News | MUMA unveils new public artwork by DAMP and Monash Art Projects

Gormenghast, 2016, Damp and Monash Art Projects (MAP), Commissioned by MAP with support from Curatorial Practice, MADA and MUMA, Hosted by Monash University Museum of Art in the Ian Potter Sculpture Court, Curated by Rosemary Forde, April – September 2016

The new work, called Gormenghast is by the artist group Damp and Monash Art Projects (MAP) and can now be seen at the Ian Potter Sculpture Court at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA).

The work is a a temporary and evolving architectural structure and will be a key site for Art holds a high place in my life | Damp: study of an artist at 21 – a series of exhibitions and events curated by Rosemary Forde, a Monash University Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) PhD candidate.

Throughout the year, the two-level structure at Caulfield campus will provide a base for Forde’s curatorial project, with exhibitions, events, and study group seminars to take place at the site. The program presents a survey of new and existing work by the Melbourne artist group Damp, drawing on 21 years of practice from a group that has involved more than 70 members over the years.

Forde said Damp began as students at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1995. As young artists they were interested in working together and expanding the audience for contemporary art.

Students at MADA are involved in the program throughout the year in different ways: designing the branding and signage, meeting as a study group researching Damp, and presenting their own projects on the site. I wanted to present a program that highlights Damp’s vast contribution to local contemporary art, but that is also open and responsive to the MADA students and campus community as a primary audience.

The collaboration between Damp and MAP to create the architectural structure in the Ian Potter Sculpture Court is the first commissioned work by MAP, which specialise in art in the public sphere. MAP was led by Professor Callum Morton Head of Fine Art at MADA who says that the ‘stage-like framework is a striking visual presence on its own, but it will also be added to and adapted throughout the year by Damp as an evolving work. It will be these transformations, as well as students and audiences activating the site in different ways that will complete the work.’

The structure will be at Monash University’s Caulfield campus in the Ian Potter Sculpture Court until September.

See the website here: http://monash.edu/muma/public-art/2016/damp.html

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