Dawson, Griggs, Moore

MARLEY DAWSON

Marley Dawson’s Slow Burn (full circle) is a 1979 Motobécane moped bracketed to rotate around a central bearing shaft. Dawson has by-passed the moped’s petrol motor and introduced a geared-down electric motor to power the rear wheel in reverse, creating a “burn out”. Adjacent to the moped a tumbleweed also pivots around a central bearing shaft. Fruitless machines like these are becoming characteristic of Dawson’s practice. They often quote Duchamp’s readymades, but not verbatim. The artist’s intervention is always significant even if the simplicity of these sculptures belies the experimentation, design, conception, testing and labour required. The symbiotic relationship between the results of the process of making artworks and their existence as artworks themselves is tantamount. The works are not the outcome of redefining detritus, but rather, re-contextualised the sculptures are imbued with a new ontology. [Excerpt taken from Joel Draper’s essay ‘Marley Dawson, Big Feelings (going nowhere)’, 2013.]

Marley Dawson has exhibited extensively in Australia since 2005. He has presented work in group exhibitions in Paris, Hong Kong and Washington D.C. Dawson’s recent solo exhibitions include: Big Feelings (going nowhere), Hillyer Art Space, Washington D.C (2013); MCR (with Christopher Hanrahan), Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (2011); Purliey, Awesome Arts Festival, Perth (2009); Box of Birds, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2009) and ECR (with Christopher Hanrahan), Performance Space, Sydney (2008). Dawson is currently undertaking studio-based research in Washington D.C. supported by an Australia Council for the Arts Skills and Arts Development grant. He has been exhibiting with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 2009.

DAVID GRIGGS

David Griggs’s work has always embraced an edgy aesthetic. His two recent video works WHERE’S FRANCIS? And SEXPAT IDIOT COWBOY use popular culture to comment on the social, political and economic issues affecting Manila. Each video work is partnered with a painting inspired by the filmic iconography of movie billboards.

SEXPAT IDIOT COWBOY, 2013

Am I Australian? Am I American? Am I Filipino? Who knows, and who cares. What I do know is I am not an artist; I may be autistic but not artistic. It’s all just bullshit! Sexpat Idiot Cowboy??? What sort of boring crap is that? However, as long as it keeps me sane and stops me from starving, I will keep making ART. Dennis Hopper once said that if his films fail now, all that means is that his audience has not been born yet. He also said in his film ‘American Dreamer’ (1971) that society deems him a criminal because he smokes weed. BTW! If you are wondering if this film and Hopper’s ‘The Last Movie’ (1971) were pegs for my film, the answer is, yes. Why? Simply because those two films are complete genius! I love them! But now is not the time to explain why I love them. This is time for my artist’s statement right? (David Griggs, 2013)

WHERE'S FRANCIS?, 2013

WHERE'S FRANCIS? sends up the film industry. The narrative is inspired by the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 American epic war film, Apocalypse Now.  Although set in Vietnam, Apocalypse Now was filmed and produced in the Philippines. WHERE’S FRANCIS? is shot in Manila and revolves around two film extras who have been buried in the ground with only their heads sticking out. The actors have been abandoned by their director ‘Francis’ and a nonsensical dialogue begins.

David Griggs has been exhibiting nationally and internationally for over a decade. Griggs’ first full length feature film, Cowboy Country, will premiere in March 2014 in Manila. In 2013 Griggs was a finalist in the Archibald Prize and the University of Queensland’s National Self Portrait Prize. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Artspace, Sydney (2007), the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2006); and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2004). David Griggs has been selected for numerous significant group exhibitions and biennales including the forthcoming Future Primitive, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2013-2014), Painting with a hammer to nail the crotch of civilization, Manila Contemporary, Manila (2010); Bastards of Misrepresenation Doing time on Filipino Time, Freies Museum Berlin (2010); Fluid Zones: Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta, Indonesia (2009); and Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art (2007). In 2008 the Melbourne Art Fair commissioned Griggs to complete a major work, Frog boy’s dissertation into a new karaoke cult. Griggs’ work is held in important Australian public collections, including the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

 TV MOORE

TV Moore’s recent work uses trompe-l'oeil to fuse painting, digital media, photography and sculpture. They are electric images, drenched in colour. Moore’s eye is wide roaming: in these pictures he draws influence from the colours of Stamberg Aferiat interior design, the balance of Stella’s sculptures and the chaos of De Kooning’s portraits. The result is a series of high impact screens that enact a dialogue between Futurism and High Modernism. Disembodied eyes float in a psychedelic vortex formed by grids, mesh and a web of fluro paint. The architecture embedded in the pictures winks at the history of linear perspective in western art. Moore’s unique collages are paintings about seeing, photographs about painting, art about art.

TV Moore has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since 1997. In March 2014, The Campbelltown Arts Centre will hold a major solo exhibition of Moore’s work titled Rum Jungle. In March Moore will also feature in the 19^th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire curated by Juliana Engberg. TV Moore’s 16^th Biennale of Sydney work, Escape Carnival, is now part of the permanent collection on Cockatoo Island. Moore was the winner of the 2009 Anne Landa Award at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and his work is held in major public collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Recent group exhibitions include Volume One: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, (2012); Tell me, Tell me at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2011) and the National Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2012); New Psychedelia at the University of Queensland Art Museum (2011); The Regions at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2011); The Trickster at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea (2010); Mortality at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2010); Kaldor Public Art Projects ‘Move: The Exhibition’ at the Gallery Of Modern Art, Brisbane (2010), Rising Tide: Film & Video works from the MCA Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2009); Video Swell Sydney at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2009); The 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008); The Busan Biennale (2008); The Inaugural Turin Triennale T1 - The Pantagruel Syndrome at the Castello Di Rivoli, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Francesco Bonami (2005); and City Dwelling Demons at the Contemporary Art space Osaka (2005). TV Moore is currently based in New York City after being awarded a Location One studio fellowship in New York. He has been represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 2004.