IF THEY FALL. James Newitt. 25 September 09 October rosalux: Berlin-based art office

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1 IF THEY FALL James Newitt 25 September 09 October 2010 rosalux: Berlin-based art office

2 rosalux would like to invite you and your friends to the opening of the exhibition James Newitt: If They Fall James Newitt, If They Fall, 2010, Production still, courtesy of the artist and Criterion Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania James Newitt, If They Fall, 2010, Production still, courtesy of the artist and Criterion Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania Opening Friday, September 24 at 7 pm The artist will be present Exhibition: 25 September through 9 October, Wed - Sat, 3-6 pm Story Hotel***** Wriezener Straße Berlin-Wedding U8 Pankstraße / Osloer Straße Tram M13, 50 Grüntaler Straße web facebook twitter rosalux is presenting the second solo show by the Australian artist James Newitt in Berlin. Within this exhibition, Newitt presents a new body of work including the premiere screening of his new video from which the exhibition takes its title, If They Fall. This exhibition is a continuation of Newitt s exploration of the forestry industry in Tasmania. In 2009 Newitt premiered the video Passive Aggressive at rosalux as part of his exhibition Stories of Celebration and Dissent. If They Fall expands on this work but probing deeper into the complexities and contradicting ideologies of communities who are affected by the Tasmanian forestry industry. Newitt focuses his camera on people involved in both activism and industry, to present an intimate portrait of two communities who remain in tension. James Newitt was born in Hobart, Tasmania in His exhibition history includes: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent, rosalux - the Berlin based art office, Berlin, 2009; The Moorilla Scholarship exhibition, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009; Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; I notice these little things, how they change, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Ten Days on the Island, Hobart, 2007; Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, James has received state and national funding grants for individual and collaborative projects. In 2008 he undertook a 3-month studio residency at the Australia Council for the Arts, Los Angeles studio. In 2009 he was awarded the Qantas Foundation, Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award and in 2006 the Tasmanian Artist Prize for the City of Devonport, Art Prize. James lectures in visual communication at the University of Tasmania, School of Art and is represented by Criterion Gallery, Hobart. rosalux möchte Sie und Ihre Freunde einladen zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung James Newitt: If They Fall am Freitag, 24. September 2010 um 19 Uhr Der Künstler ist anwesend. Ausstellung: , Mi - Sa, Uhr Story Hotel***** Wriezener Straße Berlin-Wedding U8 Pankstraße / Osloer Straße Tram M13, 50 Grüntaler Straße web facebook twitter rosalux freut sich, die zweite Einzelausstellung des australischen Künstlers James Newitt in Berlin - und in Deutschland überhaupt - präsentieren zu können. Im Rahmen dieser Ausstellung zeigt Newitt eine neue Werkgruppe, einschließlich des neuen Videos, das der Ausstellung ihren Namen gab If They Fall. Sie ist eine Fortsetzung seiner Studien zur Forstwirtschaft in Tasmanien. Im Jahr 2009 wurde bei rosalux Newitts Video Passive Aggressive als Teil seiner Ausstellung Stories of Celebration and Dissent uraufgeführt. If They Fall baut auf diese Arbeit auf, untersucht jedoch eingehender die Komplexität und widersprüchlichen Ansichten von Gemeinden, die von der tasmanischen Forstwirtschaft betroffen sind. Newitt konzentriert sich hier mit seiner Kamera sowohl auf Aktivisten als auf Menschen aus der Forstwirtschaft, um ein intimes Porträt von zwei Gruppen zu zeichnen, die sich noch immer im Konflikt befinden. James Newitt wurde 1981 in Hobart, Tasmanien geboren. Zu seinen Ausstellungen zählen: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent, rosalux, Berlin, 2009; The Moorilla Scholarship exhibition, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009; Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; I notice these little things, how they change, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Ten Days on the Island, Hobart, 2007; Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, James Newitt hat staatliche und nationale Fördermittel für individuelle und kollektive Projekte erhalten arbeitete er drei Monate in der Atelierresidenz des Australian Council for the Arts in Los Angeles wurde er mit dem Preis zur Förderung der zeitgenössischen Kunst der Qantas Foundation ausgezeichnet und 2006 erhielt er den Tasmanischen Künstlerpreis der Stadt Devonport. Er lehrt im Fach Visuelle Kommunikation an der Kunsthochschule der Universität Tasmanien.

