Day 10: Artspace
Call me old fashioned, but I have to say, after the decrepit industrial chic of Cockatoo Island, it was nice to get back to the white cube. Admittedly, Artspace is not all that cubular, but it’s all relative and compared to the shabby splendour of the buildings on the island, it’s downright clean and crisp.
It might not be hip, or progressive, but I don’t mind a clean, well lit, neutral space for viewing art. (And yes, I know, nothing is really neutral.) However, the white cube model does have certain advantages. At least it doesn’t actively compete with the art for attention, not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Some artists are keen to take on the challenge; wrangle with difficult spaces and come out on top with something wonderfully synergistic. But others seem to just lose the tussle. So is white right? Maybe the answer is sometimes; one size never really does fit all.
At Artspace, the clean white walls display a refreshingly sparse number of works, highlighting another nifty maxim: ‘less is more’. This one I am prepared to get behind. My idea of a good art time is one or two excellent works and a nice comfy seat. (And maybe table service… but that’s probably going a bit too far.) I long for an environment conducive to in depth contemplation, not the information overload presented by most galleries and museums where you feel compelled to shuffle along the room and see a dozen (sometimes many more, more, more) works, ticking them off a mental ‘been there, done that’ list.
Video works dominate the Artspace show. In her 1968 performance/video, Valie Export walks around the streets of Munich and Vienna with a curtained box strapped to her chest allowing any man brave enough to cop a feel of her naked breasts. Unsurprisingly, she gets plenty of takers, men who seem to have no shame. No real news there. Watching Jeremy Deller’s cut and paste video, “I’m with this idiot”, is like channel surfing, without the heady surge of power that comes from wielding the remote control. Not quite my particular cup of tea, but I did appreciate the space to think and the cushy leather couch.

Tracey Clement is an artist and writer, who currently lives in Sydney. Some of her recent artwork can be seen at www.groundfloorgallery.com