MAKING HISTORY
A DIVERSE COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART RECEIVES THE HUMAN TOUCH AT AN “INCIDENTAL” MELBOURNE GALLERY.
A diverse collection of contemporary art receives the human touch at an “incidental” Melbourne gallery
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE HISTORY — a tribute to design excellence and eccentricity told across a store of vintage treasures — opened in the sand belt of Melbourne’s outer-suburban Sandringham in 2015. Like all good accounts of the past, it grabbed your attention, grounded you in a setting — somewhere in bucolic Denmark or France — and utterly fascinated you with its characters. This was where we met Rex Doesburg and Mary Warnest, a couple whose counterpointing personal styles were mirrored in their warehouse mix of no-frills functionalism and retro-futurism. His Steptoe shtick and her Bond-Girl sleek simply begged the full backstory — a tale of tossing in executive lives to motorbike through the backwaters of Bohemia in search of special finds. One year later and the pages have turned to chapter two — a former factory space on Melbourne’s north-eastern city edge, where Fitzroy hip hardens into Collingwood grit. “My singular vision has come to life here,” says Warnest of The History’s evolution into an “incidental” gallery on Wellington Street. “I always wanted to create a space of intimacy, rather than intimidation; a space where collectable furniture could pair with contemporary art in domestic vignettes that felt informal, intimate, almost incidental.” ››
« Decrying the aloofness of the contemporary art scene, Doesburg adds that he and Warnest have long envisaged forming collaborative relationships with artists in one aesthetic meeting point. “Like the formative days of Heide,” he says of the Melbourne home of John and Sunday Reed that grew into a cultural institution. “Just a group of like-minded people coming together with a common vision.” Warnest then rollcalls The History’s ‘chapter two’ collaborators, a group that is geographically, developmentally and stylistically diverse but unified in its desire to witness the tyranny of self-importance stripped from the sale of art. There’s London-born, Melbourne-based Roy B Wilkins, whose technicolour trips are a bit Basquiat, a bit Dubuffet. There is Dusseldorf-born, New Zealand-based Inge Doesburg, whose broad brushstroke landscapes surge with emotion; Melbourne-born, Berlinbased Matt Dettmer, with minimally detailed portraits à la Alex Katz; as well as Glasgow-born, Melbourne-based Jordan Devlin, whose Francis Bacon-like figuration can become fractal. Adding to this United Nations of artistic talent is New York’s very own Thomas Bucich, the Sydney-based architect-turned-artist who censures humanity’s growing detachment from the natural world in Denied Landscape — a series of unique cast bronze sculptures that snapshot the landscape near his studio in New South Wales’ Southern Highlands. Bucich’s forms, which are 1950s in their fragmentary essence, fit in with the wider scattering of 20th-century furniture; arranged in immersive settings that are suggestive of a rock star’s country estate. Think 17th-century Flemish-style floral arrangements by Flowers Vasette, Finnish design, French reliquary and Herbie Hancock’s epochal ’ 80s jazz pulsing from super-large ’70s speakers and you’ve got The History’s collecting and reflecting take on interiors. With plans to launch books, stage events (Neuw jeans are interested in exploring denim in the design arena), collaborate with local craft (design studio Porcelain Bear are primed to produce limited-edition porcelain) and exhibit The History of local taste from pizza to vintage cycles, Warnest is busy pumping the past for narrative. So, what can we expect for chapter three? “Like all good stories,” she teases, protecting her plot lines, “that’s to be continued.” The History, 206 Wellington Street, Collingwood; 0433 175 089. Visit thehistory.com.au.