Friday

Transportation Love Song: Inseparable (part 1)
Video still
Video still

Video still

Video still
digital video; colour; silent; presented with English or Chinese subtitles.
original duration 14:44 minute loop


Installation shot: commissioned for Half Dozen festival, China town public art project, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney, January 2006
Digital Video, 14-foot boat of “carvel” timber construction*, photographic prints, salt
variable dimensions; duration 14:44 minute loop

*Originally a recreational vessel. It is over 100 years old, and was hauled from a riverbed in the Royal National Park, where it had been decomposing for decades.





Installation Shot: Trinity Grammar Arts Festival 07

Exhibition Essay:

Half Dozen presents…

YEAR OF THE DOG: Chinatown Public Art Project

Curated by Jasper Knight and David Teh
at 4A Gallery, Hay St, Sydney
6 – 21 January, 2006

Shoufay Derz
(with Divij Darbar, Peter Majarian, Xotchitl Quintanar and Matthew Venables)

Break-up, 2006; digital video installation

For most of us, going overseas actually means traversing the skies; but still today, many less fortunate people venture, literally, across the seas, in search of safety, peace and opportunity. But there is nothing reckless about these actions – the risks they and their families face are clear enough, but they are deemed acceptable risks, so great is the peril they leave behind, so urgent their need for relief.

In the Tampa incident and ‘Children Overboard’ affair, the Australian public bore witness – if only just – to two such desperate attempts for asylum. Instead of interpreting them as cries for help, our government chose to present them as brazen assaults on our national sovereignty. In the mirror of the media, the Australian public was subjected to the sad spectacle of a nation fleeing the world it inhabits – legislating itself out of existence – turning outlying islands into extraterritorial non-space where human rights are heaped in the too-hard basket. Our government’s role in the ‘Children Overboard’ affair stands as its grossest act of rhetorical indecency and moral recklessness. For many of us, this cowardice has been neither forgiven nor forgotten.

The boat is therefore a powerful symbol for contemporary Australia – a bridge between cultures, but a precarious bridge. The boat is more than a life raft, more than just a way of moving people and their belongings. Like all transport, it is also an information technology. From the first colonisation of our continent tens of thousands of years ago – which began its transformation into a culturally diverse land – boats have brought new ways of thinking, speaking and living, different technologies of being. The vessel is also a channel, a political vector.

For Shoufay Derz, the boat is an ambivalent metaphor, symbolising on one hand the feeling of transit, of being between places (for the boat is not a place) – and on the other, the impossibility of communication between two cultures. The artist herself is an Australian of German and Taiwanese heritage, and the imagery for this installation is drawn from several places: Tsing Tao in eastern China, coastal New South Wales and Tasmania. While these locations may be integrated seamlessly as landscape (or seascape), the mediation introduces its own disconnections, some impossible differences.

In Derz’s Break-up, an imperfect, imagined dialogue is recomposed from multiple video sources. Like speech itself, ‘new media’ also describes a set of languages (code), and the gaps between them can be just as profound as those between different cultures. These slippages necessitate and inform the editing. At times, the two channels converge and, briefly, comprehension seems possible. But not for long. Is it possible ever to be adequately understood? Or does understanding consist precisely in this experience of misunderstanding?
In The Infinite Conversation, Maurice Blanchot noted the necessity of this failure: “To speak to someone is to accept not introducing him into the system of things or of beings to be known; it is to recognise him as unknown and to receive him as foreign without obliging him to break with his difference.”

In our climate of repressed inter-cultural tension, Break-up explores the limits, possibilities and impossibilities of conversation. In a boat at sea, two figures must converse; but as day becomes night, they appear to inhabit different worlds, different times. Just as their conversation is full of holes, so too is the boat – it is far from sea-worthy; it is, perhaps like all communication, destined to fail.

Inseparable, 2006
Digital video installation; salt, timber boat*

* This 14-foot boat, of “carvel” timber construction, was originally a recreational vessel. It is over 100 years old, and was hauled from a riverbed in the Royal National Park, where it had been decomposing for decades.

Half Dozen is a non-profit, artist-run initiative dedicated to commissioning, promoting and exhibiting the work of emerging visual artists. For more info, please visit: www.halfdozen.org

Year of the Dog was commissioned by Half Dozen, in conjunction with The Asia-Australia Arts Centre (4A Gallery) and the NSW Government Architect’s Office. Half Dozen receives support from the Artist Run Initiatives program of the Australia Council for the Arts. Night screening (street view)

Opening night























RADII HEART
A series of both Still Photographs and Video (193 minutes, 2-channel, silent). The video toured nationally as part of the Blake Prize for Religious Art Touring exhibition 2002, and was exhibited again in 2004 at Sherman galleries, Sydney.

