An exhibition of new and recent work by Australian contemporary artist Louisa Bufardeci and Japanese artist Zon Ito will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) this winter.
The exhibition, which runs from 28 July until 25 October 2009, represents the fourth in the MCA’s series of international pairing projects which profile an Australian artist alongside an international peer of their choice and seeks to position Australian contemporary art within a wider, global dialogue.
Louisa Bufardeci, Team Joy 2004, mixed media installation, acrylic paint on wood and nails, adhesive labels information sourced from www.cia.gov. Image courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney © the artist. Originally commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for Cycle Tracks will Abound in Utopia, 2004
Melbourne-born Louisa Bufardeci, who currently lives and works in the United States, will present new and recent work for the MCA exhibition spanning an eight year period. Bufardeci selected contemporary Japanese artist Zon Ito to show alongside, on the basis of shared material and conceptual affinities.
Bufardeci’s practice encompasses a diverse range of media, including sculpture, installation, wall drawings and colourful digital prints.
Bufardeci frequently draws upon statistical data in her art, sourcing information from the public domain—including the CIA Fact Book, the national census, the World Bank, UNESCO and opinion polls. She translates this information into colour charts, maps and architectural diagrams in order to draw playful attention to gaps, biases and inequalities.
For the MCA exhibition Bufardeci will create a new site specific work to be displayed in the Museum’s George Street foyer.
Speaking about this new site specific project at the MCA, Bufardeci says: “This project is a reinvention of the commission I produced for the City of Melbourne’s ‘Laneway Commission’ in 2001. The idea is to create brightly coloured renditions of statistical information sourced from the local census and hence about the people who will be encountering it.
“It’s designed to be on the ground where viewers will need to walk on it in order to experience it and hopefully to find themselves, statistically and literally, in it. For the George Street foyer of the MCA I am installing three pieces based on the latest Sydney census that illustrates the birthplace, languages spoken at home and migration by year of the residents,” says Bufardeci.
The exhibition also presents Bufardeci’s major new series of modified ‘national flags’ which premiered in October 2008 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) before being included in the MCA Sydney project.
Whilst the exhibition represents a two-person showing, rather than a collaboration, Bufardeci and Ito show some similarities in their practice. Both respond directly to architectural space in their work and choose to interpret the gallery in all of its ‘three dimensions’. Bufardeci and Ito actively use walls, floor, ceiling and corridor areas in their artworks, as well as space beyond the gallery walls and the use of colour is central to their practices.
Zon Ito’s practice spans drawing, stitched and embroidered canvases, cut paper, fabric assemblages and quirky hand-drawn animations which he creates with his wife, a respected younger Japanese artist, Ryoko Aoki. Ito is also known in Japan as a member of the underground band called Anti-Gravity known for playing their guitars upside down, suspended from the ceiling.
The exhibition is free entry and will run at the MCA from 28 July until 25 October 2009.
ABOUT THE MCA:
Located on one of Australia’s most iconic sites on Sydney’s West Circular Quay, the MCA is a hub for creative learning and a world renowned and locally loved institution. It is the only museum in Australia dedicated to exhibiting, collecting and interpreting contemporary art from Australia and internationally. The MCA has been consistently nominated as Sydney’s leading museum or gallery, most recently in August 2008 by an independent poll conducted by the City of Sydney. Admission is free and the MCA is open to the public daily between 10am and 5pm.
www.mca.com.au
