Built the joinery in a new Newtown bar - Mary's, with Steve Smyth.
Mt Hay
Mark has begun making studies for a new series of works about Mt Hay. Mark says:
"I believe that the process of painting reveals histories, layers, spirits, the unseen. Mark Tredinnick sums my instincts up in The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir when he says, "What is essential is invisible to the eyes." Through my paintings about Mt Hay, I want to set up a narrative that questions how stories are told in order to enrich past present future heritages. The Blue Mountains were considered a barrier by early settlers, and a scar created by a battle fought between half fish and half reptile Dreamtime creatures by the Gundungurra people. I think the Blue Mountains are a set of lungs for the city to the east and the agriculture to the west. From where I live right now, Mt Hay is the beacon of a life source."
New Leura studio
Mark has converted the interior of an old garage into his new studio.
Koala Land report
After 2 years of research and meeting with leading scientists and koala specialists, Mark has produced, designed and illustrated the Koala Land report, which you can read here. The objective of the report was to explore ways of creating a sustainable future for koalas, particularly on the Koala Coast, South East Queensland, Australia. Despite the Federal Government's 2012 decision to classify Queensland's koalas as vulnerable and add them to the Threatened Species List, there remains a lot of work to be done to stabilise diminishing koala populations. Mark's report sets out achievable solutions for rebuilding koala populations, and as a collection of knowledge provides a picture of what we have to start doing now to prevent koalas from becoming extinct.
Koala Land poster
Mark designed, illustrated and produced a double sided A2 poster for local governments in schools in South East Queensland.
Opera Bar studies
Mark produced a series of detailed collage studies for the Opera Bar painting commission. As a series of narratives, the studies explore the layers of history and architecture at Bennelong Point and East Circular Quay.
City Wilderness Trail tours
Ranger Gerada has started taking guided tours with Ranger Bonetto and Ranger Brain as a part of the City Wilderness Trail. The tours will run until January 27, 2013.
City Wilderness Trail signage
As a part of a collaboration with Tega Brain and Diego Bonetto, Mark designed and illustrated the signage for the City Wilderness Trail. Commissioned by City of Sydney's Laneways Public Art Programme, and launched for Art and About, the City Wilderness Trail is a distributed public art project which acknowledges the city as host to an incredible diversity of non-human populations. Mark, Tega and Diego are creating an urban trail that draws attention to fifteen different bird, mammal and insect species that live in the CBD. The signs will be hidden throughout the laneways and spaces along George Street. This project celebrates urban biodiversity as something of value that should be welcomed and designed for. Instead of approaching nature as something that is 'out there', the City Wilderness Trail presents the natural world as a dynamic, evolving and complex system of which our cities and societies are actually an important part.
Opera Bar mockups
Mark was commissioned by Tzannes Associates to mockup a painting for the 35 metre long bulkhead casino online in the Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House.
Scenic Crystal
Mark created an illustration that was transferred onto 9.5 metres of fixed and sliding glass panels for the Portobello restaurant on a new boat constructed in the Netherlands. The brief was to create loose sketches based on Tuscan landscapes.
Koala Land website and blog
Mark created the identity for Koala Land. Website by Pandora Nguyen. Blog and social networking by Adrian O'Doherty.
Koala Land identity
Mark created an identity for Koala Land.
Big Jesus Burger joinery
With Steve Smyth, Mark built a new area for the peeps to hang in a Sydney recording studio and production office.
Beginning End
Mark completed a new video piece to coincide with the launch of his Post Exhibition Blues exhibition. Featuring drawings that he created while travelling in the European summer, and video snippets that he filmed in Malta, Vietnam, Barcelona and Hill End, the video casino online contemplates the many passages we all travel through in life, from birth to death. Recorded by sound engineer and musician Josh Wermut, Mark created the soundtrack by utilising his own vocals.
New exhibition 'Post Exhibition Blues'
Opening at Gaffa on Thursday October 21, 6-8pmClosing November 16 281 Clarence Street, Sydney CBD 2000 gaffa.com.au
Post Exhibition Blues Anticipating the Aftermath
Sydney artist Mark Gerada takes an at once ironic and serious look at the creative process in his latest series 'Post Exhibition Blues' showing at Gaffa from October 21st to November 16th 2010. Referring to the sense of disappointment or unfulfilled expectation that many artists experience following exhibitions, Gerada's 'Post Exhibition Blues' series sees him tackling his Post Exhibition Blues in the best way he knows how: with yet another exhibition.
As Gerada explains; "At first intended to be a joke, upon reflection I realised that this Post Exhibition Blues phenomena has parallels in all our lives. From post-natal, post-graduation, post-party, post-wedding or post-travel blues, to the deep grief after the loss of a loved one, we are often emotionally unprepared for the aftermath of monumental life experiences and the reality of loss and endings."
Exploring the innate connectedness of grief and loss with life and beginnings, Post Exhibition Blues takes a light-emitting underwater cave that links the Inland Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in Gozo, Malta, as its central image and motif. Alluding to the many passages we all travel through in life, paintings, light boxes, videos and sound pieces centre on softly glowing vortexes to create shimmering, pulsating reincarnations of Gerada's otherworldly experience in the cave.
Dancing between light and dark, life and death, comfort and discomfort, sanity and insanity, quiet and chaos, this series of over 40 works unite mediums and disparate concepts. Photocopies of found images and photographs from within the cave are subtly layered, while melodic and discordant vocals hauntingly amplify the rhythmic and mesmerising effect of the at once revelatory and concealing visuals.
Although based on a range of difficult experiences, a sense peace emerges from the works " I hope that by translating raw, confronting and terrifying ideas into simple meditative forms this series can inspire some peace and acceptance of these realities" says Gerada. Adopting an approach of awareness, anticipation and acceptance of Post Exhibition Blues, and an understanding that perfection is unobtainable, this powerful exhibition is an at once celebratory and cathartic gesture. However the question remains: will Gerada experience Post Exhibition Blues after Post Exhibition Blues?
Step into a STVDIO with Mark Gerada
See Mark at work in his studio, as he is being interviewed by SBS's STVDIO about his upcoming exhibition, Post Exhibition Blues. stvdio.com.au/article/2761/step-into-a-stvdio-with-mark-gerada/
Re-Generation
Mark has reworked 16 paintings from his 2007 Generation exhibition for the reopening of Gaffa.
Gaffa
Mark has designed and constructed new joinery for the shop, gallery front of house, workshops and classroom in Gaffa's new location at 281 Clarence Street, Sydney CBD. Work also included coordinating the reconstruction of three levels of the heritage building, and designing signage.
7 Wharf
Mark has completed three large scale pencil drawings documenting a property at Watsons Bay. Dimensions 540x800mm and 800x1200mm.
Ibrahim Portrait
