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The RUST SALT TAR series of exhibitions, Packing Shed, Harts Mill, Port Adelaide, 2009 to 2010.
In 2009, the genesis for the first exhibition RUST came from a desire to bring people to the Port, firstly to enjoy a contemporary art exhibition and secondly to make them aware of what our community was enduring due to the Port's maritime heritage, culture and character. RUST was an artist and community initiated protest exhibition comfortably embedded in a Port Festival designed to celebrate the Port. Bryan Dawe, political satirist and Birkenhead boy, opened RUST with a vengeance, telling the audience and the government exactly what he thought of the redevelopment that was taking place on his beloved waterfront. He despaired that the Port had 'been sold down the river'. And it had. The themes for these exhibitions are based on gritty and quintessential elements found in any waterfront or harbour. The artists are given freedom to explore and interpret each theme as they like with the result that each of the exhibitions has contained work that has been diverse, cohesive, surprising, thought-provoking, beautiful, humorous and challenging. The artists involved range from some who have shown their work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to others who might have had a show at their local. SALT, TAR, SMOKE, KNOT, GRIT,GRAIN, BRIDGE and VESSEL have followed on from RUST with the intention of bringing more contemporary art and art lovers to the Port, bringing more people to explore the Port who are prepared to look at it for its potential. The offending developers have been removed and hopefully now some of the potential that was always there can be realised without the destruction of any more of the Port's much loved character and with the community's aspirations to the fore. This is a series of photographic images that I contributed to my curated exhibitions over the years. Click on an image to enlarge ©Tony Kearney 2020. |
A review of our latest exhibition VESSEL by John Neylon from the Adelaide Review.
Vessel
The Packing Shed, Harts Mill
21 February – 15 March
For almost a decade, The Packing Shed, Hart’s Mill Port Adelaide has been a go-to venue for enthusiastic art lovers looking for confirmation that the creative spark shines bright in the Port every night. Curator Tony Kearney has steered the project through a series of thematic iterations including Rust, Salt, Tar and Bridge. This year it‘s Vessel – quite an appropriate one, you would think for the Port. Remarkably this Port-centric series has built a solid cohort of loyal artists (numbering around 50 – 60) who all rather like being in the show. Around one third of the inaugural group are represented in Vessel. There are three ‘blow ins’ – so membership is tight. Apart from enjoying the challenge of coming up with something interesting to say about the Port, a number of artists see it as an opportunity for a bit of studio cross-dressing, working in media and formats not usually associated with their practices.
An example is CHEB (aka Christine Cholewa and Deb Jones) both glass artists but also collaborationists on community art spaces. Their ‘vessel’ is Tinnie Tinnie, a dingy made of flattened drink cans, looking like an entry for the Henley On Todd Regatta. You can buy into this vernacular masterpiece at $1 a can. Another special feature of this project is that it brings together all manner of artists – some like Trent Parke, Narelle Autio, Nici Cumpston, Hossein Valamanesh, Angela Valamanesh, Kate Breakey and others who have established national/international profiles. There’s something very ‘Adelaide’ about this congregation of established and emerging talents and reputations – and very ‘Port Adelaide’ about the inventiveness, the make-do grittiness of many works, and sentiments. Kearney you’ve done it again.
Vessel
The Packing Shed, Harts Mill
21 February – 15 March
For almost a decade, The Packing Shed, Hart’s Mill Port Adelaide has been a go-to venue for enthusiastic art lovers looking for confirmation that the creative spark shines bright in the Port every night. Curator Tony Kearney has steered the project through a series of thematic iterations including Rust, Salt, Tar and Bridge. This year it‘s Vessel – quite an appropriate one, you would think for the Port. Remarkably this Port-centric series has built a solid cohort of loyal artists (numbering around 50 – 60) who all rather like being in the show. Around one third of the inaugural group are represented in Vessel. There are three ‘blow ins’ – so membership is tight. Apart from enjoying the challenge of coming up with something interesting to say about the Port, a number of artists see it as an opportunity for a bit of studio cross-dressing, working in media and formats not usually associated with their practices.
An example is CHEB (aka Christine Cholewa and Deb Jones) both glass artists but also collaborationists on community art spaces. Their ‘vessel’ is Tinnie Tinnie, a dingy made of flattened drink cans, looking like an entry for the Henley On Todd Regatta. You can buy into this vernacular masterpiece at $1 a can. Another special feature of this project is that it brings together all manner of artists – some like Trent Parke, Narelle Autio, Nici Cumpston, Hossein Valamanesh, Angela Valamanesh, Kate Breakey and others who have established national/international profiles. There’s something very ‘Adelaide’ about this congregation of established and emerging talents and reputations – and very ‘Port Adelaide’ about the inventiveness, the make-do grittiness of many works, and sentiments. Kearney you’ve done it again.
