History
Sue Cramer / 1987
When appointed in February 1987 I was aware that the Institute had made an important contribution to the history of Contemporary Art Spaces in Australia. Through its broad support of experimental art, the Institute embodied a critical and analytical approach to curatorial practices, one which I wished to continue. My own programme has developed from my interest in working with a number of individual artists to make solo exhibitions as well as initiating various issue orientated group exhibitions.
The selection of artists has been from those in the forefront of contemporary Australian art, a number of whom have been working for a number of years, as well as new and emerging artists. Solo exhibitions by major artists have substantially signposted the curatorial direction of the programme. The notion of the artists' individual 'project', a strong and independent spirit of inquiry has been a criterion for my selection. This has been with a view to further consolidating the Institute's programme in terms of its commitment to experimental and advanced art. As a curator my emphasis is towards work which has strong conceptual content and which extends and develops ideas. Over a period of three years, a number of differing points of view have been expressed and projects undertaken within the Institute's programme, but all with an overriding commitment to 'critical contemporary art'.
Much of my programme has been based on a belief in the validity and importance of solo exhibitions for the presentation of an artist's work, and where possible I have sought to generate projects by artists that are unique to the IMA. Robert Owen's A Warring Peace, A Sweet Wound, A Mild Evil, and Lyndal Jones' Prediction Piece 6: Pipe Dreaming Installation 2 (accompanied one evening by a performance by Jones) were both installations made specifically for the gallery. The invitation to exhibit at the IMA had for Owen and Jones directly generated a new work as a part of these artists' broader projects – the space itself became a factor in the making of the art, and was not just the receptacle of art objects made elsewhere. Similarly, Peter Cripps' exhibition Paintings And Objects (from the play Namelessness), was specific to the Institute in that it was conceived with a view to generating a new interpretation of the work. Younger artists such as Jay Younger, Diena Georgetti, and Lehan Ramsay also made strong and individual works as solo exhibitions for the IMA. By emphasising such project based work, I sought to avoid an over-reliance on travelling exhibitions where the gallery became a 'venue' for exhibitions made elsewhere (this is not to deny the important role of travelling exhibitions, particularly for historical or international projects).
The Institute has, I believe, been important in Brisbane not only for the quality of the projects that it has generated, but in providing access to work by major artists, and newer work which might not otherwise be seen in Brisbane. Other artists from interstate with solo exhibitions at the Institute included Linda Marrinon, Bill Henson, Anne Zahalka, Maria Kozic, Howard Arkley, Fiona Macdonald, John Dunkley-Smith and Tony dark. Robert MacPherson also had a solo exhibition of recent work. The selection of these artists for solo exhibitions is a statement of curatorial belief and embodies a commitment to their work as both critical and experimental. Some of these artists (Cripps, MacPherson, Dunkley-Smith and Arkley) had each held at least one previous exhibition at the Institute and this I felt added to the curatorial and critical contexts (ie. the Institute's own history) in which their current work could be viewed.
It is important that each Director's programme be understood in terms of the logic of the 'whole' rather than as individual parts. In this way, there is proper recognition given to the responsibility of the Director as curator to shape and develop the programme. The exhibitions can thus in some senses be seen to be in dialogue with each other, over a period of time and within the framework, 'ideological, historical, physical', of the IMA. Thus for example, the programme of guest curated exhibitions of work produced in Brisbane carried out during my directorship can be seen to be building towards a composite and on-going picture of critical issues within the community of younger Brisbane artists.
This programme was also intended to encourage and support curatorial development within the Brisbane community, and to take account of the growth of artistic activity in Brisbane over the last few years. Four projects have thus far been undertaken: Lines Of Force (curator Graham Coulter-Smith), IMA Performance Season (curator Virginia Barratt), (I)magical Poetics (curator Urszula Szulakowska), and Salle de Reconnaissance (curator Michele Helmrich). Exhibitions such as the artist initiated Fortune and The New Naturalism, currently being curated for the Institute by John Young, include work by Sydney artists. These group exhibitions and the solo exhibitions of work by younger artists are significant within the overall balance and direction of the programme.
Similarly, the programme when viewed as a whole can be seen to operate within a broader, contemporary, critical framework which provides a level of intertextuality between the exhibitions. Thus several issues of contemporary concern appear and reappear within the context of the work in both group and solo shows. To name just a few, deconstruction, representation, 'the photographic', popular culture, feminism, the reappraisal of history, alchemy, postmodernism (and there are many others). During my directorship, I expanded the IMA Bulletin to become an informative catalogue on artists' work, and this I have seen as being central to the presentation of an intellectual context for the understanding of the exhibitions. The text and images in these catalogues are put together in collaboration with the artist and contain a critical essay by myself or some other contemporary writer. The immediate context of the exhibition at the Institute is further broadened by the fact that this catalogue is widely distributed through the post to IMA members, artists, and public galleries both in Brisbane and interstate.
The Institute's forum, lecture, publication and film programmes function alongside the exhibitions to fulfil the gallery's charter to 'promote research and experimentation in art'. These programmes also encourage the broad participation of the growing numbers of artists and others within the Brisbane community who are part of such critical debate. In 1987, the Institute ran a series of lectures by local speakers entitled 'Art After The Avant Garde'. In 1988, I invited Adrian Martin to be Critic-in-Residence at the Institute with a view to further encouraging critical writing on an.
Some important forums have occurred at the Institute during the last two years. The papers from Postmodernism: Is It Right To Appropriate Aboriginal Imagery? held in June 1988 have been subsequently published and make a valuable contribution to this continuing area of debate and to the Institute's publication programme (papers are by Henrietta Fourmile, Bob Lingard, Tim Johnson, Vivien Johnson, and Eric Michaels). In May 1988 international visitors from the Australian Biennale (Dan Cameron, Lynne Cooke, Bice Curiger) participated in a forum on Contemporary European and American Art and Criticism which provided an important opportunity for an exchange of ideas and information. A longstanding commitment to a programme of lectures by interstate artists who have exhibitions at the IMA further promotes this kind of exchange. Other forums involving Brisbane and interstate speakers have included The Art of Untruth, Simulation, Artificiality, New Media, in 1987, and more recently Faking The Real/Imaging the Subject: Can Photography Document?.
The Institute's film programme evidences a commitment to experimental art. In 1988-89 the programme focuses upon three areas of radical film making: historical experimental film, European film, including films by artists (e.g. Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Rebecca Horn) and films by Australian contemporary artists. Programmes of experimental film and video by artists from Brisbane and interstate are shown at the Institute (including selections from Experimenta, 1988, and the Australian Perspecta, 1989).
Pivotal within my programme for 1989 is the exhibition and substantial catalogue of Inhibodress 1970-1972. This project is significant because of the broad and sympathetic relationship which Inhibodress Gallery bears to the Institute's own beginnings in 1975 (although it is important to remember that Inhibodress was an artist-run space and not a government funded institution). The Institute has precedents for such exhibitions with Recession Art And Other Strategies and Q Space + Q Space Annex 1980-1981, which also document the recent history of conceptual and alternative art and exhibition practice. I see it as an important function of such exhibitions, and institutions such as the IMA, to record and interpret these histories which might otherwise be lost. This current publication on the Institute's history is another instance of documenting such practices.
During my research overseas on behalf of the Institute, I visited many similar galleries which reinforced for me the importance of such institutions and such programming for the ongoing promotion and development of contemporary art. The Institute since its inception has supported 'experimentation' and many of our major and emerging contemporary artists whose work extends and develops ideas in art, and my own programme has continued in this endeavour.
I would like to thank the artists who will have participated in the programme during my Directorship.