WHAT’S ON
HEAT POLITICS (Lantian Xie and Map Office)
Curated by Tess Maunder and Sophie Kubler
24 November – 15 December 2018
Closing Event | Saturday 15th October 2 – 5pm
This event marks the closing of Heat Politics and offers a moment of conversation reflection on the show. This will take form in three-fold through a brief curatorial tour and introduction by Tess Maunder; followed by a reading group and critical discussion led by Sophie Kubler; rounding off with light refreshments – all welcome.
About the Exhibition
Heat Politics takes form through a gentle and extended conversation between the artists Lantian Xie (Dubai), Map Office (Hong Kong) and the exhibition curators – centring on the role of research-based practice. This project was formed on the basis that responsible curatorial practice should possess a specific set of parameters, goals and ethics. For this exhibition – how this takes form is through the understanding that curators should have a commitment to working with artists over time; nurturing, extending and testing practices – not just as a once off exercise. The primary aim of the exhibition, therefore, isn’t to deliver a neat and tidy thematic; but rather to offer a speculative space for new constellations to form within the wider practice of the artists, the audience and the space.
In line of this way of thinking, this project presented at Boxcopy is an extension in some ways of the ideas derived from the publishing project Absolute Humidity; edited by Maunder with project assistance from Kubler – both curatorial voices for this exhibition. The specific topics covered in the book cover, for example, were transnational relationships, ecological threats, anxiety and the shifting weather; both artists Lantian Xie and Map Office were contributors to the printed volume. Heat Politics grows, morphs and shifts from this initial conversation to take a physical form in an exhibition space through the practices of two artists who are considered conceptual and research driven in their approach with a particular sensitivity to the politics of heat. What audiences might encounter is reflections on a sense of humidity, the cosmos and layers of international capital – explored through the material lens of the pearl to fried chicken fat and a manufactured breeze.
About the Artists
Lantian Xie (Dubai)
Lantian Xie (b.1988) makes images, objects, stories, jazz bands, motorcycles, books, and parties. Previous exhibitions include 57th Venice Biennale, 11th Shanghai Biennale, 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Map Office (Hong Kong)
MAP Office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez (1966, Casablanca, Morocco) and Valérie Portefaix (1969, Saint-Étienne, France). This duo of artists has been based in Hong Kong since 1996, working on physical and imaginary territories using varied means of expression. MAP Office projects have been exposed in over 100 exhibitions at prestigious venues including the MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Georges Pompidou Centre (Paris) and the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (Beijing), around 35 Biennales and Trienniales around the world with for example five contributions to the Venice Biennale in Art and Architecture (2000, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010). Their cross-disciplinary practice has been the subject of a monograph, MAP OFFICE – Where the Map is the Territory (2011). MAP Office was the recipient of the 2013 edition of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize.
About the Curators
Tess Maunder (Curator, Brisbane)
Tess Maunder is a curator, educator and arts writer currently based in Brisbane, Australia. Recent projects include Curatorial Colligate for the 11th Shanghai Biennale titled Why Not Ask Again, with Chief Curators Raqs Media Collective and Curatorial Collegiate Members Sabih Ahmed, Chen Yun and Lu Tian (2016–17); Mittelheuser Scholar in Residence at Queensland State Library (2017–18); Curator in Residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program, ISCP, Brooklyn (2017), funded by the Brisbane City Council; and Editor of Absolute Humidity, published by Hardworking Goodlooking, supported by Arts Queensland, Australia Council for the Arts and Asialink Arts (2017–18). In late 2018, Maunder began institutional roles with Urban Art Projects, Brisbane, as Curator, and with Queensland University Technology, Brisbane, as a Sessional Academic. Maunder writes for publications and contributes to public discourse through speaking engagements.
Sophie Kubler (Assistant Curator, Brisbane)
Kubler is an emerging curator and writer who is currently completing her Honours in Art History at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
This project is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.
Announcing Boxcopy’s new Co-Director Team!
Boxcopy welcomes 5 new co-directors – Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer – Naomi Blacklock – Jessica Carmody – Hilary Thurlow – Emily Wakeling.
