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Artist Profile 

Tony Albert - interviewed by Oli Watts 

With Artbank, the focus on emerging artists and the stages of artists’ growth within the curatorial rationale gives Artbank a chance to buy things from a particular series or at a point where an artist makes a development in their practice. For example, I haven’t really continued on with the Optimism series, but I look back and they’re little rare gems for me. When you look back at the collection there are one-offs and examples of when an artist was experimenting with something, particularly early in their career, which is what I think makes the collection so important in its entirety.

What is your relationship to Artbank?

I was purchased in the Artbank collection while I was an emerging artist, which was a really wonderful opportunity for me at that time and is how I became aware that Artbank existed.

Do you remember when your work was purchased and where Artbank purchased the work?

It was the Optimism series so that would have been while I was still living in Brisbane. It was really great for me because it coincided with the Queensland Art Gallery exhibition called Optimism, which was held in 2008. I had made the work for the exhibition, but the gallery was really interested in including one of the more ephemera based works I was making at the time. The work didn’t end up where I intended it to, but I’m really glad it was able to get a voice through a different avenue. It was a really important and special work for me because I was working with my family on it. The work became really quite successful in getting people to understand the importance of using cultural objects in everyday life.

Did your relationship with Artbank continue after that acquisition?

Optimism is the only work in the Artbank Collection, but through that initial connection I was able to establish a relationship with Artbank curators that have come since, which has been really nice. They identify with me through that work or through my association with the collection, which is really wonderful – how a collection continues to bring people together long after people come and go.

The Artbank Collection is a broad and even eccentric collection, how would you characterise your own work and what is the importance of your work to the collection?

With Artbank, the focus on emerging artists and the stages of artists’ growth within the curatorial rationale gives Artbank a chance to buy things from a particular series or at a point where an artist makes a development in their practice. For example, I haven’t really continued on with the Optimism series, but I look back and they’re little rare gems for me. When you look back at the collection there are one-offs and examples of when an artist was experimenting with something, particularly early in their career, which is what I think makes the collection so important in its entirety.

Did it mean anything to you to be part of a national collection at that time?

Absolutely! It was everything for me. 2008 was also the first year I sold a piece to the Art Gallery of NSW (Head Hunter, 2007) and for any artist, being part of a national collection gives immense validation. It is like the pinnacle of what you’re looking for. At that point in my career, the kind of work that I was doing and my contemporaries were doing was challenging and we had to form groups like proppaNOW just to get our voices heard. So when that is reciprocated through institutional recognition you feel like, they are listening to what we’re saying and they are willing to take this work that questions in some cases that authority or way of thinking that questions the validity of us as people. I think this is incredibly important and for me; at that time it was life changing.

How does your work relate to Australian stories, how does it mediate between the local, the personal and the national?

The figure in Optimism is my cousin, Ethan and at that point he had spent his whole life in a small country town near where I was born, where I call home. It’s imperative for me in the messaging of Optimism to show that art has made such a huge impact on my life and what I’ve got to do because of it. Each one of those photos was taken in a 3km radius of where I was living in Brisbane, so we literally walked to every location. It was really important to me to not only show members of my family what I do and how I do it, but also to show that art is not hard and art doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Those are really holistic principles for me as an artist, I always go back to that point and think of what I had at my disposal to make art – and it was not a lot at all – and that never impacted on my ability to make art. That is really important to me.

Where did the baskets in the work come from?

That’s actually my Aunty’s basket in the photo that she made for me. Jarwun baskets are so rare and hard to make, they take so much time and effort and probably still don’t have the market value they deserve, like a lot of fibre works or weaving works. We don’t actually understand the time and effort that goes into making them, even just collecting and gathering and then making them, unfortunately it’s a real dying art form. But there are still these amazing people within our communities that are making them to pass on cultural knowledge, it’s not about them selling as artworks, it’s about gifting to family, about teaching young ones the methodology behind it, how to continue to weave that way. It is a basket that is unique to the rainforest of north Queensland, nowhere else in the world are baskets made with that design, so it is something that is really special. I have a small collection of them, which I treasure greatly because they are made by my family. The ingenuity of traditional weaving is exceptional; it challenges all thoughts and stereotypes about what Aboriginal culture was. It was so sophisticated and advanced and you only have to look at those baskets to understand the incredible intuitive nature of the way in which people lived in Australia.  

Artbank works travel widely domestically and internationally, does your work respond to this concept of accessibility? 

