Alia DiPaolo, Vibewire’s feature artist of the month is in the habit of finding odds and ends around the house and throwing whatever sticks onto a canvas along with paste and paint.

“I find it in my house, in my garage, around the place, all of it is scrap.”

Alia’s work bears the influence of the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s — a splash of paint here, some steel wire there… and whatever else I can find here, here and here. There’s something chaotic and Pollock-like about her method and that’s where her paintings derive a lot of their intrigue.

“The movement of creating a work in itself is a kind of performance, especially that of Pollock”, Alia told Vibewire.

But while Pollock threw his alcoholic, tortured soul onto the canvas, Alia’s justification of her work is much less macabre and a lot more sensible.

‘I think I like the way different artists really get into the physical involvement in their work and the pleasure it gives them. It’s not so much done for someone else but because I like to do it’ she simply stated.

The ‘physical involvement’ is not just reserved for the artist in the case of this exhibition. Alia invites viewers to interact with her work by touching her materials, something your curiosity would likely motivate you to do upon seeing her work. The exhibition provides a tactile sensation over just a visual one.

Alia isn’t motivated by a political or social agenda, nor does her work seek to make a broad statement. Rather, her body of work, which is a collaboration of elements from her year 12 major work, university projects and her leisure painting, is simply a cross section of her own creative self- and in the art world why shouldn’t that be motivation enough to paint?

Alia’s work is a mixture of raw elements that combine in vibrant, often ambiguous ways. While aesthetically pleasing and inviting to touch, you may not be able to put your finger on as to why. ‘I love the idea of someone looking at a painting and having no idea what it is about, so they are forced to go back and take another look’, said the artist.

Alia is currently in her second year at College of Fine Arts (COFA) at UNSW.

She hasn’t named her exhibition, so I’m going to make up a name for her right now. I’m calling it, Things that look cool and interesting and also feel bumpy and weird, but kinda cool and interesting when you touch them. See, Alia? This is what happens when you don’t name your exhibition.

Feel free to visit the Vibewire office and see the Things that look cool and interesting and also feel bumpy and weird, but kinda cool and interesting when you touch them exhibition at the Vibewire Enterprise Hub at 525 Harris Street Ultimo, across from the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre. Trust me, it’s a lot better than my awesomely spontaneous title suggests.

]]> http://hub.vibewire.org/2010/07/pulling-order-out-of-chaos-alia-dipaolo/feed/ 3 http://hub.vibewire.org/2010/04/one-hour-photos-exhibition/ http://hub.vibewire.org/2010/04/one-hour-photos-exhibition/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:14:20 +0000 Brittany Taylor http://hub.vibewire.org/?p=756

In December of 2009 Michelle Vandemeer challenged Sydneysiders of every age, occupation, and level of photographic expertise to participate in a fast and fun urban photography adventure. Their task was to venture into Sydney’s urban landscape and take a photo to represent each one of 10 very-open-to-interpretation topics. The result is an eclectic and inspiring collection of photography that Vibewire is proudly presenting to the public in our One Hour Photos exhibition.

Designed to be a kind of urban game, the One Hour Photos adventure encouraged people to explore both their photography skills and their urban environment. The 10 topics were designed to inspire rather than limit the participants, as Michelle herself noted, “When going out randomly photographing things in the city, it is often much easier and more enjoyable to be equipped with a specific challenge such as taking photos based on given topics.”

However, Michelle deliberately chose broad topics as she wanted the participants to be able to produce photographs that represented their own unique perspective. “The challenge (and fun) was in how each participant chose to individually interpret the topics, and how they then matched them up with the photographic opportunities they discovered when out adventuring in the city . . . ”

Aside from giving people a reason to go out and photograph the city, Michelle hoped the One Hour Photos adventure would give the participants a new and unique experience, an experience that was a little out of the ordinary and that could possibly be shared with friends. Ultimately, Michelle wanted to encourage people to just enjoy playing with some simple photography, “My hope was that the participants would experience the urban environment in a different way, notice details they would have otherwise missed, and take shots they would never of otherwise noticed.”

Judging by the calibre of photography in the exhibition, the result could not have been better. Michelle too was delighted by the sheer variety and quality of photos submitted, “Looking across the rows of each topic, you could see how each participant interpreted the topic uniquely, and comparing the photos in the exhibition was really entertaining.”

