Three new exhibitions at KINGS opened on the 10th with artists Indi Jennings, David Calf and Ponie Curtis exhibiting. KINGS Artist-Run is a contemporary arts organisation that supports emerging artists and creatives, writers and performers in the early stages of their careers. The organisation was originally created as a space where experimental video works can be displayed.
Loacted 69 Capel St, West Melbourne, the space offers public programs frequently, with three held last year all having multiple sessions from July – December. Focussing on a variety of topics such as Deaf awareness, Art and Ableism, Visual descriptions of art spaces and Melbourne’s Heat waves, it’s fair to say the organisation covers a multitude of issues and interests.
KINGS is my first ARI (Artist Run Initiative) featured in my blog and one I’ve intentionally chosen to include. If you’re unfamiliar, ARIs provide an environment friendly for artists and curators to experience and share with the public. It provides exhibition opportunities and the development of artists and local communities to support each other and inspire ambitious creatives in a self-funded/curated manner. Artists using ARIs benefit through understanding both sides of exhibiting their work and curating a show as they collaborate with others to put the shows on. A necessary skill in the development of their creative careers. There are fewer rules and you’re not following an organisation’s public image really. The disadvantage with that of course is the funding, support and resources aspect that larger organisations carry out during exhibition periods, ARIs are smaller and tend to have much less.
I’ve never been to KINGS, so why now? Apart from the diversity it brings within my previous blogs and larger gallery organisations were chosen, artist Indi Jennings presents a project that examines the fractured landscape of the broader Western Basalt plains, home to the very last remaining population of remnant Diuris Fragrantissma (I asked chatgpt to help me pronounce this: Dy-YOOR-iss frag-ranTISS-ih-muh) on earth. Due to the dump and wasteland, it once was, the orchid species is being phased out, and both Indi and us gallery goers need to experience this project as it leaves us thinking of the human, the modern-day societal effort that helped progress the decline of this innocent little plant-flower-orchid-thingy that I do care about, just couldn’t find a good synonym for ‘orchid’ so little plant-flower-orchid-thingy has to suffice.
On my way to the gallery, as I stood next to the train doors listening to tunes window watching I noticed how daft/oblivious some people are. The kind of people who don’t properly read the “wait for the green light” sign before proceeding to push the RED button to exit the train. It was so amusing, I genuinely counted 4 different occasions people struggled to understand this train-door-mechanism. Mustve been the Olivia Rodrigo fans distracting people’s intellect if that even makes any sense.
This exhibition was a unique experience for me, and those around me I’m guessing, as I was filming the whole night with this big obnoxious stick in front of me capturing my point of view, documenting my movements and stuff. The floorplan was so open and really fit the aesthetic of the artworks, or vice-versa. As you enter, you’re greeted by a mound of dirt and flora in Indi Jennings’ installation. The piece features 121 glass Diuris flowers, symbolizing the shards of broken bottles left behind when the area was a municipal dump. A sonic landscape accompanies the work, inviting listeners to connect with the fragile biodiversity of the Western Basalt plains.
The work invites you to crouch down and get eye level with these glass orchids, capturing the shine and reflection from the lights above. As you move around the mound, the plants glimmer making it blatantly obvious that these are in fact fake orchids (I knew the whole time), commenting on the amount of glass bottles and pollution left behind in these plains, deeming the fabrication of this species a sad reality soon.
I found it actually a hard space to move around considering the amount of people. The flow around the artwork, especially with this meter-long stick I’m smacking people with, posed an issue as the front main room was shoulder to shoulder. People hogging the prime space.
Amy Stuart, my old writing and criticism tutor last semester was behind the bar feeding me alcohol, I forgot what I was drinking as I’m writing this though, but it was a beer. Two beers actually. (also when I say old tutor, I don’t mean old in age, Amy’s very youthful)
The back room housed Davids’s installation, three concrete plinths with some old TV/monitors playing some documentational video works that focusses on the listening of sounds in a space previously visited before. I hung here for a bit and waited for someone else to sit and listen so I could sketch them without their permission.
David was watching me sketch his work and later told me all about the set-up process which I was heavily interested in. He made the plinths with his son. Concrete plinths and the middle one weighed 150 kg. I wigged out a bit though because he came up to me and went.
“Theodore?”
Like, I was so confused about how he knew me but one of those moments where you didn’t want to seem rude and not remember someone. I just actually stared at him with a confused expression waiting for a follow-up line. Turns out I stalked his Instagram and followed him earlier that day, Anyway, he was asking about the camera, the blog, my uni degree, etc. I asked him why he’d want to watch people experience his installation, and whether it’s a nervous/confronting thing. I’ve only exhibited artworks twice or something, but I hated being near them and waiting for people to say something or engage with the works. He said he felt the same way but couldn’t help watching. I think it was like a pride thing. The Installation was so cool, all the cables were hidden with rocks creating mounds around the homemade plinths, giving off the impression of brutalist towers growing from beneath. I’d be very proud after making some of those plinths. I want one of those plinths in fact. David if you are reading this (which you probably are seeing I gave you the URL and everyone reads this), I’d love to make a plinth with you.
The crowd at this show was so diverse. I feel like I say this in every blog, and it’s less and less impactful the more I use this broad description, but this crowd was seriously all ages. Like I saw a newborn, the only difference however is that 99% of people here, regardless of their ages, all had the same haircuts. Like some cool mod/mullet, newborn was an exception obviously…
Towards the end of the night, I went outside to grab some photos from the street, capturing people entering and exiting but as I put my beer on the floor next to me, a bird shits, I kid you not, like way too close to me and my beer. Smack bang between me and my beer next to my foot. I look up and I’m under a power line directly lined up with a bird’s anus (well not directly, otherwise I would’ve actually got hit, but you can imagine how far away you place your drink on the floor next to you, not far. So the fact the bird got in between me and my beer was so lucky.) The moral of the story is don’t get between me and my beer. Please.
My favourite part of the night was standing out front on the road waiting for my Uber to Evelyn. My phone ran out of charge just as I ordered it so I couldn’t see the number plate or car type, but to my surprise, a literal limo/van rocks up, all black, tinted windows, etc. I tried to get in the front and as I reached for the handle, the sleek black sliding door slowly rolled open revealing the LED star lights on the interior. I must either looked like some sick art celebrity dude as all the cool-haired beer drinkers on the street looked or some wanker with a private driver. The worst part was as I sat down the door wouldn’t shut for like a minute, so I was just like sitting there, and the whole crowd of people outside (realistically like 6 people) just stared at me.
The rest of the night I had the song Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis as it accompanied Ponie Curtis’ video installation On The Nose.
I urge you guys to visit KINGS. It’s small and wholesome, has $5 beers and a great space for emerging artists and curators to experiment and hold fun nights just like last Thursday.
