ANNA DUNNILL Flowers, Guns, Water (2011) graphite & collage on found paper 29 x 21cm
As a part of BRIGHT LIGHTS, SMALL CITY, Buratti Fine Art will be hosting two Saturday afternoon artist talks.
The first will be an informal panel discussion about the artist-run culture in Perth, taking place at 12pm on the 21st September.
Panel Discussion: What's the deal with ARIs?
Loads of artist-run initiatives have popped up in Perth in the last year or so. What exactly are they and what do they bring to the local arts industry? What is it like to work with/for one? Advice for young artists just starting out. The pros and cons of ARIs vs traditional art galleries. How do you get involved or find representation as an artist? What does it means to be an emerging artist in WA and what part do galleries or studios play within this as a whole?
We will be encouraging participation from the audience, and will accept questions and thoughts from anyone attending the talk. The panel itself will feature local creatives and ARI directors - including several BRIGHT LIGHTS, SMALL CITY exhibiting artists.
Speakers:
Anna Dunnill (Paper Mountain) Sarah Rowbottam Shannon Williamson Claire Bushby Alina + Danni (Shiritori Press) Jessie Mitchell Dan Bourke Dale Buckley (Moana Project Space) Facebook event page
This month’s Speaking with is a little different from previous instalments in the series; rather than interviewing one Western Australian artist I have focused on a WA based annual survey exhibition. The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Hatched National Graduate Show.
An important element in the annual Perth arts scene and the only exhibition of its kind nationally, Hatched 2012 marks a particularly significant year since the exhibition is also celebrating its 21st birthday.
In 2004 I was selected to exhibit in Hatched so personally this exhibition has a special place in my heart, and each year marks a time of self-reflection as I inevitably think about my practice back then and how it has developed over the years since. Being a part of Hatched 2004 was a great acknowledgement and important step in viewing myself as a professional artist.
Three of the Hatched 2012 artists spoke with me via email, Luisa Hansal from Western Australia, Sarah Jane Haywood from Victoria and Pip Stafford from Tasmania, about what it means for them to be selected for the 21st Hatched show, about their exhibited works and what the future holds for them.
Hatched 2012 is currently showing at PICA until June 10th, so if you haven’t seen it yet, or want a re-visit get in there quick!
Can you tell us about your work currently showing in the Hatched 2012 exhibition at PICA?
LUISA HANSAL: My approach to making art has always been an exploration and analysis of my life world, dealing with reoccurring themes of love, sex, the fragmented self/other, gender, anger, fear and anxiety. My series of prints currently showing in Hatched is the outcome of a confronting process of analysing personal experiences I have encountered in my past, that I feel have played a highly significant role in shaping my identity and how I understand and view myself as an authentic individual in this world. Through my confessional approach to this project viewers are invited to experience an emotional encounter with my work. I aim to encourage others to look within their ‘lifeworlds’ and gain a deeper understanding and acceptance of their individuality and the human qualities we all share.
PIP STAFFORD: My work, All my world is scaffolding, is essentially a site for producing and observing networks and systems. It is a chaotic structure, built in response to the space, from diagrammatic materials such as balsa and Perspex, containing plants (wheatgrass, peas), a reticulation system, electronics and studded with copper sulphate crystals. The balsa forms the main structure, with the crystals acting as both mesh and bling.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: For the past 9 months or so I've been doing a project called This Is Your Song in which people give me stories of their own personal experiences and I write songs for them about their experiences. I then take my piano to their bedroom and play them their song. The work in Hatched is a two channel video of these performances accompanied by a book of the original stories.
Most of my work (or the good stuff) tends to come out of some inadequacy that I find in myself. I've always wanted to be a musician, and have written songs since childhood. But I've always thought I wasn't musically skilled enough, and that as a songwriter, my lyrics weren't as eloquent as they should be. In an attempt to prove myself wrong, I created the project This Is Your Song.
But through the process of writing these songs, the project has become much less about me, and really about the people whose stories I'm telling - and some of them get very personal; a young man recalling the time he tried to lose his virginity, a young woman describing the night her father passed away, my own father telling me the regrets of his life.
I have this idealistic belief that most problems can be solved through honesty, so I'm always chasing truth, and hoping I'm right on its heels. I find that when I feel like I'm touching truth, that's where people are at their most vulnerable, and that's where I want to stay. Cause ultimately, I'm really interested in how people come to know each other, and so this project has been a unique experience in getting to try a different way of understanding people and I'm very grateful for the stories I've been given and the lives I've been let into.
Can you talk a little about what it means for you to be selected for a national survey exhibition like this?
LUISA HANSAL: To be a part of such an amazing exhibition like Hatched is such a precious honour! I still can’t believe I was accepted into such an esteemed event. More than anything, it has been a pleasant and honourable reminder as to why I am so determined to practice as a professional artist and that what I am attempting to communicate with my audience is actually resonating with others. Thank you Hatched for reminding me that I have a valid place in the Perth Arts community as an emerging artist, I’m super excited to be a part of it.
