Mitch Cairns Catalogue

MITCH CAIRNS: THE READER’S VOICE

Saturday 24 October 2015 – Sunday 21 February 2016

Heide Museum of Modern Art

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Though best known as a painter, Sydney artist Mitch Cairns here brings together collages, a bronze bas-relief and a book under the title The Reader’s Voice. Each component is similar to all the others: all are A4-sized and linked by the idea of printing: the bronze was cast from a linocut for the book cover and could in theory be used as a printing block itself, the collaged Letraset was made for pre-press layouts in the pre-digital era, and the book is a one-to-one print of all the collages.

The framed collages are arranged like bricks in a wall, a structure containing what Cairns describes as ‘tangential responses to good things’ – the studio, domestic life, sex, absurdities, gags and so on. The regular geometry creates a decorative overlay, like the mortar line termed ‘pointing’ in bricklaying, a craft referred to in several images.

Somewhere between cartoons, writing, and concrete poetry, the collages draw upon all these forms, and from music. Music is also alluded to in the bronze ‘portrait’ head of a cello, a mute stand-in for the artist, and in an exhibition title that alerts us to our reading of the work.

As he does with painting, Cairns imposes or creates limits that paradoxically allow freer expression; for example using French, a language he doesn’t speak; or letters to make images. Political or New Yorker–style cartoons are an inspiration, for their ability to say so much with so little, and Cairns makes economical use of the now-defunct Letraset, and personalised Zazzle stickers, as he plays with thoughts, memories and an idiosyncratic archive of images.

MITCH CAIRNS: THE READER’S VOICE LINDA MICHAEL


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Mitch CairnsThe Reader’s Voice 2015Letraset and stickers on paperbronze, artist book, exhibited in the Heide Store36 parts, each 29.7 x 21 cmCourtesy of the artist and The Commercial, Sydney

Mitch Cairns, The Reader’s Voice, Gang Atelier, Sydney, 2015. First edition of 500 (232 pages, 110 illustrations in black & white; ISBN 978-0-646-94532-3)

LIST OF WORKS


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Cairns completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in painting at the National Art School in Sydney in 2006.

Solo exhibitions include Dip or Skinny Dip and FINCHES at The Commercial Gallery, in 2014 and 2015 respectively; a wall drawing, Studio Leak, Shepparton Art Museum, in 2014; and solo exhibitions at TCB art inc., Melbourne, 2014; KALIMANRAWLINS, Melbourne, 2013; BREENSPACE, Sydney, in 2008, 2010 and 2012; BOXCOPY, Brisbane, 2012; MOP Projects, Sydney, 2006, 2007 and 2008; and Locksmith Project Space, Sydney, 2008. In 2012 he participated in a two-person exhibition at Society, Sydney, with Matthew Tumbers.

Selected group exhibitions include Outside Thoughts, with Emily Floyd, Darren Sylvester and Danie Mellor, Contemporary Art Tasmania, 2015; RELATIONSHIPPAL with Tim Silver and Susan Jacobs, BREENSPACE, Sydney, 2013; Alpha Romeo, with Christopher Hanrahan and Nigel Milsom, Peloton, Sydney; They Call Them Pirates Out Here, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; What I think of when I think about dancing, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 2009; Reality Check, Hazelhurst Regional Art

Gallery, Sydney, 2009; The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, 2009; and I am a Good Boy, Firstdraft, Sydney, 2008.

Cairns was runner-up in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in both 2014 and 2015, with portraits of philanthropist Reg Richardson artist Peter Powditch respectively. He has been a finalist in numerous prize exhibitions including the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. In 2012 he received both the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, which included a residency at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, 2013, and a Linden Postcard award, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.

Between 2005 and 2007, Cairns was studio assistant to the late Adam Cullen.

Cairns co-founded artist-run space The Cosmic Battle for Your Heart with Kelly Doley, Brian Fuata and Agatha Gothe-Snape. Based in Sydney from 2009 to 2011, it was the subject of the survey exhibition, Eastern Seaboard, at Artspace, Sydney, in 2011.

BIOGRAPHY


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7 Templestowe Road Bulleen Victoria 3105 Australia

T +61 3 9850 1500 F +61 3 9852 0154 heide.com.au

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition:

MITCH CAIRNS: THE READER’S VOICE Saturday 24 October 2015 – Sunday 21 February 2016

Curated by Linda Michael Design: Ramona Lindsay Installation photographs: Christian Capurro

© Heide Museum of Modern Art, the author, designer and photographers

ISBN: 978-1-921330-47-6


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Mitch Cairns Catalogue

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