#stuart ringholt

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On the 18th of February 2014, our visual arts specialist class had the opportunity to work with one of Australia's most renowned, innovative and fearless contemporary artists Stuart Ringholt. Having the privilege of getting a workshop and a one on one tour of his exhibition 'Kraft' at MUMA was definitely an experience to remember. The tour of 'Kraft' provided us the insight of Ringholt's thinking and the conceptual ideas behind his works. We first had a detailed discussion of Ringholt's controversial work 'Club Purple'. A work that is based on the idea of self-acceptance and embarrassment, a constant theme in Ringholt's work. As a group we had the ultimate privilege of viewing 'Club Purple' (fully clothed of course), and experiencing first hand what the space was like. The atmosphere of 'Club Purple' was surprisingly comfortable and dark, I was shocked at the darkness of the room, if I was to dance nude in the space I would be very confident because it was that dark. Next we entered the room which consisted of Ringholt's collages, these collages are what our workshop is based on and following his process of producing collages. Ringholt's collages are based off personal narratives of the artist, although they are personal the viewer is left to interpret the slightly humorous narrative their own way. His process of creating the collages start off with the basis of a magazine page, then simply merging another aspect of a magazine together. I think this process is accompanied by trial and error as I experienced during the workshop.     

Ringholt’s most recent exhibition, shown at MUMA, consisted of 7 rooms with artworks or series’ being presented in each. The most intriguing and ambiguous piece was the supposedly infamous for its strict no clothing rule; Club Purple was an installation participation artwork, which involved potential participants to disrobe and enter the club, either in gender groups, mixed or solo, allowing them to dance naked to their favorite songs whilst freeing your mind from, social, cultural expectations and your junk. This installation is made to replicate the outer imagery of a real nightclub and is also accompanied by a club manager or bouncer, who regulates the participants and kicks out those illegal underage visitors.

  The artworks that appealed to me were the pornographic collages and the mixed media collages, which incorporated aspects and sub-themes from the entire exhibition. The artworks included drawings and the contrast of negative and positive spaces and colours to draw the viewer in. When taking a closer look, the artwork has small symbols and stylistic figures of Club Purple.