FACTORY718 is an ongoing collaborative project between Australian artists and curators, Barry William Hale and Robert Buratti. Taking its name from the original WWII-era industrial precinct which is now the hub of Beijing’s thriving art scene, the project is the result of an artist residency undertaken by the pair in July 2014 at the prestigious Red Gate Gallery in China.
Sharing a life-long interest in folk art, esotericism and spirituality, the artists sought to engage and deconstruct the various visual components of China’s indigenous Taoist religion, through personal experience and collaborative ritual. Through calligraphy, automatic drawing, papercut, painting, sculpture and new media, Hale and Buratti have immersed themselves in the shadowy and misunderstood practices of one of the world’s oldest surviving magical traditions, drawing parallels to the western consciousness and contemporary concepts of visionary art.
OPENING NIGHT
6.30pm Friday, 5th December 2014
rsvp@buratti.com.au
The artists will be in attendance.
Free entry
THE ARTISTS:
ROBERT BURATTI
Robert Buratti is a Perth-based artist, writer, curator and gallerist. A finalist in the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, Victoria Park Art Awards and semi-finalist in the Moran Portrait Prize, his work has recently been selected to be shown at the Metro Curates exhibition, and the upcoming 2015 Outsider Art Fair in New York. He has been awarded residencies at Red Gate Gallery, China and Abroas, Holland and exhibits regularly across Beijing, New York and Sydney. His writing has been published in The Australian, Artist Profile and Australian Art Review, and he is a regular arts commentator on local and national television and radio. He is also curator of a number of national touring exhibitions including most recently, Windows to the Sacred which focused on historical and contemporary spiritual art.
BARRY WILLIAM HALE
Considered the leading esoteric artist in Australia, Hale’s work has been exhibited in major public institutions such as S.H Ervin Gallery and the National Trust of Australia, Devonport Regional Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery as well as commercial galleries across Sydney, Perth and London. As part of the new media collaboration, NOKO he has exhibited and performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Sydney Biennale. A life-long interest in esotericism and spirituality has seen his work form part of private collections across the world, and his writing and imagery adorn a number of important publications in the genre. He is a published author currently working under the Fulgur Ltd imprint, and released his first book, Legion 49 in 2011 to critical acclaim.
