There's no submission process, fees or rules.
In some great news for local artists across the region, Platform Arts is opening up one of its gallery spaces for anyone and everyone who calls themselves an artist to come and exhibit their work in a new open call exhibition, ‘After Walter Hopps’.
Taking musings from the rogue curatorial style of Walter Hopps this is an anything-goes event where throughout the month of May, anyone can come to and install any kind of work in the space – from securing things to ceilings, laying works on top of each other to breaking out into performance – literally anything.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around the region here.
Operating in reverse from the standard exhibition format of fixed works and a preview, ‘After Walter Hopps’ will open with an empty gallery space, and will culminate in one conclusive hang and exhibition presentation at the ‘final viewing’, silent auction and closing party on Friday, 03 June.
Over 22 days, artists will have the opportunity to bring in new and existing works which will be installed in the gallery space on a first-come, first-served basis in a challenging curatorial exercise. The overall aim is to fill the gallery from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, in a show that takes shape both cumulatively and expansively.
The forward-thinking and exciting exhibition aims at removing the restrictions enforced in an institutional gallery setting – opening it up for civic reclamation through showcasing the works of all who dare to call themselves an artist, irrespective of profile or reputation.
In saying that, it’s really open to interpretation as to what artists wish to instal. Platform Arts will accept anything that the maker wishes to call art, that can fit through the gallery doors, that can be constructed in the space and that happens or is performed in the space.
No pre-registration is required; just show up with your work during the gallery opening hours. While there are a lot of local artists familiar with the space, if you are new to exhibiting and require significant assistance with installation, simply bring your work on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday so Curator Amber Smith can help you out.
For a little bit of background, Walter Hopps was a renowned non-conformist, maverick curator, and transcender of boundaries. Platform Arts have taken inspiration from Hopps’ 36 Hours project held at MOTA (Museum of Temporary Art), Washington, USA in 1978. The seminal project was an open call for any artist to take a single work to the gallery without any chance of rejection or censorship, where he would personally hang the works as they arrived. The show was inclusive, making no distinction between artists or selection of works, the only limitation being a size restriction.
Walter Hopps famously said, ‘I’m not just interested in artists who are deservedly famous,’ [or] the gallery’s ‘right person.’ ‘Some people I’ve shown will never be; that doesn’t make their art less interesting to me.’ The ‘After Walter Hopps’ open call exhibition is Platform Arts’ attempt to create a local and expanded arts environment that encourages experimentation, creative risk, cross-disciplinary dialogue, and constructive chaos.
View this post on Instagram
The ‘After Walter Hopps’ exhibition runs from Monday, May 9 to Friday, June 3. Artist drop-offs are accepted between May 9 until June 2. You can find out more here.
