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GOSEE PICA presents Natascha Stellmach: Complete Burning Away Through to December 19, 2010

PICA presents
Natascha Stellmach: Complete Burning Away
November 6 – December 19, 2010
In early October 2008, Natascha Stellmach was the most-googled artist in the world. Emotions
were charged, sides were taken – for or against her – and questions were raised: Is it art? Is it
legal? Is it sacrilegious? Is it true?
Berlin-based Australian artist Natascha Stellmach caused an extraordinary media sensation in
2008 with the press release to her Berlin exhibition Set me free, in which she invited volunteers
to join her in smoking the ashes of dead rock star Kurt Cobain. Stellmach never revealed how
she obtained the ashes and held no interviews, instead her press release to 200 selected
journalists ignited a media-hype that spread across 58 countries, creating furor, public outrage
and admiration, especially online. Websites, blogs and chat rooms erupted and death treats were
sent.
If the smoking of the ashes was the final act – then Complete Burning Away, Stellmach’s
dramatic upcoming show at PICA is the epilogue. Her concluding remarks take the form of
videos, artist books, painted walls and objects.
As an introduction to the project’s history, a split-screen video, Overture, mashes up user
generated responses from YouTube and other online video sharing platforms. Across the gallery
walls in Whatever Happened to Painting?, hundreds of outrageous quotes questioning the
ethics and merits of Stellmach’s project in relation to art are painted in primary colours. Two
hand-bound artist books highlight the public opinion in relation to the smoking of Nirvana’s
infamous leader and illustrate how the media used the hype to sell products. One 4-wall video
installation, Scream, offers an intense sonic experience where an amplified left-handed guitar is
smashed against a wall until it ‘dies’, while another, Who will smoke the ashes of Kurt Cobain?
is an intimate play of monologues by six volunteers from Russia to Sweden who answered the
call to smoke the ashes and share their candid thoughts on suicide, death and the smoking of
cremated remains. As a response to our desire for absolutes, Stellmach created Artist
Statement – a framed envelope with text imprinted onto a black wax seal.
Natascha Stellmach’s exhibition shares with the audience the full gamut of responses to this
highly provocative and controversial act. Complete Burning Away boldly interrogates the public
ownership of celebrity figures and the nature of truth, sensation and the mechanisms of mass
media. More than that, this exhibition is a reflection on suicide and tragedy and the artist’s chosen
means to pay her respects. Complete Burning Away places Natascha Stellmach in the echelon
of artists who have acted with provocation and emotion. She is an artist and activist who has
powerfully and poignantly affected the masses.
A selection of five Death Threat artist postcards designed by Natascha Stellmach will be for sale
at PICA. Profits will go to a charity chosen by the artist.
Exhibition catalogue available with essay by Aaron Moulton, art critic and Director of Feinkost
Gallery, Berlin.
Exhibition Information: Dates: 6 November – 19 December 2010
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 6pm, PICA Central Galleries

About the Artist
Natascha Stellmach (b.1970) was born in Melbourne and lives and works between Berlin and
Melbourne. Stellmach works with image and text, exploring identity, transience and memory.
Exhibiting since 1996, her work has shown in over 50 international exhibitions including The
Australian Centre for Photography Sydney; The Australian Centre for the Moving Image,
Melbourne; The Australian Centre of Contemporary Art Melbourne; Fotogalerie Wien;
Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel; Kunstverein Ludwigshafen; ACC
Galerie Weimar and the Le Havre Biennale.
Stellmach has been awarded two Australia Council for the Arts residencies, at Citè Internationale
des Arts, Paris and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Her work is held in the public collections of
the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne;
The National Library of Australia, Canberra; University of Melbourne Library; Partouche
Collection, France and numerous international private collections.
Natascha Stellmach is represented by WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin.

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