I hope so! I really look at not only my work, but me as an artist, as that vessel or conduit between two different kinds of people and the knowledge that is spread between is just closing in that divide between who we are as people. It’s about understanding different methodologies, ways of living, differences in life. For me equality exists through the acceptance of difference, it’s about understanding different people. The more breadth and opportunity the work has to be shown, the smaller that divide gets and that’s imperative to us as people, that we have the opportunity to understand each other rather than use those differences as a divide.

Artbank prides itself on a diverse and inclusive collection. Do you feel your work responds to this issue and if so, how?

Within the language of art, in particular Aboriginal art, there was this terminology of Indigenous and urban and for me, the differences, even for us as Aboriginal people, that our work brings on a wall whether it be through medium or theme or the stories we’re telling, they actually don’t divide us, they actually bring us all closer together. It’s really important for all art, in the curation of contemporary art, that international art sits with Australian art, which sits with Aboriginal art and when all those different voices are added to the same conversation it becomes much more important and inclusive. It becomes a place where problems can be resolved. That is how I see art and artists, as problem solvers, they really pull apart ideas and then put them back together and it’s through that process we find all these other little nuances, that’s what I really love about art.

What is your favourite artwork in the collection?

I’m definitely going to choose a Gordon Bennett – the profound effect someone’s work like Gordon had on me as a teenager, that feeling of isolation that I felt, it was like he reached inside, it was like he was making work that came from me. That is the power of someone like Gordon and that’s why for me his work is so important and in some, possibly even the international realm, it’s still not where it should be, he was a truly profound artist. I don’t think I would be the person or the artist I am today without the influence he had on me, particularly as a teenager, so anything I can do that helps to sincerely portray how grateful I am for him to be part of my life, it’s an honour to do so. It was actually the first exhibition I ever went to, where I literally went and caught the bus and was wondering ‘what do you wear to an opening?’ There is something so intrinsic to the human condition in Gordon’s work, non-Indigenous people actually understand and are drawn to his work and the idea of identity and to me that is really powerful, when you can connect through those issues to everyone.

Image: Tony Albert, photo Steed Photography.

Artbank tower take over by artist – Kate Scardifield

To celebrate Artbank’s 40^th anniversary year, Artbank is pleased to announce a new acquisition to the collection. Kate Scardifield’s artwork Canis Major, 2019, will take over the 14 metre high tower space at Artbank’s Waterloo showroom.

To be launched in November alongside Artbank’s anniversary exhibition 20/20: 40 years of Contemporary Australian Art, this new addition to the Artbank collection celebrates the important role Artbank has played in supporting emerging, Australian contemporary artists and celebrating the dynamic and diverse  landscape of the Australian arts sector.

Kate Scardifield is one of the most exciting artists working in contemporary textiles in Australia, recently being awarded the prestigious Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship from the Art Gallery of NSW.

Canis Major marks a significant point in the development of Scardifield’s practice. The work is an outcome of a major research and development project funded by the Australia Council and supported by a residency at Bundanon Trust.

The work Canis Major takes its name from a constellation of stars best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. The work is referred to by the artist as a ‘wind instrument’, an adaptable textile sculpture previously ‘deployed’ in performative activations which saw the artist use the sail as a transmission marker in the landscape, generating a sequence of shapely poetic gestures and fieldwork recordings.

The artist is fascinated by the idea of ‘reading the wind’ and imagines these soft sculptures as instruments for navigation. The sculpture transforms wind into a material state, giving shape to atmospheric conditions; what would otherwise be imperceptible is given form. Their scale and colour also allude to signalling across distances. This work marks a major achievement in the artist’s practice as she develops her ideas of form, materiality and textile on a large scale.

The artwork will be displayed first in the Artbank tower, and then made available to the public via Artbank’s leasing program.

Artbank staff pick of the month

Dhambit Mununggurr

My Story II, 2018

This work by Dhambit Mununggurr was acquired by Artbank in 2018 just before the artist really smashed through to the very top of the art worlds must have list!

A Yolgnu women from Yirrkala, north-eastern Arnhem Land, Dhambit is the daughter of two of Australia’s most celebrated artists, her mother Gulumbu Yunupingu (1945–2012) and father renowned bark painter Mutitjpuy Mynynggurr. She began her painting career in 2004, however she sustained critical injuries in an accident shortly after and took many years to paint again using her left hand.

My Story II’ is an extraordinary work detailing the artist’s life story and her familial ties. Her maternal grandfather, the great Mungurrawuy Yunupingu who saved the Tree of Life from destruction during the construction of the Nabalco mine is pictured at the top. Further down, Dhambit represents her uncles Galarrwuy and Mandawuy, both Australians of the Year, addressing the Australian parliament in support of the Treaty. The stars adorning the ceiling of the Musee du quai Branly in Paris that were painted by her mother are also present. And finally, Dhambit represents herself as the monolithic rock on Elcho Island.

