years older than the earliest surviving manuscript, leaving us no choice but to see the documented image as equally important, if not moreso, than speech. For us visual creatures, visual learning is statistically one of the most effective of the teaching methods. It is no wonder, then, that visual art is still a highly important element of education.

We have recently heard that the federal government is set to overhaul the current music education system in public schools. Although it is not clear as to how this may affect the current music education system, the changes prove that there are mixed feelings as to the importance of creative subjects in education. Fortunately, recent exhibitions have proven that many Adelaideans are still highly supportive of arts education in South Australia. With the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia's 'Mentor Mentored 3' exhibition running concurrently with the Adelaide Central School of Art's 25th Anniversary teaching faculty survey show, there is little doubt that Adelaide stands as a reputable city in arts education.

'Mentor Mentored 3' united several key figures in the local art scene, bringing together six artists to share their experiences in a group environment and learn from one another's practice. Street art and culture-inspired Matt Bradley, Sarah CrowEST and KAB 101 worked together with the sea and surf inspirations of Margaret Dodd, Gerry Wedd and Christian Lock to fill the CACSA exhibition space. Working within the realms of painting, sculpture, installation, video, ceramics and 3D computer modelling, the exhibition not only brought together artists from different generations, but also from a wide variety of different media practice.

The craft-like aspects of Margaret Dodd, Gerry Wedd and Christian Lock's work seemed to create a sort of down-to-earth familiarity with the subject, but also maintained a clean, design-like quality. Gerry Wedd, for example, combined the tradition of ceramic design with the Australian 'thong' motif (as writer Ken Bolton so aptly calls "the leisure shoe of the working class"), depicting a witty tribute to Australian surf culture.

KAB 101, Sarah CrowEST and Matt Bradley, alternatively, brought some interesting philosophical issues to the fore in regards to street art's place within 'fine' art, the interplay of youth culture with performance, and the sense of 'self' (the artist 'self' / the personal 'self' / the public 'self').

The ideas of identity created an effective segue over to the Adelaide Central School of Art 25th Anniversary teaching faculty survey exhibition. Displaying current work by 14 ACSA staff members, the exhibition is a positive indication of what we may hope to see reflecting through the work of emerging student artists.

James Martin takes a pertinent look at the female anatomy through his patinated terracotta forms, with exaggerated torso's beautifully succumbing to the unruly effects of gravity. Rob Gutteridge's Diver, with muscles like sacks of melons, (and I mean that in a truly positive way!) sits in contrast to Rod Taylor's soft and effeminate Violetta. On the other side of the gallery space, Julia Robinson's Toille Story is a decorative bounty. The life-size, fabric and felt deer writhes in delicate agony as it is pierced, like a merry-go-round ride, by a pillar of fabric. The story-book style imagery printed onto the fabric adds an elegant design-like quality to the work, which can be read on several different levels.

Roy Ananda's untitled sculpture sees a wooden crate stretching and tearing at the seams. As though freezing the box on the brink of explosion, fabric bursts from the edges like a colourful Lichtenstein flame. The work creates a witty dialogue with the materials and uses simple imagery to create an exciting sense of tension and suspense. Alternatively, Jonathan Dady's Work 001 takes the idea of a drawn grand piano and renders it in sculptural form. Using roughly cut and taped pieces of brown corrugated cardboard, the life-size piano sits askew in the space, like a Dadaist collage come to life. By translating the drawn piano (seen in charcoal on the 'lid'), we are made to consider the idea of the object (ie the drawn object) alongside the physical manifestation of that idea. The sense of spontaneity in the hack tape job follows the form of the drawer making rough marks on the paper, or of the pianist whose performance exists only in a moment in time.

There are so many wonderful artists and artworks that I have not even had a chance to mention. The delicate drapery of Lisa Young's still life, White Painting, the drawn work of Anna Platten and Christopher Orchard (who I have praised often in previous reviews), and the exotic, abstract and illustrious works of Arthur Philips, Geof Gibbons, Daryl Austin, Trena Everuss, and Dianne Longley - the list goes on! It is truly positive to see not only the variety of styles, concepts and personalities taking permanent seats in the South Australian art scene, but also the way in which these key figures are helping to maintain a high level of achievement and development amongst studying and practicing artists.

Lauren Sutter



Untitled: Roy Ananda 2006
Plywood, masonite, timber, fabric.




Untitled: Daryl Austin
Oil on linen
Courtesy Greenaway Gallery