adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Art

So you want my arts job: Art Installer – ArtsHub

Published

 on


A rare opportunity saw Andrew Hawley join the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as a casual art handler after graduating from his BFA in Drawing at RMIT in 2003.

Eighteen years later, he is now the Collection and Exhibition Preparator at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), known for their eccentric and challenging exhibitions, and undoubtedly, one of the most exciting environments in which to work in art installations, storage, and exhibition preparations.

He also holds a Masters in Cultural Materials Conservation from the University of Melbourne, and has worked across ACMI, the Victorian Arts Centre, ExhibitOne, POD Museum and Art services, and the Melbourne Immigration Museum.

300x250x1

From Ron Meuck’s 10 metre infant sculpture to Ai Weiwei’s White House (2015) in Mona’s Siloam, Hawley and his colleagues are the answer to your question: ‘But how did they manage to get it there?’

Here, Hawley shares the excitement of working on high-profile exhibitions and discusses the skills you would need to pursue this challenging but rewarding profession.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO?

In a nutshell; I prepare artwork and other culturally significant material for storage, exhibition and loan, and assist with exhibition/display installation. My role is quite varied but I spend most of my time at our off-site collection store where I design, construct and fit out custom packing units for artworks. These vary from timber crates and travel frames to archival board boxes, archival tubes for rolled works and the occasional solander box. I also ensure artwork is clean and display ready. 

I organise and maintain the off-site collection storage area which involves a lot of 3D Tetris. I work closely with colleagues including registrars, a conservator, a mount maker and several other very highly skilled art handler/technicians as well as a wider team of kinetic artwork and time based media technicians.

I assist with exhibition installation/deinstallation and collection changeover at the museum and some external locations during festivals.

I’m also a qualified paper conservator so I undertake some conservation assessments and treatments when required.

Read: So you want my arts job: Museum Program Producer

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN YOUR CAREER?

I finished a fine art degree in 2003 and was looking for something outside the hospitality industry and inside the museum/gallery industry. Luckily, a regular customer at one of the venues I worked in (as a chef/cook), let word slip that the National Gallery of Victoria were hiring casual art handlers to prepare to move into the refurbished premises at St Kilda Road. I got the boss’ details, wrote an application letter, attended a job interview and somehow was successful, despite no prior experience.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO THE MOST IN YOUR JOB?

Unique challenges and a reliance on lateral thinking for solutions – something I experience almost every day. I also have great colleagues with whom I liaise about all aspects of the job. We learn from each others’ creative perspectives.

I love the excitement of a large or high profile exhibition, including engagement with external or international artists and curators, trying to help realise a vision that may or may not be clear in everybody’s mind. I equally love the calm and solitude of a collection store and the fact that I work so closely with museum objects on a daily basis. If I have a bad day, looking at an ancient Egyptian mummified cat or some 2,000 year old bronze knife coins is very soothing. 

IN AN INTERVIEW FOR YOUR JOB, WHAT SKILLS AND QUALITIES WOULD YOU LOOK FOR?

Similar institutional experience in a similar capacity (eg. art handling, art packing) would be a must. It takes many years to attune yourself to the level of care required around culturally significant objects and irreplaceable artworks.

Other qualifiers would include:

  • A strong work ethic
  • An ability to handle multiple projects with strict deadlines
  • The ability to delegate fun jobs
  • The ability to undertake monotonous or tedious jobs
  • Strong, clear communication
  • Patience
  • Physically fit and able

The ability to look outside oneself and one’s own experience for solutions. It’s a bit of a ‘jack of all trades’ kind of position and a good Jack should know when they need to call on a master of something.

Someone who prefers order and neatness in their professional life. I’m in no way the neatest person in my private life but organising a storage area that keeps artwork safe and secure requires a high degree of attention to detail.

WHAT IS ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE INSTALLATION EXPERIENCES/PROJECTS THAT YOU’VE WORKED ON?

There’s been a lot over the years – I’ve done everything from helping carry and install a 10 metre silicon sculpture of an infant (Ron Mueck) to hanging iconic works from Picasso, Munch or Tom Roberts. From installing 100 tiny neolithic arrow/spear heads in one showcase to helping build a large, imperial Chinese house framework on glass balls (Ai Weiwei), and from installing famous AFL players’ jerseys in a sports museum (MCG/Australian Sports Museum) to hanging stills from Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey (ACMI).

