PROJECT 19: TATZU NISHI – Kaldor Public Art Projects https://kaldorartprojects.org.au Fri, 15 Oct 2021 04:22:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/favicon-kaldor1.png PROJECT 19: TATZU NISHI – Kaldor Public Art Projects https://kaldorartprojects.org.au 32 32 How to Produce a Public Art Project https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/archives/how-to-produce-a-public-art-project/ Wed, 07 Jul 2021 06:20:13 +0000 https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/?post_type=archives&p=3813

How to Produce a Public Art Project

ALISON GUTHRIE

I had the master key to the island. And I’m the worst person to give a master key to, because I opened every door and went into every building and looked at everything. It was amazing.

How to Produce a Public Art Project

Alison Guthrie was working in art storage and transportation when she first became involved with Kaldor Public Art Projects. After a spell organising transport for Barry McGee’s elaborate installation of graffitied cars in Melbourne’s Metropolitan Meat Market, Alison launched into project-managing the first major art installation ever to take place on Cockatoo Island, Project 15: Urs Fischer:

I had the master key to the island. And I’m the worst person to give a master key to, because I opened every door and went into every building and looked at everything. It was amazing.

It was 2007, and ferry services did not yet run to the island, so Alison befriended the owners of a boat company who would transport her, John Kaldor and the production team to the island each day.

Alison arranged for heritage advisors to consult on the installation of Urs’ sculptures in the historic convict precinct on Cockatoo Island. The heritage-listed grounds were formerly a prison for convicts, and later a reform school for children.

Alison coordinated barges and trucks to move material onto the island. Lack of a good dock meant being extra careful about the tides to avoid ending up with a truck “in the drink”.

One of Urs Fischer’s sculptures—an enormous steel cabinet—wouldn’t fit through the door of the sandstone building where it was meant to be displayed. Very early one morning Alison and the production team gathered on the island to have the cabinet craned in through the open ceiling.

At the conclusion of the project Alison was to receive the first of her many mementos from visiting artists. She recalls, “Urs Fischer gave me my first ever iPod, and this is it, and my daughter listens to it now“.

Other items in her collection include a framed drawing by Tatzu Nishi, and a tally counter used to keep track of visitor numbers to projects by Gregor Schneider, Stephen Vitiello and Bill Viola.

Alison went on to contend with more unusual sites over the next five years, masterminding the installation of metal cages on Bondi Beach for Project 16: Gregor Schneider, sourcing 15 tonnes of red dirt for the floor of the Sydney Brickworks for Project 20: Stephen Vitiello, and building two domestic interiors around the statues at the Art Gallery of NSW for Project 19: Tatzu Nishi.

READ MORE ABOUT THE PROJECTS
PROJECT 14: BARRY MCGEE
PROJECT 15: URS FISCHER
PROJECT 16: GREGOR SCHNEIDER
PROJECT 17: BILL VIOLA
PROJECT 19: TATZU NISHI
PROJECT 20: STEPHEN VITIELLO
PROJECT 21: BILL VIOLA
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How to Produce a Public Art Project
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A woman kneels down and holds her hand against the arm of a neo-classical bronze statue, as if marking measurements.
A neo-classical statue, surrounded by wooden scaffolding, outside a neo-classical sandstone building.
Framed hand-drawn sketch of a neo-classical statue inside a living room, with Japanese text.
A smashed and broken chair balanced on top of a smashed dressing table. Inside a drawer of the dressing table is a broken white china bowl.
A faded grey cupboard, doors slightly open, with grass growing on its top, sits inside the empty shell of an old sandstone building with no roof.
A suspended plaster cast of a hand and the lower part of a face, painted pink, against a blurred background.
]]> An Unusual Build https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/archives/an-unusual-build/ Wed, 07 Jul 2021 06:12:08 +0000 https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/?post_type=archives&p=3805

An Unusual Build

SEAN CLARIDGE

An Unusual Build
Tatzu Nishi, War and peace and in between, 2009, Art Gallery Road, Sydney, photographed during installation process. Photo: Carley Wright

For Project 19 in 2009, artist Tatzu Nishi transformed two equestrian statues in front of the Art Gallery of NSW by enclosing them in rooms furnished like domestic interiors. Visitors were surprised and delighted by the disturbance of Gilbert Bayes’ familiar bronze figures and were invited to encounter monuments usually viewed at a distance. Titled War and peace and in between, the project was typical of Nishi’s practice of working with public statues so familiar that they pass unnoticed, until he prompts us to see them with fresh eyes.

Sean Claridge benefited from special insight as lead builder on the project, working closely with Nishi to construct both of the rooms. Sean usually works on commercial renovations and when asked to quote on the build, he was keen to participate in the realisation of such a unique idea. There were particular challenges in this job, such as customising furniture to fit exactly around the sculptures while taking care not to cause any damage.

Appreciative of the builders’ efforts, Nishi had his photo taken with the group, and displayed it in one of the rooms. As Sean recalls, “The boys got a great kick about the photo.” Once the project was complete the structures were disassembled and the materials recycled into other jobs, meaning that the elements of this project are now included in a range of buildings across Sydney.

Although Sean was familiar with every detail of the construction, when he took his family to visit the finished work he could still experience the magic, saying, “It was like I was seeing it for the first time through them.”

Ten years later, each time Sean passes by the Gallery, he looks at the statues and remembers their transformation. He pays renewed attention to other statues around the city and speculates on what could be built around them.

READ MORE ABOUT PROJECT 19: TATZU NISHI
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Bright Coloured Rope
Abseiling Little Bay
A History I’d Never Learned
How to Produce a Public Art Project
Singing to Their Hearts’ Content
A tidy domestic bedroom with two single beds, furnished with deep red carpet, curtains, an armchair and a chandelier. On top of the beds is a large bronze statue of a man, wearing a cape and holding a staff, on horseback. The bed covering is crumpled under the horse’s hooves, and spilling onto the floor.
Framed photograph of five men, smiling.
A blue box-like structure with a window, on top of a scaffolding base, with stairs, and surrounded by temporary fencing. The structure sits in front of a neo-classical sandstone building.
A timber frame around a neo-classical statue of a horse and rider. The structure sits on a scaffolding base, surrounded by construction materials, and in front of a neo-classical sandstone building.
A blue box-like structure with a window, on top of a scaffolding base, with stairs, and surrounded by temporary fencing and construction materials. The structure sits in front of a neo-classical sandstone building.
Legs of a neo-classical statue of a horse and rider, topped by a timber structure, and surrounded by scaffolding.
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