Taking it slow
It's Slow Art Day again! Last year, we had an interview with the late, great Betty Churcher imploring us to actually slow down and look properly at the art before us when visiting galleries and museums. And doesn't it make a difference? On average, it seems, a gallery-goer spends just 15 minutes on each artwork. But Slow Art Day, held today (Saturday April 11) in galleries and museums around the world invites us to slow down and spend more time considering a smaller number of works. One participating museum this year is the Australian War Memorial. For a considered, free and guided tour of some of the old and new works in the memorial, meet in the Orientation Gallery at 2pm, and participate in a discussion afterwards.
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Fritz Who? And where?
Canberra Contemporary Art Space has a new domain in the Kaori Gallery in Civic, and is opening with a question-filled bang on April 15 with Fritz Who? Canberra artist Brian Smith is showing drawings and prints that were originally issued as trading cards on Fritz Haber – Nobel Prize winner and gas warfare unleasher. The work "explores how our opinions are formed and challenged by new and incomplete information. While [Smith] is a draughtsman of significant skill, each of his works are also insightful portraits that study the contradictory faces of Fritz Haber; a scientist both reviled for inventing gas warfare and praised for introducing fertilisers that enable the world to be fed," says CCAS director David Broker. Fritz Who? by Brian Smith opens Wednesday April 15 at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, City on the corner of London Circuit and Hobart Place, Civic, and runs until May 16.
Goldmine at Gorman
But it's still business as usual at the other CCAS! The latest multi-media show at Gorman, Groundrush, presents "a unique response by six artists to time spent on a gold mine in rehabilitation mode in the Tanami Desert". Now doesn't that just make you yearn to know more? "The project involved six artists – Rachel Bowak, Pamela Lofts, Kim Mahood, Pip McManus, Andrew Moynihan and Nic Hempel – with diverse practices spending several weeks during the winter of 2007 in the Tanami Desert in residence at the Tanami Mine, 650 kilometres from Alice Springs, and allowed the artists a unique opportunity to interact with the site individually and collaboratively." Groundrush is showing at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman Arts Centre, 55 Ainslie Avenue, Braddon, until May 16.
Red and I at the Alliance
One can't help but be intrigued by the person behind these works now showing at the Alliance Francaise. "Claudine Kloetzli is a Swiss diplomat's spouse who finds inspiration by travelling and through her life experiences all over the world … She paints between abstraction and representation and most of her artworks are portraits expressing the ephemeral nature of beauty and glamour. Her paintings represent ordinary and not-so-ordinary people in a range of motions and emotions, intriguingly soulful birds as well as rich-in-contrast skylines and desert landscapes." Red and I, by Claudine Kloetzli is showing at the Alliance Francaise, 66 McCaughey Street, Turner, until April 28.
Tribute to a diva
It's almost exactly a year since the death of soprano Eleanor Houston, who was an integral part of Canberra's musical life as a teacher and founding member of many groups and societies. Friends and colleagues will gather to celebrate and pay tribute to Eleanor and her legacy at a show presented by Art Song Canberra on Saturday April 18, 3pm at the Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest. Performers and speakers will include Ken Healy, singers Rachael Duncan, Louise Page, Geoffrey Brennan and Margaret Sim, as well as pianists Dennis Brain, Alan Jenkins and Phillipa Candy. There will also be recordings of Eleanor singing. Admission $10.
Bogs and Fens at Craft ACT
A show that opened this week showcases the work of three artists-in-residence at Craft ACT, as part of a partnership with ACT Parks and Conservation and the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Japanese wood artist Satoshi Fujinuma, Annee Miron of Melbourne and Canberra's Sally Blake have created new works for Bogs and Fens in response to a 10-day research period at the gardens, as well as residencies at Namadgi National Park and Tidbinbilla. Also showing is Subversive Botanica by Julie Bartholomew, an exhibition that explores one of the great wonders of Australia's landscape – its flowers – and Pioneer Landscapes by Kate Ward, a collection of works created in response to a residency in the historic town of Hill End in 2013. All three exhibitions are showing at Craft ACT, Level 1, North Building, 180 London Circuit, Canberra, until May 16.
Sleuthing on impulse at Tuggeranong
Two interesting artists have work on display at Tuggeranong Arts Centre this month. In Sleuth: The Delegation Tasmanian artist Joshua Santospirito presents comics, large-scale drawings and zines in a show that explores "what is happening with the Australian psyche and soul … Sometime in the last 250 years the fire-farming stopped and humans no longer see themselves in the landscape and consequently they no longer care for the trees, the dirt, and the spirit. But now the giants have awoken and these strange large visitors have come to Canberra to discuss a situation." And, in Impulse, Belle Palmer has reworked some of the pieces that formed part of her ANU Art School graduation display – "over 500 hundred drawings created during her last semester, through a process she describes as 'automatic drawing and drawing for drawing's sake', which collaboratively form an observation of self over time". Both exhibitions are showing at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed St, Greenway, until May 2.
