PATAPHYSICAL HIPPOCRATES, 2012, Collaboration with Ben Kolaitis, www.creonova.org
Sonus Fon, Installation, Bayside Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2011
Creo Nova (Ben Kolaitis & Alex Cuffe)
Some recent trophies Ive been making in the studio. Each has a story; the first was made from the rope of a abandoned swing, the middle is a collection of discarded/stollen trophies in a frankenstein mash up attempt at a mega trophy and the last one is the only surviving part of my old ARI SPEC (I jumped the fence after ‘they’ demolished the building and I found this little guy).
This was a collaborative project from when I was still with The Wandering Room for a show when your around. thewanderingroom.org/
“When You’re Around was the first exhibition in the 99 Melbourne St series that The Wandering Room curated. The exhibition came from a desire to interact with a public that would encounter the work from the footpath, a simple and romantic gesture springing from a need to communicate, whether someone be near or far. An almost therapeutic exercise. …The Wandering Room collaborated as an artist group to create a sort of makeshift metronome, using everyday ephemera and found objects. … The wooden objects within The Wandering Room observe the goings on outside the window boxes”
Meteor, Rock,
“Alex Cuffe’s seemingly low-fi art practice embraces an aesthetic that evokes the charming practical tinkering of a backyard inventor against finely honed conceptual premises. Sound, electrics and amplification become key activators of clunky and kind of romantic sculptures, often underpinned by a degree of irreverent humour and a solid grasp of techno-wizardry.
The kind of speculation that has previously led the artist to build ‘biospheres’ or permaculture units, magnifying the sounds of plants growing, or brewing beer according to medieval recipes or supposed differences in types of intoxication, is also alluded to in Rock, meteor. Theses curious elements, with ‘science project’ rocks propped by hand carved sticks and a fluro comet, act as fallible stand-ins for astronomical and elemental phenomena.
After completing a Bachelor in Fine Arts at QCA Alex has recently completed two residencies, including a studio residency at NK in Berlin. He has held multiple solo and group shows, including a major solo project in 2010 titled Natural is the Static at Metro Arts. He was also included in the GAS 2010, along with Brisbane Emerging Art Festival, and Ryan Renshaw’s Test Patterns. His work was also in the Home Sweet Home video art festival in Berlin 2010. Cuffe is also a founding member of SPEC, an ARI which has hosted and participated in a multitude of events, most notably Gross Bodies of Light held in 2010 at MAAP. He is currently developing a mini festival titled New Primitive and a member of Sky Needle, a collaborative performance based sound art project with hand made instruments. Sky Needle recently played at the Melbourne Jazz festival’s Overground and headlined at Sydney’s Now Now festival’s opening night, both in 2011. In 2012 he will be featured in Melbourne’s prestigious Next Wave Festival.” Churchie Emerging Art Catalog