Kaiser Takes Flight
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday June 2, 2007
Austinmer artist Bettina Kaiser can claim an uncommon honour - she is the first to exhibit in Wollongong's newest gallery.
Kaiser's works are on exhibition at 5 Crown Lane; a new shop, cafe, gallery and performance venue that officially opens today in Wollongong's CBD.The space brings together businesses Music Farmers, a retail space for cutting edge music; Socially Discharged, a wholesale punk and rock wholesaler and new cafe Alby's Eats & Other Treats.Kaiser says she's excited to be the debut exhibitor in an area that also contains a performance and exhibition space."I really think Wollongong needed a space like that because it's a music lounge and food place for young people," she says.The exhibition is also exciting for the German-born artist who moved to Australia in 2000 because it provides her with the chance to display an assortment of works, including a three-metre wide oil painting she completed while in residence at Arthur and Yvonne Boyd's Bundanon in 2004.The painting, titled Artist's Table, has been exhibited in Australia and in her hometown of Hamburg, Germany."It looks really good. It's not often there's a space with walls big enough," she says."This is not a themed exhibition ... this one I actually looked at the space to see what makes sense here because it's a record lounge and younger people (will be there)."It's not like a commercial gallery. So I've chosen something that fits in there and things that haven't been exhibited in Wollongong before."Kaiser has assembled a collection of works created between 2004 and the present, and some of her works explore her interest in the Australian vernacular and the many colloquialisms."I'm still fascinated by it. In the beginning when I came to the country, it was another language and there would be something you had never heard of or understood," she says."The sayings or phrases have a pictorial or literal meaning (like) "stone the crows" or "mad as a cut snake" but because I was fresh off the boat you pick them up."What's also interesting though, is through that I also picked up things about the German language I never thought about."Maybe I'm peculiar, but that's the fantastic thing about going to another country."As she is enjoying the launch of The Works exhibition, Kaiser is also preparing to head to Milparinka in far north-western NSW for a two-week residency before she returns later this year to Antarctica with Quark Expeditions.She will be an artist-in-residence on board one of their polar-class icebreaker and adventure ships, offering travellers the chance to discover their artistic bent, while exploring her own creativity.Kaiser says her previous experience in the Antarctic has left a definite impression on her and her works, and she cannot wait to return.This time, she adds excitedly, she will have the opportunity to see emperor penguins.Kaiser says, perhaps because of her history growing up in a port city, sea travel has always been an overwhelming attraction."Where I'm from, Hamburg, the North West passage, Cape Horn, the Antarctic and Arctic all have a mythology ... this trip sounded like it was written for me," she says."(The first time) went really well and lots of people were involved in the art and my exhibition went well. Now I'm going back."
© 2007 Illawarra Mercury