Ex Libris Fisherarium: Persons of Interest

23/11/2015

PhD candidate Glenn Wallace and UNSWAD academic Dr Katherine Moline give us an intriguing insight into the machinations of ASIO and the Cold War era, writes Dr Michael Goldberg.

When: 2 November 2015 – 2 December 2015

Where: Fisher Library F03 Levels 2,3, and 4

Personsofinterest_pic1For over 40 years, Australia’s Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) seized books that were deemed subversive in raids on the homes of people suspected of conspiracy. In recent years ASIO files documenting the activities of certain ‘Persons of Interest’ have been released.

For this iteration of Ex Libris Fisherarium, ‘Era of Surveillance’ maps where confiscated texts are located in Fisher Library. Viewers are invited to explore the Library as a space where art, architecture, politics, knowledge and power converge.

Era of surveillance: Persons of interest / Family
Artists: Katherine Moline and Glenn Wallace

 

#Asio

#sureveillance

#Sydney_library #ExLibrisFisherarium

New exhibition: ZEEN by Leigh Rigozzi

This exhibition in Fisher Library is the next in the ongoing series of art projects Ex Libris Fisherarium curated by Associate Professor Michael Goldberg. The projects comprising work by staff, alumni and associates of Sydney College of the Arts are themed around the idea of ‘the book’ in all its historical and contemporary manifestations. Read more >

 

 

Exhibition: Ex Libris Fisherarium art series

Data RetentionEx Libris Fisherarium is an ongoing series of art projects curated by Associate Professor Michael Goldberg. The projects comprising work by staff, alumni and associates of Sydney College of the Arts are themed around the idea of ‘the book’ in all its historical and contemporary manifestations.

Project: Data Retention by Gianni Wise

Artist’s Statement
With the proliferation of data networks, the human mind always find ways to ‘wire-up’ new connections between itself, objects, ideas, events and the world. I use wires and books as a form of ready-made art that work as props for memory. Objects external to the mind can trigger memory and make connections. I am interested in this interplay between mind and external world. When Umberto Ecco claimed in the Name of The Rose (1988): “Wanting connections, we found connections always, everywhere, and between everything” he refers to a world ‘exploding’ in a whirling network of interrelationships where everything (appears to) point to everything else, everything explains everything else.

Curator’s Statement
Gianni Wise’s installation has its menacing aspects. The title, ‘Data Retention’, might well refer to current government policies regarding the retention of metadata – the harvesting from telecommunications networks of personal information by law enforcement agencies – ostensibly to protect the public from acts of terrorism. Indeed, the installation itself displays a number of sinister ‘packages’. Perhaps they hold data. But they also disturbingly resemble IEDs (or ‘improvised explosive devices’). The ‘connections’ Wise refers to carry the potential to penetrate deep into our personal lives, challenging privacy and potentially violating fundamental rights. In this sense, the installation reflects on the threat of data retention exposing our personal lives ‘like an open book’. Wise’s use of ambiguously wired devices may equally suggest the mind’s desire to invent ‘paranoid’ connections where there are none.

Dates: 23 February to 26 March 2015
Where:
Levels 2, 3 and 4 exhibition cabinets, Fisher Library North
Cost: FREE and open daily to the public
Times: Opening times vary, please check the website

For details of past and current projects, connect with Ex Libris Fisherarium on Facebook.

Exhibition: The Three Phases by Alex Gawronski

The Three Pases21 August to 13 October 2014
The Three Phases is a series of 55 predominantly colour photographs mounted on gaterboard. These photos were edited down from hundreds of related others. All the photographs were taken around various Sydney University campuses especially at Sydney College of the Arts and Fisher Library my two workplaces. The photos also include reframed images of otherwise random pages within books I have discovered recently as a frequent user of the Library. Each cabinet has been arranged according to a particular book title suggesting a theme. These constitute the ‘three phases’ of the work’s overarching title; Phase One – The Construction of Reality, Phase Two – The Art Crisis and Phase Three – Archaeology as a Political Practice. There is a strong focus on the everyday in this ensemble of works that is combined at times with other more absurdist representations. This combination speaks of a certain anxiety regarding the ‘truth’ of photographic imagery in our pervasively digital age but also the freedom for constant recombination digital technology allows. Overall, the images are arranged to imply an open poetic narrative relative to the theme of each cabinet. Their arrangement over three descending floors also hints at the spatial dimension of photographs as a collective archive to be mined in ever differing ways.

Fisher Library and Sydney College of the Arts Series of Art projects
This series, curated by Associate Professor Michael Goldberg, showcases the work of Sydney College of the Arts students, staff and alumni for the wider University community.

Where: Levels 2, 3 and 4 exhibition cabinets, Fisher Library North
Cost: FREE and open daily to the public
Times: Opening times vary, please check the website

For further information contact:
Dr Michael Goldberg
E michael.goldberg@sydney.edu.au