(No) Spare Room.

{What's in here?}

In the suitably named Spare Room gallery space of RMIT School of Art Galleries Project Space / Spare Room, you can, until the 5th of December, enter a charmed territory hung floor to ceiling with prints created especially as part of RMIT’s Print Imaging Practice Residency. More than sixty printed and framed works from the residency’s inception in 2004 through to this year’s quintet (Nick Selenitsch, Fiona Macdonald, Dani Hakim, Nikos Pantazopoulos, and Hanna Tai), all gathered together in one splendid shoebox space as both visual feast and study of what was and is perhaps to come. Looking out from the doorway, alongside Rona Green’s Rom (2004), it was a delight to see our print, And They Silently Steal Away, from 2005 (created in the residency’s second year, alongside Justin Caleo, Jessica Irvin, Marion Manifold, Jennifer Mills, Julia Silvester and Kate Žižys). Not normally one to enjoy looking back at earlier work, revisiting this piece proved the exception to the rule. Seeing our (loosely captured) Pemberton’s Deer-mouse (Peromyscus pembertoni) and (approximately or thereabouts) Martinique Giant Rice-rat (Megalomys desmarestii) there on the wall I am reminded that at the time this was first exhibited as part of the printmaking summer residency exhibition, Ex Libris, I had just begun my blog High Up in the Trees. My very first post features a couple of (by today’s standards) tiny photos of the exhibition curated by Jazmina Cininas in which we displayed, in cabinets on loan from the Grainger Museum, our extinct animals quartet of artists’ books that pay tribute to the amateur detective. In bid to keep the forward focus, Trouble at Sea, The Case of the Lost Aviary, By the Pricking of My Claws, and The Dubious Clue are works I rarely look at now.

Head to Project Space / Spare Room to see the works of Deborah Klein, Stephen Gallagher, Angela Cavalieri, George Matoulas, Andrew Tetzlaff, and others. And in Agatha Christie mystery style, perhaps you will be able to locate the three missing works from the residency’s first year (The Hunt for Lindy (2004) by Jazmina Cininas, Untitled (2004) by Deborah Williams, and Owl (2004) by David Noonan). To the happy sleuth, not the spoils, but perhaps a little glory.












{Yes, just as I'd remembered it.}

Decisions: The Print Imaging Practice Residency Exhibition 2013
Project Space / Spare Room
RMIT Building 94, Level 2, Room 1, 23-27 Cardigan Street, Carlton, 3053
1st of November to 5th of December
Dani Hakim, Fiona Macdonald, Nikos Pantazopoulos [Curator], Nick Selenitsch, Hanna Tai

Also includes artwork by Rosalind Atkins, Graham Badari, Belle Bassin, Ursula Bolch, Justin Caleo, Alex Carroll, Angela Cavalieri, Jazmina Cininas, Annette Cook, Jason Cotter, Antonietta Covino-Beehre, Steve Cox, Linda Erceg, Michael Florrimell, Marco Fusinato, Joel Gailer, Stephen Gallagher, Tony Garifalakis, Nathan Gray, Rona Green, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Irene Hanenbergh, Richard Harding, Katherine Hattam, Euan Heng, Anna Hoyle, Jessica Irvin, Kate James, Louisa Jenkinson, Ruth Johnstone, Shane Jones, Kate Just, Deborah Klein, Damon Kowarsky, Marion Manifold, George Matoulas, Mark McDean, Jennifer Mills, David Noonan, Cristina Palacios, Simon Pericich, Kerrie Poliness, Reko Rennie, Kiron Robinson, Jonas Ropponen, Stacey Ryan, Erik Mark Sandberg, Alex Selenitsch, Heather Shimmen, Julia Silvester, Andrew Sinclair, Stephen Spurrier, Kate Stones, Kristina Sundstrom, Sophia Szilagyi, Deb Taylor, Andrew Tetzlaff, Michael Vale, Deborah Williams and Kate Žižys 

'Since 2004 the RMIT School of Art Galleries and the RMIT School of Art Print Imaging Practice Studio have collaborated to invite artists to take part in an annual residency. Artists are provided with access to the printmaking and photography facilities and with materials to create an original edition of prints. These fundraising prints are available for purchase and proceeds go to support the areas and initiative.'
(Decisions)