1999 to 2005
the shopfront, january to august 2000 openings thursdays 7 – 9pm gallery hours fri–sat 3 – 7pm sun 2 – 6pm
exhibitions and curated projects
117 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, 2000. The nine artists who held the lease and ran the programme.
Elastic ran from a shopfront at 117 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, in Sydney. Nine artists held the space between them and gave it over to a programme of three-day exhibitions and curated projects, opening on Thursday evenings and closing on the Sunday.
The work of setting the space up began in 1999, and the shopfront opened in january 2000 and closed that august. Elastic carried on as a group after that, publishing in 2001 and 2002 and mounting an archive project in 2005. It was the precursor to Elastic Residence, the artist-run space deej fabyc went on to establish in London, where the group later launched the book and showed together again.
Every exhibition at the Abercrombie Street shopfront, from the opening show in january to the closing show in august. Each artist had the space for a week, monday to sunday, showing for three days at the end of it and using the earlier part of the week to install. The book’s postscript describes the model: a twelve-month lease divided into nine parts, each of the nine artists curating three shows and inviting as few or as many others as they wished. Twenty-seven curated slots, plus the opening and closing shows, accounts for every date below.
january 21 – 23
opening show
the first show at elastic
jay balbi, deej fabyc, sarah goffman, mark hislop, andrew hurle, anne kay, leah mcleod, elvis richardson & elizabeth pulie
january 28 – 30
deej fabyc
february 4 – 6
anne kay
february 11 – 13
drive by
curated by elvis richardson
elvis richardson & angelica mesiti
february 18 – 20
leah mcleod
february 25 – 27
sarah goffman
do you want to go back / remnant
march 3 – 5
mark hislop
march 10 – 12
andrew hurle
march 17 – 19
august 26
curated by deej fabyc
callum morton, adam boyd & deej fabyc
the title of the show, not the day it was held
march 24 – 26
elvis richardson
march 31 – april 2
anne kay
conversational portraits
april 7 – 9
anne kay
taxi
april 14 – 16
mark hislop
april 21 – 23
april 28 – 30
jack walsh
curated by leah mcleod
may 5 – 7
deej fabyc
location
may 12 – 14
sarah goffman
may 19 – 21
kevin sheehan
curated by sarah goffman
may 26 – 28
mishka borowski
queer – sine on the green
curated by jay balbi
june 2 – 4
jay balbi
queer – sine on the green
curated by jay balbi
june 9 – 11
june 16 – 18
elizabeth pulie
june 23 – 25
everybody run – the home coming queen's got a raygun
curated by elizabeth pulie
june 30 – july 2
group show
curated by elizabeth pulie
july 7 – 9
mark hislop
andrew hurle
simeon nelson
pixel
curated by mark hislop
july 14 – 16
july 21 – 23
sally mannall
curated by elvis richardson
july 28 – 30
andrew hurle
never
august 4 – 6
closing show
the last show at elastic
jay balbi, deej fabyc, sarah goffman, mark hislop, andrew hurle, anne kay, leah mcleod, elvis richardson & elizabeth pulie
Who showed in each project, recorded after the fact.
the first and last shows at elastic, with the same nine artists in each, opening in january 2000 and closing 4 to 6 august 2000
jay balbi, deej fabyc, sarah goffman, mark hislop, andrew hurle, anne kay, leah mcleod, elvis richardson & elizabeth pulie
curated by elvis richardson
elvis richardson & angelica mesiti
curated by deej fabyc
callum morton, adam boyd & deej fabyc
curated by deej fabyc
lisa andrew, lisa holden, sadie chandler, virginia reid, shannon sutherland, justene williams & deej fabyc
curated by elizabeth pulie
elizabeth pulie, helen nicholson, luke parker and luke sandral
curated by elizabeth pulie
sophie v coombs
curated by mark hislop
mark hislop, simeon nelson & andrew hurle
The gallery at Abercrombie Street closed in august 2000, but Elastic carried on as a group, publishing and mounting projects elsewhere. All nine contributed across the years that followed; there were no separate directors. The ones who carried the project and did most of the work were elvis richardson, andrew hurle, deej fabyc, anne kay and elizabeth pulie, joined by lisa andrew from 2001 to 2005.
Caravan
The Premise of the Premises
Elastic printed project
Conceived as the gallery's successor. After the Abercrombie Street programme had run its course the group considered renting a warehouse for one large artist-run exhibition, then made a book instead, described in its own postscript as something like an exhibition in print. It was organised on the gallery's principle: a serial arrangement of empty compartments to be filled, with each artist keeping editorial control of their own pages, so a page stands in for a wall.
Elastic
A book launch and exhibition at Elastic Residence, showing eight of the Australian artists and launching the printed project in London, four years after the shopfront closed. The post describes the book as the work of ten principal artists, which matches its ten chapters. Copies sold at a launch price of £10.
Elastic: An Archive Project
An artist-curated exhibition built around the collecting and classifying that runs through the group's practices, with the nine inviting a much wider field to take part.