PIP STAFFORD: I feel incredibly fortunate. Going into it I don’t think I had a real understanding of what it meant to be selected for the show. When I arrived in Perth and rocked up to PICA, I was quite overwhelmed (and very excited) by the scale and the standard of the other artists involved. The whole experience has been great and the PICA staff couldn’t be more helpful. I also had the opportunity to return to Perth, for my artist talk and to see (and skate in!) a dance work that was made in response to my work, by Tara Daniels and Jo Pollitt and it was really great to be able to extend the experience in that way.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: OMG!!!!! ARGH!!!!! I'M IN HATCHED!!!!! ARGH!!!!! HOLY SHIT!
It's fucking awesome. It's great to feel like something that you've done has "worked" in some regard. Cause of the nature of my projects it also feels like I've gotten away with something. I'm really just sorting out my own shit and somehow I made some good art!
Working with PICA has been amazing. Sounds cliche but it is a great opportunity for someone who's just graduated like me to show in a gallery like PICA. Everyone is super friendly and a gallery like PICA has so many resources that it's incredible! Also knowing that your work will have more exposure than it ever has before is a great feeling. I'm all about 'reaching people' which means that being included in a show like this is like a dream come true!
The project has also had quite a few advances since I first was selected for Hatched. I've undertaken the challenge of writing a song a week for 2012 (which has not gone exactly to plan) and so there are lots more songs than there originally was. I also decided that I wanted to record an album of the songs, so I spent around 3-4 months recording songs with my beautiful friend Ross Unger and got a run done of 100 for the show (which you can still buy at PICA).
And what has been THE MOST AWESOME part of being in Hatched has been being able to fulfil one of my childhood dreams! I've always wanted to have a band, and so for the opening of Hatched I managed to wrangle up a couple of Perth boys, and flew my friend Ross over from Melbourne to play with me. PICA were lovely enough to set up a stage and I must say that I think that it was one of the BEST EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE.
CAN'T DESCRIBE. JUST FUCKING AWESOME.
Where did you study? And were there significant shifts in your work that occurred during your degree that you can discuss?
LUISA HANSAL: I am currently finishing off my last few units of a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts, majoring in Visual Arts at Edith Cowan University. To be completely honest before I started my undergraduate studies I had no idea what it even meant to be an artist. I had always enjoyed drawing, sewing and painting and thought of myself as a creative type. When I decided to study Visual Arts I had no idea what I was getting myself into and it was then that I took the first step of my journey into discovering the world of art and what it meant to be an artist.
A significant time of study and growth was when I underwent a semester at Monash University in Melbourne. It was at this stage in my studies that I felt most creative, confident and energetic and for the first time I felt genuinely excited to be making work and developing an informed creative praxis. Ultimately, I learnt how to be patient with my work, I fell in love with inks, watercolours and papers and discovered what it was like to be truly inspired by other artists and picked up the overwhelming creative energy Melbourne has to offer.
Luisa Hansal, and just like that I was no longer a child, 2011.
Dry point etching, watercolour paints and ink on coffee and tea stained paper.
PIP STAFFORD: I studied at University of Tasmania, School of Art. I finished my BFA in 2004, very young and straight out of school and I really had no idea what I was doing (in hindsight), so I was very fortunate to be able to go back and do my Honours year in 2011, with a few years of artistic practice under my belt and a good understanding of what I wanted to achieve.
In that year I completely changed my practice – I moved from making participatory, socially-engaged art, to a more physical practice of sculpture, electronics and installation. I’ve always been interested in communication and networks, but I feel like for the first time ever I am starting to make work that I am really happy with and I feel very confident in the trajectory of my research and material exploration. It’s a super exciting time for me.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: Oh my gosh, too many shifts to count! I studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Victoria. I studied in the Sculpture and Spatial Practice area. When I first started I was making stuff that I look back on now and cringe. Really I was just playing around with lots of different random things. At some point I got interested in circuits and pulling things apart and then joining different bits up. I made this work called Kite Listening, which was a kite with a microphone in it that went down to a pair of headphones for the kite flyer to wear.
Soon after that I was selected for a public art exhibition and ended up making this analogue motion sensor instrument kind of thing which followed on from my interest in circuits and electronics (and my wish to throw lots of money at my interest in circuits and electronics). But this project is down a similar line to the This Is Your Song project. It was called you don't have to call it music if you don't want to, which is a quote from a musician called John Cage, and if I remember correctly what I was interested in was how people were more likely to play instruments that were atypical as there were no preconceptions about how they should play it. I suppose I had to take my own advice from this work in order to undertake the This Is Your Song project.
After some dabbling with motion-sensor works I went over and studied at the University of California - Berkeley. It was an incredibly vibrant place where I got to sit in on astrology lectures, clinical psychology lectures, and courses on everything from Harry Potter to permaculture. In terms of my artwork I think that the experience has definitely influenced me, although I don't think that I made anything specifically good while I was over there. The best class I took there was one called Art 160 Social Practice, which was a class run by an inspirational lecturer, Amanda Eicher, and just focussed on artwork that dealt with people as its medium. In the San Francisco bay area there is a real grass-roots social art community. One that is deeply tied to activism, but is largely unpretentious and really is just focussing on using creativity to invent different social situations. Whilst for some time I have been interested in social artwork, this experience really solidified it as a major focus of my work.
