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COFA Heads To Venice

Article released: Monday, 01 June, 2009

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In terms of international art-world success, Australia has hit the big time.  This year in July, five Australian artists, a curator, five post graduate students and four undergraduate students will head to Venice to participate in the oldest and one of the most significant visual arts events in the world – the Venice Biennale.

For Australia, this is an important achievement.  But for COFA, to which each of these people can be connected, the achievement is even greater.  Never in the history of Australia’s involvement in major international art biennales has one educational institution been so represented.  

The 53rd Venice Biennale is COFA’s time to shine. COFA graduate Shaun Gladwell is Australia’s formal representative at the Venice.  The national and international buzz around Gladwell and his riveting, street-smart art is considered by many to be unprecedented. Shaun Gladwell will return to Venice after receiving worldwide acclaim at the last Biennale exhibition. This year Shaun will present his work MADDESTMAXIMVS in the Australian Pavilion. Influenced by the Australian desert landscape and Mad Max movies, Shaun’s work is a suite of videos accompanied by sound, photographic and sculptural works.

Selected by the Australia Council to curate the associated Venice Biennale show, Once Removed at The Ludoteca, Felicity Fenner, is about to fast-gear the careers of four other Australian artists. They include the nationally celebrated artistic duo of Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, both graduates from COFA, Aboriginal-Chinese artist, Vernon Ah Kee, and Japanese-Australian artist, Ken Yonetani. Once Removed features three installations unified by themes of displacement and Indigenous and environmental issues. Claire and Sean’s installation is a five-metre tower of 195,774 video tapes commandeering a 16th century church.
Fenner, a lecturer and curator at COFA, is herself no stranger to acclaim after the curatorial success of her 2008 Adelaide Biennale.   Anyone who saw it would expect no less of Once Removed.  

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Australia’s participation in the 2009 Venice Biennale is the degree to which all parts of artistic endeavour, including the study and teaching of, will be represented.   Travelling to Venice to support the installation of the Australian artworks are two groups of specialist art students.  One group, on full scholarship supported by the Australia Council and COFA, will help install The Ludoteca show and Shaun Gladwell’s installation at the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini.   These COFA Master of Art Administration students include Marissa Bateman, Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, Marcel Cooper, Rebecca Goosen and Danielle Hairs.

The other group heading to Venice, including Jane Cleary, Elizabeth Thorpe, Jess Haley, and Lisa Rumble, is comprised of keen COFA undergraduate art education students. Tasked by the Australia Council to produce an educational toolkit on the Venice Biennale and Australia’s participation for use in all Australian schools, these soon-to-be art teachers are fulfilling an official role and will leave a lasting reminder of Australia’s growing artistic status in the world.