forming flight
matthew bradley, peter franov, katherine huang, jim strickland, tim sterling
Curated by Peter Franov
A number of artists have used the small two-storey building at 220 Hindley Street since Michael Newall and Kristian Burford's duo show during the 2000 Festival (they cleaned out the trash and with the help of friends gave the spaces their first coats of white paint). As an independent gallery, the venue is well located: at the edge of Adelaide's focal 'arts precinct' street, adjacent to the University of South Australia humanities campuses, and two doors up from the popular Worldsend pub.
The slightly run-down and modest appearance of the space means that many passers-by would miss it altogether, a situation that was remedied, in part, during the run of FORMING FLIGHT, by curator Peter Franov's illuminated lightbox which was propped out onto the street whenever the space was open. Franov also had the foresight (and sense of humour) to give the space a name beyond its street number, and so the tall lightbox was stencilled with the word 'pig' and decorated with sections of chequered squares. As an acronym ending with 'gallery', 'pig' offered some amusing possibilities, as did its renegade 'take' on the presence of the local police force. Over the rainy weekend, the lightbox acted as a convenient stand for a bunch of daffodils in a sliced Pepsi bottle, teamed with some balloons, swiped from the University's Open Day decorations, and tied to a street sign. Franov's beautifully written essay which accompanied the exhibition, ranged across various concepts of flight: physical, psychological, metaphysical. His selection of artists, too, was based on the presence of aspects of this idea in their work.
In the front room, Matthew Bradley had painted directly onto the wall the word PAN in