Ballardian

J.G. Ballard at KURBgallery.

Please pass on to anyone who might be interested.

From Pippa Tandy & David Bromfield:

“From January 11 to 20 2008 KURB gallery, an artist run non-profit art gallery, studios and performance space at 310 William Street Northbridge, Perth, Australia, will hold an exhibition, forum, programme and events in celebration of J.G. Ballard.

Interested visual artists, writers, film-makers, performance artists and all others are invited to submit proposals and/or send works which might be considered Ballardian, as for example:

(adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (J.G. Ballard; born 1930), the British novelist, or his works (2) resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J.G. Ballard’s novels & stories, esp. dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes & the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments (Collins English Dictionary)

We welcome any image, photograph, text, collage, movie, experimental novel, sound piece installation or performance instructions, semaphore, sculpture (singing or otherwise) cd, dvd, that can be sent here via email, post, balloon, submarine, bicycle pigeon or intercontinental ballistic missile…

Or presented in person at:

KURB gallery
310 William Street
Northbridge Perth
WA 6000
Australia.

No practical contribution will be refused, however unreasonable.

Contributors may wish to consider Ballard’s single reference to Perth, the most isolated city on the planet, the nearest thing we have to a moon base on the planet. They may also wish to reflect on the central role played by Perth and Australia in the Cold War and its aftermath.

We intend our exhibition to follow Ballard’s prescription for an autopsy on reality—

In a sense, I’m assembling the materials of an autopsy, and I’m treating reality – the reality we inhabit – almost as if it were a cadaver, or let’s say, the contents of a special kind of forensic inquisition… I regard all these as data which will play their role in whatever hypothesis I am proposing to offer, to explain the significance of mysterious and apparently unrelated objects, this huge network of ciphers, and encoded instructions – perhaps – that surround us in reality.

– J.G. Ballard, interviewed by Graeme Revell (Summer 1983)

BALLARD DEADLINES/GUIDELINES

There are no strict deadlines for this event; we will accept work for the exhibition and contributions to the forum up to January 11, the opening date for the exhibition. After that we will accept responses to the exhibition until the day it closes.

Forum Participants: November 30 2007

It would help us if participants in the forum could let us know their intention to participate by November 30 2007.

We do not expect that many will choose to travel to Perth. We are happy to read contributions and/or project or play tapes. Those who may intend to travel here should let us know. We will able to help with finding accommodation and so. Visitors should note that this is the sunniest, hottest period of the Australian summer.

Exhibition participants: January 5 2008

If would help us if exhibitors could let us have their works or instructions in any form by January 5 2008. For further information or to express interest please contact KURB at:

KURBgallery@westnet.com.au

or write to:

KURB gallery 310 William Street. Perth WA, 6000 Australia

Those who wish to follow up the range of our interests may like to read Pippa Tandy’s The ‘DNA of the Present’ in the Fossil Record of the Cold War—Through the Imagery of JG Ballard, Related Sources and Documents in Various Media.

+ MORE INFO: Ballard at KURB.

We look forward to hearing from you

Pippa Tandy & David Bromfield (co-curators: Ballardian Art)
(PS Pippa did finish the doctorate)”