FirstDraft Gallery Opening | Sydney

6 August 2015 Comment

Whilst in Sydney over the last week we attended the opening of four shows at Firstdraft Gallery in Wooloomooloo. The four shows that were opening were: “Towards A New Architecture” - Amanda Williams “Liminal” - Simon Del Favero “Blackwell Street” - Jarrod van der Ryken “Global Tone” - Marilyn Schneider “Toward A New Architecture” by Amanda Williams explored photography practice and image making. “Liminal” by Simon Del Fevero was another photography based show which attempted to explore photo making as an object. “Blackwell Street” by Jarrod van der Ryken was a haunting interactive installation which repackaged a fragment of van der Ryken’s grandparents house and invited the audience to explore it’s broken, dark husk. “Global Tone” by Marilyn Schneider attempted to look as symbols, logos and architecture in relation to identity aesthetic. I was particularly fond of van der Ryken’s work, “Blackwell Street” - it was incredibly moving, haunting and heart-breaking. “After being vacant for a number of years since the house was sold to property developers and scheduled for demolition, the house became dilapidated and heavily vandalised; walls on the inside of the house graffitied and kicked in, windows broken leaving shards of glass and debris to cover the carpeted floor. The materials that dressed the inside of the house, including timber wall panels, skirting boards and carpet have been harvested from the house and pieced together to recreate the deteriorated domestic space in it’s vandalised state. For the duration of the exhibition, the gallery becomes the site of the rundown home; the derelict qualities and eerie ambience of which impart a sense of hopelessness and existential belittlement. The seemingly vacant environment of the fragmented reconstruction offers a sense of melancholic desolation. Situating the viewer as an intruder to the once private space, the work metaphorically challenges personal reliance on the secrecy of intimate thought and activity. Through the inclusion of symbolic and referential object, the work offers insight into oppression by highlighting insecurities of personal and societally sinister thought and belief, including issues of and around sexuality, gender, and social status.” We were welcomed warmly to the space and had a fantastic night. FIRSTDRAFT (From the website) Firstdraft is a national artist-led organisation that fosters and creates a professional context for the exploration of experimental and emerging arts practice. We believe that in order to sustain a cultural ecology, we must provide a dynamic and energetic infrastructure that positions artists firmly at its centre. The organisation delivers a diverse range of programs that are committed to furthering critical ideas and practices in contemporary art. These programs include: Exhibitions, the Firstdraft Curators’ Program, Firstdraft Studio Space, the Firstdraft Writers’ Program and a regular series of public programs and live events. In 2014, the organisation’s former studio complex, the Depot, was converted into an all-encompassing facility to accommodate the development and presentation of contemporary arts practice. The distinct flatiron architecture of the Depot is preserved in Firstdraft’s expansive new exhibition spaces, which feature alongside two studios, collaborative work spaces, and a large, private outdoor courtyard. Located in the inner-city suburb of Woolloomooloo, a diverse and vibrant creative arts precinct, Firstdraft is positioned amongst some of the city’s foremost artistic and cultural institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Artspace, as well as galleries such as Chalk Horse, Minerva and Alaska Projects, the City of Sydney William Street Creative Hub and Live Work Space initiatives. Together these organisations contribute to the culturally rich atmosphere of this emerging creative district.