Gallery : Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition : Peter Kennedy Chorus: From the Breath of Wings
Curated by Juliana Engberg
above: Installation view; right: “The Presence of the Past”, 1993
A major exhibition presented at the Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne, 1993; taking as its subject the end of the Cold War (when everything changes) it references totalitarianism, the past, present and future and uses loudspeaker imagery as well as Walter Benjamin’s “Angel of History” as recurring motifs.
Important: A selection of works follow. Other works featured in this exhibition, but not included in the following, can be viewed in this site’s Film and Video section.
Note: Catalogue essays on Chorus: From the Breath of Wings by Anne Marsh and Bernard Smith, are in the Selected Articles section on this site.
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
1. Siren; The North (after Mayakovsky)* 2. From left: The Golden Light of the East, The South
3. From left: The South, The Golden Light of the East, Icarian Dreamer – with fallen words
4. From left: The South, Grave of the Enlighteners (middle), The Golden Light of the East, Village Voice (far right, background)
* Siren; The North (after Mayakovsky) can be viewed in the Film and Video section of this site
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above left: The South: painted aluminium alloy loudspeaker with matching painted Styrofoam extension, attached to steel pole and mounted on car door (with rear vision mirror, set to reflect the television screens of “The North”, placed opposite), and fixed to timber pallet.
Middle: The South (detail)
Above right: The Golden Light of the East: eighteen brass cymbals (of graduated diameter) mounted on steel pole and base with small speakers / resonators and amplified, tape recorded sounds.
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above: main picture, detail (left) Grave of the Enlighteners: painted aluminium alloy loudspeaker (silent), with matching painted Styrofoam extension, plinth.
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above left: The Square of Red (at left) … and the utopias They rise into the sky and turn pale* (at right).
Middle: The Square of Red (detail)
Above right: The Square of Red: red light fitted to lens and inserted into aluminium alloy loudspeaker, mounted on steel pole and base.
* “… and the utopias…” can be viewed in the Film and Video section of this site
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above left: Icarian Dreamer: with fallen words; opened book (burnt front and back covers) mounted on music stand attached to top of steel pole, steel base with small speakers and tape recorded words.
Above right: Village Voice: 5” black and white television inserted in loudspeaker and mounted on steel pole and circular Masonite base with clocks and closed circuit security camera.
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above left: The End of History, 1993: above right (details)
The End of History, 1993: refrigerated electric fan, music stand (reconfigured as angel’s wings) mounted on tripods above a metal box gutter containing water with submerged words “all that is solid melts into air” and set on plywood platform.
Gallery: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Chorus: From The Breath of Wings
Above left: Emissary (formerly ‘Angelic Emissary’): degraded aluminium alloy loudspeaker mounted on steel pole (method of mounting is variable, site specific) with electric fan.
Middle: Canon: books (burnt), loudspeaker mounted on wood batten (loudspeaker is silent, wiring visibly unconnected), partially blackened/burnt, wood grain laminated panel on four castors.
Above right: Canon: (detail)
Gallery: Inhibodress, Sydney, 1971
Exhibition: But the Fierce Blackman
Amplified / live, real time, components : amplified artist performances, audience participation, taxi radios, static. Equipment: 1⁄4” magnetic audio tape loop, tape deck, microphones, amplifier, speakers, b&w television set, rabbit ears aerial, wires, oscillating electric fan.
Collection: the artist
But the Fierce Blackman is described by Stephen Jones in his essay “Engaging the Avant-Garde” at ‘Selected Articles’ in this site.
Gallery: The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2002
Exhibition: Peter Kennedy Selected Works 1970-2002
“But the Fierce Blackman”
1971-2002
Documentationn of installation / performance – with sound, Inhibodress, Sydney, 1971
Collection: UQ Art Museum, Brisbane