'no thing after another' : acab collective

'no thing after another' was a site specific installation created by ACAB collective for Trocadero Art Spaces in Footscray. Drawing on the spatial landscape of Footscray, a work was created that merged video installation with sound art and found objects. Construction sites and vacant lots represent zones of transition common to the landscape of the western suburbs. These places exist on the periphery of our awareness, prompting a simultaneous attraction and unease in those that come across them.
'no thing after another' locates the viewer within a transitory space and aims to preserve the unique poetic identity of the current Footscray-in-transit.

Today we de-installed the work, which was a challenge in the 35 degree heat.The exhibition went well though, and I'm very thankful to all who came along to take a look.
For those that missed it, here are some photographs of the installation...

xo

acab collective at trocadero artspaces

Coming up soon is ACAB collective's new show 'no thing after another' at Trocadero Art Space:
Level 1, 119 Hopkins Street, Footscray 3011

Opening: Saturday the 11th of February between 4-6pm.

We would love to see folks there to have a drink and give us opinions on out latest work.
ACAB collective consists of Zinzi Cuntstruct, Ben Johnson, Nickk Hertzog & Gina Cuntstruct

If you can't make it to the opening, the show is open between the 8th-25th of February. Wednesday - Saturday 11am til 6pm.


‘no thing after another’ seeks the engagement of a hidden tableau visible through select peep holes which offer a view onto the changing spatial identity of central Footscray. Bulldozed lots and worksites are synonymous with the shifting urban landscape. These transitional zones allow things to pass and go unheeded, collecting in anachronistic fissures within the metropolitan cobweb. Outmoded, temporarily functionless places have an enigmatic appeal and simultaneous revulsion. The disjunction between our perception and the world reaches us on the level of affect. The mood of this awareness is uneasiness meeting the strangely beautiful; an awareness of poetics. ACAB collective aims to preserve the unique poetic identity of the current Footscray-in-transit.

ben johnson and nickk hertzog : residency

Ben Johnson and Nickk Hertzog of ACAB Collective held a studio residency at Blindside Gallery this summer. The resulting installation was created using materials from all over the city and the Nicholas building and explored the complex relationship between place and context in the studio. The studio echoes the logic of spatial peripheries - it is a complex and organic whole. To remove a garbage bag is just as incongruous an action as removing a painting. The work was indelibly linked to the edifice of the studio. Ben Johnson and Nickk Hertzog’s assemblages cohere into a sort of DIY post apocalyptic desert island, where accumulation and entropy have become implicit in the studio space.

past performance works

Have finished uni for the year and am planning some new performance works that I'll be making over the summer. For now, here's some photographs of past work made during 2008 and 2010.



Steak, 2008




Translucence, 2008




Translucence, 2010




Delta of Venus, 2010





Composition (Orange), 2010

(dis-)array at light projects

Upcoming exhibition featuring the ACAB artist’s book.

The book was created at Monash University during (dis-)array, a series of transdisciplinary workshops that focus on making practices public through through the form of the artist’s book.

Opening drinks: 6-8pm, Friday 30 September 2011

The exhibition may be viewed:

Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 12-5pm, or by appointment

176 High Street, Northcote

www.light-projects.com

end zone (always do the bad thing) a performance by blaine cooper

Went to a really great performance at Blindside last week:


End Zone (Always Do the Bad Thang) is a new performance work by Melbourne-based video and installation artist Blaine Cooper, in collaboration with guitarist Nicholas Lam. Get set to see the artist running (via treadmill) from a wall of cinematic explosions, with wailing blasts of electric guitar highlighting the contrast between the always energetic, indestructible screen hero and the reality of a sweaty mess trying desperately to escape imminent destruction.


The performance went over a two hour period with Blaine Cooper running on the treadmill and Nicholas Lam playing more or less continual awesome classic guitar solo. As it went on the room (gallery 2) became heavier and drippier with airborne sweat. There was Guns n Roses, Kiss and cheap beer....it was the ultimate cheesy manly man action movie experience. Blaine was dressed (as most men in action movies) in leather shoes, trousers and a white singlet, clothing at odds with the act of running on a treadmill. As it went on the details became more and more interesting.....droplets of sweat beaded and dripped in his eyes and drenched his clothing; the heat emanating from his body doused the room....I felt like I could smell the leather of his shoes with the heat of continual movement. By the end he looked grey and exhausted.

nausea's reprieve winter carnival at topshed

Installation at Topshed, a warehouse in Fitzroy. The work was part of a night of theater, music and drinking with sounds by Pikelet and Rat vs Possum; video installation by us and Projector Obscura; and performances by the cast of Nausea’s Reprieve an absurdest comedy by James Khoo.
There was also vodka punch. Funsies!