William Yang, "Sleaze Ball", 1991

West Space
Collingwood Yards
20 Mar – 12 Apr 2020
Opening: 6pm, 20 March

Improvements & Reproductions are two exhibitions in parallel, which collectively and separately investigate the conditions under which art is produced. These appear alongside the WELFARE symposium.

Reproductions:
featuring works by Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Josey Kidd-Crowe, Spencer Lai, MEOW TV (Carmen-Sibha Keiso & Meow), Isadora Vaughn, and William Yang.

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In planning this exhibition we began with a question: what reproduces the conditions for an artist’s work? We might think of this broadly: a community, a “scene”, cultural relationships and identities, state policies, economic and social determinations (the wage and the unwaged labour in its shadow, class privilege and lack thereof), the past and present of colonial effects (as well as the refusal of and resistance against them), an environment (in the micro and the macro sense of the word), and habits of seeing, perceiving, and therefore producing. Or we might think of it more intimately: food, money, rest, friends, work… These lists are far from being exhaustive or without gaps.

We began with this seemingly innocuous question, which, it turns out, can’t simply be answered by works of art. What we can say is that it’s not the role of this exhibition to provide answers, rather, what we can observe is that artworks themselves raise another and very old question: what is the ability of the work of art to reflect the conditions in which it is made? Or said another way: what does it reproduce?

Reproductions is an exhibition of work by six artists based in Australia.

Curated by Nicholas Tammens, 1856

William Yang, “Erwin Olaf Opening” Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, 1996, silver gelatin photograph; courtesy of the artist
Entrance, William Yang and Josey Kidd-Crowe
Josey Kidd-Crowe, "Debt Forgiveness", 2020, Oil on found fabrics; courtesy of the artist and Neon Parc
Exhibition view, Isadora Vaughan, Spencer Lai, William Yang and Rafaella MacDonald
Isadora Vaughan, "Resus", 2020; plastics, mesh, glass, bacteria, sugars; Courtesy of Station
Isadora Vaughan, "Resus", 2020;
Isadora Vaughan, "Resus", 2020;
Exhibition view
Lorraine Connelly-Northey, "Narrbong", 2020; Wire cable; Courtesy of the artist
MeowTV Episode 1: Brennan Olver
MeowTV Episode 2: Alethea Everard
MeowTV Episode 3: Liam Osborne
MeowTV Episode 4: Hana Earles
Exhibition view, Spencer Lai, William Yang, and Rafaella MacDonald [Impovements]
Spencer Lai, "Moral inventory", 2020; Acrylic on foam core; pint glasses; bottle; Windex, water and beer; vintage ‘Mommy made’, Barbie and Polly Pocket dolls’ clothes and accessories; cardboard; fish tank provided by Rex Veal; oranges. Courtesy of the artist and RexVeal. Spatial and conceptual attribution by Rex Veal and Nicholas Tammens
Spencer Lai, "Moral inventory", 2020;
Spencer Lai, "Moral inventory", 2020;
Spencer Lai, "Moral inventory", 2020;
William Yang, "The Party After the Mardi Gras, R.H.I Showground", 1992; silver gelatin photograph
Rafaella MacDonald [Impovements], "How___ relates to a pair of pants, I’m not sure", 2020
Rafaella MacDonald [Improvements], Lorraine Connelly-Northey
Katie West [Impovements], "Untitled", 2020; Calico Dyed with Wandoo bark, permanent installation in the West Space Office