artroom5:south australia

Anne Kay

Sera Waters | Anne Kay | Irmina van Niele

4 - 21 March , 2009

My work is concerned with uncovering aspects of our present moment that are not immediately evident, with what is implicit rather than explicit, in things that are overlooked, forgotten, or simply not mentioned. For instance, histories or interests which sit outside the central purview of society, and in the ways in which these stories or conditions come into being with their concomitant power relations. This curiosity has brought me to diverse territories, ranging from the art world, the urban world and the natural world. My intention in making art is to bring these histories and relations to the attention of audiences in order to transform perceptions, if only momentarily.

Encompassing sculpture, installation, photography, video, and projects involving direct engagement with particular groups of people, my work has been exhibited extensively in Australia since1992 at artist-run galleries, contemporary artspaces, and more recently in a public art commission and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and in projects in New Zealand, Mexico and Los Angeles. I have frequently worked in collaboration with other artists and have been active in artist-initiated projects and galleries such as elastic and Loose Projects; currently, I'm a member of The Free Association, a multi-disciplinary critical discussion group.

I am a PhD candidate at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and have a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts and have been a sessional academic for five years at various universities.

October 2008

Anne Kay
Plastic timepiece, 2008
Paper, pencil, oil pastel, plastic bottle, shadows
photos: Anne Kay

Anne Kay
Picture Tree, 1997
Projector and box, photographic slide, plastic bags, wall bracket, infra-red
motion sensor
Dimensions: Variable
Photo: Anne Kay

Picture Tree was created as part of a semi-collaborative project 
with Lisa Kelly called Visiting Pieces in 1997 at Westspace in 
Melbourne, the work was subsequently exhibited in the Helen 
Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition in 1999.

Education:

2008
2003
1994

PhD Candidate, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
Master of Fine Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney

Selected Exhibitions: Individual

Figure of Plastic, Institute of Contemporary Art, Newtown, Sydney
Burn the Man-made Things, Gallery A402, California Institute of the Arts
Beige and Brown Customs, Scott Donovan Gallery, Sydney
Trailer Life, Blaugrau, Sydney & The Cube, Canberra Contemporary Art Centre, Canberra
Conversational Portraits, Elastic Project Space, Sydney
Visiting Pieces, collaboration with Lisa Kelly, Westspace, Melbourne
Floral Clock, first draft, Sydney

Group

forthcoming, Feb 2009, Australian Video Art from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 
at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Loose Ends, Loose Projects, Sydney
It's a new day, Artspace, Sydney
Cones of Zontact, Loose Projects, Sydney
Artist Archive, Situation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Junket, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico
We've Moved, The Armory, Pasadena, California
...Landscape, Westspace, Melbourne
Modus Operandi, joint exhibition with Ryszard Dabek, Centre for Contemporary 
Photography, Melbourne
Vanishing Point, BlauGrau, Sydney
Gettin' Lucky, Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith, New South Wales
Resident's Exhibition, 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica
Emergency Rescue, RubyAyre Gallery, Sydney
20:20 Vision, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
S___Hot, Artspace, Sydney
Oblique-The Otira Project, Site-specific project, Otira, New Zealand
Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, Artspace, Sydney
Pin, South, Sydney
Sterile Until Opened, Artspace, Sydney
Ten Year Anniversary Show, first draft, Sydney
The Viaduct Project, Federal Park, Annandale, Sydney

Public Art Commission:

2006	Place as embodied time, Public art commission, Westpac Bank. Westpac Place, Kent St, Sydney

Selected Screenings:

2004

2002

Black Box, Australian Centre for Photography
d>Art 2004, Australian emerging, The Studio, Sydney Opera House & Dendy Quays Cinema
Untitled, Two-night Group screening, Gallery 825, Los Angeles
Video, Film, Sound, Scott Donovan Gallery

Selected Grants / Awards:

