Poetry Club is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Daniel Bourke in what will be the first of its Summer Exhibitions program.
The exhibition will feature a number of macramé sculptures based on a series of instructional magazines that the artist found at a community swap meet. Working with outmoded past-times and attitudes towards nature, the works reference notions of practicality, consumer culture, the often vacuous nature of contemporary DIY culture, Robert Smithson's 'sites' and 'non-sites', and retro ideals of hanging furniture.
Often appropriating elements of art, craft and hobbies in his work, Bourke has previously utilised gardening (predominantly indoor), woodwork, glasswork, drafting, and model making amongst other practices. Such appropriations follow the artist's interests in art-craft and nature-culture dichotomies; notions of 'high' and 'low' culture; independent production under globalisation; and, on a self-reflexive level, the economy of his practice.
Daniel Bourke is an emerging artist based in Perth, Western Australia, where he co-runs both the design studio Benchwork and the printing press Benchpress. He has recently exhibited at Fremantle Arts Centre (2009), The Moores Apartment (2009), and TCB (2010), as well as having taken part in numerous art awards.
Poetry Club is a gallery and café run from the back room of a house. The inaugural exhibition for Poetry Club will also see the re-launch of Coastal Shelf, an independent bookshop run previously by Clare Wohlnick from the McNess Studios in Perth. The bookshop will run for the duration of the Summer Exhibitions program as well as through an online shop.
