Comments on: José dos Santos at Callan Park Gallery

By: hugh adams

hugh adams — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:56:05 +0000

Hello there, very interesting reading your perspective on dos Santos. One point though. He never recoiled from showing overt sexuality in the work, as a number of what might be considered grossly sexual works show. His “Hermaphrodite Figure” and “Cunt Stool” are typical of these but probably weren’t included in the show you were reviewing, I think having already been shown in Melbourne and at Campbelltown. I doubt whether Portuguese women, certainly not the older inhabitants of Arega would have been much shocked by his priapism and general sexual rawness. As the book “The Greatest Sculptor in the World” says there are many examples of tourist souvenirs still sold openly today, particularly in the north, of Portugal, which couldn’t be displayed here in the UK. Even churches have ‘uterine grottoes’ and serpents hanging, as ex voto offerings (and we all know what serprents symbolise!).

By: Colin Rhodes

Colin Rhodes — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:38:58 +0000

I’d love to that Ron.
Thanks for your interest and support.

By: ron dowd

ron dowd — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:20:36 +0000

Thanks Colin for your response, and for correcting me on the work in the storeroom. It’s great to hear the “inside story” from you, and it really excites me that we now have an outsider art gallery in Sydney.

I look forward to the Albert Louden exhibition and wonder if in the future I might be able to do a short email interview with you about one of your shows at Callan Park.

By: Colin Rhodes

Colin Rhodes — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:01:27 +0000

The work on show is a carefully curated selection of the Dos Santos’ Collection. It’s not true to say that the work in the storeroom is that deemed not yet ready or not appropriate for display.
I specifically avoided choosing work that had already been shown at Campbelltown and Monash, and thought it would be more impactful to show the snakes separately at some point. In particular, I wanted to showcase the music related pieces together in the smaller space – a testament to Dos Santos’ other great passion.
Thanks for your interest in this and for your excellent coverage in this blog.
The Callan Park Gallery will be showing other artists throughout the year. The next show, opening 30 April, will be work by Albert Louden – celebrated outsider in Europe and the USA for 30 years. As far as we can tell, it will be his first show in Australia. There will be 30 works.