Georges Mora Foundation

Local artist awarded $5000 Archangel Prize

2011-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Middle Park artist, Lesley Melody, has been announced as the winner of the 2011 St Michael’s Exhibition and Archangel Prize. The exhibition showed for one week in late July at St Michael's Grammar School in St Kilda.

From the 100 submissions received, 36 works were shortlisted for the acquisitive Archangel Prize of $5000. Lesley’s oil-on-canvas artwork, Lunar Australis, was announced the winning piece by judging panel – Heather Betts, Phip Murray, Simon Strong, Caroline Williams Mora and Monique Warwick.

An artist for 10 years, Lesley described the exhibition’s theme, Places and Spaces, as an “exciting challenge”. “I was completely dumbstruck when I heard my name as the winner,” she said. “I was extremely pleased just to be named a finalist, particularly with the high calibre of the work submitted. But to win it is absolutely wonderful.”

Lesley said she hoped to use the $5000 prize towards her art career, including new materials and “a few nice things for myself," she laughs. “It’s such a great opportunity for up-and-coming artists. When I entered it last year, I didn’t really understand the ethos of trying to expose students to really good art. I’ve been involved in other school exhibitions and they certainly don’t reach this calibre.”

Supported by Patron Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE and sponsored by Windsor Community Bank and Prahran Market branch of Bendigo Bank, the annual exhibition aims to link education and arts communities, enrich teaching and learning programs and provide a source of support for Australian artists.

Whirling Dervishes Spiralling Through the Great Vertical

2011-07-18T03:17:00.000-07:00

The Ross Coutler viewing at the State Library of Victoria 4 July 2011

Last Monday Ross Coulter, the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, managed to pin about sixty people obediently to their seats for forty five minutes in total silence. Nobody spoke – not a squeak was heard as we watched the passage of any amount of white paper planes spiral down through the splendid space of the State Library of Victoria’s reading room –one of the great interiors of Australia.

Timing was all. The slowness was mesmerising. The camera - always turning - followed the first planes as they appeared….these seemed to be mostly tentative, venturing out as if they were casing the joint, sniffing the air and listening up while slowly, slowly winding down.

They were followed by a gradual build up of an increase of spiralling planes always graceful, determinedly individual and as the number grew the camera would move - incrementally - further down through the space as if it were stroking the walls and the balconies while the planes flew and somersaulted towards the floor as if they had been co-opted into celebrating the air itself.

Eventually we could start to see the floor where the drifts of landed planes were scattered in such a way as to echo the irregular dashes of white paper on the books lining the walls of the misleading ‘ground’ floor.

The meditative sense of suspension, of time slowing into another measurement and of a feather-light infinite pleasure, came to a halt, leaving the audience to adjust back to grounded, ordinary life and time.

Ross and his Squadron have achieved something of great beauty and resonance. What’s more he is not finished so now we wait for the next stage in this enervescent display of free floating imagination.

Written by: Caroline Williams Mora. 11 July 2011

Photo credit: Ross Coulter

Blue skies at the State Library

2011-06-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

Trinh Vu, inaugural recipient of the Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship, is now showing her intricate work, Blue skies, at the State Library of Victoria.

Trinh drew inspiration for Blue skies from a bunch of sunflowers drying in her studio during her 2008 residency at Paris's Cités des Arts. She studied the structure of the flower heads and the way they deformed as they dried, and created a 3D digital model to aid her construction of the sculptural form we see on display.

Watch this time-lapse of Trinh installing her intricate work Blue Skies in the Library, or see Blue skies in situ at the Library's Cowen Gallery until 31 July 2011.

Trinh is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University and is represented by ArtsBank and Chika Gallery (Tokyo). She was the 2007 recipient of the Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship, of which Blue skies is the outcome.

Video and image courtesy of Trinh Vu and the State Library of Victoria.

