SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

SCAF’s 2016 programme 

Mikhael Subotzky: WYE
SCAF Project 30

18 March – 21 May 2016 (opening 17 March)

SCAF will open 2016 with WYE, a major new commission by Johannesburg-based, South African artist Mikhael Subotzky (born 1981). The starting point for this monumentally scaled, three-part immersive film installation is a cartographic triangle between the United Kingdom and two of its former colonies: Australia and South Africa. Through this triangular connection Subotzky aims to channel and understand colonial history – and the effects colonialism had on a contested presence and an imagined future.

Fugitive Structures 2016
Vo Trong Nghia Architects: Green Ladder
SCAF Project 31
In partnership with BVN

1 March – 15 May 2016 at State Library of Queensland, Brisbane (opening 1 March)
24 June – 10 December 2016 at SCAF, Sydney (opening 7 July)

The fourth pavilion in SCAF’s annual Fugitive Structures series has been designed by Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia. Vo is an award-winning Vietnamese architect, world-renowned for his work with bamboo and sustainable designs. Vo’s mission: to transform Vietnam’s attitude towards architecture. His concern: the lack of green spaces in urban environments, and the development of low-cost housing solutions for the country’s poorest communities. Vo has developed a sustainable architectural design practice, Vo Trong Nghia Architects, (VTNA) by integrating inexpensive, local materials (bamboo, earth, plants) and traditional skills with contemporary aesthetics and modern methodologies.

The SCAF Fugitive Structures pavilion designed by VTNA will be constructed from simple bamboo ladders bound together to form a multi-tiered structure that will be tailored to the specific needs of both the SCAF courtyard and the grounds of the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane’s Cultural Precinct. Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing plant and is sustainable, lightweight and low maintenance – a material perfectly aligned with VTNA’s environmental concerns and goals.

Jompet Kuswidananto: A major new commission
Curated by Alia Swastika
SCAF Project 32

24 June – 3 September 2016 (opening 23 June)

Jompet Kuswidananto (born 1976), a visual artist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, will be creating an immersive, multidisciplinary installation at SCAF mid-2016. The project will act as a space for exploration of mass hysteria surrounding the rise and fall of various recent Indonesian regimes.

Jompet began his creative practice as a musician, producing records and performing live shows between 1995-1999, before transferring his attention primarily to the visual arts. Heavily influenced by the dynamism of the Yogyakarta arts community, Jompet’s cutting edge practice remains grounded in sound and movement, often incorporating history and tradition. The resulting sense of theatre creates an immediate connection between audiences and the activated work.

Alia Swastika is an Indonesian-based curator and writer. Since 2008 she has worked as a freelance curator, writer and as a programme director with Ark Galerie in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Recently Alia was the Director of the 13^th Jogja Biennale in Yogyakarta (2015), and the Co-Artistic Director of the 9^th Gwangju Biennale: ROUNDTABLE (2012).

Collection+: Greg Semu
Curated by Mark Feary
SCAF Project 33

7 October – 10 December 2016 (opening 6 October)

Greg Semu (born 1971) is an artist, independent indigenous researcher and curator. Born in New Zealand he embraces Samoa as his ancestral and spiritual home. Semu’s work centres on themes of cultural displacement in the Pacific. His photographic works invariably have community engagement as a starting point and often take the form of self-portraits. Semu uses photography and film to create evocative dialogues that challenge the romanticised colonialist understanding and portrayal of ‘first contact’ with the tribal worlds.

Collection+: Greg Semu marks the sixth iteration of SCAF’s Collection+ series.

Mark Feary is a curator and writer based in Sydney. Currently he is Curator, Exhibitions and Australian Projects at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, as well as Curator, Michael Buxton Collection, Melbourne. Feary has worked within the visual art sector for fifteen years in a range of contemporary art centres, universities, museums and artist-led-initiatives, almost exclusively within the not-for-profit sector, including: Artspace, Sydney; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne.