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Canine sculpture sends message
The Maitland Mercury
31 May 2011
A mammoth bronze-painted sculpture of a suit-wearing dog picking up his own poo has taken up residence at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery. Created by Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner – and inspired by their golden retriever Moby – Good Boy is a three-metre artwork loaded with an environmental message.
“Globally we tackle environmental issues and wrestle with corporations and countries to adopt better ideals to save our planet. Yet we can’t even pick up our own dog poo,” the artists said in a statement.
Coveted by galleries in London and New York, Good Boy has now found a home at Maitland. And it seems the artwork is having the desired effect.
“Within half an hour of the sculpture going up we had people coming into the gallery wanting to get a closer look,” the gallery’s public program co-ordinator Kim Blunt said. “And the grounds of the gallery are such a great space that invite more large-scale sculptures.”
As contemporary artists, the Schattners believe it is the duty of artists to push boundaries, to challenge the status quo and cause change. In 2005 the artists created the exhibition Life Can’t Wait, which featured 12 Australian people whose lives could be saved or improved with an organ or tissue transplant. The exhibition toured Australia raising awareness.
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HARE OF THE DOG
The West Australian
9 February 2011
Husband and wife duo Marc and Gillie Schattner take The Road Less Travelled with their latest exhibition featuring their trademark human, dog and rabbit hybrids.
The show, which references the Schattners' personal roads in love and life in vibrant, larger-than-life artworks, opens at 6.30pm tomorrow and runs until February 24 at Linton and Kay Contemporary, Hay Street, Subiaco.
www.lkgalleries.com.au |
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Dog-Man Sculptures Have Aussies Asking, 'Mutt or Smut?'
Larry Knowles
AOL NEWS
17 November 2010
Two Australian artists are turning heads Down Under with provocative art depicting human figures with dog heads. The works have
inspired debate among Australians, who are asking whether the art is pornographic or a perversion of the senses.
Husband and wife duo Marc and Gillie Schattner, of Sydney, recently wrapped up their latest exhibition http://www.gillieandmarc.com/current_exhibition.html , titled "Returning to the Animal Within," featuring 20 paintings and five
sculptures of dog-headed humans at play and in repose. While the pieces represent a shared whimsy between man and dog -- a
portrait of a dog man playing a guitar, for example -- it's the sculptures that take the playfulness and add an edgy sexual element.
One of the sculptures depicts two nude dog men knelt over ice cream cones, while another, titled "They Weren't Really in Love but
That Didn't Matter," shows a naked dog couple having intercourse.
"Nudity always gives that shock value, but it's a natural, normal thing," Gillie Schattner told AOL News. "And it's a very loving pose
they're in," she added, referring to the dog couple. A third sculpture, portraying a nude dog man on all fours savoring a cup of coffee,
has garnered the most attention and criticism for the Schattners. The piece, first displayed in front of a gallery in Sydney in March 2009,
is anatomically correct, with a penis that checks in at 40 centimeters. Within hours of being put on display, the sculpture, dubbed
"Good Boy," had drawn the attention of passers-by, some of whom took offense to the work. According to the Sunday Times of Perth,
the police were called in to investigate an obscenity charge. The media followed.
"Art or Smut?" asked the Daily Telegraph of Sydney. "Dogged by Controversy," read a headline in the West Australian.
When "Good Boy" went on display at a gallery in Perth three months later, gallery owner Linton Partington told WAToday.com.au,
"We've had many an angry look and quite a few complaints about the 40-cm penis, but thankfully the people of Perth seem much
more open minded than Sydney because so far there's been no visit from the police." The sculpture, which was excluded from the
Schattners' latest exhibition, has been on tour throughout Australia since its introduction, eliciting a mix of smiles, shrugs and the
occasional frown.
"Everyone sort of knows him," Gillie said of "Good Boy." "He's infamous."
The Schattners are hoping to find a buyer for "Good Boy," the title of which was inspired by the Schattners' own dog, Moby.
