IF THEY FALL - James Newitt

IF THEY FALL
James Newitt
25 September–
09 October
2010
rosalux: Berlin-based art office
rosalux would like to invite you and your friends to the opening of the exhibition
James Newitt: If They Fall
© James Newitt, If They Fall, 2010, Production still, courtesy of the artist and Criterion Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
© James Newitt, If They Fall, 2010, Production still, courtesy of the artist and Criterion Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
Opening Friday, September 24 at 7 pm
The artist will be present
Exhibition: 25 September through 9 October, Wed - Sat, 3 - 6 pm
rosalux @ Story Hotel*****
Wriezener Straße 12
13359 Berlin-Wedding
U8 Pankstraße / Osloer Straße
Tram M13, 50 Grüntaler Straße
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rosalux is presenting the second solo show by the Australian artist James Newitt in Berlin.
Within this exhibition, Newitt presents a new body of work including the premiere screening of his new video from
which the exhibition takes its title, If They Fall. This exhibition is a continuation of Newitt’s exploration of the forestry
industry in Tasmania. In 2009 Newitt premiered the video Passive Aggressive at rosalux as part of his exhibition
Stories of Celebration and Dissent. If They Fall expands on this work but probing deeper into the complexities and
contradicting ideologies of communities who are affected by the Tasmanian forestry industry. Newitt focuses his
camera on people involved in both activism and industry, to present an intimate portrait of two communities who
remain in tension.
James Newitt was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1981. His exhibition history includes: Primavera, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney,
2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent, rosalux - the Berlin based art office, Berlin, 2009; The Moorilla Scholarship
exhibition, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009; Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian
Art; I notice these little things, how they change, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Ten Days
on the Island, Hobart, 2007; Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival,
Melbourne, 2006.
James has received state and national funding grants for individual and collaborative projects. In 2008 he undertook
a 3-month studio residency at the Australia Council for the Arts, Los Angeles studio. In 2009 he was awarded the
Qantas Foundation, Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award and in 2006 the Tasmanian Artist Prize for the City
of Devonport, Art Prize. James lectures in visual communication at the University of Tasmania, School of Art and is
represented by Criterion Gallery, Hobart.
http://www.jnewitt.com/
rosalux möchte Sie und Ihre Freunde einladen zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung
James Newitt: If They Fall
am Freitag, 24. September 2010 um 19 Uhr
Der Künstler ist anwesend.
Ausstellung: 25.09. - 09.10.2010, Mi - Sa, 15 - 18 Uhr
rosalux @ Story Hotel*****
Wriezener Straße 12
13359 Berlin-Wedding
U8 Pankstraße / Osloer Straße
Tram M13, 50 Grüntaler Straße
web | facebook | twitter
rosalux freut sich, die zweite Einzelausstellung des australischen Künstlers James Newitt in Berlin - und in
Deutschland überhaupt - präsentieren zu können.
Im Rahmen dieser Ausstellung zeigt Newitt eine neue Werkgruppe, einschließlich des neuen Videos, das der
Ausstellung ihren Namen gab – If They Fall. Sie ist eine Fortsetzung seiner Studien zur Forstwirtschaft in Tasmanien.
Im Jahr 2009 wurde bei rosalux Newitts Video Passive Aggressive als Teil seiner Ausstellung Stories of Celebration
and Dissent uraufgeführt. If They Fall baut auf diese Arbeit auf, untersucht jedoch eingehender die Komplexität
und widersprüchlichen Ansichten von Gemeinden, die von der tasmanischen Forstwirtschaft betroffen sind. Newitt
konzentriert sich hier mit seiner Kamera sowohl auf Aktivisten als auf Menschen aus der Forstwirtschaft, um ein
intimes Porträt von zwei Gruppen zu zeichnen, die sich noch immer im Konflikt befinden.
James Newitt wurde 1981 in Hobart, Tasmanien geboren. Zu seinen Ausstellungen zählen: Primavera, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney,
2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent, rosalux, Berlin, 2009; The Moorilla Scholarship exhibition, Tasmanian
Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009; Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; I notice these little
things, how they change, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Ten Days on the Island, Hobart, 2007;
Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2006.
