This Wednesday evening MAAP Republic hosts ‘New Primitive’ – SPEC’s night of music featuring hand-made instruments and experimental sounds from Australia and Indonesia. As part of their first Australian tour, en route to the Melbourne Jazz festival, Indonesian artists Wukir Suryadi and Rully Shabara will play at MAAP’s Collin Place residence.

When: Wednesday June 1st, 7-10pm

Where: Collins Place, 271 Grey St, South Brisbane

Free

Lin Tianmiao, ‘Private Reading Lamp’ 2010

Light from Light tour visits Beijing over two venues from April 29th until June 30th 2011: the National Library of China and the National Art Museum of China. The Brisbane Light from Light exhibition will remain on display at the State Library of Queensland until 2012. For more details: www.lightfromlight.net

An unconventional approach to exhibition making was realised in the National Library of China with a distinguished group of artists predominantly from Australia and China. The project in Beijing was especially designed to bring artists’ innovative ways of seeing into the realm of documented knowledge in two of China’s most prestigious institutions the National Library of China and the National Art Museum of China. This cross-institution exhibition also links State Library of Queensland in a most unusual meeting of art, books and public space.

The exhibition includes work created to be experienced in and around the collection and public reading areas of the library, situating the works to seen and experienced for the first time, in contemplative and unusual sites of the library. To frame and connect the exhibition with art audiences in Beijing, The National Art Museum of China hosted the major outdoor sculpture ‘Light from Light’ at their front entrance – endorsing the significance of the contemporary art exhibition concept. Major figures in contemporary Chinese art such as Zhang Peili, Wang Gongxin, Lin Tianmiao, Wang Peng and Pak Sheung Chuen participated with thought provoking and original approaches to the problem of how to design a work that operates in the particular spaces of a library. Their Australian counterparts Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Eugene Carchesio, Joyce Hinterding & David Haines, Archie Moore, Grant Stevens along with international artist Josef Strau also contribute a diverse range of fine and curious projects.

The exhibition curator and Director of MAAP-Multimedia Art Asia Pacific, Kim Machan said, “The significance to realise such an experimental format within the National Library of China should not be underestimated… I look forward to feedback from the accidental and educated audiences that frequent the library along with art enthusiasts.”

The exhibition opened 29 April and continues until the 30 June at The National Library of Beijing and the National Art Museum of China.

The Light from Light tour visited the Shanghai Library between November 2010 and February 2011, and scheduled to launch at the Hangzhou Public Library in July 2011. The exhibition is presented in Australia simultaneously at the State Library of Queensland until 2012.

The exhibition website for Light from Light now features a live webcam feed of Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley’s eponymous outdoor photovoltaic sculpture that sits at the southern perimeter of the State Library of Queensland. After 6pm EST, you can see the geodesic structure and accompanying neon signage become illuminated, thanks to the solar power it has collected over the course of the day.

The website also features a downloadable artwork: Josef Strau’s poster for Theatre of the Lamps Talking in the Light of the Past in both English and Chinese can be downloaded as your very own copy. You can also listen to the English and Chinese Lamp Memoirs he recorded for the installation.

Due to severe flooding in Brisbane, MAAP office in Grey Street South Bank is temporarily closed. South Bank Corporation security headquarters has relocated operations to MAAP’s office spaces while the emergency continues. We will be answering email intermittently, though our office phone number is being utilised for security operations.Email will be answered as soon as possible.

The central business district of Brisbane is still blacked out, as is South Bank where at State Library Queensland the Burchill/McCamley geodesic dome solar powered art work is the only light you can see in the darkness. ‘Light from Light’ dome defiantly beams out! hope to get some photo’s but can’t get in there yet.

Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, ‘Light from Light’ 2010

Light from Light is currently open at the Shanghai Library, China until the 30th of January, 2011. The exhibition is on concurrently at the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Artworks by Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Eugene Carchesio, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Lin Tianmiao, Archie Moore, Pak Sheung Chuen, Josef Strau, Wang Gong Xin, and Zhang Peili.

Visit www.lightfromlight.net for more details