INGALLERY.1
28 September – 06 October 2013
InSideOutSideIn: Outsider Semantics
An associated Event of Art & About Sydney 2013 produced by City of Sydney.
InsideOutsideIn ~ Outsider Semantics – curated by David Morrissey.
Exhibiting Artists: Lionel (Lee) Pedersen | Denis Mizzi | Peta Morris | David Morrissey | Anton Murre
Duchamp signed the urinal and declared I made this, not physically but by recognition.
People make stuff, always have, always will – recognisably arty things, recognisably crafty things and some just downright weird…
A human need to create, to leave a mark, a small pebble on a headstone to life – I recognise, I exist, I made this!
Ingenuity, invention, need – whatever! – stuff happens – and some stuff, in an uncomfortable OMG moment, is recognised as something more.
Outsider Art is not a label for the object itself, rather it is a label for the act of recognition that separates this stuff out from dusty graveyards and places it where it can be seen again.
This exhibition is a celebration of created stuff that cannot be comfortably labeled.
Exhibition was opened on Sunday 29th September by Colin Rhodes, Professor and Dean, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, author of Outsider Art: Spontaneous alternatives.
Exhibiting Artists:
Lionel (Lee) Pedersen (1924-2013)
Lee is a true outsider…
Lionel (Lee) Pedersen walked into Artsite Contemporary Galleries about four years ago and in one sense originated the idea of this exhibition. Lee was a back lane scavenger, a recycler of discarded things, and would often bring finds into the gallery for perusal before delivering to the Cat protection Society or local charity shops. Lees work is truly remarkable, imbued with a sense of humour and often produced in response to current events or articles he found in newspapers and television.
Regrettably Lee was developing dementia and whilst some of his history has been pieced together by the curator David Morrissey and anecdotally from Lee’s regular visits to Artsite Contemporary Galleries, much was faded with age. Lee’s works are fundamentally made from scavenged and recycled things, he spoke of gutting discarded televisions for tiny components and finding treasures of abandoned materials on his wanderings around lanes of Camperdown and Newtown…
Lee Passed away in August this year leaving a small and unique legacy of extraordinary artworks exhibited in this exhibition.
*Note: All proceeds to the estate of Lionel (Lee) Pedersen will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Funding Research for Prevention and Cure.
Denis Mizzi
Denis Mizzi’s art is about life, death, love humour and authenticity… Black humour is his obliquely critical take on everything… His cut-ups and collages recycle cultures used images, sometimes making ironic use of them, and often injecting the surreal… (the goal)… a thousand hand made books…
(Catalogue essay Much Ado About Nothing 2012, George Alexander)
Represented in the Collections of Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, USA; Burning Deck Press, Rosmarie & Keith Waldrop; Providence, USA; The International Museum of Collage, USA; Assemblage and Construction; Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Ohio University Library , USA; Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA; The Ruth & Marvin Sacker Archive, Miami, USA; University of Buffalo, New York, USA; T.A.C. Collection, Belgium; Institute of Culture, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Art Gallery of South Western Manitoba, Canada; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Chelsea School of Art, London, England; Victoria & Albert Museum Library, London, England; Museum of Temporary Art, Germany; Museum of Collage, Holland; Artpool Research Center, Budapest, Hungary; Eraldo Di Vita Collection, Milan, Italy; Artemisia Arte Contemporana, Pisa, Italy; Mueseo dell’ Informazione e Arte, Moderna, Italy; Hiroshima Peace Museum, Japan; Seoul International Fine Arts Centre, Korea; International Museum of Collage, Cuenava, Morelos, Mexico. Australian War Memorial Museum, Canberra; Bibliotheca Librorum, Sydney; Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; Stonington Stables Museum of Art; Deakin University, Adelaide; Monash University Gallery ; National Gallery of Australia; National Library of Australia; State Library of Queensland; State Library of Victoria; The Art Gallery of New South Wales Library; University of New South Wales COFA Library; University of Sydney Collection; University of Sydney Library ; University of Sydney Union Art Collection.
Private Collections: Australia and Overseas.
Peta Morris
Since studying at the National Art School, Peta Morris has lived and worked creatively in the more remote locations of Australia, including Alice Springs and Arnhem Land before returning to settle in Sydney.
She has exhibited extensively with eight solo exhibitions and numerous group shows throughout Australia including as finalist in the 2011 Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Using assemblage as a sculptural medium, Peta’s work is created using a mixture of vintage books, found objects and collectable’s gleaned on her travels. Discarded materials are brought to life inside vintage drawers and invite the viewer into worlds where humour underlines messages with a social consciousness.
The monarchy series come from my desire to question the many things the monarchy has come to symbolise, whether warm, outraged or indifferent. Is the monarchy simply a commodity; a well worn souvenir; an ironic, rather than iconic fairy tale….?
These works pose the question as Queen Elizabeth II rein comes to an end, is it time Australians say our final goodbyes to the monarchy and move on?
As a modern Australian, I’d like to think we could move forward into a new future without needing mother’s approval. ~ Peta Morris 2012
David Morrissey
David Morrissey, curator of this exhibition, is both a collector of Outsider Art and a self confessed maker of “stuff”.
A back yard fabricator of icons to the gods/goddesses of “back shed blokes”… working amongst the perpetually reassembled racing motor bike and the collected tat of a family and traveling life.
Morrissey originally studied Sculpture at the National Art School in 1968 then moved into fringe arts and green politics, organising an open show with the Contemporary Art Society, a protest community art garden in Woolloomooloo, and the 1973 Mildura Sculpturescape.
He was part of Tomato Press, Glebe, Sydney until 1975, printing for poets, environmental, arts, Indigenous, theatre, feminist and sundry advocacy movements. He left to study Anthropology and worked for Indigenous groups in the NT and QLD before returning to Tranby Aboriginal College, Glebe, to help set up Blackbooks, then went on to train NSW Land Council personnel in heritage protection.
In 1988 he co-founded ARTD, a Sydney consultancy in program evaluation, then went solo as CSR Sydney, working with firms on Corporate Social Responsibility.
Anton Murre (1924-2012)
Anton Murre was a prolific creator, drawing inspiration from his work, his religion, his experiences and found materials…
Born in Zeeland, Holland, in a strict Dutch Reformed community, Murre was in an orphanage when the Germans invaded in 1940. He studied Marine Engineering in the war years, which saved him from being drafted into the German army, then served on the Holland-Baltic-Norway-Sweden and Holland-America runs. He met his wife Mary on a trip to Sydney in 1948, emigrated to Australia and married in 1949, then worked as a fitter and turner to the late 1980’s.
During the 1950s and 60s he studied with Professor Bissietta in Sydney and held his first solo exhibition in 1955. In later years he enjoyed exposure with solo and group exhibitions, was a Member of Berrima District Arts Society and won several awards, including Bowral Sculpture Prize (2004) and Blackheath Art Society- 2005 Commended.