Main Gallery

“You withdraw into yourself when dancing; it is a private and personal experience. Pole dancers, they are detached but are simultaneously engaged, they are working and if they are not making eye contact, they are not making money. And knowing, in this proposed situation, the transaction is an absolute impossibility due to the preexisting conditions of the potential participants. Knowledge defeats its purpose.” - Tony Schwensen 2003

Paralleling political correctness and everyday experiences with artistic and cultural orthodoxies, Tony Schwensen’s interdisciplinary art practise has examined the underside of both Australian cultural life, and artistic values and economies. Linking various forms of viewing and knowing, from the aesthetic conventions of sculpture and installation art to the loaded environment of the table dancing bar, Portable Table Dancing Shooting Gallery: A Play in Five Acts incorporated sculpture, installation and video, and referenced contested environments such as the strip club and the injecting room as well as traditions of sculpture and site-specific installation.

Tony Schwensen is Sydney-based artist whose solo exhibitions include Errors of Judgement, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney 2003, Border Protection Assistance, Block, Sydney 2002, Aspiration Limitation Combination (After Rodin), First Floor, Melbourne 2002 and Ain’t Nothin But, BAD Projects, Rotterdam 2001. Selected group exhibitions include Problems in Paradise, Scott Donovan Gallery, Sydney 2002, Walkman, Briefcase, Sydney 2001 and Sunburn: New Art From Sydney, Kampnagel, Hamburg and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington 2001. Schwensen has completed residencies at Artspace, Sydney, and Stichting BAD, Rotterdam, and was awarded the Helen Lempiere Travelling art scholarship in 1998. Schwensen is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney. Tony Schwensen’s project is generously supported by NEC.