Her work is free and dramatic in style and concept, yet is instilled with Yolgnu tradition and a deep connection to culture and country. She works with acrylic on bark, which is a style that sits outside of the rules for Buku-Larrngay Mulka art centre in Yirrkala, however just as the artists and community have empowered mediums such as print and video, to respectfully express sacred designs, so too was it decided that Dhambit could work in this non-traditional medium.

Dhambit is just one of many powerhouse female artists working from this incredible community including Noŋgirrŋa Marawili and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. I am constantly blown away by the powerful barks, canvases, video and new media works coming from this incredible region. Artbank is so lucky to have many of these in the Artbank Collection!

Dhambit Mununggurr, My Story II

Enquire about this artwork

And the Keyword is…..

A behind the scenes look at Artbank’s keyword project for 2020.

Imogen Dixon-Smith: Curator Artbank

It is an unprecedented time for arts organisations, with galleries closed and events postponed across the country. Artbank staff have moved their offices into the home and with no artworks to move around except for those on our own walls, we have taken the opportunity to focus on some projects that had been on hold during busier times.

Curatorial and Registration have commenced the enormous task of updating keywords for our collection of over 10,000 artworks. With the launch of our new website, the timing couldn’t be more ideal. Ensuring each artwork in collection has relevant keywords attached to its record in our Collection Management System will greatly enhance the discoverability of the Artbank Collection when searching for works online.

We have prioritised the most popular sections of our collection, including photography and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art to ensure the impact of the project will be realised as soon as possible. We closely assess the subject and attributes of each artwork and use a standardised thesaurus to select keywords relevant to the artwork. These keywords will provide more ways of searching and filtering through the collection.

Refining the available terms to use as keywords has been a significant part of this project. The team has been faced with the complexity of categorising and defining certain styles and movements within contemporary Australian art. Our training as curators, artists and art historians has, on occasion, made us agonise over the use of simplified terms to describe artworks with expanded, innovative and experimental approaches to art making. However, we have greatly enjoyed the challenging discussion these issues have provoked to ensure our approach to keywords encompasses the multifaceted nature of our collection and allows for both general and specific ways of filtering and engaging with the collection.

Once the project is complete, visitors to our website can look forward to searching the collection in a number of new ways. You will be able to find the perfect, picturesque landscape or a dynamic, abstracted painting by searching simple terms such as Landscape, Still Life or Abstract. For those clients interested in our Indigenous collection, you will be able to search for works by geographical region including Central and Western Desert, Torres Strait Islands or Arnhem Land. If there is a specific community or Art Centre you love, such Papunya Tula and their iconic acrylic paintings or the incredible barks skilfully painted by the Yirrkala masters, you will be able to find everything we have to offer.

You can also search by place name to find an artwork depicting glorious Sydney Harbour or the gritty laneways of Melbourne. If you are keen on supporting unrepresented artists, you can browse artworks purchased through our Roadshow program or, if supporting the practice of female artists is your focus, you can filter the collection by gender. Something our Art Consultants are very excited to hear is that if you are looking to fill a large wall, you can easily browse our selection of artwork series to find something fitting. The possibilities will be endless to delve into Artbank’s rich holding of Australian contemporary art.

Browse the Artbank Collection now!

Karla Dickens

Pound-for-Pound #8  2019

Artbank is very excited to announce a new acquisition by Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens. ‘Pound-for-Pound #8’ is part of a significant series included in the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, curated by artist Brook Andrew. The work is informed by Dickens’ research into Indigenous Australians who performed in circuses across the country. The symbolism makes powerful references to the black power movement and makes a bold statement of cultural assertion.

Senior Curator Dr Oliver Watts discusses this important new addition to the Artbank Collection. 

Karla Dickens, a Wiradjuri artist, although being a stalwart of Australian art for decades, is perhaps finally finding her place as one of the most important contemporary Australian artists working today. This was a remarkable year for her, having been curated into both the Sydney Biennale by Brook Andrew and the Adelaide Biennale by Leigh Robb.

Having worked for over a year on both these significant bodies of work, Artbank took the opportunity to purchase one of her works in advance of the outings in the Biennales in order to support the artist in at least a small way in the lead up to these important career milestones. It was a great privilege to see a sneak preview of her work and to choose from these substantial bodies of work.

Artbank was drawn particularly to a series of sculptural work called Pound for Pound. The work is broadly figurative and approximates a standing figure. Made up of a variety of materials the main form of the work is a boxing glove cast in aluminium that stands in for a head placed on a steel armature.

