Download a copy of the curator’s exhibition essay and the room sheet.

DRAW Space is thrilled to present the winner of the inaugural DRAW Space Prize for Curators, opening 6-8pm Thursday 30 April - Big / small / Massive / tiny, curated by Lauren MacColl. The exhibition will run until 5pm Sunday 24 May.

Big/small/Massive/tiny stares at the universe and blanks out

When the line from A to B gets a little murky, these artists wade through the marsh and land on an answer… perhaps it will help if we all hold hands and look at the ants on the ground?

The exhibition explores how the inherent “thingyness” of life weaves the whole universe together. Spurred on from the minute, subtle and microscopic connections into the massively macroscopic infinity of the cosmos, a paper is only a few jumps away from a party cup, a paver, a pencil. A sock is a breath away from a sheep.

Pulling together artists with an expanded understanding of drawing, as line and sculpture run parallel from one another, the artists weave together the scraps of everyday life into the abstract in sculpture-like drawings and drawing-like sculptures.  

Curated by Lauren MacColl @bigbirdblog, the recipient of the DRAW Space Prize for Curators and featuring the work of artists: 

Tom Brand @tomtomtomyomtom
Milla Watts @m_r_c_w
Janet Jiahui Wu @janet.jiahui.wu
Bethany Shanahan @beth__any_s
Sailor Kennard @sailor.kennard

Exhibition photography by Sarah Serfati @sarah_r_serfati

Big/ small/ Massive/ tiny stares at the universe and blanks out
Exhibition text by Lauren MacColl

When the line from a to b gets a little murky, these artists wade through the marsh and land on an answer… perhaps it will help if we all hold hands and look at the ants on the ground?

(the beginning)

This exhibition explores how the inherent “thingyness” of life weaves the whole universe together. Spurring from the minute, subtle and microscopic connections into the massively macroscopic infinity of the cosmos, a paper is only a few jumps away from a party cup, a paver, a pencil.                          

 (a sock is but a breath away from a sheep)

Pulling together artists with an expanded understanding of drawing, as line and sculpture run parallel to one another, the artists weave together the scraps of everyday life into the abstract through sculpture-like drawings and drawing-like sculptures. This exhibition defines drawing as intimate, informal, immediate and accessible. Together the artists transform the lo-fi materiality of paper, aluminium foil, recycled cardboard, found objects and ceramic - and in this way, a drawing is a drawing because one can say it is so. A pencil is a drawing because it declares it is so. A party cup is a sheet of paper as much as a line of eggshells is a score. Thus, all objects hold the potential for their own drawing-hood – the artist has the power to harness this magic in fearlessly grasping the undercarriage of the cosmos. As such, a stone may hold the same potential as a pencil led, where a string should capture the same attention as an AC unit. This willingness to slow down and give sharp focus to the puzzle of the everyday ultimately holds the hope in this show's tragicomedy of capitalist resistance.

(sometimes the best thing)

Milla Watts’ TheUniverse’s Soup wire and foil sculpture, sat beside the paper stack, The What and the Where and the How and the Why, sustains the belief that absurdity arises from the irreducible tension between our subjective and objective perspectives on life. Coupled with Broken Egg Score and Document of a Sculpture, Milla’s works deliver themselves with a distinct curiosity for time, truth and experience. Each work welcomes how absurdity comedically hovers between humour and existential unease. Milla believes that if nothing is truly neutral we should then seek connection through laughter and malaise. Warmly inviting you into its open cocoon of netted webbing, The Universe’s Soup asks you to consider that the whole “thing” of living is more about what you feel than what you think. 