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BEAUTIFUL BODIES
The Sun Herald
14 November 2010
ART SYDNEY issued a press release last week inviting media to snap "Gillie and Marc's controversially censored 3m high Fetch Boy 'pick up your dog poo' Sculpture", which is displayed outside the fair's entrance.
Asked why and who was censoring, a spokeswoman said the artists, Gillie and Marc Schattner, had decided to clothe the statue after a sculpture of a half-man, half-dog bending over naked outside Richard Martin gallery in Woollahra last year attracted the odd complaint.
She was adamant Art Sydney hadn't requested the beast's genitals be covered and then said Fetch Boy was a tongue-in-cheek comment about cleaning up after one's canine.
But Gillie Schattner said they offered a large statue of two dogs "making love", They weren't in love but that didn't really matter, which was turned down by Art Sydney.
"They didn't want any of the nudes because families [would be] coming there," she said.
So the Schattners compromised with a clothed dog. "The naked body is beautiful as far as we are concerned," she said.
Pity the organisers don't agree.
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UNLEASH YOUR ANIMAL WITHIN
Port Phillip Leader
19 October 2010
ART and pet lovers can have the best of both worlds at South Melbourne’s Nexus Modern Art Gallery.
The exhibition, Returning to the Animal Within, combines the work of husband and wife team Gillie and Marc Schattner.
On show until Thursday, visitors are allowed to bring their dogs to the exhibition which presents more than 20 paintings and firbreglass structures.
The artists want to encourage people to ‘‘start thinking more like a dog’’. ‘‘Turn off your phone, switch off Twitter, have a roll in the grass and honour the spirit of the dog to show us a better way of being a human,’’ Mrs Schattner said.
‘‘We have incorporated dog heads with human bodies to reflect the strong bond between humans and dogs; the sculptures represent man and dog as one.
‘‘We can learn a lot about love, friendship and happiness from dogs.’’
Nexus Modern Art Gallery is at 123 Cecil St, South Melbourne.
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ECLECTIC WORKS ON DISPLAY
Canberra Times
18 October 2010
Contemporanea is on show for two weeks at Aarwun Gallery.
Twenty-four of the 33 artists have been confirmed as coming to the opening night. Aarwun Gallery owner Robert Stephens says, ‘‘Biennale – many people will give you different ideas. My term for it is that it’s going outside the square with art.’’
The exhibition is only being shown at two venues in Australia,
including Aarwun. ‘‘It’s in Melbourne right now from October 7 to 19 at Smart Artz Gallery. It’s had a fantastic response,’’ Stephens says. There are more than 100 pieces in the exhibition and Stephens says, ‘‘Some of it is quite controversial. There’s a statue, three metres by two metres, of a man with a dog’s head called Goodboy .’’ The striking piece is by Gillie and Marc Schattner and Stephens says it was rejected by some galleries.
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ART SYDNEY
Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park
11 -14 November 2010
Gillie and Marc will be creating a uniquely designed piece, specifically for Art Sydney 2010, entitled "He thought this was going to be totally out of character but there's a first time for everything". The 3m high sculpture will be an addition to their current catalogue of work "Returning to the Animal Within."
'We, the contemporary artist pull apart the world, so it can be put back together as something different.' Gillie and Marc Schattner
Their art uses a colourful and exuberant meshing of Pop Art and figurative expressionism to explore themes of contentment and happiness. Their recent dog series was inspired by research that showed that if you want to live a happy life, the single most important thing you can do is get a dog.
www.artsydney10.com.au
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EXHIBITION
RETURNING TO THE ANIMAL WITHIN
Herald Sun Weekend
9 October 2010
Not sure whether this is any good or not ... I'll let you decide.
The Returning to the Animal Within exhibition encourages audiences to take a break from the material world to enjoy the simple things in life through the perspective of a dog.
Gillie and Marc's paintings will be accompanied by large fibreglass sculptures and photographic prints in this exhibition.
Dogs don't wear Rolexes, they don't drive Jags. They don't accumulate frequent-flyer miles or have share portfolios, and they never read the real estate pages on Saturday morning.
