Ricky Swallow - Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive ...

that is necessary for the apes to take over the planet once humanity disappears. In
Swallow’s world, as in Planet of the Apes, the apes win in the end.
While artists such as Keith Edmier recreate objects of personal importance
from their childhood; Tom Sachs constructs replicas of ordinary objects and cultural
icons; Callum Morton explores the concept of the architectural model; and Michael
Ashkin fabricates miniature scenes of dystopic events, Ricky Swallow combines all
of these elements and more into his unique and arresting art.
In the introductory text for his first solo exhibition in 1997, Swallow asked
what would or could be learned from his objects if they were sealed as is in a gallery
excavated in the future. Swallow mines culture for content and peppers his work
with social commentary. His acutely contemporary objects, resembling nature morte
and presenting vanitas, are actually somewhat conservative: representational with
an overt interpretation. Themes of death and immortality, evolution and survival,
and transience and permanence filter in and out. The most moving and poignant
description of Swallow’s work that I have read was written by critic Justin Patton:
“Think of the gypsy Melquiades, in the first scene of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One
Hundred Years of Solitude, whose magnet pulls a cargo of lost objects out from their
hiding places. His motto might be Swallow’s: ‘Things have a life of their own. It’s
simply a matter of waking up their souls.’” 6
Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator
1 Telephone conversation between Ricky Swallow and the author, 3/14/2001.
2 Marah Braye, “The Voyeur Awakes,” Art and Australia, Winter 2001, vol. 38, no. 4, p. 566.
3 Ibid., p. 565.
4 Lara Travis, “None More Blacker,” None More Blacker (Melbourne, Australia: 200 Gertrude Street,
2001), n/p.
5 Ibid.
6 Justin Paton, “The Recreation Room,” Above Ground Sculpture (Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin
Public Art Gallery, 2000), n/p.
Ricky Swallow was born in 1974 in San Remo, Australia. He attended the Victorian College of the
Arts in Melbourne, Australia, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. He continues
to live and work in Melbourne.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2000
"Above Ground Sculpture," Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, and Hamish McKay
Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
"Unplugged," Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia
"Platstruct," Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Individual Ape," Hot Rod Tea Room, Oslo, Norway
1999
"The Multistylus Programme," Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1998
"Repo Man," Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1997
"The Lighter Side of the Dark Side," Grey Area Art Space Inc., Melbourne, Australia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2001
"Ricky Swallow and Erick Swenson," Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
"None More Blacker," 200 Gertrude Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
"Utopia / ROR," Kiasma Museum of Contempoary Art, Helsinki, Finland
2000
"Keith Edmier, Ricky Swallow, Erick Swenson," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
"Drawn From Life," Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
"Terra Mirabilis," Centre for Visual Arts, Cardiff, Wales
"Brand New Master Copy," UKS Gallery, Oslo, Norway
"Rent," Overgaden Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
1999
"Contempora5," The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
"Signs of Life," Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne, Australia
"Spellbound," Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Walkmen," with David Jolly and David Noonan, Synaesthesia Music, Melbourne, Australia
1998
"Institutional Transit Lobby," 200 Gertrude Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
"Video Soup," Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
"Hobby Core," Stripp Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
"All This And Heaven Too," Adelaide Biennial Exhibition, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide,
Australia
Selected Catalogues and Publications
None More Blacker, 200 Gertrude Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2001.
Ricky Swallow / Erick Swenson, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, 2001.
All This And Heaven Too, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 1998.
Above Ground Sculpture, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2000.
Brand New Master Copy, UKS Gallery, Oslo, Norway, 2000.
Contempora5, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia, 1999.
Memory Made Plastic / Ricky Swallow, published in collaboration with Darren Knight Gallery,
Sydney, Australia, 1999.
Selected Bibliography
Braye, Marah. "The Voyeur Awakes," Art and Australia, Winter 2001, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 560-567.
Engberg, Juliana. "No Radio," Art/Text, August–October 1998, no. 62, pp. 32-35.