(things and their shadows)

Janet Jiahui Wu’s ceramic fins, sculptures and works on paper sustain this same rassling with the real in a rapidly shifting world. As a Chinese-Australian queer poet and visual artist, Janet’s work is deeply informed by her Chinese heritage, neurodivergence and LGBTQIA+ lived experience as a first-generation migrant. Evident in works such as Agony, Keffiyeh Fin I, and Sad Dog Crying, Janet uses moments of the everyday, memory and symbol to tell stories and give form to what is invisible. Guided by a sensitivity to gesture, every piece becomes an exploration of relational spaces, collections of moments in time and outside of time, records of dichotomies, dualities, mutiny; opposites sitting uncomfortably next to each other. Ultimately, Janet’s work invites us to marvel and meditate, to be shaken and to awake, to break from the mundane and to be ravished by it, to feel fully and open our hearts to all of life’s offerings – pain, joy, grief, love, and freedom.

(graze your elbow on the tarmac)

Bethany Shanahan’s array of sculpture-like-drawings further swells this collective banter with the universe. Seeking to give the same focus that one gives to a tiny stone stuck in your shoe, to the way she experiences life and enjoys the world around her, Bethany toys with the structures and logics of reasoning. With a jocose approach to drawing, language and subject, Bethany dances around what we seek to define as true. In the work's diagram of a singular thought and The first step involved in flashing is unbuttoning your coat, Bethany aptly applies graphite onto stretched paper to strip down the customs and conventions of drawing right to its bones. Accepting how fragile and ridiculous it feels to be human, the artist believes that we are all just simply existing, and sometimes what undoes us is no greater than a pebble in a shoe. 

(it’s 6:43pm and I love you)

Sailor Kennard believes that to encounter the world is to exist within a provisional universe, where places and objects shift under attention. In her sculptural assemblages of cups, pins, cardboard and paper collage, objects gain and lose meaning as the unfamiliar becomes familiar and the familiar becomes strange again. Through processes of arranging, assembling, collecting and casting, Sailor seeks to renew ways of encountering the ordinary. Disparate elements are brought into relation, as the quiet strangeness of the everyday emerges to offer new ways of engaging with the material world. Here, Sailor whimsically transforms the simple hand-held paper cup into a sculpture of monument.

(a caramello koala)

tom brand is a _____. _______ ____ ________ about ____. they ____, but if _____

_______ out _________, then _______. when ____ it ______? (it’s the cardboard one)

(the end)

The exhibition featured a limited edition zine (60 copies) designed and produced by the curator, Lauren MacColl and featuring the work of participating artists. Copies were given to attendees on opening night.

About the DRAW Space Prize for Curators

In collaboration with the University of Sydney and DRAW Space in Newtown, DRAW Space offers an annual prize of $1000 for curators. The successful applicant will curate an artist or artists of their choice in a month-long exhibition at DRAW Space.

This is an opportunity for a student to work in an artist-run space, and curate an exhibition that expands our experience and understanding of contemporary drawing.

In their curatorial brief, students entering the prize responded to the vision statement on the DRAW Space website and reviewed past exhibitions at DRAW Space.

In consultation with a team from DRAW Space and the University of Sydney, the winner refined a curatorial brief, curated and installed an exhibition, facilitated a public program in support of the exhibition, published an exhibition statement and online catalogue, and publicised the exhibition on social media.

The prize offers unique opportunities for the winner including:

• Developing an original curatorial concept for an exhibition that can feature emerging and early-career artists of their choice.

• Curating an experimental exhibition in a high-traffic, main street location on Enmore Road in Newtown.

• Enjoying greater flexibility and creative opportunities than those offered through traditional internships in art institutions.

• Offering public engagement opportunities such as artist talks, performances and workshops.

• Mentoring from a team of experienced, creative artist/curators/writers/designers at DRAW Space.

• Promotion on the DRAW Space website, social media feed and through the DRAW Space mailing list (press release and invitation).

Eligibility

Applicants should be enrolled at the University of Sydney in any of the following Undergraduate or Postgraduate courses: Bachelor of Arts (Art History), Bachelor of Visual Arts, Bachelor of Design in Architecture, Master of Art Curating, Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, Master of Architecture.