The installation is two video screens, each 193 minutes in duration. Each screen displays a circle of 360 candles. In Radii Heart (inside out) a candle is lit every 30 seconds, beginning from the center and spiraling toward the periphery until all 360 have been lit. In Radii heart (outside in) candles are lit, starting from the outside perimeter, then inwards towards the centre. The entire process takes 193 minutes. The lights flicker and some die off over the period of three hours, creating an impermanent and evolving quality of light.

The photographs ( 80 x 80 cm, photographs face mounted acrylic) were first featured in the exhibition One of at Sherman galleries 2003. An image is published in the Sherman galleries publication TWENTY:SHERMAN GALLERIES 1986 - 2006.

You can view this work in the forthcoming touring exhibition: Light Sensitive, works for from the Verghis collection. This exhibition was first shown at Bathurst Regional gallery featured works from prominent contempoary artists whose use of light is intergral to their work. Curated by Richard Perram.

Examples from the Photographic series shown here:




Radii Heart 340/360
80 x 80 cm
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
ed 5, 2004

Radii Heart 357/360
80 x 80 cm
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
ed 5, 2004

Radii Heart 344/360
80 x 80 cm
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
edition of 5, 2004

Radii Heart 360/360
80 x 80 cm
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
edition of 1, 2004

The following images are Still frames from the accompanying video.






















ON LINKING BACK

Installation shot: dreamboat

Installation shot: Linking back
Asia-Australia Arts centre,2004


Linking Back
150 x 53 cm (x 3)
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
2003 Blake Prize for Religious Art Award

Curtain
62 x 100 cm




LOVE CAPSULE/TERMINIAL LOVES



Installation view
2-channel digital video, love capsule, colour, 44 minute loop
Love capsule: Terminal Loves prompts a sceptical and questioning dialogue concerning the language of love. The work invites the viewer to enter the intimate boat / capsule to be confronted with a two channel audiovisual loop of strangers looking at them while repeating the words "I-love-you".

Mirror Us
Lamda print, face mounted on acrylic
53 x 120 cm



All images  and original Shoufay derz.
Please kindly email for permission to use images


CV
SHOUFAY DERZ
Artist
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia
Website: www.shoufay.com

EMPLOYMENT
Current
School of Media Arts, College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales
Teacher, Sydney Institute of TAFE


EDUCATION
2011 Master of Fine Arts by Research (Media Arts). University of New South Wales
2003 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours). University of New South Wales 1998 Diploma of Fine Arts with Distinction (Photography/Printmaking), Northern Sydney
TAFE, Seaforth

AWARDS


2012 NAVA NSW Artists’ Grant

2011 Australia Council Artstart Grant

2008 Viktoria Marinov Award in Art for Female Artists
Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition - Judges Special Mention Prize
2007 Janet Holmes à Court Artists Grant and Visual and Craft Artists' Grant
2006 Australia Council New Work Grant
2003 The 52ND Blake Prize for Religious Art
Judges: Judith Carroll, Jeffrey Kamins, Hilarie Mais and Nick Vickers
2002 Apple Computer Inc. Scholarship, University of New South Wales
Kodak Photo-Media Art Prize, University of New South Wales

RESIDENCIES
2012 Self Initiated Residency, Xinjiang, China
2011 Self Initiated Residency, Ambrym, Vanuatu
2007 Artist in Residence, Trinity Grammar School, Sydney

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Depart Without Return, Cofa space, Sydney
2007 Shoufay Derz, Delmar Gallery, Sydney
Transportation Love Song: Inseparable, Art and disability, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Esplanade Concourse, Singapore
2006 Break-up (Curators: David Teh and Jasper Night). Commissioned for Half Dozen festival, China town public art project, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Gallery 4a, Sydney
2004 Radii Heart. Sherman Artbox, Sherman Galleries, Sydney

