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Louisa Bufardeci; Some Material Flags 2008, Lousia Bufardeci & Zon Ito
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), Tokyo
22 October 2008 – 12 January 2009
Louisa Bufardeci & Zon Ito, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (MCA), Sydney
28 July to 25 October 2009
Louisa Bufardeci is a Melbourne artist who lives and works in the United States. Bufardeci works across a range of media, from sculpture and installation to wall drawings and colourful digital prints. The artist frequently draws upon statistical data in her art, sourcing information from the public domain including the CIA Factbook, the national census and opinion polls. She translates this information into colour charts, maps and architectural diagrams; and in doing so, draws playful attention to gaps, biases and inequalities.
The project in Tokyo includes 25 modified national flags in seersucker fabric, each 4 metres in scale, which are suspended from the ceiling of the MOT atrium. The flags feature stylised shapes and symbols that reveal statistical information about the countries represented and their populations - from national internet usage, to unemployment statistics, to political allegiances. Sitting between the satirical and the everyday, they reveal ordinary habits and pastimes, as well as wider patterns of connection and difference. As the flags are presented in a glass atrium, they are visible from both within and outside the building.
These works will comprise part of Bufardeci’s subsequent Sydney showing in her wider exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, (MCA), Sydney, from 25 July – 28 October 2009, along with other work by the artist encompassing eight years. Selected flags will be suspended in the MCA’s Circular Quay foyer, with further works to be shown in the Museum’s Level 4 galleries and George St foyer. This exhibition represents the MCA's next 'international pairing' project. For it, Bufardeci will select a contemporary Japanese artist with whom to show alongside, an outcome of her research and travel in Japan.
Bufardeci’s MOT flag project is accompanied by a folded brochure, in Japanese and English, which features an artist's statement and images of the artist and her work. The project is part of an exciting new commissioning initiative entitled "MOT x Bloomberg" which seeks to animate the vast public spaces of MOT, and focuses on younger artists. The MCA Sydney will produce a substantial exhibition publication to accompany its two-person exhibition in 2009, including documentation of the MOT project/installation views.
Bufardeci's Tokyo and Sydney exhibitions invite the exchange of ideas at both an artistic and curatorial level. Positioning Australian art within a wider, global context, they have come out of discussions between curators Fumihiko Sumitomo of MOT and Rachel Kent of the MCA. Responding to a new commissioning initiative at MOT for its expansive public spaces, and the MCA's ongoing pairing series for Australian artists, they forge institutional and individual ties which in turn generate new possibilities for the future.
MOT Tokyo, 2008
seersucker fabric, each flag 400 x 200 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney © the artist