amarie bergman

I’ve always felt a sense of wonder can happen as a chance appearance, but when it is courted then the surprises of synchronicity and lightness of being are second to none. Wonderful memories last because they can be adored, like integral yet perpetually transformative constants, in a special jewel box of the mind.

Bobette Buster, at a recent seminar,* relayed proof that wonder can intentionally be transmitted in any field of creativity, on any occasion, causing a shift of higher consciousness. ‘This is wonder’s use,’ she emphasised. Although Bobette gave many examples in her own field of film making, her summary – believe me, storytelling at its finest – brought both tears as well as radiating after-effects of what it means to ‘carry the fire.’ Here’s a very short version:

During the two years spent in the Secret Annex’s stillness, Anne Frank treasured several iconic photos of glamour, hope and beauty. Among her favourites of these companions-on-paper, inspiring Anne to continue writing, was Sonja Henie, champion figure-skater and film starlet.

Sonja Henie in My Lucky Star, 20th Century Fox film, 1938

The photographers themselves, through their invisible presences, also became part of Anne’s world: conveying via artistry that transubstantiation becomes experientially realised through visual templates. The baton of courage is passed to you.
And with it, may I add, the wand of wonder.

*What’s the Story? The Uses of Wonder: Ask the Right Questions of Your Story 8 August 2019, State Library, Melbourne. It was one of 5 sessions Bobette gave as a guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival. LA-based, she is a story consultant, professor, producer, author, lecturer and screenwriter working with Disney, Pixar and Twentieth Century Fox. http://www.bobettebuster.com/

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White Light 8'3", Amarie Bergman: video still, 2012

How simply marvelous!

White Light 8’3” – my 2012 film of absolute white silence – premièred last Saturday in Alice Springs. It’s being screened @ The Pantry, an experimental project space at Watch This Space, until 30 March 2019.

[see https://www.amariebergman.com/pages/videos > 2nd video]

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A Slow Waltz, exhibition in Middle Gallery at Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, Amarie Bergman, partial installation view. (left to right) Box Step no.1: acrylic on linen 30 x 51cm 2018; Metallic Dot: (almost invisible) tin, plastic, fabricated laser-cut acrylic 1.9cm diameter 2018; Cosmic Bodies no.1: Tasmanian oak (1.9cm diameter rod), paper, wire, synthetic fabric, metal attachments, micro-wire; 48 x 120cm 2018 (work by Philippe Vranjes on the right in the next gallery space); image by Mel de Ruyter 2018

Everything about A Slow Waltz at Sawtooth was like a dance with a most engaging partner. From the prelim arrangements smoothly coordinated by the gallery’s new director, Liam James; the quick set-up with Mat Carey; the presence of co-installation artists, Francesca Heinz and Philippe Vranjes, and being introduced to their work; right down the line to the friendly, high-spirited crowd on opening night: gee, it was +/- perfect. For this exhibition - and its counterpart, La Valse Lente at Abstract Project in Paris - the imagined melded with the real.

The opening took place on Friday 7 December 2018; the exhibition continued until 28 December.

Sawtooth Artist Run Initiative (ARI)

Liam James, Director

Level 1, 160 Cimitiere Street, Launceston 7250

http://sawtooth.org.au/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/SawtoothARIGallery/about/?ref=page_internal

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Untitled (Corner Piece), Fred Sandback: gray elastic cord 45.7 x 172.4 x 45.7cm, originally constructed 1967, image via Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris

Last month, when I was in Paris for Une Valse Lente @ Abstract Project, a most memorable experience at Marian Goodman Gallery happened with Jacek Przybyszewski via the reinterpreted, unparalleled work of Fred Sandback. Elastic cord and acrylic yarn made “room-filling volumetric forms using the most minimal of means. By stretching single strands of yarn point-to-point to create geometric figures, Sandback’s near intangible objects nevertheless amounted to precise and subtle delineations of pictorial planes and architectural volumes.”1

Le Fil d’Occam, the exhibition’s title, comes from an idea by the 14th century logician, William of Ockham, who reckoned the best solution to almost any problem is usually the simplest. Well, these objects of simplicity brought tears to my eyes but apparently this unexpected reaction is not an isolated one. Andrea Fraser delves into understanding why constructions designed by Sandback and presented in gallery spaces have such an effect on the mind/ psyche in her article from 2005, Why Does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry.2 “It is a place of affective possibility created by work that doesn’t ask me to feel, and so, I think, allows me to feel, and to be alone, in the presence of this art that’s so quiet and still, and makes too little in the way of demands. It is an art of objects without shadows.”

The after-effects of exposure to contemplative purity seem to be long-lasting: not only as spontaneous recollections but, above all, as a constant catalyst for perceptual refinement.