An incredibly potted history of Georges Mora

2011-05-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

Georges Mora c 1979

In 1951 Georges Mora arrived in Melbourne from Europe. A survivor of the Holocaust he had been a German Jewish refugee in France, had joined the Foreign Legion, fought in the Resistance, smuggled children over boarders and after the armistice he ran a rehabilitation home for Jewish children run by OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) and worked as a patent agent.

Here in Melbourne, Georges first managed a matzos factory, opened a coffee lounge, and then established the Balzac Restaurant in East Melbourne - a landmark in the history of Melbourne food with its classical French cuisine and the first wine licence in Victoria.

With the Balzac and the later Tolarno Restaurants he changed French eating in Melbourne

Simultaneously Georges met with Charles Blackman, John and Sunday Reed then the rest of Melbourne’s active modernist art world and became a key player in the development of the visual arts here. Most of all he supported artists of serious capability enabling them to have faith in their endeavours with or without public support and he worked hard as a dealer to provide sales for them.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Georges travelled to Europe and the USA annually and developed an outstanding exhibition program for his gallery, combining innovative and varied local and international art. His efforts connected developments in Australian art with those in New York, Paris and London. Georges bought to Melbourne the motivation of the Jewish entrepreneur who believed in the arts and culture as essential to civilized life. He continued this practice until a month before his death in 1992.

Georges was a catalyst in the Melbourne art scene, pivotal in the re-establishment of the Museum of Modern Art, and a strong voice on issues around multiculturalism. He sold key works into national, state, regional and corporate collections and, for many years, was the Australian agent for Wildensteins, then the world’s most influential art dealer. His many exhibitions showcased artists of local and international standing, and he was a key player in many of the innovations and the drive in the art and cultural scene from the 1950s until his death.

2011 Archangel Prize

2011-05-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

St Michael’s Grammar School in St Kilda is now inviting Australia’s artists to submit entries for the 2011 St Michael’s Exhibition and Archangel Prize.

With Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE as its Patron, the St Michael’s Exhibition and Archangel Prize aims to link education and arts communities, and to provide a another source of support for artists.

The Archangel Prize is an acquisitive award of $5000, which is administered by St Michael’s Grammar School.

To be considered for this award, submit your artwork to St Michael’s Grammar School by 13 May 2011. Download a submission form here.

The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘place and space‘.

Caroline Williams Mora is one member of a distinguished panel of judges, who will commence the judging process in June. Short-listed artists will be notified by the end of June. The recipient of the 2011 Archangel Prize will be announced at Opening Night on 19 July. The exhibition of short-listed artworks will show at St Michael’s Grammar School from 20 July until 23 July 2011.

For enquiries telephone (03) 8530 3326 or email community@stmichaels.vic.edu.au.

Ideas in flight a la Ross Coulter

2011-05-02T00:33:00.000-07:00

Ask the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, why his 10,000 paper plane project has resonated with so many people and he answers with the same clarity he’s shown in creating the work itself. “There’s a simple poetry to it that everyone can understand”.

Ten thousand paper planes (Nakamura Lock design; glides easily) slowly and delicately descend through the resonant space of the domed Reading Room at the State Library. Nine cameras record their spiralling descent, including one in the centre which rotates ten times over ten minutes, slowly tilting to reveal the room as each subsequent level releases its paper bounty.

A room “like a big cranium”, lined with “all those books, all that thinking flying around” is filled with different paper activated by visual–spatial imagination, experiment and teamwork. A huge chamber of thinking in flight. He’s right. There is a simple poetry to it.

Article by Robyn Winslow

Faces of 10,000 Paper Planes- March 14 2011

2011-03-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

Below are the four different orders in which the planes were released into the dome

Above: photos by Ross Coulter

Above: photo by Louise Gleeson

2011-03-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

How to fly a paper plane a la Ross Coulter

2011-03-15T18:55:00.002-07:00

What do you learn when you think up and execute an artwork involving the filmed release of 10,000 paper planes in the domed Reading Room of the State Library? Ross Coulter, the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow, learned a few things you might expect.