Biographies
Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer is an artist and independent curator whose practice is concerned with the digital conditions of contemporary life. His art practice explores photography, video games and the visual culture that surrounds them. He has exhibited in a number of artist-run spaces including First Draft (Sydney), Kudos Gallery (Sydney) and Bus Projects (Melbourne) and received an Artstart Grant (2015) from the Australian Council for the Arts. His collaborative curatorial projects (with Finn Marchant) were presented at Kudos Gallery (2017), and Alaska Projects (2015), Sydney. Nicholas graduated with Honours from a Bachelor of Design in Photography and Situated Media at UTS in 2014 and in 2018 is completing an Maters of Fine Art (Research) at UNSW Art and Design. Nicholas’ professional experience includes working as a Communications Assistant (Artspace, Sydney), Photographer and Graphic Designer (Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney) and as a Freelance Photographer/ Designer (2011-2018). From 2015 – 2018 Nicholas was a sessional lecturer and tutor in photography at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Naomi Blacklock is an Anglo-Indian artist based in Brisbane, Australia who works primarily with sound installation, text works and performance. Her artworks involve an exploration and examination of mythologies regarding the witch archetype and harmful histories of gender and cultural identity. Naomi has exhibited her work nationally including projects at Bus Projects (Melbourne), Seventh Gallery (Melbourne), Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), Metro Arts (Brisbane), The Walls Art Space (Gold Coast), First Draft (Sydney) and also at Ildiko Butler Gallery (New York). She was shortlisted for the Jeremy Hynes Award (2017) and received the NAVA Ignition Award for Professional Practice (2015). Naomi is currently completing her PhD with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award at QUT, where she also teaches as a Sessional Academic in Art History and in the Open Studio program. She has also worked for 5 years as an Art Education Coordinator at the YMCA including running art history events at schools. Naomi was a founding member of the Clutch Collective artist-run initiative, presenting exhibitions using a three-ton truck as a gallery.
Jessica Carmody is an emerging artist based in Brisbane, Australia. Her visual arts practice is concerned with the importance of memory and the paradox of performing intimacy through re-construction and re-enactment in sculpture and performance works. Jessica was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) with Distinction in 2017 and she is currently undertaking a Master of Philosophy (Creative Practice) at the Queensland University of Technology. In 2018 Jessica was the Gallery Assistant at Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space. This role included managing the gallery and assisting with events, exhibitions and research projects. She is currently undertaking an Internship at Eyeline Publishing and was also part of the Graduate Exhibition Management Committee at QUT in 2017.
Hilary Thurlow is an emerging writer and curator based in Brisbane, Australia. Hilary completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Art History at UQ in 2017 and is currently completing her Honours dissertation titled ‘Queering the Archive: New Approaches to Feminist Historiography in the work of Dale Harding and Barbara Cleveland’ at the same institution. This research seeks to understand how non-confirmative archives in contemporary arts practice shape feminist modes of historiography. Her professional experience includes working as a Front-of-House Attendant, and Digital Communications Assistant and volunteer at UQ Art Museum, as a volunteer at Griffith Artworks (Griffith University), and a volunteer at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. Hilary was also a Board Member of the student organization, the Society of Fine Arts (SoFA), UQ. In 2018 Hilary completed the Goldsmiths (University of London) Curatorial Summer School program, ’Curating the Contemporary’ held at the British School in Rome.
Emily Wakeling is a writer and curator who has broad experience in the arts industry including in Japan and the UK. Emily completed a Master of Philosophy in Art History at UQ in 2010 and is currently undertaking a PhD focused on curatorial studies at QUT with the support of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. In 2018 she has been contracted as an Assistant Curator, Asian and Pacific Art, at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, working on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Emily lived and worked for several years in Tokyo, as an editor for Tokyo Art Beat and as an adjunct lecturer at Joshibi University of Art & Design and Kanagawa University. Emily’s curatorial projects include the upcoming “All We Can Do is Pray” at Boxcopy (2019); “Come Close: Japanese Artists within their Communities” Bus Projects, Melbourne (2015) and solo exhibitions by Archie Moore at Higure 17-15 CAS, Tokyo and Courtney Coombs at Rojitohito Gallery, Tokyo (2012). Her writing on art has been included in numerous art journals including Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts, Art Monthly Australasia, ArtAsiaPacific and ArtReview Asia.
Boxcopy is proud to be a founding member of All Conference – a national organising network comprised of 15 artist-led, experimental and cross-disciplinary arts organisations.
Representing a crucial stratum of the Australian arts ecology, All Conference members present diverse and innovative artistic programs which support the practices of living Australian artists. They connect these practices to diverse audiences via a passionate localism coupled with significant national and international peer-to-peer networks.
Founding members include: Alaska Projects (NSW), BLINDSIDE (VIC), Boxcopy (QLD), Bus Projects (VIC), c3 (VIC), Constance (TAS), FELTspace (SA), Firstdraft (NSW), Kings ARI (VIC), Moana (WA), Liquid Architecture (VIC), Runway (NSW), Seventh (VIC), Trocadero Artspace (VIC), and Un Projects (VIC).