Dickens uses found material a lot in her work to imbue her objects with a real sense of place and history. The artefacts, whether found wallpapers or Mattock handles, bear their previous life as a reified form of social history. Although the work must be read as a whole, the parts of the work can also be mined for historical and metaphorical value. In the Black Dog Series (2013), another work from the Artbank collection, you can see this process directed towards two-dimensional collage where Dickens uses old wallpapers, magazine imagery and other found surfaces.

In Pound for Pound the montage approach is brought to sculpture, with an extremely mysterious and resonant effect. Feathers, old string, steel cable, a vintage mattock and of course the cast aluminium glove all come together for the viewer to read. The work from a formal point of view is both powerful and soft, old and new, heroic but declassed, about the labouring man but also like a sacred relic. 

The work is currently showing as part of a bigger installation, A Dickensian Circus in the ante rooms of the Art Gallery of New South Wales for Nirin. The space is turned into a form of carnival based on the stories of Indigenous Australians who were part of circus shows and tent-boxing troupes, especially between 1920 and 1960. It is a subject that Rhoda Roberts explored in her play Natives Go Wild. David Milroy’s play King Hit (1997) also brought the stories of Indigenous boxers to the stage.

There is no doubt that for many Indigenous boxers it was a road to money and fame and to a level of autonomy away from the eyes of the Protection Board. But of course there were still hardships surrounding the pressures of entertainment and exploitation and the level of travelling lead to a distancing from family and homelands. The athleticism of Indigenous people was celebrated though, Lionel Rose and Tony Mundine and many others begun their sporting lives as part of troupes.

Tony Mundine is quoted as saying, "Back in the days we were poor and had no money for stuff so when these shows come to Grafton it was always a big deal…I was climbing the ladder so quickly I was knocking everyone out. I had 25 knockouts in a row. It was big cash my friend, big cash.”

The title of this piece comes from the boxing troupe siren call, “A round or two for a pound or two.” Even the title therefore equivocates: A pound of flesh, a pounding for a pound. The Nirin catalogue notes describe the work in this way:

“…evoking the charged context of the circus and its complicated historical legacy of entertainment and spectacle, agency and entrapment….She uses recycled everyday items to explore notions of persistence amidst inherent violence and misunderstanding. Made with uncommon rawness and daring, her meticulously fabricated works emanate a rare truthfulness and honesty.”

In the present climate the work not only looks back but forward as a strong piece of political power and agency. The fist is reminiscent of the clinched fists of the Black Power movement; the strength of the works, especially massed as a group in the foyer of the gallery, are like a phalanx of fighters confronting the gallery goer. We are proud that at least part of this powerful installation will have a continuing force within the Artbank Collection and tell its story of Indigenous rights and cultural identity in Australia and abroad for years to come.

Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuiri artis, born in Sydney 1967 and currently living and working in Lismore, NSW.

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts, Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, and Create NSW, and generous assistance from Justine and Damian Roch.

Pound for Pound #8 will be available through Artbank leasing program at the close of the exhibition. For more information contact Artbank.

https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/22nd-biennale-sydney-nirin/

Name: Rod Palmer

Job Title: Senior Registrar

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2010

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

I joined Artbank in 2010 having moved to Sydney from Brisbane where I had worked as Senior Registrar of Collections at QAGOMA. My role at Artbank oversees the care and protection of the Artbank Collection in the art storage facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. This involves leading a busy Registration team in the functions of acquisitions, loans, packing, international shipping, conservation care, transport and installation.

Select an Artwork to represent you:

#1227, Howard Arkley, Printout, 1981, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

I have always admired this painting by Howard Arkley. Printout is a highly accomplished painting by an artist that absolutely mastered an airbrushed technique that leaves no room for errors in execution. It reminds me of decorative pattern making of crafts such as embroidery or needlework that my mum used to do when I was growing up. Interestingly Arkley had used this pattern a year earlier on one of 40 Trams painted by Australian artists that screeched their way around Melbourne streets during the 1980s. I like how the dots cleverly alternate between black and grey to give sharpness and softness to the airbrushed surface while the blue and red oscillate for space. The stencilled lines and shapes seem to float off the canvas. 

For me this artwork is also a great example of the importance and significance of the Artbank Collection to the very grassroots of the Australian arts community. Purchased in 1981 Howard Arkley was an emerging mid-career artist rising in prominence, and it was going to be another 18 years before he went on to represent Australia at the 48^th Venice Biennale with his more iconic lurid spray paint images of suburbia. Artbank was supporting Arkley at the early stages of his career and this is what I like about the Artbank collection. Since 1980, Artbank has supported artists at the beginning of their careers, and in doing so has established one of the most interesting collections in Australia, made accessible for everyone.