On arrival back from the USA (after backpacking through Central America) I was again selected for the same public art exhibition. This year I was determined to do something community focussed. The area that the exhibition was in is called Docklands, which is largely thought of as a soulless business hub that has horrible weather. Now that I think about it I can't remember exactly what I wanted to find out, but I wanted to find out about what kind of people where in that area. So I created and set up the Docklands Research Centre, a social research centre on the harbour edge and manned by a social researcher (myself) every day for the duration of the exhibition. I got members of the public to do a personality test which involved drawing a picture of a pig, and then I would interpret the results. At the end of exhibition I collated the results and compiled them into a book which I gave back to the developers (who had funded the exhibition). In my book this was necessarily a 'successful' project, but it was definitely a learning curve in terms of how to make art that uses people. Many days I sat at my lonely research centre and zero people wanted to talk to me!
I think it was after this experience that I decided that I wanted to tackle the subjects that I was really interested in but too scared to touch; sex and stories. I'm obsessed with sex and sexuality and all that entails. I saw this documentary called The Perfect Vagina sometime in 2011, which is a british documentary which follows several women who are undergoing or considering undergoing labiaplasty, or plastic surgery on their labia. I became obsessed with the idea of designer genitals. I think at this stage I got a little lost in the depths of the internet, and then came out with this idea to make a archive of different genitals so people could see what 'normal' genitals looked like. Before this however, I ended up pasting up a HUGE image of my own crotch on the outside of the art school (which created a small controversy and made me feel like a 'real' artist). Although the response to a call out for pictures of people's crotches received a less than overwhelming response, I'm very thankful for the people who gave me their images, which can still be seen at crotchcatalogue.tumblr.com. The catalogue is ongoing and so anyone can submit an image. I hope that someday it will be inundated with images!
Amidst all this I was still experimenting with people's stories and how I could use them. Amongst this clutter I decided to get people to give me stories they wanted turned into songs, and it worked. I think I also realised how much I love performing, and how much I really love music. How much I LOVE MUSIC, but had always been intimidated by it and thought I could never really do it. And that's what I love about art, it enables you to treat everything like an experiment. Life becomes just one big experiment where failure isn't actually real cause you're not sure what success is either!
Pip Stafford, All my world is scaffolding (Installation view)
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: So many. Miranda July - I have a great quote from her that goes something like this:
It is this desire to be transformed by understanding that has pretty much propelled me through every single day
I really relate to this. I just recently read her book It Chooses You, which is a novel which follows her meeting people through the Pennysaver (which is kind of like the trading post but for the USA). This book is a really nice way of showcasing a project like the one she undertook. I think she's a fantastic writer, her collection of short stories, No one Belongs Here More Than You, is also amazing.
Harrell Fletcher – who facilitates user based projects. Harrell Fletcher was my first-love in terms of socially focussed artists. He created a website with Miranda July called Learning To Love You More in which the public were asked to complete small projects which encouraged engagement and creativity.
Stuart Ringholt – works with people and uses incredibly personal elements in his work. I specifically relate to how Ringholt uses his own personal failings, problems or experiences as a means to create projects. He often acts as a facilitator for conversations between people and at the Melbourne prize for Urban Sculpture he spoke to members of the public for the entire exhibition. He has written a frankly honest book on his dealing with hashish induced psychosis. He has most recently been running naked tours of art galleries around Australia.
Jon Rubin – also works with people and tries to make what he wants to see in the world. He has created a take-away food store called the Conflict Kitchen in the US which only sells food from countries that the US is in conflict with. He studied with Harrell Fletcher, and has done a number of other very inspiring projects.
Jonathan Mann – a youtube content generator who writes a song a day, and has been doing so for over 1000 days. I'm particularly motivated by his sheer enthusiasm and dedication to his projects. I also am interested in his idea of creativity and how to make work.
Amanda Palmer - Amanda Palmer is a big influence on me. She seems to live and breath some of the elements I'm exploring in my work. Self-acceptance, expression as an important part of life, admiration for the amateur. I think she's a fantastic role model.
How (if at all) has new technologies and digital communication been involved or affected your work?
LUISA HANSAL: I try to stay away from new technologies when I am making my work. It might be because I’m so terrible with technical things and find it all a bit overwhelming. I love that my practice is an excuse to get me away from computers and digital ‘stuff’. My approach to art making is of an organic nature and I thrive on the tactile qualities and time consuming processes I undergo when making a work. The process was a significant factor for my series of prints currently on show at Hatched, each line and dot I scratched into the printing plate became a private and emotional occasion where I could reflexively engage with the personal issue or theme that was being depicted. This process is very important as it allows me to engage with my work and fully actualize what I am trying to communicate within the artwork. Each tiny line, dot, shape and form are equally as important to the overall composition, in the same way that every emotion and life experience we encounter, all play an equal part in shaping our individual identity.
