April 2013
4 posts
Updates
We’ve finally uploaded some installation shots of the show. If you visited and have some other images, please send them through as we are still compiling our archive.
We are currently working on a new exhibition for the end of the year. Can’t wait to get back into the house!
June 2012
1 post
WatchThis is a video of sodacake’s multimedia installation ETCETERA from the exhibition
May 2012
20 posts
Been and Gone
What a wonderful weekend - thank you to everyone that made it out to the Villa Alba Museum over the weekend - we had an absolute ball. We will be posting photographs of the installation process, as well as the exhibition itself for those of you who didn’t manage to get there.
Thank you to all of the artists that contributed - your work was all beautiful - and those people that helped out...
How to get there:
Villa Alba Museum is located at 44 Walmer St. Kew, Melbourne
There is plenty of street parking around the house.
If you are coming via public transport, Buses 200 - 201 - 205 -207 stop at the corner of Studley Park Road and Walmer Street. These buses leave regularly from the city, via Johnston St.
The bus stop for the house is near a sign on the right hand side of the road that says...
Getting close!
The show starts this Friday, with the opening on Saturday 26th May. We’ll be installing from tomorrow… beginning to get very excited - hope to see you all there
Here's our page on 'artwhatson' →
Keep an eye out for us in their weekly newsletter about Australian cultural events or download their app for info on the go!
Nice write up on 'Three Thousand' →
Thanks to Melbourne online cultural guide Three Thousand for this great shout out!
Click on the title to get the link
Artist Profile no. 16: Sarah Parker
Artist Statement
In 1950 Villa Alba’s murals were painted over, disguising and concealing its history. In 2011, as part of a 25-year conservation effort, the boudoir walls of the house were uncovered to reveal beautiful birds.
The little bird sculptures I have made for Narrative Space are symbols of the human spirit, inspired by the Ba Birds of Ancient Egypt. The bird image has been...
Artist Profile no. 15: Daryl Prondoso
Artist Statement
apparitions
every house i’ve ever lived in has been haunted. ‘apparitions’ is a series of portraits of those that once inhabited my home, and still do. their remnants linger like imprints on a page
Daryl Prondoso - website
Artist Profile no. 14: Isobel Parker Philip
Artist Statement
Covered // Kept
Covered // Kept is a photographic narrative, a dialogue between images that is mapped across the pages of a book. It is a dialogue that threads its way beneath the folds of the paper and along the edge of the spine.
Turning the pages we enter into quiet conversations. We share in their secrets.
Each episode is a tale of loss. There is an abandoned house. Lost...
Artist Profile no. 13: Peter Lyssiotis
Artist Statement
Spaces like houses have several parallel lives that run simultaneously. In Inside/Outside I imagine one life of the house, like a film with a single theme, but with different projectors project at the same time.
So many people and things have passed through Villa Alba. I try to catch on to the historical coattails and use this book to reveal one narrative. The emptiness and...
Artist Profile no. 12: Marius Foley
Artist Statement
Colour washes through these rooms. Distressed by being hidden for so long, and now re-emerging into a new era, they are tentative and bold at the same time. I sample the colours on the walls and separate them to establish a new palette.
I’m drawn to the museum as a resource for contemporary designers and artists who see it entirely differently to the way it was seen originally...
Artist Profile no. 11: Niko Spelbrink
Artist statement
Texture of Type//Framing Fonts
More craft than art. Readability, the quality of being read with pleasure and interest, is the responsibility of any author. However, legibility (which is the quality of being read clearly and quickly) is the result of typography. Creating legible text takes a good deal of attention, analysis and time but ultimately helps readers save time. Design...
Artist Profile no. 10: Stephen Philip
Musician Stephen Philip (of The Thought Criminals and Do Re Mi fame) will exhibit his composition Dusting For Prints at the Narrative Space exhibition.
Artist Statement
I know Villa Alba has been many things in it’s life and being a family home is one of them.
I’m simply imaging that at some stage in the history of Villa Alba that a child occupied a room and it had enormous...
Artist Profile no. 9: Tobias Richardson
Artist Statement
The potential of houses to be spaces for the perception and conception of visual arts is very tangible and useful.
I do not know the space, Villa Alba, it is site-unseen … while perhaps it would be more common to know spaces before working in them processes can none-the-less evolve from afar in inverted manners. The artist is a problem solver, the artist resolves spaces and the...
Artist Profile no. 8: Heidi Yardley
Artist Statement
In my practice I transform found imagery into paintings and drawings of familiar yet complicated scenes and portraits. The artworks often play on nostalgia, memory and personal and cultural histories, exploring emotions such as desire and loss. The narratives within the work are often unresolved, requiring the viewer’s personal recognition. Associations and contradictions are at...
Artist Profile no. 7: Irit Pollak
ARTIST STATEMENT: Phantoms of Sydney As intricate frescoes emerge from beneath thick coats of beige paint Villa Alba is slowly being restored to its former grandeur. I am intrigued by this process and see a parallel in the way that cities form layers over time. Buildings are constructed, broken down and then built on top of again. Every now and then we get a glimpse of what once lay beneath. In...
Artist Profile no. 6: Del Lumanta
Artist Statement: The decision to restore a structure is a precise intervention in which its possessor has discovered or rediscovered (a) distinguished characteristic(s) that over time have faded. To restore is an effort to return to a previous setting that operates against time by repairing what appears to be decayed and removes particular narratives that mark a space. However, despite the...
