Street Works (Forever): Kate Mackay & Mini Graff — 14 July to 6 August 2005

​Street Works (Forever)
Kate Mackay & Mini Graff
Opening Friday 15 July, 6pm
With special guest Catriona Moore (Art historian and writer, University of Sydney)

Main Gallery
Kate Mackay: Cohesion: Constructions, 1999–2005, curated by Christopher Dean.

Undercover Verandah, 33 Roslyn Street

Mini Graff: Convergence, a site-specific installation dealing with ideas urban environment and migration.

Street Works (forever): Art Walk Installation
View more works by Kate Mackay and Mini Graff’s Darlinghurst2, a site-work in three parts over three venues.

Artists’ modifications, designed to counter corporate uniformity with techniques of incongruity, humour and irony, highlight the need for urban planning to play a role in creating sustaining cultural environments.

Join the artists at The Cross Art Projects and take an insightful look at Kate Mackay’s Cohesion: Constructions, 1999–2005 & Mini Graff’s, Convergence. Then join the STREETWORKS (forever) tour and stroll the streets of Kings Cross and Darlinghurst to view other works by Kate Mackay and Mini Graff with the artists and curator, Jo Holder.

A debate on planning is raging in Kings Cross: the charm school look or a more cosmopolitan milieu? The inaugural STREETWORKS (forever) art walk is a contribution to this debate.

Discover how the local art community is working to counter corporate uniformity, endless roadworks and generic upgrades. See how techniques of incongruity, humour and irony, can play a role in urban planning and help create a sustaining cultural environment.

Planning historian Richard Florida spoke in Sydney some months ago on the role of the ‘creative class’ in creating great global cities. Florida prescribes artistic and cultural development and high scores on his creative, bohemian and gay indexes.

Bring a stencil or, if a knitter, bring some yarn to swap and knit as we go. Knitting, crochet or sewing led by Annette Bennett of the non-profit organisation Wrap With Love (Kings Cross group). Walk ends in Darlinghurst Road (near the Jewish Museum) and coffee available en route from Spud & Douglas and Piccolo Bar in Roslyn Street.

KATE MACKAY: BETWEEN THE CONCEPT AND THE CROCHET

Kate Mackay is the most pragmatic artist I have ever known. Her pragmatism stems from the need to produce paintings, woven paper sculptures, wooden constructions and crochet that provide a physical form to the belief that an artwork is the by-product of a manual activity.

At first glance this approach to making art might be seen as a form of anti-intellectualism. From this perspective Kate’s work might also be incorrectly interpreted as being related more closely to preindustrial domestic craft practices rather than contemporary art.

One of the most powerful things about pragmatist aesthetics is that it presents a paradox that insists on bringing conceptual ideas closer to practical experiences. Kate’s art practice mirrors this paradox by having an almost obsessive concern for employing practical craft techniques for apparently impractical purposes.

Another important concern for pragmatism in art is that it assists the artist to continuously respond to the environment from which the work has been made. Kate’s life over the past few years has been governed by an equally important pragmatist aesthetic, that of home renovations. As an ‘owner builder Kate’s partner Mick is also drawing on pragmatist theory by combining personal aesthetics with practical necessity.

On my most recent visits to Kate and Mick’s home in Matraville it was great to see them both working productively side by side. Many artists in Kate’s position would say “I can’t make art at the moment because I don’t have a studio”. This factor has assisted Kate and provides the basis for all the work in the exhibition.

To be classified as a bona fide example of pragmatist aesthetics an art practice must have one extra feature. It must be connected to broader social and political issues. Kate’s work passes this final test with flying colours. What makes her work so rich is that it is closely allied to the origins of the women’s art movement, process art and minimalism.

Kate’s current exhibition at The Cross Art Projects draws together a variety of craft techniques to demonstrate that the invisible practice of art is equally important when compared to the objects that are produced. In this way Kate is a conceptual artist who emphasises that heightened creative experiences are to be gained by both the artist and the viewer when participating in the experience through which an artwork is conceived.

Christopher Dean, July 2005

Kate Mackay, Installation view (Photo: Kate Mackay)

Kate Mackay, ‘Same Painting: Yarn 1’, acrylic & woolen yarn, 150cm x 150cm, 1999

Mini Graff

Mini Graff

About Christopher Dean, curator Kate Mackay focus exhibition
Projects by Christopher Dean discuss issues in contemporary art with an emphasis on the historical and theoretical debates surrounding abstraction such as his Conceptual Crochet at The Cross Art Projects last year. He has exhibited regularly since 1988 and lectures and writes widely on art.

About Catriona Moore, opening talk Dr Cationa Moore is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. She has written extensively on feminist and Australian art, and is currently preparing a book on women modernist artists from the neo-colonial periphery.

About Mini Graff Mini Graff is an installation artist whose urban creations challenge perceptions of ‘street art’ and urban landscape. Perhaps, over the past years, you have stopped in wonder to view her stencil paintings on gutters or noted a transformation of street refuse into a fugitive fantastical world or attended a Mini Graff performance.

About Street Works (forever) The Cross Art Projects conceived this ongoing art walk to highlights artists’ contributions to planning issues and the urban landscape. In contrast to endless road improvements and generic upgrades, street art counters corporate uniformity often with techniques of incongruity and humour. Streetworks (forever) is a low-key opportunity to discuss the relationship between arts, business, community and policy.