Compiler

Mary Newsome, The training of young terrorists, (detail) 2008, digital print on photopaper, black ink, black card. From the exhibition Postcards: messages from the past at Mailbox 141, Melbourne, until 10 October. Curated by Shanley McBurney. Courtesy the artist and Gallery 101, Melbourne. www.via-n.org

2008 laneway commissions

5 site-specific works by 10 artists will emerge in CBD laneways at various times between now and March 2009 as part of the City of Melbourne’s annual Laneway Commissions. From high anxiety and breathing walls to false advertising and music, this year’s selection showcases diverse art practices and ways in which the city’s landscape has inspired these groups of artists. Organisation for Future Good Steps by Raafat Ishak is a non-functional steel staircase that connects two buildings in Niagara Lane. The stark white staircase is intended to offer a viewpoint into a shifting human experience of anxiety and stress… Meanwhile, situated amongst a small laneway north of 22 McKillop Street is As It Appears…. by Beth Arnold and Sary Zananiri, an ambiguous slow-warping of architecture where a breathing wall reflects the ever-changing lifespan of the city’s buildings… Agony/Ecstasy by Phebe Parisia, Eddy Carroll and John Howland appears as a neon advertisement that flashes publicity at the end of Manton Lane, and yet the sign sells nothing – instead the image alludes to a figure at the nexus of agony and ecstasy… The Speed of Sound: Nau Interactive Bells by Anton Hasell and Terence McDermott is a participatory and collaborative work that reacts to different movements, sounds and chords triggered by people traversing through Union Lane... While at the back of the Nicholas Building a vine-like golden structure meanders up the wall in Welcome to Cocker Alley by Bianca Faye and Tim Spicer, which has a sense of embellishment and beauty of things often hidden and forgotten. www.melbourne.vic.gov.au JB

Best and fairest

Daniel Crooks is the recipient of the inaugural $100 000 Basil Sellers Art Prize for his digital video work, Static no.11 (running man). Crooks’s winning piece continues his fascination with the relationship between time and space and examines the notion of the finish line. Static no.11 (running man) is a meditation on the physical poetry of movement and is inspired by the 19th century studies of human physiology and motion. The sport-themed Prize attracted over 350 entries with 16 finalists selected by philanthropist Basil Sellers; former Governor of Victoria and Olympian, John Landy; independent curator Victoria Lynn; former director of Queensland Art Gallery, Doug Hall; and director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Dr Chris McAuliffe. The finalist exhibition also includes works by James Angus, Jon Cattapan, Kate Daw and Stewart Russell, Ivan Durrant, Shaun Gladwell, Mark Hilton, David Jolly, Josie Kunoth Petyarre and Dinni Kunoth Kemarre, Richard Lewer, Selina Ou, Scott Redford, Elvis Richardson, and Anne Zahalka. On display at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in Parkville until 26 October…
… 34 emerging and established artists have been shortlisted for the $15 000 non-acquisitive William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. Finalists include Andrew Curtis, Chantal Faust, Siri Hayes, Simon Obarzanek and Polixeni Papapetrou. The judges included artist Rosemary Laing; director of Heide Museum of Modern Art, Jason Smith; and director of Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA, Tony Ellwood. The winner will be announced at Monash Gallery of Art in Wheelers Hill on 3 September. The finalist exhibition is on until 2 November. MH