The exhibition has been on display at the Vibewire Enterprise Hub since March 2010. Throughout the opening weekes of the exhibition the Vibewire team, Hub Residents, and the public were invited to vote for their favourite photos for each topic. After tallying the votes, Vibewire would like to congratulate the following people’s choice winners:

Ashley Oostdyck – LOOKING UP

Allison Horney – GOLDEN

Georgina Lewis – FREEZEFRAME

Katie Bergamaschi – UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Michelle Vandermeer – EMPTY

Michelle Vandermeer – WINDOW TO THE WORLD

Claudia Betia – CIRCULAR

Tristan Ap – PASSING TIME

Ashley Oostdyck – FROM HERE TO THERE

Katrina Cho – REFLECTION

Michelle Vandermeer would like to send out a big thanks to everyone who participated in the One Hour Photos adventure, and also to those who are now coming along to see the exhibition. She would also like to say an extra special thanks to Vibewire for providing both the venue and the opportunity to allow One Hour Photos to happen.

The One Hour Photos exhibition will be on display until the end of May and is open to the general public. So come along and check out this dynamic and inspiring display of Sydney’s photographic talent. You can find us at 525 Harris Street Ultimo, across the road from the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre.

For more information about Vibewire’s Artcycle exhibitions, or for the opportunity to exhibit your own work contact Jack Mackenna at jack.mackenna@vibewire.org

Throughout December and January, assemblage artist Julia Cooper has had her artworks on display at the Vibewire ArtCycle Exhibition.

This is her story.

From sewing threads as a child to now chiselling off car registration plates for art’s sake, Julie Cooper has followed a creative path to get where she is now. Over the years she has drawn inspiration from the creative practices of her family, “My grandmother was an art teacher and fostered a love for all things arty in my mother and her siblings”.

Her grandmother’s passion hence created a line of artistic talent, one which Julie has inherited, as well as her uncle, who works as an art director for films, “His vast experience and work history inspired me to study design at university and work in the film industry”. From studying art-on-screen she has become inspired to name each of her artworks after famous films, such as Mad Max, The Matrix and Clockwork Orange.

Julie admits to being interested in art for as long as she can remember, yet has only found her niche in assemblage art within the last 5 years. She is drawn to the aethetics of old, industrial materials and their “interesting textures and colours”. In her artworks on display at ArtCycle, there is a strong industrial vibe felt through the repeated collage of silver squares of metal and the solid chunks of old, printing block wood. “The works I create are entirely reliant on the interesting materials I find. The size and amount of materials that I find dictate the style, size and feel of the artworks I create”.

One side of Julie enjoys dealing in the delicate nature of design whilst the other follows in her father’s footsteps, “My father was an engineer and I’ve taken after him, also being handy with tools and machinery that I now use to construct my artworks”. One of her works titled, ‘Bush Mechanics’ took many hours spent in the ‘baking sun’ in order to acquire the many identification plates that create the piece. The manual labour that Julie infuses into her art gives it a genuine feel, offering a sort of backstory behind the simple collage that we are seeing.

Employing a one person’s trash is another’s treasure type philosophy, Julie searches for her materials at garage sales, second-hand stores, antique shops and scrap metal yards. She is an artistic recycler. A creative scavenger. “I create artworks with materials that catch my eye…the materials I use are generally items that have been discarded and are no longer in use. I enjoying giving life and purpose back to items considered rubbish”. It is this thoughful restoration that stirs a beauty within the aesthetics of her works.

Julie’s artworks on display at Vibewire ArtCycle each share different stories with their audience. They are developed from old shoe merchandising signs and fruit box labelling from Tasmania, from former Sydney Gowings store block prints and unused car identification plates. These are Julie’s tools. She gives the resulting product a relative film name, such as ‘Matrix’ which is the title of numbered, wooden blocks that remind her of that movie’s opening sequence (trails of green numerals).

For any emerging artist, it is often difficult to constantly get your works out there, making Julie grateful for the ‘rewarding’ opportunity of exhibiting at Vibewire. She has thrived on her own advice and ‘followed a passion, been open to opportunities and is not afraid to try new things’. Experimentation is at the core of success.

“I like the work of designer Marc Newson, the art of Rosalie Gascoigne, Andy Warhol, Mitjili Napurrula, and the sculpture by Bronwyn Oliver” states Julie, who has effectively carved her own artistic merit into the forgotten items of strangers, and is now looking to exhibit her art more extensively throughout 2010.

If you are interested in viewing or purchasing Julie’s art, please email:

info@vibewire.org

requesting further details or visit the exhibition at

525 Harris St , Ultimo NSW 2007.