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Sabotage


Contemporary Art Centre of S.A.
July 25 – Aug 31, 2014

James Dodd Jukung bike Beach shot 2 lo res

This exhibition brings together a number of ongoing explorations within my practice. There are a couple of paintings that are accompanied by modified bicycles as well as a video and smaller, peripheral objects. The bicycle components represent somewhat of a summary of much looser investigations into the potential of bicycles as creative objects in public space that I have been playing with over the past eighteen months or so. A central object in this suite is the Easel Rider. I have presented versions of this work in the past but in this case I have been able to realise a much higher degree of resolution. Other ongoing motifs such as suburban fences and scratched surfaces are given attention via large scale canvases which present continuing responses to this material. Each of the speaker and amplifier devices are linked via an FM transmitter in order to be able to broadcast simultaneuosly. In the case of this exhibition viewers hear a series of intermittent mash up tracks developed by Spee Diddy and J2SKE. In many ways this part of the project remains in development and will likely be explored in a variety of future approaches.

This project has been supported by the South Australian Government via Arts SA.

MONOGRAPH
As a component of this project CACSA has commissioned a monograph of recent work, including texts from Samantha Littley and Logan MacDonald. This 48 page document is the most significant thus far to approach my practice. A couple of small excerpts appear below. You can order a copy from CACSA for the bargain price of $10 by clicking here.

From Logan MacDonald’s ‘Against the Grain’
For SABOTAGE, we see the artist invest a refreshed set of nuances upon his continued explorations of creative actions found in public space. With a chop shop mindset and DIY pragmatism, Dodd has created a series of works that allows him to both intervene in and survey the contemporary plateau of Australian suburbia. His paintings hark to nostalgic remembrance of explorers from the past, adorned with the hazy colours of the sunset of tropical lands. But by undermining historical vignettes and notions of Australian colonialism and social identity, Dodd reveals present dystopias, ruptured nationalism, distorted romanticism and incorrect political correctness. In SABOTAGE, Dodd offers his audience new perspectives on familiar ground, whether it is the suburban backyards he explores or the humble readymade form of the utilitarian bicycle.

From Samantha Littley’s ‘Outside In’
Words can deceive, as the title of James Dodd’s latest show at CACSA attests. ‘Sabotage’ implies the artist is hell bent on destruction – the saboteur infiltrates, disrupts, destroys. Certainly Dodd’s history as a street artist engaged in ‘clandestine public creativity’ brands him a vandal in the eyes of the establishment.1 But while he embraces the role of the hacker, occupying a place that hovers somewhere between graffiti artist and enfant terrible, his instinct is egalitarian. Alive to the possibilities of graffiti as a form of social networking, and driven by a delight in the mark-making of others, he rides a liminal wave that straddles public spaces and galleries alike. His art brings the world outside the gallery in and vice versa, and is the stuff of life.

The bike/painting projects Dodd has engineered in 2014 extend on this thinking in significant ways. Consider, for example, his take on Indonesian jukungs, seagoing canoes traditionally used by fishermen but now frequently operated as dive craft. On a trip to Bali earlier this year, Dodd became fascinated by these ornately decorated vessels, which employ dual outrigger booms with a distinctive ‘gullwing’ shape. True to form, he has created a visual riposte to the boat with a ‘floating’ bike painted up like a Balinese sunset, and suspended from a wooden frame that recalls a jukung’s booms. In the exhibition the structure is placed ‘in a kind of staged relationship’ with a related canvas that sees Dodd ‘using paintings as gallery/formal art world props or extensions of … objects which live most ideally outside of a gallery.’13 Another bike painted in ‘punk black’ and accessorised with amplifiers and oversized speakers sits in conversation with a ‘black scratched-surface painting’.14 The installation harks back to Dodd’s bus shelters from 2009, and speaks of masculinity within Australian car culture where the size of the sound system counts.15 These personalised bikes embody his yen for mis/adventure, and his commitment to pushing the periphery. Who knows where James Dodd’s journey beyond the pale will take him next. Wherever it might be, he’s on a mission to find out.

BONUS LINKS
There are some extra components to this project that you can view online. I have made a list of links below that you can peruse at your leisure.

SABOTAGE TEASER VIDEO
EASEL RIDER FABRICATION DOCUMENTATION
FULL SET OF EASEL RIDER GLAMOUR SHOTS
DIY GOOGLE STREET VIEW VIDEO