| Dates: | born 1950
| | Biography: | 1950 Born in Alexandria, Egypt.
Lives and works in Melbourne
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 Self-titled, Discrete Projects, Arts
Victoria, Melbourne
1997 Les Tricoteuse de Paris, h.
Project, Melbourne
1996-97... we all fall down, Kunstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin; ACCA, Melbourne
1995-96 FLIGHT/FLIGHT, Experimental
Arts Foundation, Adelaide; Studio 247,
Kunstlerhaus Bethenien, Berlin
1994 The Accursed Share, The Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Ocular/Encyclopaedia, Museum of
Victoria, Melbourne
1993 Musical Chairs:
Memoirs/Memorial, Studio 12,
Melbourne; 200 Gertrude Street Gallery,
Melbourne
Remains/Vestiges: Dispersal, Luba Bilu
Gallery, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1997-98 h. International Exchange
Project, h., Melbourne
1995 The Ocular Labyrinth, Arts Victoria,
Melbourne
1993 "Supervalent Thoughts," Fifth
Australian Sculpture Triennial,
Ether Ohnetitel Gallery, Melbourne
1992 From the Ground Up, 200 Gertrude
Street Gallery, Melbourne
FURTHER READING
Bond, A. "The Accursed Share," Look,
Art Gallery
Society of New South Wales, Sydney
1994
Gohlke, G... we all fall down (exh. cat.),
Berlin 1996
Harley, J. The Ocular/Encyclopaedia
(exh. cat.), Melbourne 1994
Schubert, R. The Accursed Share (exh.
cat.), Sydney 1994
Schubert, R. (review) Art/Text (Feb.
199B)
Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial (exh.
cat.), Melbourne 1993 | | | Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | | Date of source: | 1999 |
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| | Description: | Alex Rizkalla spent considerable time in
Liverpool researching local sources in
preparation for his installation. Part of
this research involved collecting a mass
of materials from second-hand and
antiquarian bookshops. This is typical of
the artist's practice, which integrates
site-specific information with the
recurring themes of time, degeneration
and mortality. Rizkalla's prevailing
concern is to create configurations of
objects, images, and visual effects that
insinuate themselves into the viewer's
memory. His installations are visually
active, often using old slide projectors to
produce sequences of images. Beyond
this utilitarian purpose, the projectors
function as significant objects in their
own right, while the sound they produce
adds an acoustic component to the
visitor's experience of the space. For his
Liverpool installation, the artist has
fabricated a multiple projection machine
from the mechanisms of discarded
projectors.
At the entrance to the installation is a
shelf holding a case of medical
instru¬ments that the artist has
collected on his travels. The walls just
inside the space are crowded with boxes
and frames containing '60s memorabilia,
including remnants of Beatle-mania and
anti-Vietnam posters and stickers. The
room is illuminated by a series of
projected images. Shown in rapid
sequence the slides animate Eadweard
Muybridge's studies of human
locomotion: Man Standing at Rifle Drill,
Man Assuming Kneeling Position and
Aiming Rifle and Man Falling Prone and
Aiming Rifle.
From speakers scattered
around the room comes the sound of an
old recording of the Surgeon General of
Victoria (Australia) making diagnoses.
Heartbeats heard through a stethoscope
are identified by name and age, followed
by a brief clinical description of the
patient's condition, for xample: "Anthony
Bond, 55, murmur in the left ventricle."
All of these forms of representa¬tion -
the memorabilia, the analytical
photographs of movement, and
the taxonomy of disease - imply
objectivity. In each, the human and
historical circumstances they document
are kept at a distance. At the same
time, however, Rizkalla allows another,
more subjective and sensory response
to such objects through his production of
optical and tactile experiences.
| | Description Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 1999 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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