Name: Zoë Rodriguez

Job Title: Director

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2019

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

As the director, I am responsible for leading Artbank’s strategic direction and making sure we live up to our two key policy objectives of supporting the Contemporary Australian art sector through acquisition of works, and providing broad community access to Australian Art through the art leasing scheme. It involves a lot of listening, reading and analysing a lot of reports and accounts, and making decisions with the team that will help us meet our key objectives.

There is no doubt that one of the greatest joys of working for Artbank is having the opportunity to wander the racks of Australian art. Artbank’s eccentric nature – with works constantly coming and going and being stored where space is available when they arrive, rather than by any traditional art categorisation system – means you can be travelling past media, styles, decades and thousands of kilometres with one sweep of your eyes. I also delight in working for a public institution that continues to deliver successfully on its two key public policy objectives and that can bring such joy to so many through its work. Artists always recount the first acquisition Artbank made of their work with huge fondness (often this seems to have marked their feeling of acceptance and arrival on the contemporary art scene). Then there are our clients, who tell us how much their staff and visitors love to engage with Artbank works – they start conversations and create lively atmospheres in spaces that can otherwise be alienating and sterile. 

Select an Artwork to represent you:

#13939, Katherine Hattam, The Rights and Wrongs of Women, 2014, Book pages, book spines, charcoal and gouache on paper

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

This work evokes my childhood home and breakfast table and especially my mother’s feminism and activism through her art and poetry, and of course chimes in with the questions we are all asking in the wake of the MeToo movement. I grew up hearing about the choices women made and the reasons my mother decided on her own path. She encouraged me not to be constrained by traditional ideas of what a woman (or anyone for that matter) should do and be. I love the liveliness Hattam gives to domestic objects and her merging of the interior world with the exterior.

Name: Oliver Watts

Job Title: Senior Curator

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2018

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

My role at Artbank is mainly on the support side of the program. I feel that I have learnt so much about Australian contemporary art since joining Artbank. The Roadshow has been a wonderful opportunity to take the temperature of what's coming through from Perth to Tasmania, from Darwin to Melbourne. But most of all my job means that I make connections with so many artists, dealers and Indigenous communities and provide support through acquisitions. It often takes many years of following an artist before we finally get the right work.  It is a daunting feeling, but a satisfying one, to know that I am involved in shaping a national collection.       

                      

Select an Artwork to represent you:    

#14229, Amber Boardman, 
Lake Doig, 2015, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas.

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

I love Amber Boardman's approach to figurative painting. Her work is often comedy tragedy, and this work is no exception. It seems to me that the figure represents someone a little floundering but carrying on. The boat is the romantic image par excellence but here on the lake’s edge, the canoe seems like a pretty debased version of the romantic hero. Although the figure still persists and still strives for something. This seems to me about right and its inspiring.

Name: Jack Harman

Job Title: Programme Officer/ Artwork Technician

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2018

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

My role at Artbank is to look after and help maintain the collection. This involves condition reporting artworks, making sure the collection store is always looking presentable, packaging, transporting and installing artworks for clients. Effectively it’s my job to work behind the scenes and provide quality assurance. I really enjoy how hands on and involved my role is in the handling of artworks and the problem solving that comes with the territory – I’m surrounded by an amazing cohort of artis’s works every day and have the privilege of interacting with the clients as we ‘unveil’ and install their chosen artworks.

Select an Artwork to represent you:

#13706, Hayden Fowler, New World Order, 2013, High definition video.

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

Heritage-breed chickens and exotic birds within uncanny, dystopian spaces - emitting strange electronic squawks and cackles!

Name: Matthew James

Job Title: Collection Officer

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2015

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

I work in the Artbank collection store and do most of the Artbank installs in Sydney. I look at the storage and installation of Artbank artworks to make sure they are safe and secure and can be enjoyed for generations to come. It is great to be a part of a team that supports Australia’s artists and arts industry         

Select an Artwork to represent you:                                    

#13524, Robert Pulie, W (version 3), 2012, Mirror, copper, brass bolts and cedar.

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

I really like this work because of its form and materials. I have always been interested in the idea of perception and this work has a great play on a true image. By having the mirrors in a “W” configuration there is not the reversal in the image like a flat mirrors shows. The work’s tasteful fixtures really evoke the idea of a vanity dresser, something we use to look at ourselves. The work becomes a point of self-reflection on more than one level… who doesn’t like a work where they can truly look at themselves!