Who is Jason Haufe?
Melbourne based artist currently using photocopies to make collages.
What would you do differently to what you do now?
Keep a diary of my dreams.
Who inspires you and why?
Conlon Nancarrow (1912 – 1997), an American composer that composed music for the player piano. Nancarrow took advantage of a technology from the previous century, to make music as progressive as any in the twentieth century. The player piano allowed Nancarrow to express his vision without the restrictions of musicians and their human limitations.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Introduce meditation into school curriculum.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Washington DC. A city which was planned and built to make a statement, considered at the time to be the new world, but actually steeped in the old. Besides, you can visit the National Gallery and see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Portrait of a Woman without a throng of tourists getting in the way.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take then to, and why?
I would take them to see the painting Yari Country by Rover Thomas at the NGV Federation Square. If they don’t like that painting, I question how much they actually like painting.
What are you currently reading?
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross. It’s a book about composers and their music in the twentieth century. The book also highlights the relationships that composers have with their colleagues, the public and political power.
What are you currently listening to?
Electro-acoustic and tape music, predominately from the 1950’s and 60’s.
Happiness is?
Not that important. Chasing happiness usually leads to the opposite. Having a purpose is more than enough.
What does the future hold for you?
I will be exhibiting new work in a solo show at Factory 49 in Sydney in February and another solo show later in the year at Temporary Gallery Berlin. In May, I’ll also be exhibiting some old work in a works on paper show at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery Melbourne. More importantly, I intend to keep developing my work, growing and expanding the possibilities that the medium will allow.
Born in 1974 in Melbourne Australia, Jason Haufe has been committed to Abstraction and his professional arts practice for nineteen years. Since graduating with his Honours Degree in Fine Art at Monash University in 1995, he has delivered nineteen solo exhibitions and has explored Abstraction through painting, collages, sculpture and printmaking.
From 1996 to 2010, Jason explored various spatial and pictorial ideas within the limited means of geometric abstraction. He is an accomplished draughtsman and has been shortlisted for the National Drawing Dobell Prize at NSW Art Gallery (Sydney, Australia) in 2009, 2008 and 2005.
Jason has also been shortlisted for the Rick Amor Drawing Prize at The Ballarat Regional Art Gallery. Haufe has been recognised for his rigorous draughtsmanship by Academic and Historian Christopher Heathcote in his essay Journeys into Drawing in the Macmillion Art Publication Contemporary Australian Drawing #1.
Jason has been selected for major art prizes in Australia such as Fletcher Jones Art Prize (Geelong Art Gallery; 2008), Blake Prize (S.H. Ervin Gallery; 2001), Fleming Muntz Albury Art Prize (Albury Regional Art Gallery; 2005). He is represented in Melbourne by Stephen McLaughlan Gallery and has exhibited at Factory 49 (Sydney), Westspace (Melbourne) and various other artist-run spaces, and has been collected by Art Bank, Chisholm Institute and Monash University.
More recently Jason has been exploring the process of feedback loops to generate new directions in his collages. This is his third solo exhibition at Factory 49 and his first comprising collages. The exhibition runs 19 – 28 February 2015. For more information, visit: www.factory49.blogspot.com or www.jasonhaufe.com for details.
Image: Jason Haufe