Dogs love to go for walks and smell and taste the things they find. They love the way it feels when they stick their head our of the car window, or catch a dirty tennis ball for the millionth time.
They love it when you rub their tummy. Dogs don't ask what something costs. They don't ask where you got it from, or whether it's the latest or the one that everyone's talking about, or whether you can only get it on special import or whether you can really afford it.
Gillie and Marc take this philosophy like a stick and run with it.
Nexus Modern Art, 123 Cecil St, South Melbourne
Until Oct 21
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THE END OF EXPRESSION?
Nine to Five
6 September 2010
While Paddington-based artists Gillie and Marc Schattner tend to focus on the mixture of animal and man, children became another focus when a sculpture made by the pair, titled Good Boy, was claimed to be offensive by parents who walked their children to school past the sculpture. Displayed at Richard Martin Art,the sculpture was placed on a ledge outside the gallery due to space restrictions. The sculpture, a nude man on all fours with the head of a dog, carries a 41cm penis.
“[The meaning behind the work] is all about going back to the simple things in life and being materialistic and just enjoying what’s right in front of you,” Gillie told NINETOFIVE.
“We think that dog’s bring out our humanity and make us humans.”
Gillie said the sculpture, which has traveled around Australia, found the most controversy in Sydney.
“Nude art has been around for centuries, there’s nothing wrong with a nude body. If you started censoring art it would hurt the arts. All artists need to be able to freely express themselves.
“So we say keep art accessible to the public, don’t censor it, and let them judge for themselves whether they like it or not.”
While the debate over artistic freedom and consorship continues, it’s clear that even the art world have differing opinions.
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Gillie and Marc Schattner selected as finalists for the 2010 BSG $10,000 Art Prize
September 2010
Gillie and Marc have been selected as national finalists in the inaugural Brunswick Street Gallery General Art Prize 2010.
Their sculpture They weren't in love but that didn't really matter, was selected as one of 50 finalists.
The finalist exhibition can be viewed at http://www.bsgart.com.au/ from the 10 September 2010 at Brunswick Street Gallery, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne.
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2010 'Returning to the Animal Within'
Solo Art Exhibition - MELBOURNE
Nexus Modern Art Gallery,
7 – 21 October 2010.
123 Cecil St, South Melbourne.
Ever wanted to live a dog’s life? Husband and wife artist duo Gillie and Marc Schattner hope to bring out the animal in all of us at their new solo exhibition Returning to the Animal Within, on show from 7 – 21st October at the Nexus Modern Art Gallery in Melbourne.
This new exhibition presents over 20 paintings and fibreglass sculptures encouraging audiences to rediscover the simple things in life through the humanised perspective of a dog. Gillie and Marc suggest we start thinking like a dog, switch off our Twitter feed, have a roll in the grass, or have sex with someone we like, and honour the spirit of the dog to show us a better way of being human.
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CONTEMPORANEA
GROUP EXHIBITION OF THE FLORENCE BIENNALE ARTISTS OF AUSTRALIA
October 2010
Lovers of Gillie and Marcs' work will have the bonus of being able to see the infamous Good Boy sculpture on show in Melbourne at the very same time as their solo show at Nexus Modern Art Gallery, only a couple of blocks away. It is a feature in Contemporanea, a group exhibition of the Florence Biennale Artists of Australia, being held from 7 -19 October at Smart artZ Gallery in South Melbourne and 23 October – 6 November at Aarwun Gallery in Canberra. Gillie and Marc were invited to participate in the Florence Biennale last year.
Good Boy is a fibreglass sculpture of a giant kneeling man with a dogs head and a 41cm penis, drinking a cup of coffee. When exhibited in Sydney last year, the sculpture created a stir with some viewers who complained to authorities about its overt display.
“If you look historically through art, nudes have been accepted and admired for hundreds of years. Good Boy is about man and dog becoming one, and I hope people will enjoy and admire him in this new setting,” Gillie said.
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