 | RADAREXHIBITION ESCAPE TO CAPE SHAG
Photography Peter Bennetts
| Art and architecture enjoy an intimate exchange in The Schanck Show,
curated by Paul Morgan at his holiday house. Reviewed by Tai Snaith. |
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Paul Morgan’s
house at Cape Schanck,
site for the exhibition.
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Untitled, by David
Noonan.
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John Meade’s
The Rim, encircling the
internal water tank.
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Cape Shag, by
Starlie Geikie.
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Frogman, a video
installation by Cate
Consandine, in the
main bedroom.
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Continuous
Moment, by Damiano
Bertoli, the only work
installed outside
the house, captures
the “sweet irony
of the tyranny
of architecture”.
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You are not
alone, by Jo Scicluna
– a video piece in the
main space, video stills
and this wallpaper
installation in the
front room – shares
the futuristic aesthetic
of the house.
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The ordinary experience of viewing an exhibition
rarely involves dedicating a whole day, or a road
trip along the coast through rolling green hills and
the repeated use of a Melways. Nor does the curator
and architect of the space greet you warmly at the door
and lead you keenly up the ramp into his holiday home to
view the show. The Schanck Show does all this, providing
a rare glimpse of the process by which a personal space can
inspire and complement the objects and events within.
Situated in Cape Schanck on the Mornington
Peninsula, about an hour and a half south of Melbourne,
Paul Morgan’s house acts as both the site and the primary
subject for the work of ten Melbourne-based artists.
As its name suggests, the premise of the show is very
much about place. Paul’s basic request was that artists
“respond to the architecture”, presenting either an
appropriate pre-existing work or, in the case of many
of the artists, making a work in direct response to the
house or their relationship with it. Most of the furniture
belonging to the house was stored away and the
artworks were installed in a manner somewhere between
exhibition and ornament. The house was open to the
public over the course of four weekends in late 2006.
Upon entering the main living space, the visitor
is bathed in light and presented with the bulbous
curiosity that is the internal water tank and cooling
system for the house. Ideas of play and creative thinking
are immediately apparent and complemented by
artist John Meade’s unequivocal intervention The Rim,
taking the form of a black ring dissecting the almost
pendulous architectural feature. Reminiscent of
a gigantic set of steer’s testicles complete with rubber
castration ring, Meade’s work articulates the essence
of a successful site-specific response or collaboration,
confirming the space as a kind of melting pot of function,
performance, comedy and tragedy. As all good holiday
houses should be.
It soon becomes clear that there is more than
a superficial relationship between each artist and
the space – the works have a finite sense of belonging
and understanding of the place. One particular work
that draws an indisputable personal link and perhaps
even affected the design of the place is David Noonan’s
Untitled collage on the interior hallway wall. Facing
the unusually organic-shaped stone paving of the main
living space, Noonan’s framed collage depicts a man
walking over a dramatically cracked coastal surface,
cleverly reflected in the organically hexagonal tessellated
shapes of the floor.
Similarly, Starlie Geikie’s Cape Shag embroidery,
at the end of the ramp entrance, registers a familiarity
and humour with the visitor. This piece talks about
what is rudimentary to all beach shacks of varying
scale and stages of development: the “great escape”.
Cate Consandine reiterates this idea of escape,
both mentally and physically, in Frogman, in the main
bedroom. A large video screen depicts a male’s heavily
made-up, false-eyelashed, brightly eye-shadowed,
half-closing and opening eyes, facing the sole piece of
furniture, the bed. The languid speed and vivid colouring
of the man’s eyes slowly but surely lulls the visitor into
a feeling like the moments before sleep or the ever-looping
surreal events of a dream. Just as time passes at a different
speed during holidays, a number of the works in The
Schanck Show seem to either be made on or referencing
a timelessness or “holiday mode”.
It seems that when architects consider the design
of an exhibition space they often strive to create a
style-neutral, predominantly blank space devoid of
imposing or interrupting features. This is commonly
understood to be what artists want. In the case of The
Schanck Show, a one-off phenomenon, these criteria are
forgotten and in most instances the artist embraces
the style of the architecture wholeheartedly. A perfect
example of this is the work of Jo Scicluna. Comprising
a video piece in the main space, video stills and a large,
vinyl, crop-circled wallpaper installation in the front
room, You are not alone seems to share a futuristic, scifi-
inspired aesthetic and quiet contemplation with the
house itself. Directly referencing Tarkovsky’s 1972 cultclassic
film Solaris, Scicluna’s work uses the symbolism
of nature and light to frame her own body exploring
the space surrounding the house. Her wall of crop-circle
wallpaper hints at the idea of “visitors”, highlighting
the recurring theme in the exhibition of visitation and
experience, the personal space of the house during the
exhibition and aliens visiting the earth. Most importantly,
Scicluna emphasizes, as does the show itself, and the film,
the importance of relationships between humans.
Perhaps the lasting impression and most exciting
element of The Schanck Show is the proof that imaginative
and physical space can coexist. Succinctly remembering
and referencing the Continuous Monument project
of Superstudio in the late 60s and 70s, Damiano Bertoli’s
Continuous Moment is the only work in the show to exist
outside the house. In this dinky mirrored model with
tiny handmade tree atop a rough chunk of concrete,
he seems to capture the same sweet irony of the tyranny
of architecture – seemingly imposing structures can
be the integral element in bringing like-minded people
together to create their own serenity and calm.
Tai Snaith is a Melbourne-based artist and curator. She
has a regular arts review on Smart Arts, Triple R radio,
102.7 FM. The Schanck Show was curated by Paul Morgan
and co-curated by Mark Feary. Artists included Damiano
Bertoli, Cate Consandine, Starlie Geikie, Catherine
Martin, John Meade, David Noonan, Alex Pittendrigh,
Peter Robertson, Jo Scicluna and Renee So.
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