It’s hard to pick one moment from one project. In recent times, it’s probably been the preparatory work and final install of big MONA shows like On the Origins of Art, The Museum of Everything and our recent Monanisms 2021 collection based exhibition.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING HAPPENING IN YOUR SECTOR AT THE MOMENT?

We’re still operating and I still enjoy my job.

Read: So you want my arts job: Theatre Technician

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Art

Empty Frames and Other Oddities From the Unsolved Gardner Museum Heist – The New York Times

Published

 on


In the pre-dawn hours of March 18, 1990, following a festive St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, two men dressed as police officers walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and walked off with an estimated $500 million in art treasures. Despite efforts by the local police, federal agents, amateur sleuths and not a few journalists, no one has found any of the 13 works lost in the largest art theft in history, including a rare Vermeer and three precious Rembrandts.

The legacy of the heist is always apparent to museum visitors who, decades later, still confront vacant frames on the gallery walls where paintings once hung. They are kept there as a reminder of loss, museum officials say, and in the hope that the works may eventually return. Last month, Richard Abath, the night watchman who mistakenly allowed in the thieves, died at 57. He was a vital figure in an investigation that remains active, but where the trails have grown cold.

Here are five oddities that make this one of the most compelling of American crimes.

300x250x1

The thieves took a really strange array of stuff.

Important paintings were taken from their frames during the heist. But other items that were stolen were not nearly of the same caliber: a nondescript Chinese metal vase; a fairly ordinary bronze eagle from atop a flagpole; and five minor sketches by Degas. The thieves walked past paintings and jade figurines worth millions, including a drawing by Michelangelo, yet they spent some of their 81 minutes inside fussing to free the vase from a tricky locking mechanism.

The handcuffed guard was later scrutinized.

Abath, one of two guards on duty, was handcuffed and gagged with duct tape. He was never named a suspect. But over the years investigators continued to review his behavior because he had, against protocol, opened the museum door to the thieves. (The second guard, who is still living, was never a focus of investigative interest.) The F.B.I. monitored Abath’s assets for decades but never saw any suspicious income. He consistently said he told investigators everything he knew, and an F.B.I. polygraph he voluntarily took was deemed “inconclusive.”

The empty frames have stayed on the walls.

The museum was once Gardner’s home and she wanted to ensure that her expansive art collection was displayed in the same manner she had arranged it. She stipulated in her will that not a thing was to be removed or rearranged, or the collection should be shipped to Paris for auction, with the money going to Harvard University. Though it’s long been reported that the empty frames are left hanging to accord with that will, the museum says that is actually a long uncorrected mistake. “We have chosen to display them,” it said in a statement “because 1.) we remain confident that the works will someday return to their rightful place in the galleries; and 2.) they are a poignant reminder of the loss to the public of these unique works.”

The thieves left behind a prized Rembrandt.

A self-portrait of Rembrandt at 23 was taken down by the thieves but left leaning against a cabinet. “I really believe they probably forgot it,” said Anthony Amore, the museum’s current security chief. The work was on an oak panel, making it heavier than the paintings on canvas that they stole. But it was about the same dimensions as Govaert Flinck’s “Landscape With an Obelisk,” which was also on oak, and stolen.

The list of suspects has been a dizzying stew.

Investigators have looked at all manner of burglars and art thieves and dismissed all sorts of theories. Did Whitey Bulger steal the art to help the Irish Republican Army raise money for arms? No. Did the Mafia want a bargaining chip to help free a member from prison? Maybe. In 2015 the F.B.I. named two long-dead, Boston-area criminals, George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio, as the likely bandits. They have never publicly discussed why.

Investigators still hope to recover the art. The museum upped its reward to $10 million in 2017 from $5 million in 1997 and $1 million in 1990. It has devoted several sections of its website to educating the public about the crime. It embraces publicity in the hope that someone, someday, somewhere will recognize one of the artworks and contact it.

