Candystripers / Saints of the Apocalypse / Name/Title / Abracadaver

9 Jun 09 – 26 Jun 09

Candystripers – Gemma Jones & Lauren Brown

The Candystripers is a collaboration between two Melbourne artists: pop-artist Gemma Jones and installation artist Lauren Brown. Their latest project is in the entrance to Bus Gallery, an artist run space in the heart of Melbourne, and is the third in a series of projects based in Melbourne.

Seeking to create hyper-real spaces that walk the line between exterior and interior experiences, The Candystripers project at Bus transforms the foyer into a cross between Victorian wallpaper, an oversized minimalist painting and a helicopter landing pad.

Saints of the Apocalypse – Nicole Dominic & Sarah Bunting

Imagining a post-apocalyptic society in which familiar objects are recontextualised and raised to the status of icons, a series of shrines and totems have been constructed in the gallery space. Combining the symbolism of religious and financial structures, waste and profligacy are raised to new heights in an absurd paean to consumption. As part of an opening night performance, audience members are invited to contribute a small, clean piece of rubbish as an offering to unknown deities.

Name/Title – Julie Traitsis & Rebecca Joseph

It started with a list- “Girls Names in Songs.” After editing our own compilation of songs, the result of this exhibition is a mixed melody of girl’s names, played through numerous speakers within the installation.

Stripped from both their original form and lyrical narrative, the sequence of names becomes similar to a roll call, still each fragment triggers a more personalised memory, unique to each listener. What were dedications to those of the; past, present and potential are now call outs to what we the audience may provide.

Abracadaver – Lauren Brown

Abracadaver is a show about magic, death and artifice. The exhibition draws on aspects of the macabre and the somber, as well as the fantastic to create architecturally-inspired and objects and spaces of death.

The work by Lauren Brown, including jack-in-the-box funerary urns and hurdy-gurdy coffins, investigates the social taboo of housing death and its links with the secrets of magic and trickery: her sound/light-based work and interactive sculpture actively “put the fun into funeral”.