2004

TI PARKS

G-Street Tent Show marked the return to Melbourne of London-based artist Ti Parks, whose relationship with, and influence on, the Australian art world spans over four decades. For three consequtive months, Parks had been artist-in-residence in Gertrude Contemporary’s Studio 18, and G-Street Tent Show was an exhibition of dynamic, innovative new work, all created during his residency, which both revised and extended his interdisciplinary sculpture practice. 

A program of free short performances, Wardrobe to Dufflecoat, accompanied the G-Street Tent Show on Saturday 4th September and Saturday 11th September.

Born in England in 1939, Parks lived in Melbourne between 1964 and 1974, and exhibited widely in Australia during that period. Examples of his works are in all major public collections in Australia as well as in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His last visit to Melbourne was in 2002, when his major work Polynesian 100 (1973) was included in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Fieldwork, a major survey of Australian art which opened the NGV’s new Federation Square premises. Parks was also the final artist to exhibit at the renowned Pinacotheca gallery in Richmond before its closure in 2002.
G-Street Tent Show continues Parks’ exploration of improvised installation art using mainly found materials. This time, however, he is referring back to some of his pieces from the 1960s and 70s. These were the decades in which Parks’ practice became invested in the assemblage of improvised sculpture and found objects, the media for which he is now well-known and celebrated. Parks’ influence on subsequent generations of Australian artists cannot be underestimated, as evidenced by his dynamic reception by, and interactions with, Gertrude’s Studio Artist community and the exciting, energetic work represented in G-Street Tent Show.

A5 catalogue, black and white reproductions, 6-page foldout format $2.20.