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4 Genuine 1 4, 2010 Archival digital prints 50 x 50 cm Photography by Sarah Jones

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6 If They Fall, 2010 HDV installation 18:30 mins Stereo Sound Sound in collaboration with Pat Beretta

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8 IF THEY FALL James Newitt Story Hotel***** Wriezener Straße Berlin 25 September 9 October Wed - Sat, 3-6 pm Genuine 1 4, 2010 Archival digital prints 50 x 50 cm Photography by Sarah Jones If They Fall, 2010 HDV installation 18:30 mins Stereo Sound Sound in collaboration with Pat Beretta The artist would like to thank Ed Hill, Aaron O Connor, the people at Camp Florentine and Still Wild Still Threatened; Kelly Oakley, Rob and Greg; Pat Beretta, Sarah Jones, Frank Miller and Glenn Barkley; Jaecki Lindenau, Tiny Domingos. James Newitt was born in Hobart, Tasmania in His exhibition history includes: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; In The Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; Stories of Celebration and Dissent, rosalux - the Berlin based art office, Berlin, 2009 (solo); show me the truth and I ll show you more of the same, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2009 (solo); Handle With Care, 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; I notice these little things, how they change, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Melbourne, 2008 (solo); Ten Days on the Island, Hobart, 2007; Eternal Beautiful Now, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2007; and the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, James has received state and national funding grants for individual and collaborative projects. In 2008 he undertook a 3-month studio residency at the Australia Council for the Arts, Los Angeles studio. In 2009 he was awarded the Qantas Foundation, Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award, in 2006 the Tasmanian Artist Prize for the City of Devonport, Art Prize and in 2010 the City of Hobart Art Prize. James lectures in Visual Communication at the University of Tasmania, School of Art and is represented by Criterion Gallery, Hobart. IF THEY FALL James Newitt 25 September 09 October 2010 rosalux

9 If. They. Fall. If They Fall is the beginning of something, an unfinished statement, weighty with consequence. It is also the end of a question, one hinged on, and awaiting action. As the title for Newitt s video, it is both, but the two halves don t make a whole more likely a hole. Nothing is given or explained, nothing is answered, we remain disconnected to location and position as a landscape unfolds around us. Objectivity seems an unworthy compass for orienteering such a perfidious narrative. The work offers us a relationship solely with our own ambivalence. Even as we are handled by the imagery, it still feels as if it is dependent on us, whether they fall or not. If They Fall is at once nature documentary, landscape painting and gestural portrait. The artist, who is in a sense, a local in the Tasmanian forest, remains unseen. From darkness emerges the smallest activity, the smallest flame, a silent, obscured statement. Features of landscapes are changing without violence or shock. We are small and we are taken, forced by the invisible artist to remain passive, to a new wilderness both sublime and surreal. And then, back in the darkness we grow, the focus is sharpened. Mechanised industry roars, we rear up to watch from the distance. This tangible labour, melodic, designed, drawing new lines in the earth. Diesel-fuelled machines of a forestry industry become the natural inhabitants of this space, which is now at its most beautiful, as it burns. If They Fall, 2010 The removal of the viewer from this unreality is inconsistent, at first silent and small, then as the landscape is conquered, heroically? Unfeelingly? We begin to rage alongside the forest fires, rally oil-blooded-insects to work, passing trophies of severed forest, deftly, in the night as if each log were weightless. Machines swing, repeat, hypnotic, beautiful. It is absolute control and ultimately, destruction. It is as if we can watch from above, our own ambivalence pass from hand to hand, with and without the victory of a baton. In the final two minutes everything changes. Perhaps it is a curtain that falls? Or the penny that drops? Whatever it is, it descends. Unreal space is defeated by the din of reality, personalities, voices, opinions, ideals, guilt, anger, apathy, economy. We are cut down to size, and in the end, nothing falls. It is still an if. Sarah Jones is a writer, curator and artist based in Hobart, Tasmania. Genuine 1 4, 2010