COLLABORATIONS
2007 Entanglement (with Owen Leong). Westspace, Melbourne

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012 The 37th Alice Prize (finalists). Araluen Galleries, Alice Springs (juried)
2011 Fisher's Ghost Art Award 2011, Campbelltown Arts Centre
The Substation Contemporary Art Prize, The Substation, Melbourne
Shelf Life (Curator: Catherine benz), Delmar Gallery, Sydney
Annual members show, Asia-Australia Arts centre, Gallery 4a, Sydney
2010 An Insight, Trinity Grammar School Art Collection (curated by Catherine Benz), Delmar Gallery
Shelf Life, Delmar Gallery
Annual members show, Asia-Australia Arts centre, Gallery 4a, Sydney
2009 Light Sensitive Material: works from the Verghis Collection (curated by Richard Perran and Lisa Corsi), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.
Life of Staff, See Street Gallery, Sydney
2008 Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition, Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane
4a Annual show, Asia Australia Arts Centre, Sydney
2007 Lomograpix07(Exhibition of selected finalists), Blender Gallery, Sydney.(juried)
2006 The 34th Alice Prize (finalists). Araluen Galleries, Alice Springs (juried)
2005 Asian Traffic (selected works on tour). Today Art Museum, Beijing; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; OCTA Museum of Contemporary Art, Shenzhen
2004 One of, Festivus 04. Sherman galleries, Sydney
Asian Traffic: Phase 6 (curated by Binghui Huangfu). Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney (Official Parallel Event of the Biennale of Sydney)
Touring Blake Exhibition 2004 (selected works). Grafton Regional Gallery, Stanthorpe Regional Art gallery, Australian Catholic University (ACU) National, Strathfield, NSW & Melbourne
2003 53rd Blake Prize for Religious Art. Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney
Touring Blake Exhibition 2003 (selected works). Tamworth Regional Gallery, Devonport Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbor Regional Gallery, ACU National, Strathfield NSW & Melbourne
Helen Lemprière Traveling Art Scholarship 2003 (Exhibition of selected finalists), Artspace
Ulterior, Love capsule/Terminal loves, (with Sam Smith & David Westerman), Firstdraft Gallery
Annual members show, Asia-Australia Arts centre, Gallery 4a, Sydney
COFA Annual, University of New South Wales
10 + 2, Exhibition and Performance Space (EPS) Gallery, University of New South Wales
2002 52nd Blake Prize for Religious Art. Casula Power Arts House, Casula
Under the Sun. EPS Gallery, University of New South Wales
This is not House. Exhibition of sound, Kudos Gallery, Paddington
Shoufay Derz, BeatRoute 2 festival. Wakeup Bar, Sydney
Speak Up visions of alternative worlds. EPS Gallery, University of New South Wales
Survival Kit (photographic works). EPS Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney
1999 Out with a bang. Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney, Manly
1998 Newism, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Manly
Signature (with Robyn O’Donahue). Axis Gallery, Sydney


SELECTED PUBLIC LECTURES / CONFERENCES
2007 Artist in Residence, Trinity Creative Arts Festival, Delmar GalleryTrinity Grammar
2004-06 Guest Speaker, Artist practices. Loreto, Kirribilli.
2004 The Visual Futures Conference. Australian Independent Schools, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
The Touring Blake Exhibition. Australian Catholic University National Gallery, Strathfield Campus.
Guest Speaker, Artist practices. Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College. North Sydney.
On Linking Back, Asian Traffic. Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Gallery 4a, Sydney.
2003 The Blake Prize. Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney

COLLECTIONS
Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill
University of Sydney Union, Sydney, Australia
Northern Institute of TAFE, Sydney, Australia
Represented in private Collections, Sydney, Australia and internationally


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rosemary Crumlin, The Blake Book, 162-163, 2011. Rosemary Crumlin. The Spirit within Australian contemporary Art, catalogue essay
Twenty, Sherman galleries 1986–2006 (2006): 84
David Teh. "Half Dozen presents...Year of the Dog: Chinatown Public Art Project, Shoufay Derz", Catalogue essay, (January, 2006): 3
Barbara Messer. “Student profile”, International Research Student Prospectus –COFA, UNSW (2006):24
‘Artist case study: Shoufay Derz’, Using Learning Technologies in learning and teaching Visual Arts. CD ROM, Australian Independent schools, Sydney (2005)
Peter Sheelan AO. “The Touring Blake Exhibition”, catalogue essay, ACU National Gallery (2004): 2
Peter Hill. "Join the red dots", Spectrum - Sydney Morning Herald (September 25, 2004): 18
Joyce Morgan. "Watch this face, Shoufay Derz", The (Sydney) Magazine - Sydney Morning Herald, Issue 11 (March 2004): 30
Karen Maris. "Investigating the concept of practice in visual arts", Catholic Schools Visual Arts conference papers (2004)
“Art of Questioning, Artist Shoufay Derz”, Time Out Arts - Mainly Daily (December 05, 2003): 39
Peter Sheelan AO. “Blake 2003 essay”, catalogue essay, ACU National Gallery (2003): 2
Dominique Angeloro. "Traveling circus", Metro - Sydney Morning Herald (August 15-21, 2003): 22
Lenny Ann Low. "Blake Winner's Dark Reflection", Sydney Morning Herald (November 13, 2003): 4
Cathy Pryor. "Poetry of the rib takes out the Blake", The Australian (November 13, 2003): 4
Chris Kearney. "COFA artist takes out Blake Prize", Uniken, Issue 10 (Dec ember 2003): 7
Peter Hill. "An Art of God", Spectrum - Sydney Morning Herald (December 6-7, 2003): 10
Jo Bosben. "Student runs away with Prize", Blitz Magazine (Winter issue, 2002): 9
Louise Maral. "Black and Blake in partnership", The University of Sydney News-UniArts (Nov. 28, 2003):7.
C Kidd. Artnotes NSW - Blake Winner, Art Monthly, Issue 166 (Dec 2003)



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