You’re my Number 1
Curated by Talia Smith
Opening 05.07.18 6-8pm
Artist Talks 27.07.18 6-7pm
Curatorial Statement
Featuring zoe wong, daniel mudie cunningham, clara chon / blue blank, d.a.n.c.e art club, kenny pittock, janet lilo, natasha matila-smith, marc etherington, low cost cosplay group, raquel caballero
#fdyouremynumberone
I started working at Gaffa gallery in 2014, while cleaning the office I discovered letters – either handwritten or typed – addressed to Australian tennis star Pat Cash. The letters came from what seemed like older European men who were either genuine fans or autograph collectors. There was this wonderful yet painful kind of earnestness from these men, they shared their lives and hopes with Pat and hoped to meet him in person one day. After some research I found that Gaffa Gallery’s address was listed in a very out of date celebrity fan club address book. I wrote back to these men, returning their money and a small note letting them know that this was no longer the fan mail address for Pat and that I had even tried to get in contact with him but to no avail (I sent him multiple messages on Twitter).
I became semi-obsessed with these letters and the men that wrote them, what drove them to send a hand written letter detailing their lives and personal stories with a few euros to an ageing ex-tennis pro?
Examining the concepts of celebrity, fandom and popular culture in art, You’re my Number 1 brings together a group of artists from Australia, New Zealand and Thailand that each respond to the current celebrity obsessed world we live in. Whether it is a real or imagined relationship or a want to belong, to be noticed and admired just as much as the idols we see on our televisions and movie screens, You’re my Number 1 will question what compels us to want to connect with celebrity and all that it entails.
Biographies
Zoe Wong is a Sydney based emerging artist whose practice explores her Australian born, Chinese queer heritage through photography and installation. She has exhibited at Blindside Gallery in Melbourne, Gaffa Gallery and Stacks Gallery in Sydney. In 2016 Wong completed her Bachelor of Design in Photography & Situated Media (honours) at the University of Technology.
Daniel Mudie Cunningham is a picture and performance with curator blood. Active as an artist since the mid-1990s, Daniel’s practice draws upon and remixes the image streams of art history, queer politics, pop culture, performance and music through video and performance. As a child he wanted to be Bono, as an adult he got to be Tina Turner.
D.A.N.C.E. (Distinguished All Night Community Entertainers) Art Club consists of Linda T. Tanoai, Ahilapalapa Rands, Vaimaila Urale and Chris Fitzgerald. The four visual artists met while studying art at Auckland University of Technology and formed in 2008. Since then, D.A.N.C.E Art Club have staged a number of self-curated and self-funded events with a strong focus on collaborative practice. D.A.N.C.E. Art Club’s practice celebrates the social dynamic as a creative platform. Utilising themed music, entertainment and refreshments are some of the ways D.A.N.C.E Art Club encourages audiences to come together.
D.A.N.C.E Art Club’s focus on collaboration has led them to work with a number of arts organisations, including Artspace, Enjoy Art Gallery, Letting Space, Papakura Art Gallery, Snake Pit, RM and ST PAUL St Gallery. Their exhibition I Go Where the Party Takes Me was shown at James Wallace Gallery, Auckland in 2009 and Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui in 2010. In 2012, they were also invited to present a commissioned project at Next Wave Festival in Melbourne. They have also participated in The Wellington Collaboratorium, where they presented a seminar alongside New York-based collaborative artist Gregory Sholette.
Every year 133 million human babies are born, and in 1988 Kenny Pittock was one of them. In 2008 Kenny received a scholarship to complete a Diploma of Visual Art at Swinburne.
In 2009 Kenny Pittock died. (He didn’t really, he just had major spine surgery. Click on this sentence for more about that). From 2010 to 2013 Kenny completed a four year Honours degree at the Victorian College of the Arts, and although majoring in painting he works across a large range of mediums including ceramics, drawing, text and photography. Kenny Pittock uses humor and sentimentality to playfully respond to contemporary Australian culture, having fun with the overlaps and boundaries between the public and the personal. Kenny is currently working full time from his studio in the Nicholas Building, in Melbourne. Click on this sentence to read an essay written about his work in 2014 by New Zealand born artist and writer Jess Johnson. Pittock’s work is featured in many collections including the City of Melbourne State Collection and the Melbourne University Union Collection. During the last two years Kenny has exhibited his work in many galleries including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, the Monash University Museum of Art, Artspace in Sydney and Galleria 291 in Rome, Italy.
