Lara Favaretto at the Sydney Biennale

My favorite machine art work at Cockatoo island for the Sydney Biennale.

Lara Favaretto
Plotone, 2005
Courtesy the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Turin; with the support of Amici Sostenitori del Castello di Rivoli, Turin

LARA FAVARETTO
Twistle 2003
air tank, pressure regulator, distributor, timer, electrovalve, plastic cables and whistle

Lara Favaretto uses sculpture, photography, film and installation to create artworks that produce a sense of magical fantasy and urgency, forming an immediate bond with the viewer through a sense of play. Favaretto calls her works ‘macchine del divertimento’ (fun machines). They are mechanisms whose purpose is to be radically non-productive and non-functional. For the Biennale of Sydney, Favaretto has created a new version of Plotone. A ‘platoon’ of compressed air-tanks, they appear to breathe as timer-released air blows from them periodically, setting in action a chorus of party whistles. It is a festive, alternative chant to the military marching songs of soldiers. ‘An army betrayed or defeated is standing still,’ says Favaretto, ‘compelled to remain in their confined position, like civilian soldiers frustrated in waiting, in a silence interrupted only by single breaths: inhaled through the movement of their red and silver playful tongues.’

http://www.bos2008.com/app/biennale/artist/36

Rococo Vortex at Don’t Look Gallery.

Rococo Vortex by Wade Marynowsky,
(dresses by Susan Marynowsky)
Don’t Look Gallery, 419 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill
Opening August 20, 6pm, August 21-30, Thurs-Sat 11-5pm

The exhibition explores 18th century European notions of the automaton, elegance, decadence and how these have filtered down into contemporary Australian kitsch culture.

In the gallery shop front are two spinning Rococo styled and robotic crinolines. The robotic stands spin as if they are in continual dance. The spin position coordinates are sent wirelessly to a computer which translates this movement into audio and video. The work questions Australia’s, and other countries, continuous obsession with identity, antiquity, and bourgeoisie society. If the French decided to behead their Monarchy in 1793 when will it be time for Australia to break from the commonwealth?