Untitled, Fred Sandback: one 32”/81.28cm black elastic cord 279.4 x 335.3 x 96.5 cm, originally constructed in 1967, image by Jacek Przybyszewski

Fred Sandback: Le Fil d’Occam

8 September – 27 October 2018

Marian Goodman Gallery

79 rue du Temple

75003 Paris www.mariangoodman.com

1 https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/fred-sandback

2 grâce à Jacek

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Une Valse Lente (A Slow Waltz) with Kazimir Malevich: imagine it…!

Based on this very idea, my next solo exhibition takes place at Abstract Project, an associative gallery with Le Salon Realités Nouvelles, in Paris.

The floorplan (above) shows graphics of the five geometric components; mais oui, images and text to follow.

If you happen to be around, do come by for a glass of wine at the vernissage on the evening of 5 September 2018 between 18h-21h. The exhibition continues until 15 September with gallery hours from 14h-19h, Wednesday to Saturday.

Abstract Project

5 rue des Immeubles Industriels

75011 Paris

Métro: Nation

www.abstract-project.com

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Dittico Blanco e Crema, Amarie Bergman: balsa wood, acrylic paint and soap 15cm diameter x 8cm high; 4.4cm diameter x 2.2cm high 2017-2018

"Something unexpected happens when a flat field wraps around two circles of parallel planes to create a cylinder; it appears to simultaneously curve and straighten in a sensation of endlessness. The twin planes accentuate this quality through the continuity of their boundaries. Bergman presents a pair of cylindrical forms having similar proportions but different scales and degrees of precision. Made from contrasting materials, balsa wood and soap, their tints pay homage to the monochromatic works by Richard van der Aa and Ettore Spalletti."

How pleased I am to be presenting this two-part work in Abstraction Twenty Eighteen at Langford 120. The show, curated/organised by Pam Aitken, Lisa Sharp, Irene Barberis, Wilma Tabacco and Stephen Wickham, in conjunction with four other curated exhibitions taking place across Melbourne that were all initiated and timed by Stephen to coincide with The Field Revisited at the National Gallery of Victoria.

The opening is on Sunday, 29 April from 2 - 4 pm at 120 Langford Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051. http://www.langford120.com.au/e18-abstraction-twentyeighteen.html

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Perlustrata no. 1, Amarie Bergman: softwall 183cmH x 30.5cmD, approximate footprint 425cmL x 130cmW 2018
molo designed softwall supplied by Seeho Su, Surrey Hills, Sydney

Quite surprisingly, I was invited by Martina Copley to present an exhibition project at BLINDSIDE, a rather prominent artist-run initiative in Melbourne. Saying yes meant exhilaration and a short lead-time: less than 4 weeks to prepare. My primary concern was locating a source of molo softwall but Joyce Seeho, at Seeho Su / Sydney, cordially said, "yes, I can loan you a pre-loved one." The available softwall’s height was only 183cm, although this meant it could remain vertically free-standing without hidden stabilizers as well as be easy to manoeuvre into the desired placement. The plan went as smoothly in practice as it sounded in theory: the entire process, with Paul MacGillivary as my ‘volunteer assistant,’ took five minutes from start to finish.

On a clear, full moon-graced evening, Perlustrata no. 1 opened on 29 March at BLINDSIDE alongside The Lunatic by Henry Trumble. Both exhibition projects continue until 14 April 2018; gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12-6pm.

Two excerpts from the room sheet:

H Perlustrata no. 1, a translucent, snow-white textile configures a pleated line in a phenomenological intervention of geometric simplicity. The line takes the form of a three-dimensional double curve within BLINDSIDE Gallery Two, which redefines its architectural space.

This is the first work in a series of reductive objects having a poise, not unlike the stillness between two thoughts. It tangentially honours the 920th anniversary of the birth of Hildegard von Bingen, a visionary saint who always seemed to be perlustrata – shining with light.

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Post-process image by Christopher Gulick, Factory 49, Sydney, image courtesy of the artist (2017)

I'm pleased to say Held in Suspense, my first article for Rochford Street Review, has just been published. It's on the American sculptor, Christopher Gulick, and his rather astonishing residency-workshop-performance-exhibition at Factory 49 in Sydney.

"The universe is in a constant state of change. Christopher Gulick presented us with concrete evidence of space-time’s temporal poignancy by energising the Main Showroom at Factory 49 with an informal suite of angular and curvilinear projection-relief sculptures. Such a construct could have been kindled in the 20th century in two-dimensions by Matisse while making his most edited cut-outs. It also recalls Arshile Gorky’s ‘Child’s Companions’ (1945), Mondrian’s balanced black and coloured subdivisions in the last grid paintings with a generosity of white galaxies, and Kandinsky and Joan Miro’s ability to seemingly levitate flat forms..."

In-process image by Christopher Gulick, Factory 49, Sydney, image courtesy of the artist (2017)

Factory 49's catalogue http://factory49.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/christopher-gulick.html
+ images by Marlene Sarroff of the finissage on 10 November 2017
https://www.facebook.com/marlene.sarroff/posts/10213091287429823

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