(Re) Presenting – AXIS Art Projects ‘Does New York Exist?’ Media Art Collective Interviews – BNE- NYC 1988 – 2021 [post in progress 2020-2021]
AXIS*ART*PROJECTS* – Art eXtremists International Syndicate (AXIS)
Does New York Exist? + AXIS Art Projects – AXIS-FILE Sites of Dis-Closure exhibition 1987-1989 [Brisbane, Los Angeles, New York City, London, Tokyo]
Q. WHAT DOES AXIS MEAN?
AXIS is an acronym: Art eXtremists International Syndicate (AXIS). The group AXIS Art Projects was a media art collective formed in Brisbane in April 1987 by artists Jay Younger, Lehan Ramsay and Paul Andrew. We intended to produce a series of collaborative art documentary projects motivated by arts based guerrilla artist-tactics at the time, tactics that were collectivist and critical of the ‘mainstream’ artworld of the time.
During a self-directed artist residency in Clinton Street in New York City’s lower east side during 1988 a series of art documentary audio interviews were conducted with a series of artists and arts workers who were actively involved in independent artist-run activities in NYC 1988. The media art collective built out from earlier artist-run activities in Brisbane to investigate current artist-run practices and narratives in international settings. The AXIS project was funded by the Peter Browne Memorial Travelling Fellowship and the No Frill Fund (AFC) in 1988.
In this feature we are growing during the 2020 -2021 COVID-19 pandemic climate are a series of excerpts of these artist interviews organised during an earlier pandemic, the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic in 1988.