2015 Splendour In The Grass NEWART Commission
Tom Borgas :: Postdigital Ruins
The Splendour In The Grass NEWART Commission is set to be shown on 24, 25 and 26 of July when Splendour in the Grass audiences of up to 30,000 arrive on site and experience Postdigital Ruins, a work conceived by Borgas for the festival.
As a sculptural work, Postdigital Ruins is a large-scale, intervention in the natural landscape– an archaeological excavation exposing the remnants of a vast, subterranean, low-res virtual landscape. Referencing the structures used by software to describe three-dimensional space, the work is fluorescent pink and constructed from several hundred interlocking plaster tiles and explores the wireless, invisible digital network that services our deep seated desire to connect with others. A crew of workers labour from midday to midnight over the three days of the festival to study and document this physical anomaly with online updates being redistributed as data via social media.
Tom Borgas is an emerging artist currently based in Adelaide, South Australia. Through the articulation and integration of overtly digital motifs and analogue processes, his expanded sculptural practice investigates the formal and conceptual richness that exists at the juncture of nature and culture. His work has been exhibited at shows and galleries around Australia including Hill Smith Gallery Adelaide, FELTspace ARI, the 2013 & 2014 Helpmann Academy Graduate exhibitions, Hatched 2013– the national graduate exhibition at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art and PICA Salon 2014. He was awarded the NAVA Ignition Prize for professional practice in 2012 as well as the Hill Smith Gallery/Helpmann Academy Friends Award and Backers Prize in 2013.
A partnership between Splendour In The Grass and Lismore Regional Gallery
SUBMISSIONS FOR 2015 ARE NOW CLOSED
Guidelines & Selection Criteria
Splendour In The Grass in partnership with Lismore Regional Gallery are seeking submissions from artists interested in creating and presenting work to engage audiences at Splendour In The Grass.
Splendour In The Grass is an annual music, arts and youth culture event that has taken place each July/August since 2001. This year, for the fifteenth time, Splendour will again present three huge days of music, art, craft, debate, discussion, food, markets and feverish fun at North Byron Parklands, 15 minutes north of Byron Bay. The 2015 festival dates are 24, 25 and 26 July.
Splendour In The Grass has supported a substantial arts program at the festival annually since its premier event in 2001. Splendour has formed an ongoing relationship with Lismore Regional Gallery since 2006 whereby local artists’ were commissioned to present new work for the festival. The Splendid initiative, a program managed by the Gallery in partnership with Splendour In The Grass and the Australia Council and supported by NORPA, ran from 2009 – 2012 and facilitated emerging inter-disciplinary artists to create new work for the festival. In 2013 & 2014, the Gallery and Splendour presented the first year of a major new work, Barnraiser & Rumspringer, by WA artist Bennett Miller and the first New Art Commission.
This new annual NEWART Commission will support a new work to be exhibited as part of the curated Splendour Arts program. Lismore Regional Gallery & Splendour In The Grass are seeking artists or collectives to submit proposals to present work in 2015.
The $10,000 NEWART Commission will support the creation of a new work to be exhibited as part of the curated Splendour Arts program, encouraging critical thinking and experimentation.
We are interested in works or artists engaged in site specific or place-making practices. The work must retain a presence within an audience of up to 30,000 and function over the three days of the festival - 25, 26 & 27 July 2015. It is also expected that the work strongly responds to the music festival site.
Further information:
Tel 02 6622 2209
Email artgallery@lismore.nsw.gov.au
for further info on the festival www.splendourinthegrass.com
2014 >> GET AWAY FROM HER YOU DICK
The Glitter Militia :: Matt Stegh & Justin Shoulder
The proposed work was a big, dramatic, and sensory stimulating 12metre high great white shark bursting out of the earth. It is responding to the current political climate where sharks are being baited and culled in Perth despite huge opposition from environmental agencies and the majority of the public. Stegh and Shoulder (AKA The Glitter Militia) propose a cheeky reclaiming of strength for Mother Nature – where we hear her ROAR. They seek to re-center the value of the natural environment and the creatures we share this planet with by attesting to the strength and power of this being. On a broader scale the work is a symbolic representation of government disregard for environmental sustainability, and using the festival to provoke thought to some 25,000 punters.
Justin Shoulder is a multi-disciplinary artist, creating and disseminating contemporary mythologies. These stories are realized physically in the construction of full-body highly sculptural ‘Fantastic Creature’ avatars expressed in live performance, video and photographic works. Shoulder has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally, including performances at Next Wave festival in Melbourne and The Sydney Opera House.
Matthew Stegh has been working as a freelance designer in the entertainment and arts industries for the past 15 years, including work with Sydney Theatre Company. His extensive experience includes costume and set design, styling and art direction for film, television, commercials, theatre and stills photography distributed internationally and is a founding member of the art collective The Glitter Militia.
