Art Guide

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March/April 2010

A good ARI isn’t hard to find > NSW
Artist Run Initiative (ARI) Read More

Art Month Sydney > Precinct 1: Paddington/Woollahra > NSW
The first week of Art Month Sydney kicks off across Paddington and Woollahra, collectively crowned ‘Precinct 1’ Read More

Art Month Sydney > Precinct 2: Surry Hills/Darlinghurst > NSW
In reality Sydney’s gallery scene is a broad and vibrant kaleidoscope. Read More

Art Month Sydney > Precinct 3: Waterloo > NSW
Precinct 3 takes in the suburb of Waterloo, home to the Danks Street Complex which includes ten of Sydney’s commercial galleries. Read More

Art Month Sydney > Precinct 4: Redfern/Chippendale/CBD > NSW
Serendipitously there are two galleries in Precinct 4 that showcase Asian art, Read More

Discipline ain’t what it used to be
Donald Judd, one of the more influential founding fathers of minimalism couldn’t hack New York’s claustrophobia. Read More

The legacy of two great artists > NSW
Two significant Indigenous exhibitions, staged as part of Art Month Sydney, are East Kimberley Painting Revisited at Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay and Museum III at Utopia Art. Read More

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Icelandic Love Corporation (TAS)

By Phillip Watkins

As part of the Ten Days on the Island Festival, the Icelandic Love Corporation will make their Asia Pacific debut. The all-female group of artists (Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir, Jóní Jonsdóttir and Eirún Sigurdardóttir) formed in 1996 and whilst they work with a myriad of different media, they've primarily become known for their flamboyant performance, video and installation art.
Considering the current woes of the world - environmental degradation, global recession and various wars - the Icelandic Love Corporation’s catchphrase, Love conquers all! The future is beautiful! suggests that they are trying to avert a general crisis of confidence. As an ironically named ‘corporation’ (a reference to capitalist social structures) the recent and rather mysterious crisis of confidence on the stock market
must have had a particular resonance for these artists, whose work very often highlights social mores with playful wit. There’s a poignant humour to their art, which combines the often-absurd rituals of social interaction with a suggestion of impending disaster. In their case, redemption through love isn’t cloying optimism that pretends all’s good when it clearly isn’t.
The work, Hospitality, which the Icelandic Love Corporation will undertake in Hobart, is yet to be finalised but this is in keeping with their spontaneous way of working. Hospitality, however will relate to the previous works, The Tent Lady’s Hospitality 2008, a video work and The Tent Lady 2007, a sculptural performance from which the later video was made. These works centre on a huge tent-dress in which a dancer is suspended, ‘wearing’ it as it were. She serves tea with her feet and engages in conversation with the visitors who venture inside. This rather Alice-in-Wonderland kind of experience will be combined with the Icelandic Love Corporation’s recent interest in Black Swan theory. Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined this term to refer to rare, unpredictable and often catastrophic events beyond the realm of normal expectations, like the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York. The term ‘black swan’ comes from the assumption, prior to the discovery of black swans in Australia, that all swans were white. In other words, according to Taleb, all major events in history are unexpected and only in hindsight do we think up a rationale for their occurrence. Taleb writes, a vicious black swan has an additional elusive property; its very unexpectedness helps create the conditions for it to occur. Raising the level of awareness to probabilities, according to Taleb, increases our chance of survival even if we can never really predict when the next black swan will strike.

The theme of animal behaviour and of birds in particular is a recurring one in the Icelandic Love Corporation’s performances to date. Invasion Expansion 2005 sees them dressed as seagulls - black capes, yellow beaks and white gumboots - posing as corporate bullies, signing important contracts in a board room and playing golf, as all good statesmen do. Also, in the three-hour performance, Creation – Corruption – Celebration 2005, ravens take centre stage as the Icelandic Love Corporation reflects on human contradiction. They are creative, resourceful, sly, glamorous, greedy and can deserve to be killed. Like ravens on a cold winter we team up and help each other to stay alive. Anthropomorphism serves two functions in these works; by acting it out it helps us to face the radical otherness of difference broadly as well as the different species we share a planet with. It also enables us to laugh at ourselves even when the going gets tough.
There is always the fear of the inexplicable - black swans or
the reality that can shatter the predictability of our routine
knowledge. The Icelandic Love Corporation weaves spells
that address the ritualistic nature of human interaction pitted against the elements. Funny, compassionate and full of the
contradictions of social behaviour; they take on the good with the bad and insist that we lighten up as we take stock of the consequences of our actions.
None of you are special
Fear is the drive
Friendship is discipline
Darkness is innocent
Shake hands with your inner fear
Shake hands with your fantasy
(From the animation, Sympathy 2003)
Perhaps Hospitality will be a beautiful black swan to ward off fear of the vicious ones to come?

Contemporary Art Services Tasmania (CAST)
Hospitality
26 March to 24 April

Philip Watkins is a contemporary arts writer and curator and is currently Exhibition Coordinator for the Hobart City Council’s Carnegie Gallery.