Spray it, Brisvegas
Have you guys heard of VegasSpray.com?
I’ve been following them on Facebook for a little while now. They are essentially an online gallery space, and describe themselves as “a portal to Brisbane’s contemporary emerging art”.
The way they work is to have a current ‘exhibition’, which usually follows a theme or idea, and then an ‘artists’ section that functions as a stockroom would in a conventional gallery. Only thing is, these works don’t vanish once they’re sold.
To this date Vegas Spray has had 107 exhibiting artists, many of whom hail from Brisbane, but some come from as far away as Detroit, Santiago, and South Korea.
The current exhibition is the third in a series entitled Cross City Experience and is made up of artists Satriana Didiek (Indonesia), Haylee Lee (South Korea), Rachel Marsden (Brisbane), Stefan Popescu (Sydney), Len Jessome (Ontario) and Kate McCarthy (Hobart).
I was particularly taken by Brisbane artist Rachel Marsden and must admit I’ve developed a bit of an artist crush on her.
Sophie has an artist crush!
The work she presents in the current Vegas Spray exhibition aims to “encourage debate about the effect our devices have on our relationships with other people and also with our external environment”. She’s talking mp3 players, cameras, et cetera.
Gosh darn I wish I could give you an example here but they’re all protected and in Flash Player and stuff and it seems to be beyond my capabilities. Instead, I’ll link you to her Vegas Spray exhibition. It’s that good. Also, check out her website.
I’ve managed to rather sneakily track down a couple of her photographs. They’re so beautiful. And unlike a lot of photography floating around these days (everyone’s a photographer - or think they are) they are visually interesting, poignant, and original.
Rachel Marsden | Fog - Archimedes Field Series | 2008
Rachel Marsden | Reflections I - Reflections Series \ 2007
Rachel Marsden | Reflections II - Reflections Series | 2007
These last two photos formed part of a series of four prints which led to Marsden being awarded the 2008 QAIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography) Photographic Artist of the Year award.
Told you she was cool.
Isn’t it funny how you can have an online exhibition space? Makes sense though, with all the digital art that is around. Even if the work isn’t digital in nature, all it takes is a point and shoot and it can be. Even the most conservative of conventional galleries have online storerooms and exhibition previews.
Although more frequently than not something is lost in translation when a work of art becomes a jpeg, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the digitised piece is any lesser.
Arguably, art in this brave new world has two lives. You may see something completely different in the online image of a work to what you would if you were to walk up to it as it sits on a white wall in a gallery.
For Vegas Spray, the point is to make art accessible, and also to broadcast the work of artists that otherwise have trouble making it into our somewhat fledgling emerging artist gallery scene.
This is art that is happening now. It’s happening amongst us. Any of it could be the next big thing. To be honest, it’s like a breath of fresh air.
Not everything on there is great, but there are some real gems.
So, ch-ch-check it out.