Artist Interview: Sodacake
We’ve interviewed a few of the Narrative Space artists about their contributions to the show - the first installment comes from sodacake’s Damian Castaldi and Solange Kershaw
Tell us a little about your art practice:
sodacake (solange kershaw and damian castaldi) are sound and digital media artists. Spanning over 14 years and from different places around the globe their careers...
Artist Profile no. 5: Patrick Snelling
Patrick Snelling was born in London and completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Nottingham Trent and Manchester Metropolitan Universities, UK. He has also completed postgraduate Museum Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne and is currently enrolled in PhD research at RMIT University investigating new technologies associated with digital craftsmanship and the patterning, ornamentation...
Artist Profile no. 4: Bronwyn Brenton
Artist Statement My work explores the playful world of quirky characters, for the most part the characters display a carefree quality as they navigate their way around a sometimes surreal setting, at times experiencing moments of vulnerability, with this I explore what happens when our emotions are stirred through an event or experience and how we respond to that. A multitude of layered...
Artist Profile no. 3: Simon Mee
Artist Statement
Why Triffids are Fun
I like to rifle through history and its associated imagery and, through my drawings, speculate about the secret or invented histories and stories. When I am in the process of making inevitably I seem to end up talking about what concerns me most, something like a Rorschach blot test but with figures.
My love of traditional techniques and art history...
April 2012
2 posts
Artist Profile no. 2: Jillian Allan
Villa Alba: from another perspective
Upon first impressions, Villa Alba appears to be a house of contradictions. Here is a house whose impressive grey façade and frosted glass windows, oozes a sense of strength, stability, even a sense of longevity. However when you step over its threshold it appears to be a different story. Walking through its rooms there appears to be a delicate balance...
Artist Profile no. 1: Laurene Vaughan
Traces and Vanishings
Through a series of three different publications, I explore issues of time, wear, presence and absence within the narrative of the existing place that is Villa Alba. Habitation over time takes many forms, has different intentions, and evolves according to practices, technologies and aesthetics. As I viewed the house I was struck by the ongoing exchange between presence and...
March 2012
3 posts
Official Opening Time Change
Please note that the time for the official opening has changed and will now begin at 1pm Saturday 26th May. Looking forward to seeing you there
Watchcheck it out and pass it on!
Participating Artists
We now have a complete list of artists who will be exhibiting and selling their work at the Narrative Space Exhibition. Check out their work! Where applicable we have inserted links to each artist’s personal website. We are thrilled to have all of these talented people involved
Sarah Parker // Peter Lyssiotis // Sodacake // Niko Spelbrink // Tobias Richardson // Marius Foley // Heidi...
February 2012
8 posts
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Exhibition Details Now Confirmed
We have now confirmed the dates of the exhibition, which will run from Friday 25th to Sunday the 27th of May 2012. The Museum will be open from 12:00 - 6:00 pm each day. Admission to the Museum costs $15. A percentage of this price, along with 30% of the profits made from the sale of the artwork, will be donated to the Villa Alba Museum Board to assist in the continued preservation of the...
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The Fem Belling Trio
We are very excited about the Jazz Afternoon we have scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Narrative Space exhibition from 2:00 pm on Saturday the 26th May. The Jazz afternoon features a performance by the outstanding Fem Belling Trio.
The Fem Belling Trio:
Award winning jazz vocalist and violinist Fem Belling is taking Melbourne by storm. Her beguiling, versatile voice and powerful...
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Profile of Sarah Parker: Coordinator of Reverie...
Sarah Parker is the founder and coordinator of Reverie Projects. She was introduced to Villa Alba when she was just 14 by her mother who was, and still is, involved with the house. This was the beginning of a long and intense love affair with the space.
Sarah saw the house as an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration and potential. The house has had a formative influence over her own art...
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End of Submissions
The open submission period has come and gone! We’ve received some really interesting applications and are in the process of going through them. The show is beginning to take shape and it’s getting exciting! Can’t wait to share the list of the participants with you here. We’ll be posting some information about all the artists involved with links to their websites so you can...
January 2012
11 posts
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Narrative Space - Submissions Open
Narrative Space is the next installment in the series of exhibitions being held at Villa Alba, co-ordinated and curated by the Reverie Collective. The exhibition’s thematic focus is built around an investigation of the relationship between a house and its history and the way a particular space is conditioned by the narratives that unfold within it. We want to explore how a space can become...
More images to come… but first an overview about the upcoming exhibition and profiles of the Reverie Collective members
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A bit about the house...
Villa Alba is a treasured and historic mansion built between 1882 and 1884 during the Marvelous Melbourne boom era. The house was decorated with ornate murals in each room, painted by the Italian artisans who came to Melbourne to paint the Melbourne Exhibition Building. Originally owned by William Greenlaw, the General Manager of the Colonial Bank of Australasia from 1877 to 1892, the house was...
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Welcome
Welcome to the Reverie at Villa Alba blog. We are an association of artists and designers working with the Villa Alba Museum to organize a series of exhibitions that will bring artists in contact with the house and invite them to create work that responds to the space. Our forthcoming exhibition ‘Narrative Space’ is scheduled for May, 2012. We will be posting about the...
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