AVAGO: Some History

A closed shop converted to a
temporary POPup Gallery
or Installation space
No longer a DEADspace!

Artist/curator Noel Korten describes his AVAGO Gallery: The name AVAGO was created, as far as I know, by Michael C. McMillen and James Doolin. At some point in pre-history, they shared a studio space in Sidney, Australia. 

This was a storefront space with a small window on the street and they took turns creating installation pieces for that window. They also invited other artists to create works for the window. The name is Australian for "have a go (at it)." I learned about it while working with them at the USC Atelier Gallery (Michael included a teaser piece at the front of the gallery to lure unsuspecting shoppers into the gallery and likened it to the previous AVAGO). 

When the Atelier had to relocate within the Santa Monica Place mall, I built a small AVAGO space into the new facade and curated various artists into that space in addition to the gallery itself.

The opportunity to create this AVAGO at the Brewery came about in conjunction with John O'Brien's Renovations show at the Brewery project. My intention was to activate this small room, which had once been a very small bathroom or water closet, and create an installation space for artists. I consider the site as an artwork of mine, however I also consider it a site for others to occupy.

This particular AVAGO is/was called Eridanus, which is the name of the constellation from which I borrowed the pattern for the holes in the door. The mythology related to Eridanus is interesting and rich, but it was really just the source I chose for the pattern. The constellation wasn't a part of the initial idea, I was only interested in seeing how much content could be inferred with the door, and yet allow other artists to use for their own works. My objective was to provide multiple peepholes in order to necessitate a multi-faceted artwork -- to create opportunities for works that might combine images, objects, electronic media, and text.

I have produced a couple of installations myself including Phaeton's Folly, and Woody. I also produced a piece for Joan Hugo that presented a Mark Niblock-Smith text. Artists who have produced works in the Brewery AVAGO are Tammy Fites, Cathy Hadad, Christian Mounger, Jessica Newman-Screntney, Bob Wilhite and of course Robert Wedemeyer.

The AUXILIARYmuseum has posted before some time ago asking if anyone remember AVAGO in Australia ... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON THIS 

AVAGO is an old idea but a GOOD ONE!

Troubling Snakes – Snakes in Trouble

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Just Who Is Counting?

Talking of interesting things, a display (above) of a novel way to depict Aboriginal presence in Australia ... For each wooden bead ... visitors at a local museum were asked to string one bead to represent one generation ... 2,000 beads later, and the local museum had completely revamped their approach to displaying Aboriginal histories ... and the musing continues in and out of the musingplace .... and beyond

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MUSING THE WORTHLESS

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Just as useful as the original ... Fake, copy, pastiche, forgery, reproduction. Many of the most bitter insults of the art world are designed to denigrate anything which is not the actual product of the master’s hand. People will make a special trip to Milan and stand in long queues to see the original Last Supper painted by Leonardo da Vinci himself. If that work was ever to come up for sale – which in itself would be considered an outrage – the sums involved would be utterly gigantic. The reproduction from a factory in the outskirts of Shenzhen, China, can be had for the price of a swanky new toaster. Its status is correspondingly very low indeed. If you had the original in your house, the most glamorous people in the world would want to be your friends. But if you display the copy, art world insiders will smirk and regard you as cultural low-life. We’ve uncritically absorbed the idea that copies are worthless ....CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Artistic Fundraising

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something

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nothing is impossible and an imposibility

A DOCUMENTED SILENCE

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A BIT ABOUT MUSING

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DEPRESSION – #11 of 16

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A scale model exhibited simultaneously with Depression commissioned by Ramiken Crucible and funded with capital leveraged against the permanent collection to be amassed by the gallery over the coming century, this building embodies the ideal art space. Constructed in international waters, this free standing open ocean platform will function as an independent state. This island fortress will provide artists with a private kingdom free from any moral law, civil code, or financial regulation. The building will house the ultimate gallery, named Unamerican Fine Arts, and is scheduled to open for the fall season of 2100. The scale model was designed and built by the architecture firm known as We Will Replace All Of You With Cool Mexicans.

THE PACIFICATOR

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The La Trobe Journal 

Article: No 86 December 2010
The Pacificator: discovering the lost bust of George Augustus Robinson

SOMEthing VERY Tasmanian

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STOLEN & unOFFICIAL!

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When was the last time you walked into a painting exhibition at a commercial gallery and saw something truly politically radical? .....“The Un-Officials | Art Before 85” highlights the practice of artists working in post-Reform China ...... [and] were active amidst the denouement of the prohibitive Cultural Revolution, as early as 1973, ........ [until] Deng Xiaoping after Chairman Mao’s death in 1976. “The Un-Officials” focuses on the efforts of two groups: the Wuming Painting Society (wuming means “no name,” or “anonymous”), founded in 1973, and the Xingxing (“Stars”) Group ...... [all] self-taught artists .... reject[ing] Socialist Realism ... paint[ing] in banned western styles ..... dodg[ing] government surveillance; many of these groups’ members were jailed for insurrection or sent to the countryside for “reeducation.” .... to connect click here

wazKRAP

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AN EXOTIC MUSE

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ANOTHERsensibility

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virtualMUSE 25.04.14

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A Contentious & Contested Muse

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The so called GREAT WAR invokes a myriad of muses, emotion laden muses, muses about heroism, muses invoking nationalism, muses confronting debauchery, musing on selective memories, musing upon contested forgettings and more. On the cusp of a centenary commemoration the musing takes on poignance and places far away, and times long ago take on new significaces. A letter to an editor gets published, platitudes get to be repeated and truths are searched for.  It seems not much is learned upon reflection. Likewise, musing can be a rhizomic journey and it's compulsions can lead you to some very dark places.

neoMUSING?

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AND HERE TOO

GOOD & BAD NEWS

Some time ago Trev left the hill, the one that did a lot of the work, and took on a journey for serious musing. The good news is that the baton has been picked up so that the auxiliaryMUSING may continue even if intermittently and somewhat less reliably.

“Today I'm out wandering, turning my skull

into a cup for others to drink wine from.

In this town somewhere there sits a calm, intelligent man,

who doesn't know what he's about to do!” 

 Rumi 

Authentic Musing?

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In 21st C museums the frontline of the muse is likely to be something of a struggle between the 'authenticists' and ... let's call them 'The Thinkers".

With current technology, even 20th C technology, it is possible to produce FORENSICcopies. Just think about Rodin's Thinker of which there are about 28  FORENSICcopies in the world – all there without diluting the power of the work. 

So why not acquire a FORENSICcopy of Dancing Shiva and bypass the ARTcrooks that sold one for a lot of money to Australia's National Gallery. 

What's more, by doing so, vest musing value in the cultural property, leave mere things in place and debunk the mythologies that CROOKartdealers feed off.   

Just a muse!

A report on the SHIVAdebacle CLICK HERE