PIP STAFFORD: I was a kid who grew up as computers and networked technology grew up, I was first connected to the internet at home as a teenager, in the days of geocities and IRC chat. I learned how to use a computer running DOS Shell and I believe this way of communicating has really informed the way I think about networking and system-creation now. I still feel like it’s a bit magical and logging on, now using my iPhone or Macbook Pro and wifi, rather than an IBM and 56k Modem, still invokes a sense of truly being connected for me.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: Initially I started This Is Your Song with handwritten stories. Then I began to widen it by making it an online survey. This meant that I could easily get stories from far and wide, people could pass the project along and eventually I got a substantial number of entries from people I had never met. I have also done two Skype performances, one to a guy in Holland and one to a guy in Brisbane. But now I have website and a youtube channel as I'm attempting to upload a song a week. I've discovered a lot about internet communities and things like twitter, which previously I had been indifferent to.
What is on the cards for the rest of 2012 and beyond?
LUISA HANSAL: A bunch of groovy Western Australian artists, including myself are showing some work in the exhibition Monster at The Oats Factory on June 1st – 22nd. I’ve been working onto calico fabric with inks, watercolours and stamps (something I’ve never done before). I would love it if everyone popped down to check out the work and shared their thoughts.
I was awarded a residency at ECU in the Print making studio, so from early August onwards I will be spending my days in the studio working on a new project. I am super excited to experiment with some different printmaking methods and techniques.
As for beyond…lots more travelling, lots more art making and lots more applications to fill out in hope of getting my own studio space.
Oh and there’s talk of doing a collaboration with my housemate Ashley Ramsey. Ashley is in her last year of a Fine Arts degree at Curtin University and she’s doing some pretty wild things at the moment, think; melting ice paintings, distorted figures, fading memories, poetry and lots and lots of paint and resin! We are both eager to find out what would happen if we combined our contrasting styles, mediums and approach to making work…hopefully something marvelous.
PIP STAFFORD: 2012 has been such an unexpectedly and wonderfully busy year for me. I’m hoping that I can get a good amount of time in my studio, playing and experimenting and also spend some time planning and applying for things for 2013. I have a show coming up at CAST in Hobart, which is a series of 3 events called Establishment which features 3 artist initiated organisations in Tasmania. I’m also the JUMP program co-ordinator at CAST, which keeps me busy and the rent paid.
I’d love to study again sometime in the near future and I have a really exciting event coming up in 2013, also at CAST, which I am organising with Nancy Mauro-Flude which is hopefully going to feature networked artists from all over the world.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD: After the Hatched opening I had to quickly rush back to Melbourne as I was helping coordinate a public art exhibition with students from my university. Since then I've been taking a much needed rest and am now working on setting up a recording studio in my house so that I can make more professional recordings. I'm someone who likes to be able to do things for themselves, and so now engineering music is on my to do list. I'm going to be working on putting a band together to perform music with and doing some gigs. At the moment I'm trying to take it easy on myself, I find it hard to take time out to work out what it is I really want to work towards, so that's what I'm planning on using the rest of my year for.
SARAH JANE HAYWOOD:
You can find more about the This Is Your Song project at thisisyoursong.org
You can watch previous songs, hopefully soon buy the cd and also submit a story yourself to be turned into a song! If you want to talk, chat or be friends contact me on sarahjhaywood[@]gmail.com or follow me @sjhaywood (although I don't really tweet all that much, sorry, I think I only have three to my name!)
Can you tell us a bit about your background, where you grew up and where you studied art?
I grew up in Hawkesbury Upton, the highest village in the Cotswold Hills in South-West England, rich in Roman and Saxon settlements. Not much further afield are areas known for their ancient “land art”; the White Horse, Stonehenge, Avebury Stone Circle and Silbury Hill amongst many others. It is old country and a place bearing the layered histories of a long series of peoples.
Growing up in these surroundings, you become aware of the tides of change which constantly wash over human societies with the passage of time and the influx of new cultures. Living amongst such evidence of change brings home the importance of adaptability to the ever-changing “now”. It has led me to be flexible in my use of styles and media to suit my current concept.
My family were artisans and something of “outsiders” and so I was taught from an early age to be honest and to always strive to achieve one’s best because self belief is vitally important when society as a whole regards you with suspicion. The small, self contained world of the minority has little room for passengers. One needs to be both self-sufficient and beyond suspicion to achieve acceptance beyond the grudging.
I first studied art at Bristol Polytechnic, moving on to achieve a BA (Hons) in Three Dimensional Design, Wood, Metal, Ceramics and Glass at The Metropolitan University of Manchester. My experience during my course at Manchester has been fundamental to my understanding of materials and their properties and potential, leading to a broad ability to bring together apparently contradictory media such as the 3D pieces from my Emotional Tides series made from hand carved marble and fabricated steel.
Following my Degree my art practice evolved into working as a goldsmith during the evenings whilst earning a steady income as a patternmaker in industry. This industrial experience has been invaluable in enabling me to work on numerous projects and concepts simultaneously and to stringent deadlines.
Some years after migrating to Western Australia I enrolled in the Advanced Diploma in Applied Environmental Art and Design at the then Swan TAFE, graduating in 2009. During the course I was privileged to be mentored by such established artists as Peter Dailey, Stuart Elliot, Mary Dunin and others. Both my 2D work and my conceptual skills developed extensively during this period, as a result of the many positive influences.
