NIC TAMMENS
Living in The End Times
25 Jan 2012—11 Feb 2012
Nic Tammens presents works that irk at the socio-political and present a questioning of contemporary art’s role in an economic system that may be (if according to conspiracies, skeptics, philosophers, left-wingers, right-wingers and economists) reaching its end point. In processes such as buying and rehousing restaurant crayfish in a Minimalistic Dan Graham-esque enclosure, and soliciting a street portraitist to draw an image of Karl Marx and then re-price the drawing, Tammens addresses economic processes as apt processes for producing art.
Nic Tammens’ art practice references the expanded field of art production, curatorial practice and music production with an emphasis on the semiotics of cultural constructs. Existing images, objects or mediums undergo subversions or perversions, exhuming inherent political or aesthetic signifiers in the subject matter.
Recent exhibitions include: BYOB (Melbourne) at Tristian Koenig Gallery 2011; Consultancy at NGV Studio 2011; Art + Text at Art Beat 2011; Joint Ventures at VCA Student Gallery 2011; and The Settlement at STORE (Portland, Oregon, USA) 2010. Recent performances include: TRANSITS: Critical Mobility BUS Gallery 2011; and Overground, Melbourne International Jazz Festival (a collaboration with Marco Fusinato & Zond) 2011.