Chris Bennie
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Chris Bennie uses video, installation, photography and painting to question the hegemony, monotony and homogenization of contemporary existence by exploring what is commonly experienced but overlooked.

He has had a number of solo exhibitions at Artist Run Initiative’s and University spaces, including Our Communication Recorded, Blindside, Melbourne (2006); New Video: made in China, Queensland College of Art Gallery, Brisbane (2006); and Slower, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2003). His work has been included in national and international group exhibitions, including the Biennale of Sydney: Revolutions – Forms That Turn online venue (2008); Contemporary Australia: optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); New Work 3, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (2007); and Plus Factors, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2006). Bennie developed and directs the Moreton Street Spare Room (MSSR), a contemporary project space operating since 2006 in a Queenslander home in New Farm, and has received funding from Arts Queensland and Brisbane City. Bennie is New Zealand born and currently lives and works in Brisbane and Peregian Beach, Australia. He has been awarded a Doctor of Visual Art from Griffith University.

A Wee Sunset

2 July - 1 August
Linden Center for Contemporary Art
26 Acland Street
St. Kilda
Melbourne

Christopher Bennie transfixes the viewer with a vision of daily existence and the ordinary through his video works. His subject matter is overtly banal, his videos have documented his own rippling back muscles, his girlfriend’s bottom and a poorly executed dance around his house. While the approach in these videos is unsettling, as they hover between voyeurism, narcissism and naivety, they also reveal something of the monumental in the often overlooked. These works are the artist’s attempt at pursuing experiences of authenticity and familiarity in today’s society of the spectacle and invite the viewer to revel in their own private experiences and encounters as lost moments in time that should be appreciated. Bennie’s cheeky approach is exemplified by the video A Wee Sunset (2009) in which the artist contrasts the beauty of a dust laden orange sky with the silhouette of his own urination. As with previous works, boyhood games are revisited with childlike reverie, and the profane becomes a playful critique of our appreciation of the aesthetic and the sublime. As Bennie explains, “with tongue in cheek the video exemplifies as well as repudiates romanticism in favour of a profound and leaky existence” .

Jess Berry 2010, extract from Flying Colours exhibition review.

Photo LA

The 19th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition
1 4 - 17 January 2010
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Chris will present a selection of videos in the Queensland Centre of Photography stall including the Alien's Back 2007, The Supernova 2005 and 1080 2008. Over the past eighteen years photo l.a. has earned a reputation as one of the foremost art fairs and the leading photo-based events in the country. Presenting the finest galleries from around the globe, this 19th edition of photo l.a. promises to be the best ever. The Queensland Centre of Photography has established itself as one of the fairs most dynamic exhibitors, presenting a diverse range of contemporary photographic practices, and for the first time this year, video.

Smooth Machines

1 - 20 December 2009
Shop T1
Little Stanley Street
South Bank
Brisbane

Fri - Mon 12 - 4 pm


For his Independent Exhibition project Chris Bennie will present a series of acrylic paintings in an unused commercial property on Little Stanley Street in South Bank, Brisbane. Titled Smooth Machines, the suite depict constructions and objects that appear to perform repetitive or absurd tasks. Smooth Machines combine representation and abstraction using day-glo and muted colours, scale and cartoon-like forms to illicit playful and colourful responses from viewers. Known for videos that explore authentic and immediate experience, featured in exhibitions such as Contemporary Australia: optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the 2008 Sydney Biennale, Smooth Machines develops similar concerns in a static and painterly way.

*www.iebrisbane.com.au

Jordie

18 September - 25 October 2009
Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia
Project Space

14 Porter St. Parkside
T + (61 8) 82722682
cacsa@cacsa.or.au

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday - Friday 11 am - 5 pm
Weekends 1 - 5 pm

Filmed in the artist’s home in New Farm, Brisbane, Chris Bennie’s two channel video projection Jordie investigates the world from the height and perspective of his Maltese/Shi Tzu–cross companion. “Jordie always looked like she was about to speak. I used to think she spoke when I wasn’t around. I imagined she would have conversations about the weather and where she likes to be scratched. They would be convivial, afternoon-tea conversations - that sort of thing.”

A catalogue featuring new prose made in response to Jordie by Brisbane author Kirsten Reed accompanies the exhibition. Reed's first novel The Ice Age is published by Text publishing.