Tell us a little about the kind of work you make?
I tend to work in series and multiples, conceptually built from my interest in the human psyche; the way we mentally interact with each other and the world around us; our ability to manipulate what our senses receive into information more palatable to our own ideas and logic centres, no matter how far stretched from reality that it may become.
I like to work on multiple concepts simultaneously. I try to achieve a spread of projects with at least one under way which has been fully developed conceptually, requiring only the physical manifestation of the works, balancing this with others where I am not fully in control of the outcomes, letting the concept lead me where it will. Others may spend years or even decades in gestation at a conceptual stage, requiring repeated reformulation. These tend to develop in quantum leaps, usually when I am engaged in other works of a repetitive nature allowing my mind to wander in sometimes unfamiliar territory.
You seem to work in a range of mediums, what is your favourite? And are there any you haven’t tried yet that you would like to?
Emotional Tides, Denise Brown.
My work is not usually about a specific medium and so I don’t have a favourite as such. Having said that, I was recently invited into a show where the concept did derive from the medium and found that working in this way was just as enthralling as my usual approach of picking the medium to fit the concept. It forced me to step out of my comfort zone and pushed me in new directions.
I do have favourite techniques however. I do like to carve. I find the act of carving in any medium relaxing and mediative. I also like to work on a medium to large scale because it is a physically more holistic experience and one can lose oneself in the action of making.
I also thoroughly enjoy the interaction needed to successfully work in oils; the ability to manipulate and play with the material and the variety of application techniques that one can develop. The whole experience is very tactile. Even the smell is intoxicating.
What are you working on at the moment?
I tend to work on half a dozen series at a time which all feed off each other in one way or another, this also allows me to change between mediums and keep interested and focused.
At the moment I am developing several bodies of work. One is all sculptural series for a solo exhibition in July this year at the Heathcote Museum & Gallery in Melville. The concept explores my early experiences as a dyslexic in a world that did not, at the time, widely recognise or acknowledge the condition, and examines the “outsideness” arising from the inability to communicate, whether as a result of a physiological condition (a lack of specific synaptic development) or that arising from cultural and linguistic differences within a migrant society such as Australia.
I am also working on a series of large paintings in oil depicting the figure and representing that figure’s personal history and psychology through the surrounding imagery. I see these works as being a development of portraiture but on a deeper emotional level than mere superficial likeness.
In addition, there is a series of ceramic sculptures concerned with the need for the primitive in the technical age and its manifestations and a further series of sculptures and oil and drawing works concerned with the mind in a state of coma.
Soft Power, Denise Brown.
I love the title Soft Power, can you tell us about the concepts behind that body of work?
The title Soft Power derives from my continuing amazement at the species of soft fungi that happily force their way through the road surface or even through concrete. There is also a fascination, in a similar vein, that water and time and tree roots can dismantle mountains, let alone the strongest man-made structures. Discovering these phenomena was like watching bumble-bees fly when I was a child, an act that seems to be totally contradictory to physical reality. I used the phrase soft-power to describe these subtle but immensely powerful forces to myself. In more recent times I discovered that Soft Power had become a political catchphrase to describe the diplomatic approach to foreign affairs as used by, for example, the Obama administration in dealings with the Middle East, in contrast to the militaristic “solutions” practiced by former leaders that had clearly not worked.
The works in my Soft Power series are designed to evoke contemplation of the potential of soft and slow but persistent and patient force.
You are a superb craftsperson, I’m always in awe at your attention to detail; even the backs of your work are beautiful! And you often hand-craft things that are normally mass manufactured like the dice pieces and custom made boxes to hold your work when it is not being displayed. What is the importance of the handmade to you?
I have pondered this question myself and I think it’s because the core of my work is concerned with either an individual or group of individual minds, so subconsciously I feel that each component needs to be unique in its own small way. Otherwise the essence of the works becomes mechanical and not organic as it should be.
I’ve noticed dice or dice like patterns appear in a lot of your work, what is the significance of these?
To me all life starts and ends with chance. There is so many more possibilities that don’t converge than the one that does, in every moment of every day, that I find the chance or probability of anything ‘being’ intoxicating. Many years ago I read a novel called ‘The Dice Man’ by Luke Rinehart, in which the protagonist gradually delegates more and more responsibility for his decisions to the throw of a die. The idea of someone leading their life by the results of chance, at the time, seemed crazy but it got me thinking about all the chances we take in life without narrowing the probabilities down to just six.
The die itself appeared in my work after a momentous chance decision that I and a friend made. We discussed possible outcomes but we both individually took the same chance and got very different life altering outcomes. This has inspired multiple works depicting dice which will eventually become a series called Die-Sect.
We were talking in your studio recently about the marble and steel sculpture series, Emotional Tides, you told me it was important when you made them that the steel cubes were hollow, even though it wasn’t completely obvious to the viewer. I thought this was interesting because at the time I had imagined they were hollow, perhaps because some appear to be bobbing on the waves. Others are on stilts and I keep thinking of them as little one room houses trying to keep above the water. Those forms also appear in paintings – can you tell me about them and why are they hollow?