Pittock says “I’ve been lucky enough to show my art in some pretty amazing exhibitions, but nothing compares to the time I kicked an apple core through a basketball ring from half court using my left foot.”
Since graduating from Auckland University of Technology with a Master of Art
and Design in Visual Arts in 2006, Janet’s career has been incredibly vibrant. In 2008 she was the New Zealand delegate to the 10th Pacific Art Festival in America Samoa. Shortly after, in 2011 Janet was the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Art Award. A diverse career including residencies and exhibiting in both group and solo shows has resulted in both a national and international presence for this community centric artist. Janet’s practice, at times localized is affected by immediate surroundings and global
media.
Janet has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions including:Shout Whisper Wail! The 2017 Chartwell Show, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2017; Status Update, Te Uru Waitakere Gallery, 2016; Hit Me With Your Best Shot (commissioned by The Physics Room) for Christchurch and Wellington City Gallery, 2013; Right of Way for the Fifth Auckland Triennial at Artspace, 2013; In Spite of Ourselves: Approaching Documentary; Contact, Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2012; Home AKL, Auckland Art Gallery, 2012; Identi-tee video, Auckland War Memorial Museum, 2012; Residents in Residence, Lopdell House (Offsite New Lynn) 2013; Auckland, Identi-tee film, Tamaki gallery, Auckland War Memorial Museum 2012; As well a number of residencies including Massey University, Wellington, 2012; Residency, Tjibaou Cultural Center, Noumea, New Caledonia, 2011; Residency, Sapporo (S-AIR) Hokkaido, Japan, 2009.
“…my ethnicity and culture is inherent in everything that I do, but it doesn’t define my artworks and art concerns. It is always something in the back of my mind and often at times, I address it directly, but for me to claim an authentic notion of Pacific-ness, Maaori-ness or European-ness, would be a lie. My practice interrogates the institution and ingrained socio-political ideas, though I always try to include a sense of satire and humour because that is just my personality. I also grew up hugely influenced by 90s pop-culture and internet culture and at the same time, I am a huge fan of Brutalist architecture and minimalist structures. A lot of my work is just me trying to navigate the World as a hybrid, faced with countless influences and muddied cultural ideas.”
Natasha Matila-Smith is an artist, writer and curator based in Auckland. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland(NZ). She is a self-proclaimed opportunist, changing between being a writer, curator and an artist, to lend voice to marginalised communities, some of which the artist herself belongs to. Natasha’s exhibitions include Lonely Island, Te Tuhi (2016) and this sky, too, is folding under you, Corban Estate Arts Centre, (Feb 2017), Dark Objects, The Dowse Art Museum (Mar 2017) and the upcoming group exhibition Cold Islanders, Waikato Museum (August 2017). Natasha has written for art publications Runway, Matters, Art New Zealand, Hashtag500words and Eyecontact with commissioned work for Toi Poneke Gallery and Artspace (NZ) to be released in late 2017. Her practice to date, responds to current events and happenings, and her role adapts to whatever mode is best for conveying the correlating concerns.
Marc Etherington’s works take pop culture, childhood memories and everyday domestic life as their subject matter, rendering them through a darkly humorous and sometimes absurd lens. References to Jurassic Park, Freddy Krueger, old-school video game aesthetics and boom-boxes point to experiences of coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s, while landscapes and interiors are depicted with an eye for amusing detail. Self-taught, Etherington has maintained a consistent practice in painting and small sculpture for over a decade and more recently has worked with larger scale sculptural installations and ceramics. His sculptural works touch on themes such as mass production and collectibles. Etherington’s portraits of fellow artists, Ken Done (2016) and Del Kathryn Barton (2015) have been finalists in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery NSW. He has also exhibited in John Fries Art Award at UNSW Art & Design and The Fisher’s Ghost at Campbelltown Arts Centre (both 2014). In 2015 Etherington held a solo exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery.
Raquel Caballero is an exhibited artist, reformed librarian, and literary obsessive. Her work occupies a peculiar space between homespun craft and pop culture, merging outsider influences with celebrity fascination in unpredictable, engaging ways.
Low Cost Cosplay is a community run by a small group from Thailand. Using everyday items from around their home they recreate favourite characters, scenes and imagery from television and film. Full of humour and their tongue firmly in their cheek, Low Cost Cosplay celebrate the cosplay community abiding by the rule that 'everything is cosplay'.