MSSR Exposure

22 June - 15 July 2009
Metro Arts

Exposure is an exhibition of contemporary Australian art curated by Chris Bennie, director Moreton Street Spare Room [MSSR]. Exposure is also a series of documentary DVDs produced by MSSR profiling Queensland artists.

The Exposure exhibition features work by Peter Alwast, Chris Bennie, Nicola Chatham, Matt Dabrowski and the Many Hands of Glamour, Marian Drew, Julie Fragar, Luke Jaaniste, Rose Phillips, Rebecca Ross and Dave Smith with Scam Productions. These ten artists are involved with MSSR either through its exhibition program, its curated show reels of contemporary video art or on the Exposure DVD series.

MSSR is a Brisbane artist run project that diverges from conventional institutional exhibition programs to re-contextualise the presentation of contemporary art within an everyday and familiar environment - specifically an old and occupied Queenslander in the suburb of New Farm, Brisbane. The Exposure exhibition at Metro Arts provides MSSR with the challenge of presenting a selection of diverse and unrelated work coherently in a formal context.
This catalogue supplements the exhibition by providing an additional forum for the artists to present work. It contains source photographs, video stills, new work, and personal snapshots that relate to the work on display.

In addition to exhibitions, MSSR connects artists and audiences by providing innovative and accessible platforms for the presentation of contemporary art.

Exposure offers a unique insight into the reality of artistic life in Queensland today. The series documents individual art practices and highlights the aesthetic and conceptual concerns of contemporary artists working in a range of media, including video, painting, construction, installation, new media and photomedia. Each volume focuses on studio routines, exhibitions, administrative tasks, residencies and home lives of six artists and an artist run space. Exposure is released bi-annually and consists of three volumes.

In Volume One MSSR observes Martin Smith taking the bus to work where he writes personal anecdotes for his photographic practice; goes on a walking tour with Rebecca Ross and a group of friends as they map their way through Fortitude Valley; plays on words with Tony Albert for the Queensland Art Gallery—Gallery of Modern Art; follows Christian Flynn as he smashes his way into a reputable Sydney gallery; documents Carly Scoufos as she weaves rope around farmhouses and wire into galleries; plays squash with the Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award winner Peter Alwast and talks with No Fills* about their collaborative exhibition projects.

Exposure Volume One will be officially released on Wednesday 15 July 2009 at Metro Arts from 6pm to 8pm. Copies of the DVD will be available for $24.95. Exposure is also available in selected bookstores nationwide and online at www.mssr.net.au

For further information about MSSR and Exposure please visit www.mssr.net.au

Lean Towards Indifference!

!Metro Arts 15 April - 3 May 2009.
Artists: Eve Roleston, Grant Stevens, Marianne Templeton, Chris Bennie, Fiona Mail, Courtney Coombs, Antoinette J. Citizen, Kate Woodcroft, Catherine Sagin, Timothy Woodward and Timothy P. Kerr.

Lean Towards Indifference! will investigate humour as the result of playful making strategies and as a method of exploring the role of the contemporary artist. Humour in art manifests itself in a variety of ways but it can often be difficult to articulate the effect that it has as a strategy for engaging with ideas and with the viewer. In this show, the Brisbane based ARI No Frills* plan to exhibit the work of eight local artists whose work highlights the illusive and contradictory nature of humour in art.

Doctorate of Visual Art Exhibition

8 - 19 April 2009

venues MSSR | Queensland College of Art Galleria | Queensland College of Art White Box Gallery | and a roaming Toyota campervan.

This exhibition concludes four years of studio based research at Griffith University Queensland College of Art and is presented in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Visual Arts. Staged across four venues—Queensland College of Art (QCA) Galleria, QCA White Box Gallery, Moreton Street Spare Room (MSSR) and a roaming Toyota Campervan—the exhibition explores authentic experience and the Spectacle through video art.

Each venue is an autonomous exhibition environment that can be viewed individually or together as a comprehensive research and exhibition project. The QCA Galleria, QCA White Box Gallery and Toyota Campervan display previously exhibited work in new configurations, while MSSR hosts new work. The artist recommends allowing approximately two hours to visit all venues.