“We have followed every lead and continue to check out new leads,” Amore said, adding, “All that matters is finding out where they are today and getting them back.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Art

Small art featured in exhibition – CTV News Edmonton

Published

 on


[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Small art featured in exhibition  CTV News Edmonton

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Art

Banksy Goes Green With New Street Art That's Like An Optical Illusion – HuffPost

Published

 on



LOADINGERROR LOADING

var label_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a = “ctx-wait-65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a”;
var defer_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a = document.currentScript;
console.time(label_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a);
window.waitForGlobal(
() => window.HP && window.HP.params && window.HP.params.clientUUID && window.localStorage && defer_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a && defer_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a.parentElement.dataset.ready === “true”,
() => {
console.timeEnd(label_65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a);
(new Image()).src = ‘https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=ff7fdddc-5441-4253-abc4-f12a33fad58b&cid=1bf35e8b-3d55-48a6-aef8-0ebfdd277df7’;
cnx.cmd.push(function() {
cnx(
mediaId: “b65dfedf-f34b-4c12-a74f-1f730ad202a8”,
playerId: “ff7fdddc-5441-4253-abc4-f12a33fad58b”,
playlistId: undefined,
customParam1: window.localStorage.getItem(“cet-page_session_id”),
customParam2: “65f82c6be4b0defe9b27b889”,
customParam3: “HPVideoTeamHuffPostNOWnews,HuffPost NOW News,Banksy,art,Antiques Roadshow,BBC,street art,Bristol,England,artists,MV3,MV2”,
customParam4: “desktop”,
customParam5: window.HUFFPOST.params.clientUUID,
settings:
playbackMode: undefined,
disableAdvertising: false,
customization:
floating:
mode: undefined,
floatingGutterY: 58,

).render(“65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a”, (renderError, playerApi) =>
const wrapper = document.getElementById(“65f82d3ee4b0defe9b27b88a”).closest(“.connatix-wrapper”);
const loadingEl = wrapper !== null ? wrapper.querySelector(“.loading-message”) : null;
if (renderError)
// An error occured while rendering the player
if(loadingEl !== null)
loadingEl.classList.add(“error”);

return;
else
// player is ready and rendered
if(loadingEl !== null)
loadingEl.classList.add(“loaded”);

300x250x1

const dismissBottomStickyButton = document.querySelector(“.ad-bottom-right-sticky__close”);
const bottomStickyContainer = document.querySelector(“.bottom-right-sticky-container”);
if (bottomStickyContainer && dismissBottomStickyButton)
playerApi.on(cnx.configEvents.FloatingEnterStart, function()
dismissBottomStickyButton.classList.add(“slide-out”);
bottomStickyContainer.classList.add(“video-floating”);
);
playerApi.on(cnx.configEvents.FloatingExitStart , function()
dismissBottomStickyButton.classList.remove(“slide-in”);
bottomStickyContainer.classList.remove(“video-floating”);
);
playerApi.on(cnx.configEvents.CloseButtonClicked , function()
bottomStickyContainer.classList.add(“slide-out”);
);

);
})}
);

Banksy is back with his first confirmed installation of 2024.

The anonymous British street artist posted on his Instagram account on Monday that he was behind a mural that was first spotted in Finsbury Park in London over the weekend.

In the artwork, a stenciled figure of a woman appears to have sprayed green paint over a white wall behind a pollarded tree, thus giving an optical illusion effect of foliage.

Banksy, who has never been officially identified, shared before and after images of the art on Instagram.

See the post here:

The artist didn’t caption the post, prompting multiple theories as to the meaning of the mural.

Some people thought it was a message of hope amid the climate crisis, of which Banksy, who originally hails from Bristol in southwest England, has used his artwork to highlight on multiple previous occasions.

Others suggested it was a pessimistic take on the environment or a commentary on greenwashing, the tactic the United Nations defines on its website as “misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is.”

Banksy confirmed he was behind the mural in Finsbury Park, London. (Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images)

Banksy confirmed he was behind the mural in Finsbury Park, London. (Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images)
Jonathan Brady – PA Images via Getty Images

Documentarian James Peak, the creator of the BBC’s “The Banksy Story” radio series, said the message is “clear” that “nature’s struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back.”

“When you step back, it looks like the tree is bursting to life, but in a noticeably fake and synthetic way,” he told the broadcaster. “And it’s pretty subtle for a massive tree, I’d say.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending