PROVIDING the backbone for this year’s Artrage Festival is an exhibition taking a longing look at the Northbridge-based event’s vibrant past.
Filling PICA’s many nooks and crannies, the Silver Artrage 25 exhibition will detail the creative talent that has been pumping through Perth’s visual art practice over the last quarter century.
Referencing along the way, key artists, exhibitions, artist-run spaces and galleries linked to Artrage through the years.
But rather than being a self-congratulatory look at the past, Artrage director and exhibition co-curator Marcus Canning said the show would have a “carnivalesque” feel, in keeping with the major anniversary of the growing festival.
Now in his sixth year as director, Canning and fellow curator Andrew Gaynor have gone on the hunt for works past and present, arriving at an extensive and admittedly personal collection of WA art.
“We are setting ourselves up as a target, but I think it is good to be upfront about it,” Canning joked about the editorial slant of the selection process. It has been like a hunter gatherer approach to curating and there have been a lot of reconnections to key people.”
Canning said tracking down the works was an at-times a difficult process, particularly sourcing art from the 80s that may have fallen through the custodial web of institutions.
“Unfortunately, art has a tendency to go AWOL if it is not in a collection,” he said.
Yet despite the countless works that may have been forgotten, thrown out or fallen into disrepair over the years, the exhibition has an impressive tally of over 100 featured artists.
“There were so many cool discoveries even for an art nerd like myself,” Canning said.
“It is as much about the collection of artists as it is about the collection of works, and it’s also a way to recognise those artists who have been around for a while.”
Artrage curators are impressed with the strength of their anniversary collection.
The exhibition is just one part of the 25th anniversary festival program that includes a range of theatre, music, art and everything in between, from October 16 to November 9.
The Silver Artrage 25 exhibition runs from October 18 to November 23 at PICA.