The two QCA venues provide audiences with the opportunity to view and experience Bennie’s videos from a conventional institutional perspective. MSSR and the roaming Toyota campervan give audiences an active exhibition experience by providing an opportunity to talk with the artist, enjoy refreshments, and view videos in domestic and personalised environments.

Venues and opening times

The Moreton Street Spare Room (MSSR)
105 Moreton Street New Farm
Brisbane

Wed 8 - Sun 12 | 5 - 9 pm
Wed 15 - Sun 19 | 5 - 9 pm

www.mssr.net.au

Queensland College of Art Galleria
8 Tribune St. (off Gray St.)
South Bank
Brisbane

Wed 8 - Sun 12 | 11 am - 5 pm
Wed 15 - Sun 19 | 11 am - 5 pm

Queensland College of Art White Box
Level 4 rm 4.18
Gray St
South Bank
Brisbane

Wed 8 - Sun 12 | closed
Wed 15 - Sun 19 | 11 am - 9 pm

Toyota Campervan
During the exhibition the van’s location will be posted on www.christopherbennie.com daily.

Wed 8 - Sat 12 | 1 pm - 3 pm
Wed 15 - Sat 19 | 1 pm - 3 pm

Contemporary Australia: optimism

Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
15th November 2008 to 22nd February 2009

Stanley Place
South Bank
Queensland , Australia

Monday to Friday 10.00am - 5.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 9.00am - 5.00pm

Contemporary Australia: Optimism is the first in a major new national triennial series of thematic contemporary Australian art exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. Encompassing many facets of contemporary Australian visual art and culture, the exhibition includes painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, video and video installation, cinema, animation, performance, music, literature and comedy. The exhibition presents work by more than 60 emerging, mid-career, and senior Indigenous and non-Indigenous contemporary artists from every state and territory.

Optimism is screening Bennie's video The Average 2007. In The Average Bennie dances with fellow artist Nicola Chatham to the sound of electronic music in the living room of his home in New Farm, Brisbane. Bennie and Chatham respond to the repetition of the music by switching lights on and off to the rhythm of the techno beat. The work straightforwardly documents, from its static, operator-less viewpoint, both the synchronicity and awkwardness of the artists' shared response to this particular situation. The couples' behaviour can be interpreted as a daggy do-it-yourself home disco, or equally as a study of humanity defined by a shared and unspoken engagement with their surroundings. In that regard, The Average, like many of Bennie's previous video works, presents the phenomenological peculiarities of unremarkable and 'everyday' existence profoundly, as well as with tongue-in-cheek.

A Street Art Exhibition

Boxcopy’s group exhibition, A Street Art Exhibition, might not be quite what you’d expect. There won’t be graffiti, and it won’t include stencils or stickers. We’re adamant that it’s Street Art, although after visiting you may need to reconsider what Street Art actually is. Opening on 26 September at 6pm, this group exhibition will present a range of negotiations taking place between contemporary artists, their work, and the street.

The artists engage with footpaths, rubbish, roads, highways, freeways, expressways and motorways, identifying the street as a complex social site as well as a stretch of grey tarmac for cars to drive along.

Renovating a term increasingly defined through accepted representations of graffiti culture, A Street Art Exhibition shows evidence of artists continuing to re-evaluate an engagement between art and the street in a manner separated from the popular vernacular.

Boxcopy

26th September to 24th October 2008

Studio 3.10 level 3 Metro Arts

109 Edward St. Brisbane

Thursday - Saturday 2-6pm

2008 Sydney Biennale Revolutions: Forms that turn

As part of the 2008 Biennale of Sydney, Revolutions – Forms That Turn, Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is including a large number of texts and some digital artworks in the online venue website. The website will evolve from late 2007 and run until 31 December 2008. Bennie's short video documenting a spinning caousel ride at a theme park titled The Supernova 2005 is being included in this online exhibition.

The exhibition as a whole and the online venue particularly, will focus on the different ways artists have
‘revolutionised’ contemporary art. It will explore the impulse to revolt, rotating, turning upside down, shifting points of view, revolving, mirroring and reversing as formal devices, as well as chart their broader aesthetic, psychological, psychoanalytical, radical and political perspectives. The online venue will provide a wider context to the physical 2008 Biennale of Sydney as well as constitute a space of its own.
Click here to visit Bennie's page on the Online Venue