JUNI SALVADOR“ANONYMOUS”10 May - 6 June 2009 A.non.y.mous: [adj] of unknown or undeclared origin or authorship. Filipino conceptual artist Juni Salvador recently relocated to Sydney, a daunting task for anyone to moving a family but overlay that sense of displacement with a new language of signs, customs and culture and it is an interesting position to be in. How does a new arrival filter this landscape onto a notion of identity? We Australian’s are constantly fed images that confirm a mythology of the Australian landscape found in the paintings of John Glover, Elioth Gruner, Charles Condor, Frederick McCubbin, Russell Drysdale and others. But how accurate is that image of ‘Australianess’ for the new arrival? Not knowing this pictorial history Juni has collected random reproductions of ‘Australian’ artworks collected from second-hand shops or found discarded on street corners. He has hung his collection of faded posters in rusting frames salon-style, mimicking the authority of the art museum – a masquerade of immersion and acceptance. One might question whether their value has been lost - discarded or no longer current- they may be on the cusp of some new value as a relic? With their op-shop price tags in tact, Salvador’s entry point to the Australian landscape is one brokered by notions of availability, price and chance. It questions contemporary value-systems, the commodification of art and more blatantly within Redfern's popular context that the ownership of land always comes at a price. Salvador’s Filipino work has pushed conventional spatial relationship onto a socialisation of the art object, recently explored in his Manila show, “Works Down Under” [September 2008] at Mag:net Gallery. Here he juxtaposed the plastic school template of the Australian map with jigsaw puzzle pieces. It is a puzzlement of geography that is expanded in this exhibition for SLOT as a cultivated crop of ‘ready-mades’ describing a contemporary landscape. SLOT is delighted to introduce Juni’s work. To view Juni’s show at Mag:net in Manila exhibition visit: http://www.magnetgalleries.com
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