The series of paintings, sculptures and drawing that you refer to came directly from personal interaction with a couple of different people. It was only once I had completed half the works that I realized the images were coming from my childhood through my subconscious reaction to recently passed dialogues.
When I was a very young child my mother worked on the land with others of my family and myself and my cousins would spend time in safe areas near them. These areas were often small wooded circles in the centres of large patchworks of ploughed fields, where we kids were safe from the tractors and other farm machinery working nearby. Later, as a teenager, I would play in the local woods and fields with my friends and in the centre of these fields were circles of woods that during the summer months contained the crow-scaring guns. These areas, we were taught, were very dangerous and to be kept well clear of, so we did just that. It wasn’t until I was painting the images in my head that I realized that the safe areas and the crow gun islands were one and the same.
So in answer to your question the stilted boxes represent these islands of safety and danger. They need to be hollow in my mind so that they can perform their roles as protector or predator.
I will also have works in a collaborative show between visual artist and text artists, the art/text/clearinghouse project by Perdita Philips and showing at the Perth Centre for Photography, opening on the 9th of February.
I have been invited into an exhibition by Kate Parker, at Mundaring Arts Centre in April, which is based around the idea of location and how it manifests in ones work.
Last Wednesday I made a Facebook status update, "Last night I dreamed I was dreaming of you...".
The line is from a Tom Waits song, "Watch Her Disappear". That single line has been whirling about my mind, in that way that songs occasionally haunt you with some past truth you couldn't properly articulate.
On Friday, my friend and brilliant artist behind Doublethink Design, Chiara Adams posted on my Facebook wall that she had created an artwork (below) based on my status update. I don't know whether she was familiar with the origin of the line but I was blown away by how eloquently she had expressed it. Like that strange uncanny feeling I was having had just been given it's full voice. Thankyou so much Chiara.
Last night I dreamed I was dreaming of you, Chiara Adams. Graphite and watercolour. 2011.
Intraspecific Competition, Cherish Marrington,
ink on paper, 2011.
Can you tell us a bit about the kind of work you make?
Most of all I like to draw, and specifically make drawings of characters that oftentimes alarm or puzzle even myself. I tend to invent the personality first, and afterwards, the character. Sometimes they are reflections on people that I have seen or met before, otherwise they are totally imaginary. All the while I question their existence, and as I am drawing, I think about their lives. They are definitely real people—only, I have corrupted them in my own manner.
Who are the characters in your work?
Some of them are not my friends, and are the kind of people that are only nice when they want something.
The way I form a character is similar to the methods of traditional animation. I am willing to redraw the same character many times until it has been moulded to my specifications, until I understand this character’s way of thinking, or simply until I have the line work just so. Concerning lines and textures, I can be quite pedantic and in this manner I can also relate to Chinese painting: the importance of mark making and how each manner of mark has its definitive place in an image. A certain line can be a specific expression all on its own—that sort of thing.
I really like the photographs of your people out and about among the grass. Do you leave them for people to discover, or do they come home with you after a photo shoot?
I don’t generally litter, although leaving them for people to discover is quite a romantic idea.
This was simply one of those explorations that began on a whim—I like to play with scale a lot, and to have the viewer question the time and place of something like this. The imagery captured of these little paper dolls getting lost in the grass led to other things and ultimately I made drawings that related to all of this along the way.
This Is Ralph, Cherish Marrington
ink on paper, 2010
How did the animated film Sassy Playmates come about? I really enjoyed them dancing about the familiar urban landscapes of Perth, and I was creeped out too… with a smile, great combination!
An important person to mention is an artist named Matthew Moore. Certainly, working with this dynamic personality is an enriching life experience.
When I discovered that he knew a thing or two about animation I immediately felt compelled to not let these useful skills go to waste. We share the same sort of sense of humour and planning an animation was as amusing as building it together.
This, combined with the music he programmed made a piece that instantly worked for us, and we plan to have more of it this coming year.
Can you talk about oniemy.org? It seems there has been a few collaborations among the artists, Sassy Playmates being one example and Slave Trade another, also there appears to be a fair bit of exhibiting together. How did oniemy come about, and does being a part of this collective have an influence on your individual work?
Again, I can only speak highly of my cohort, Matthew Moore. Back when we were both studying art simultaneously last year, it came to our attention that our fellow hungry art students needed to get their brilliant work online and we wanted to set up a neat little online space for our favourite Perth-based art minions.
As far as collaborations go it is mainly Matthew Moore and I, but there is nothing like doing group shows a few times a year with our friends.
I think that there are some good things to come, as we have studios now! Paper Mountain—get excited.
No One Knows What I am Doing, Cherish Marrington
ink on paper, 2011.
Probably as far back as yesterday, and the day before. Everything else gets outdated and vague quite rapidly.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m planning a show with my favourites: Erin Tily-Laurie, Lance Kershaw Ladu and Matthew Moore. I am wild about their work.
How can people find out more about your work?