The right material is important. “The final planes were made with A3 AA paper because it was stronger than the rest,” says Ross.

Design is critical, especially when you’re relying on 180 volunteers who may or may not have received detention for flying paper planes in class while at school. James Norton, international paper plane expert, provided advice and Ross finally decided on a Japanese design called the Nakamura Lock. “The Nakamura glides easily and rights itself. Anyone can fly them.” Phew.

The choreography of objects in space is essential. Ross consulted Rusty Johnson, choreographer of fireworks displays with Howard Brothers. He also cites a project with dance choreographer Lucy Guerin as influential.

Rehearsal and being prepared was a lesson learned when Ross was a field marshal for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. “I (wasn’t) worried about the release of the planes because I’d tested it, first with 16 people, then 35, then 60.”

Ross also talks of the impact on his skill development. “It’s the largest thing I’ve made to date. It’s extended my people skills; negotiating, boardroom conversations, public speaking. I’ve been able to focus on research, learning from cinematographers about the technical capacities of cameras, learning about flight.”

But Ross also says there have been “profound changes which I can’t describe. The conversations while folding the planes…like quilting, the craft activity goes into the background and the stories are what are important.” Many of the folders were fellow artists; “we talked about our artistic practice, about projects, relationships … we set and achieved small goals, like making another 480 planes before we stopped for the night … working in teams to achieve something …”

And the future? “That an idea I’ve had for so many years has come to fruition feels unreal. It’s given me hope, and reminded me that I have to keep my ideas pushing along. It’s given me confidence to experiment.”

Article by: Robyn Winslow 2011

Photos by: Ross Coulter

The idea that launched 10,000 planes

2011-03-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

One day, back in the late 90s, artist Ross Coulter was working in the photocopy room at the State Library of Victoria when he had an idea. He folded a piece of discarded photocopy paper into a paper plane, took it to the domed Reading Room and released it into the air currents of magnificent space.

As he watched it float and swirl to the ground, he had no idea that he would one day be coordinating the choreographed release of 10,000 paper planes in the same room, an extraordinary feat of imagination and dedication made possible by the Georges Mora Foundation, Arts Victoria and the State Library of Victoria. But on that day the seed of a great artwork was planted.

Now Ross as the 2010 Georges Mora Foundation Fellow thinks of the Reading Room as a “big cranium full of information, ideas and thinking all flying around in the space”. That single paper plane all those years ago was an early attempt to represent the concept in physical form. A development in 2004 while Ross was at art school was the forerunner of the current project. “I had this idea to release 1000 paper planes”. So why 10,000 now? “I used 2000 planes in another project and realised that it wasn’t enough.”

The final artwork is in two parts: the performance of the plane release on March 14^th2011, and a video taken on the day using 9 cameras, resulting in a multi-screen, unedited view of the planes as they spiral their way through the space.

Asked where the current work fits into his artistic practice, Ross talks about watching two elderly Greek women sitting in a tram, swinging their feet off the ground like children as they watched younger women in their 30s climb on board. And of watching a man on a bridge run backwards while looking forwards, his comb-over standing up in the breeze. This latter image became a video work where the man was sometimes near the back of the frame, or near the front, or occupying the middle ground.

These ideas arriving from the simultaneous surprise and timelessness of the incidental are recurring themes in Ross’ art: No wonder then that the Reading Room, itself a splendid architectural and social representation of Empire providing scholarly civic space for the people of Melbourne has inspired this delightful happening.

Article by: Robyn Winslow 2011

10,000 Paper Planes- Test 12/02/11

2011-01-31T18:01:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 12th Feb a small group of around 30 people met at the State Library of Victoria to assist current GMF fellow Ross Coulter in a test run of his 10,000 Paper Planes project.

Ross gave a short briefing before the paper planes flew off various levels of this stunning reading room.

Ross explained how to make the planes and each of us followed his instructions and completed our planes.

The stunning room where the planes are flown.

Ross' office at the State Library has is inundated with well organised piles of paper planes