MEDIA RELEASE
1 Oct 2013

In the Cut

In the Cut

10 October – 24 November, 2013

Since the early part of last century artists have used assemblage and collage techniques to question the political and social status quo, manipulate existing narratives, and challenge conventional distinctions between art forms.

 
Ellen Gallagher  DeLuxe (2005). edition 19/20. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Publisher: Two Palms Press
In the Cut, which opens at ACCA on 10 October,  brings together a selection of 16 important international and Australian artists who work in the medium.  Drawn from the last two decades, the works embrace diverse media such as drawing, sculpture, prints and photography, and reflect the early political origins of collage along with its revised potential in the digital age.
 
The exhibition, curated by ACCA Associate Curator Hannah Mathews, has been developed to complement Tacita Dean’s monumental work, FILM.  Presented by ACCA and Melbourne Festival, FILM rescues the techniques of hand-made special effects and montage to reveal the artistry in filmmaking.
 
Highlights include:
 
·      Revered US artist Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe, which draws on cultural history and her own experience as an Irish- African American. The work is a grid of 60 magazine advertisements depicting African American people from the 1930s to the 1970s, many suggesting ‘improvements’ of straighter hair or lighter skin.  Gallagher has added shapes and patterns that obscure and parody the advertisements’ message.
 
·      A series of works by English born Australian pop artist Richard Larter that combine images of politicians, celebrities, cartoons and old master paintings, to provide an acerbic account of Australia’s social and political history during the 1980s.
 
·      Linder’s Pretty Girls series, which juxtapose found photographic images of the nude with colour images of household appliances.  Linder, a key member of London’s punk and post-punk movement, is widely known for the cover image of the single Orgasm Addict by the Buzzcocks.
 
Other artists include Elizabeth Newman (Aust), David Maljkovic (Croatia), Henning Bohl (Germany), Tom Burr (US), Nikolas Gambaroff (Germany), Matthew Griffin (Aust), Mathew Hale (Eng), Ry Haskings (Aust), Henrik Olesen (Denmark), Lillian O’Neil (Aust), Lia Perjovschi (Romania), Amanda Ross-Ho (US) and Kelley Walker (US).
 
10 October – 24 November, 2013.
 
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt St, Southbank.
10am – 5pm including weekends and public holidays
Wednesdays open late till 8pm, Monday by appointment .
Tel: 03 9697 9999.  Admission: Free.  www.accaonline.org.au
 
ACCA is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.