Pop-up art showing for Sydney leg of the Laneway Festival
Sunday Punch, an outdoor art exhibition, will be staged for the Sydney leg of this year's St Jerome's Laneway Festival at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) on Sunday 7 February.
Hossein Ghaemi, The Ooo in Who, 2011, performance. Photo: Sally Poon. Image courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.
Ten artists and alumni of the University of Sydney’s contemporary art school will create a series of new artworks for the popular, one-day music festival at SCA in Callan Park, Rozelle.
Sculpture, interactive installations and artist performances will be part of a teasing display of outdoor art within the festival grounds, set against the historic, sandstone backdrop of SCA.
Local artists have been handpicked by SCA Galleries Manager and Sunday Punch curator Liam Garstang. “Each artist has distinct ideas and uses diverse materials - from the recycled and reclaimed, to the organic and decorative - yet there are synergies between the works that will enliven the parkland and Laneway Festival,” said Liam Garstang.
The exhibition sees new work created by Heidi Abraham, Nicholas Dorey, Chris Fox, Hossein Ghaemi, Anna John, Stefano Di Lorenzo, Clare Milledge, Huseyin Sami, Kate Scardifield and Ben Terakes.
“All the artists are at different stages of their practices and careers – from emerging artists such as Stefano Di Lorenzo, who has just finished his visual arts degree in sculpture at SCA, to established artists like Huseyin Sami, who has Vivid and MCA projects this year,” said Liam Garstang.
Among the works is a roving choir with seven performers, dressed in elaborate fabric designs unique to each person; a seesaw balancing an oversized cupcake and sex toys, which moves involuntarily with the wind; and seven figures made from the steel frame of stools, featuring a plaster head with binoculars for eyes that invite ‘people gazing’ at the festival.
Cofounder of St Jerome's Laneway Festival Danny Rogers says that the outdoor art display will be a great spectacle for festival goers. “Laneway is not just about music. It’s about involving the local community - our favourite local restaurants, record and market stalls, designers and visual artists - to ensure that we deliver a really well rounded and one-of-a-kind experience. We are interested in finding and showing what's fresh and new in music and art, and bringing it to a unique setting that is the magnificent grounds of SCA in Callan Park,” said Danny Rogers.
A second exhibition will be set up in SCA Galleries - the site of the Sydney Laneway ‘Pretty Important People’ (PIP) Bar. It will feature artwork by ten SCA graduates including Vicky Browne, Eugene Choi, Chris Dolman, Will French, Robin Hungerford, Harley Ives, Richard Kean, James Nguyen, Koji Ryui and Justene Williams.
SCA Dean Professor Colin Rhodes says the Laneway Festival, which has been running at SCA since 2010, is one of the most anticipated events of the year for the people of Sydney and the inner west.
The annual festival has come to signify a celebration of our city’s urban culture. Laneway is great advocate of self-expression through music, in the same way as SCA fosters individuality through art. It has made for a great collaboration over the last seven years.