Nicholson, Tom. "Ricky Swallow: Leagues Under the Sea," Like, Art Magazine, Summer/Autumn
1997/98, no. 5, pp. 12-16.
Palmer, Daniel. "Shadowplay," Frieze, April 2001, no. 58, pp. 84-87.
_____. "Melbourne International Biennial," Frieze, September 1999, no. 48, p. 100.
Work in MATRIX
Apple 2001 B/W, 2001
Pigmented resin
Scale 1:1
3 3 /4 x 3 x 3 in. (9.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
For those who came in late, 2001
Pigmented resin and wire
Scale 1:1
31 1 /2 x 59 x 27 1 /2 in. (80 x 150 x 70 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
I Don’t Want to Know if You Are Lonely/Harry
Feinberg’s Communicator, 2001
Balsa wood, plaster, and string
37 3 /4 x 98 7 /16 x 59 in. (95.8 x 250 x 150 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Silence Kit/Upturned PowerBook, 2001
Balsa wood, plaster, and colored Plexiglas
Scale 1:1
24 x 54 3 /4 x 20 3 /4 in. (61 x 139 x 52 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Vacated Campers, 2000
Binders board, paper, and glue
Scale 1:1
3 15 /16 x 12 5 /8 x 13 3 /4 in. (10 x 32 x 35 cm)
Private collection, Brisbane
We the Sedimentary Ones/ Use Your Illusions
vol. 1-60, 2000
Pigmented resin, keyrings
60 keyrings, each approximately 2 x 1 3 /8 x
1 3 /8 in. (5 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm); 22 7 /16 x 48 7 /16 x 1
3 /8 in. (57 x 123 x 3.5 cm) overall
Courtesy of Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington,
New Zealand
Aping the Humans, 2001
Watercolor on paper
11 x 15 in. (28 x 38 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Communication, 2001
Watercolor on paper
15 x 11 in. (38 x 28 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Chain, 2001
Watercolor on paper
15 x 11 in. (38 x 28 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Earth Time/Ship Time, 2001
Watercolor on paper
11 x 15 in. (28 x 38 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Outdoor Ape, 2001
Watercolor on paper
15 x 11 in. (38 x 28 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
25 additional works on paper, all 2001:
Watercolor on paper
11 x 15 in. (28 x 38 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight
Gallery, Sydney
Please Note:
Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson will give a curator’s walkthrough of this exhibition, along
with Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193 Vanishing Point, on Thursday, May 3, at 12:15 p.m.
The MATRIX Program at the UC Berkeley Art Museum is made possible by the generous endowment
gift of Phyllis Wattis.
Additional donors to the MATRIX Program include the UAM MATRIX Council Endowment, Ann M. Hatch,
Eric McDougall, and the California Arts Council.
Ricky Swallow/MATRIX 191 For those who came in late has been assisted by the Commonwealth
Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Ricky Swallow acknowledges the support of the following people: Kati Jane Rule, Chad Chatterton,
Fiona Abicare, Nick Johns, Damiano Bertoli, Andy Alexander, Darren Knight, Hamish McKay, Karyn
Lovegrove, Justin Paton, Mike Conole, Yani Florence, Chris Gregory, and John Brash.
© 2001 The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.
Vacated Campers, 2000; binders board, paper, and glue; 3 15 /16 x 12 5 /8 x 13 3 /4 in. (scale 1:1). Photo by Paul Green.
We the Sedimentary Ones/Use Your Illusions vol. 1-60, 2000; pigmented resin, keyrings; 60 keyrings,
approximately 22 7 /16 x 48 7 /16 x 1 3 /8 in. overall. Photo by Bill Nichol.
Communication, 2001 (detail); watercolor on paper; 15 x 11 in. Photo by John Brash.
COVER: The First One Now, 2000; pigmented resin; 25 x 23 x 50 in. (scale 1:1). Photo by Paul Green.
ABOVE: Even the Odd Orbit, 1998-99; portable turntables, chip M.D.F., printed figures, acrylic paint; dimensions variable;
"Signs of Life," Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne, Australia—installation view. Photo by Kenneth Pleban.