I would say do some Googling to find out what’s new—it’s easy to do since there aren’t many other Cherish Marringtons out there. Well, maybe there are but they don’t generally have my name.
Skin, it is that thin line that separates inside from out. Even perhaps, a separation from what is myself from what is not. The functions and processes going on beneath our skin are hidden from view, and rarely thought about day to day. Despite this, the smooth functioning of those organs protected within are what enable us to be. In fact, it is not until we are faced with illness that we become acutely aware of the vulnerability of what's hidden beneath this protective membrane.
Installation view, Skin: an imperfect coat, Naomi Hunter.
Image via The Oats Factory.
Last Friday night I went to the opening of Perth based glass artist, Naomi Hunter's exhibition Skin: an imperfect coat at The Oats Factory. Hunter combines glass, steel, installation and film to form a three part exhibition. In the front part of the gallery is an installation which brings to my mind the clinical examination of the body - under bright light vessels spill red droplets like blood onto stainless steel surfaces, glass organ-like forms sit beneath specimen containers, and some seem to teeter dangerously close to the edge emphasising their vulnerability. This acts for me, like a manifestation of the loss of control felt when faced with illness. When we place our trust in medicine and submit to procedures that can be frightening and humiliating. Yet, like the body and all its imperfection these glass forms Hunter has created are intriguingly beautiful.
Sam (detail), Naomi Hunter, glass, steel and light.
Image via The Oats Factory.
The second part of the gallery is like a transition into an earlier stage of life. It contains larger sculptural works in a darkened space which have an ethereal quality to them. These works incorporate perforated steel with glass ovum-like centers. The glass, a membrane protecting the light emanating from within.
In the third part we step back another stage. An up close
moving image of glass while Hunter works with it is projected onto
the wall. Like promordium this liquid is evolving into form, ever changing and ever in process.
Skin: an imperfect coat runs until the 27th November at The Oats Factory, 69 Oats Street, Carlisle WA, Wed – Sun 12 - 5pm.
I'm back from England and almost back to usual routine. I caught a hideous flu the evening before we left which made the flight home that extra bit longer. Then I was in bed for a week when I got home with larangytis & a chesty cough. I'm almost over it but that cough is hanging on.
I had a wonderful time in England and when I'm feeling a bit better (which will hopefully be soon!) I will share some images and tell you a little about my trip. But for now... I just wanted to let everyone know that the lovely peeps at Artperth.com have posted up a PDF version of my interview with Zoe Barry which is now downloadable.
Also, if you haven't visited Artperth before, I recommend that you do, it is a great place to explore and discover some wonderful Perth talent and find out what's on around the state, so check it out.
Did you grow up in a creative environment?
I was born in Manchester, England in 1952 into a rather large and eccentric family, I being tenth of twelve children. As you can imagine there was never a dull moment, the house was always full of activity and interest. My dad was a welder by trade but drawing was his passion and he was very good at it. He would often draw his workmates in the rest periods.
Drawing by my father, S. J. Wilson.
Money was in short supply but that never stopped us from having a rich and fulfilling life, we just did things a “little” differently…
We always had a plentiful supply of drawing equipment using carpenters pencils and the back of blue prints that dad salvaged from work. It was this kind of resourcefulness and thinking that not only provided our basic needs but also our spiritual and creative ones.
What is your earliest creative memory?
My earliest creative memory was figure drawing in lipstick on my dad’s baldhead while he was sleeping.
My fondest creative memory was the biennial event of redecorating the house. This was always a family affair where we all pitched in to strip the wallpaper. The anticipation would build as the walls beneath started to reveal themselves and squeals of delight and laughter would ring out with each fresh discovery. Growth charts, drawings, poetry and memories were exposed. Once the walls were completely stripped we were given carte blanche to draw whatever and wherever we wanted. Eventually our work was all covered over with fresh wallpaper, hidden from the world, until the next time.
What drives you to do what you do?
I have deep rooted need to create and express ideas, the more I create, the more I need to create – put simply it’s an addiction.
Who/what are some of your creative influences?
A few years ago I started to develop a particular trail of thought that I knew would encompass a way of thinking capable of underpinning my art practice.
At this time it was quite a revelation to discover how much I had in common with the Dada movement’s philosophies and practices. It was in response to this I developed my own philosophy called maMa.
From the performance video What is Art?
“…maMa has not only responded to, but also reacted against some of Dada’s philosophies and practices. In doing so it has adopted those methods that are in keeping with its ideology and practice, such as the use of chance, the arbitrary act, and the meanderings of the mind.
“In reacting to the negative and destructive tendencies of Dada, maMa has tried to address the Dadaists need to shock, exclude and affront. In understanding their brutal approach, it has been possible to build a new model, one which utilises a positive approach that is based on the very act of creativity. In this respect maMa leans more towards the approach of Yoko Ono, whose work is not outwardly aggressive, but nevertheless challenges its audiences by undermining their compliancy. She often turns the viewer into participator in a manner that seemingly relinquishes the artist’s control, but is in fact placing the viewer in a situation where they have to confront their own values and consciences”. (extract from maMa - Honours Thesis, 2005)
Are you self-taught, formally trained or acquired skills from family/ friends?