James Newitt hat staatliche und nationale Fördermittel für individuelle und kollektive Projekte erhalten. 2008 arbeitete
er drei Monate in der Atelierresidenz des Australian Council for the Arts in Los Angeles. 2009 wurde er mit dem
Preis zur Förderung der zeitgenössischen Kunst der Qantas Foundation ausgezeichnet und 2006 erhielt er den
Tasmanischen Künstlerpreis der Stadt Devonport. Er lehrt im Fach Visuelle Kommunikation an der Kunsthochschule
der Universität Tasmanien.
Genuine 1 – 4, 2010
Archival digital prints
50 x 50 cm
Photography by Sarah Jones
If They Fall, 2010
HDV installation
18:30 mins
Stereo Sound
Sound in collaboration with Pat
Beretta
IF THEY FALL
James Newitt
rosalux @ Story Hotel*****
Wriezener Straße 12
13359 Berlin
25 September – 9 October
Wed - Sat, 3 - 6 pm
Genuine 1 – 4, 2010
Archival digital prints
50 x 50 cm
Photography by Sarah Jones
If They Fall, 2010
HDV installation
18:30 mins
Stereo Sound
Sound in collaboration with Pat Beretta
The artist would like to thank Ed Hill, Aaron O’Connor, the people at Camp Florentine and Still Wild Still Threatened; Kelly Oakley,
Rob and Greg; Pat Beretta, Sarah Jones, Frank Miller and Glenn Barkley; Jaecki Lindenau, Tiny Domingos.
James Newitt was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1981. His exhibition history includes: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney,
2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent,
rosalux - the Berlin based art office, Berlin, 2009 (solo); show me the truth and I’ll show you more of the same, Tasmanian Museum and
Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009 (solo); Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; I notice these little things, how they change,
Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008 (solo); Ten Days on the Island, Hobart, 2007; Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman
Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2006.
James has received state and national funding grants for individual and collaborative projects. In 2008 he undertook a 3-month studio
residency at the Australia Council for the Arts, Los Angeles studio. In 2009 he was awarded the Qantas Foundation, Encouragement of
Contemporary Art Award, in 2006 the Tasmanian Artist Prize for the City of Devonport, Art Prize and in 2010 the City of Hobart Art Prize.
James lectures in Visual Communication at the University of Tasmania, School of Art and is represented by Criterion Gallery, Hobart.
www.jnewitt.com
www.criteriongallery.com.au
IF THEY FALL
James Newitt
25 September–
09 October
2010
rosalux
If. They. Fall.
If They Fall is the beginning of something, an unfinished statement, weighty with consequence. It is
also the end of a question, one hinged on, and awaiting action. As the title for Newitt’s video, it is both,
but the two halves don’t make a whole – more likely a hole. Nothing is given or explained, nothing
is answered, we remain disconnected to location and position as a landscape unfolds around us.
Objectivity seems an unworthy compass for orienteering such a perfidious narrative. The work offers
us a relationship solely with our own ambivalence. Even as we are handled by the imagery, it still feels
as if it is dependent on us, whether they fall or not.
If They Fall is at once nature documentary, landscape painting and gestural portrait. The artist, who is in
a sense, a local in the Tasmanian forest, remains unseen. From darkness emerges the smallest activity,
the smallest flame, a silent, obscured statement. Features of landscapes are changing without violence
or shock. We are small and we are taken, forced by the invisible artist to remain passive, to a new
wilderness both sublime and surreal. And then, back in the darkness we grow, the focus is sharpened.
Mechanised industry roars, we rear up to watch from the distance. This tangible labour, melodic,
designed, drawing new lines in the earth. Diesel-fuelled machines of a forestry industry become the
natural inhabitants of this space, which is now at its most beautiful, as it burns.
If They Fall, 2010
The removal of the viewer from this unreality is inconsistent, at first silent and small, then as the
landscape is conquered, heroically? Unfeelingly? We begin to rage alongside the forest fires, rally
oil-blooded-insects to work, passing trophies of severed forest, deftly, in the night as if each log
were weightless. Machines swing, repeat, hypnotic, beautiful. It is absolute control and ultimately,
destruction. It is as if we can watch from above, our own ambivalence pass from hand to hand, with and
without the victory of a baton.
In the final two minutes everything changes. Perhaps it is a curtain that falls? Or the penny that drops?
Whatever it is, it descends. Unreal space is defeated by the din of reality, personalities, voices, opinions,
ideals, guilt, anger, apathy, economy. We are cut down to size, and in the end, nothing falls. It is still an if.
Sarah Jones is a writer, curator and artist based in Hobart, Tasmania.
Genuine 1 – 4, 2010