Australian Post-Graduate Award
NSW Ministry for the Arts International Travel Grant (Group)
Anne and Gordon Samstag International Travelling Scholarship
Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant (elastic group)
Highly Commended, Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship

Collections:

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Work in private collections (available on request)

Selected Writing / Publications

with Josie Cavallaro, 'Failure to Communicate,' Conversations, Runway, issue 11.
Artists pages, Column 1, Artspace, Sydney
The Copy and Paste Life, Runway, issue 7
Why you really should learn to spell Biennale if you want to be in one, Cones of 
Zontact catalogue, Loose Projects
Don't ask don't tell, Situation catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Elastic Printed Project, Chapter: Point of View, Elastic (artists group), Sydney
Away Match, with Lisa Kelly, in Artists Talk: Issues facing Australian Artists, (Ed) 
R. Holt and B. Jones, Westspace, Melbourne, pp. 105-112
Artist's pages, Civic, Dialogue, no. 12, Aug, Westspace, pp. 88-89

Selected Publications and Reviews:

Sean Lowry, 'Monuments to Heroic Failure,' Broadsheet, vol. 37, no.1, pp. 198- 201
B. L. Manger, 'It's a New Day,' Eyeline, no.64, p. 60
Catriona Moore and Jo Holder, 'Woolloomooloo and the Expanded Neighbourhood of 
Process-driven Art Practice,' Artspace Projects 2006, Artspace, Sydney, pp.132-150
The Artists Voice, DVD, Series 2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Elvis Richardson, Communicating with the future, Photofile, Spring, pp 24-7
Ann Finegan, Good times & friendship: Artist initiatives and relational aesthetics, 
Art Monthly, #190, June, pp. 18-22
John McDonald, 'Westerly Directions', Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July 2005
Sebastian Smee, 'Capturing the Community,' The Australian, July 7 2005
Adam Gezcy, 'When Art is No Object,' Broadsheet, Vol. 34, 4, Sept-Nov 
Keith Gallash, Video Challenges, Real Time, 62, Sept 04, p. 28-30
Bruce James, Flattering Highlights Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 27 2002
Daniel Palmer, 'The Order of Things,' Photofile, 67, Dec 2002, pp. 18-22
Bruce James, Carried Away by the People Movers' Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 19 2002, p. 14
Alex Gawronski, 'Now You See It..,' Real Time, 44, July, 2001
Broadcast, Arts Today, Radio National, Feb 14 
Gettin' Lucky, Catalogue, Penrith Regional and The Lewer's Bequest Gallery
Evergreen, Below and Behold, Platform Artists Group, pp. 38-41
Bruce James, 'Undiscovered Artists,' Australian Art Collector, 12, April, p.69
Tiffany Lee-Shoy, 'Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Exhibition,' Eyeline, Summer, p.47-48
Bruce James, 'Flies in the Face of Reality,' Sydney Morning Herald, April 24 1999, p.12
The Changing Critical Role of Artist Run Initiatives, firstdraft, p.57

Artists Talks / Panel Discussions

Guest speaker, with Josie Cavallaro, Faculty of Arts/School of Letters, Art & Media, 
University of Sydney.
Visiting artist lecture, Sydney College of the Arts
Co-convenor with Lisa Kelly, Biennale Forum, Loose Projects
Situation gallery talk, Museum of Contemporary Art, June 16
Guest lecturer, Artists Talk, University of Newcastle, Faculty of Education and Art
Visiting Artist, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Dec 7

Related Professional Activities

Member of The Free Association, a Sydney-based group of cultural practitioners conducting 
critical discussion related to contemporary art 
4 month Studio Residency, Artspace, Sydney
2 month Studio Residency with Josie Cavallaro, Artspace, Sydney
Member of Loose (artists' group), co-director, Loose Projects, Sydney
Coordinator of multidisciplinary reading group
Member of Elastic artist's group, co-director, elastic Project Space, Sydney
3 month Studio Residency with Lisa Kelly, Artspace, Sydney