All of the above.
Any medium you would like to explore that you haven’t done yet?
I am primarily a painter but my work extends far beyond the canvas. I have spent some years ‘painting as performance’ both within the public arena and the gallery context. The effect of this process is transformative. The paintings often become the ephemeral element of the work and the documentation the end product. My work has led me into the fields of painting, drawing, installation, performance, video, printmaking and photography but is not limited to these as each project sets it own parameters.
trans-Pose
live performance at The Kurb, Lorraine Corker and Lorretta Gibbs
Did you always want to be an artist, or did it come later in life?
I always wanted to be creative. It never occurred to me that I could or should be an artist. Going to college was merely a means of acquiring the skills to work in industry. I gained a diploma, but before I had a chance of putting my skills to the test I started a family. Then, just like my parents had done, my resourcefulness and creative skills were employed putting the quality into our lives.
It was some twenty years later when I had the opportunity to enter the art world. I won a prize with my first painting and I went on to have a variety of solo and joint exhibitions in which I made good sales. I was invited to curated exhibitions with well-known and respected artists but still I did not dane to call myself artist.
Eventually I went to university to study fine arts and made a deliberate decision to put behind me everything I thought I already knew. I went out of a limb with every project, daring to push my knowledge and capabilities to the limits, courting failure at every turn. It was through this process that I eventually emerged and began to call myself an artist.
Painting as performance in The Space
What are some of your creative goals?
The work I do invariably generates more ideas and inspiration for future projects than I can handle at any one time. I have therefore decided to reinvestigate those possibilities with a huge degree of enthusiasm. I don’t plan to do any more ‘live’ performance, although I do not rule it out.
from visual diary
What do you like about working in Perth?
I sometimes wonder if I made the right decision to settle in Perth as there seems to be so much more support for the arts out east. But I quickly dispel those notions. I love the lifestyle here and I could, and perhaps should push myself a little more to belong to the wider art community both here and over east.
How do you see the creative scene in Perth? What if anything, do you think would improve it?
I believe there are a wide variety of things to see and do, but they are not necessarily main stream. Enough for me to run myself ragged going to all the art exhibitions, shows and events, (from which I have now taken a back seat). The mainstream theatre and music scene can be quite prohibitive and unfortunately we do miss out on some of the major events. The arts should be so well supported that it would be impossible to go anywhere without having some kind of encounter with the arts. Well, I am allowed to dream aren’t I?
Painting from the trans-Pose performance.
How can people find out more about your work?
I am in the process of building a web site, which should be up and running shortly.
I grew up in Auckland and Sydney to where I emigrated at 19. My family were involved in the Arts and to this day my Dad draws better than just about anyone else I know. I attempted to study Art at RMIT in Melbourne and didn’t have the discipline. I thought Art was what I saw in foreign books about the History of Art so headed out to find it.
I gained an Honours degree in Painting at ECU in 2005. Since then I have been in several shows in Perth, Italy and the US.
Tell us a little about what kind of work you do/ what you make Mostly I have been painting and drawing in oils, acrylics and recently with varnishes and stains. My practice has consistently involved using recycled materials in amongst new materials and often found objects as grounds for pictures. The subject of recent pictures has been an exploration of the effects of decay on Polaroid film and how that can be interpreted in Paint.
What drives you to do what you do? The main drive behind what I do is curiosity and the desire to achieve something I haven’t been able to yet like a dog running around a track with a rabbit on a stick.. Doing one thing then having it raise other possibilities that then logically seem to need investigating.
What is your earliest creative memory? That would be drawing a crayon picture of a patch of strawberries seen from above.
Did you always want to be an artist, or did it come later in life? From growing up around Artists and going to endless openings, the only things that ever really moved me were Art and Music (in the way people are moved by football say), so yes I knew this was the thing to be . It took a while to realize it.
Did you grow up in a creative environment? Yes both my parents were and still are highly creative as were their friends. We were encouraged to do something with ourselves
Who/what are some of your creative influences? My Mother and Father, my aunt Brigid, my former colleagues from ECU, some Modernist Painters like Robert Ryman, Rosalie Gascoigne, Cy Twombly, the list could go for pages. Recently things like torn billboards, and erased signs are influencing my focus.
What do you like about where you live? I love the fact that I am 20 mins drive from the Beach which apart from my studio is my favourite habitat. These days beach trumps Nightclub.
Do you listen to anything while you are working? If so, what? Yes, I enjoy flicking the radio around to suit my mood and playing random CDs of everything from Brian Eno, Electronica, Pop, 70’s funk & early Hip Hop etc to Schumann , Miles Davis and points in between.
Any current shows? I am currently exhibiting new paintings at Kurb Gallery in William Street Northbridge till the 24th December in conjunction with fellow ECU alumni Candy Goldsmith. Openings hours are: Monday 20th, 10am-4pm; Tuesday 21st, 10am-6pm; Wednesday 22nd, 10am-6pm; Thursday 24th, 10am-4pm.
Many thanks to Ben, for agreeing to be the first in the Bear among bees Speaking with... series!
