Primavera 2012

By Andrew Frost

Now in its 21st year, Primavera is the Museum of Contemporary Art’s showcase of work by artists under 35. Curated by Anna Davis, this year’s group includes Dion Beasley [NT], Benjamin Foster [WA], Anastasia Klose [VIC], Todd McMillan, Kate Mitchell and Justine Varga from NSW] and Teho Ropeyan [QLD]. The show is organized around the theme of inner worlds, of the imagination, reflection and autobiography.

Works include Mitchell’s video Fall Stack, which continues her interest in the tropes of comedy – in this case is the fall from a high building into the conveniently placed canvas shop awning – while Klose reenacts a two-month period of unemployment inhabiting a cavity space inside the MCA for the duration of the show. By contrast McMillan’s 16mm film installation albatross [2011-2012] records an expedition to the Southern Ocean to document the rare and appropriately named Shy Albatross. Beasley’s and Ropeyarn’s works on paper are far more traditional expressions of personal worlds while Forster takes a more high tech route with the artist attempting to ‘teach’ a computer to draw. Justine Varga’s work, featured recently in the Art Life’s New Work Friday series, documents the subtle shifts of light across the floor of her studio.

With a checklist of the more popular contemporary forms – drawing, video, film, – Primavera captures the essence of the moment. The edge of this year’s show is the sense that age is catching up with even the youngest of the artists; it might be a moment in the spotlight, but it’s fleeting.

Until December 2

The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks

www.mca.com.au

Pic: Kate Mitchell, Fall Stack (production still), 2012, 5 channel HD colour video, image courtesy and © the artist.