brisbanedialogues

Jacina Leong

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Brisbane has a paucity of decent spaces to exhibit in so ambitious and motivated artists just graduating from art school are using their domestic residences as independent art spaces. These galleries provide an alternative platform for works and practices that are not always supported by the commercial gallery system. A recent example of the genre is the artist-run initiative Accidentally Annie Street Space (AASS), which operates from the founders’ weatherboard Queenslander home.

This unassuming residence was the venue for Renovare an exhibition curated by Stephen Russell (co-director of AASS). For one-night only the house was cleared of its contents and fitted with the works of four emerging Brisbane artists (including Russell). The idea behind the show was to present site-specific works that experimented with the idiosyncrasies of the space.

On nearing the house from street level one came upon Russell’s Love, which was a kind of shopfront sign that was placed on the roof. It consisted of an illuminated set of letters (L O V E) made from fibreboard. It resembled Robert Indiana’s 1976 pop sculpture of the same name and was based on the style of the equally iconic Hollywood sign. Without the profile of the Hollywood hills to publicise his idea Russell made do by aligning his version with the peak of the home’s (corrugated) roofline. The luminous silhouette of this structure created a striking contrast to the night sky and elicited an awesome and theatrical chiaroscuro-like effect. Given this powerful visual effect, Love also captured the attention of neighbouring residents whose curiosity led them to survey the exhibition.

After negotiating Love one encountered the oneiric video work Slushie by Cait Foran. This video piece was projected into the streetscape from behind an open set of bedroom windows. These windows acted as a variant of the frame and alluded to art’s voyeuristic engagement with its environment. The video showed a hypnotic revolving wheel, which was accompanied by a repetitive soundtrack of a frog’s call. The constant calls of the amphibian enhanced the mesmeric tone of the work and produced a meditative and soporific state that seemed to communicate an escapist message about otherworldly dreams.

A much more direct and robust engagement with the space of this domestic structure was offered by Courtney Coombs’ Canal. This work was made up of a calico sheet that had been strategically positioned to form a passage and ran from the home’s front entrance to the kitchen area. On entering the installation one felt quite physically oppressed by the heat generated by lights at the end of this passage. A slope in the ceiling of the structure did little to alleviate the claustrophobic environment, as to exit one had to progressively stoop towards ground level. It actually resembled the shrinking-room in Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and triggered apprehension and some nervous laughter. As in Love this work evoked a sense of the marvellous and the surreal for one became immersed in an experience that temporarily eliminated a conscious awareness of the domestic context.

Artist Jose V’s piece also attempted to transform the otherwise mundane ambience of a suburban Brisbane house into a highly imaginative zone. To reach this work one had to traverse the rutted, shadowy backyard to find a confining laundry-cum-storage space beneath the home. In this space a cluster of artificial flowers rested languidly on the cement ground. The arrangement revealed an apathetic response by the artist and despite its candy coloured palette, the work was overshadowed by the area’s dank atmosphere and the spectral presence of nearby whitegoods. Unlike the other works, it did not use the ‘marvellous’ to strike a chord in the viewer, and indeed, when the context of the work was discovered it seemed to rely on a rather morbid elaboration of the curatorial theme. (Rumour circulated that the flower’s had been pilfered from local burial grounds). Potentially by operating on the climate of this unsettling space – as well as raising this moral ambiguity – the artist succeeded in addressing the curatorial directive of Renovare with work that had a slightly Gothic undertone and gestured towards the film noir-ish.

Renovare was a meritorious show given the spatial difficulties a Queenslander home can present. At a time when floating and extending are common practice in home renovation, it was quite refreshing to enter a lived-in suburban receptacle that operated as a site of public intrigue and supported a display of works that – rather than compromise its vernacular – sagaciously negotiated the physical structure and domestic quirks of this inner-city home.

Renovare was presented at Accidentally Annie Street Space, Brisbane on January 8 2009. Accidentally Annie Street Space will run its 2011 program off-site.

^{This review was originally published in Eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts, Issue 69, 2009.}

an exhibition developed by Accidentally Annie Street Space to compare and contrast the autonomous practices of Timothy P. Kerr and Erika Scott.

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Jacina Leong I would like to start by discussing the relationship between the respective works presented in Minds and Islands and earlier works made, such as: Early Machines Such as the Commodore 64 Were Tape-Based, and Hence Had Their Games Distributed on Ordinary Cassettes (Timothy P. Kerr) and The Outgoing, either side of land (Erika Scott). I mention these works because of the formal similarities they share with the works presented in Minds and Islands. Erika, the paper-cum-iceberg structure explored in your earlier work was redeveloped for this show, and Tim, your work, an assemblage of cardboard boxes held together with brown packaging tape, also reappears. Did Minds and Islands provide the opportunity for you to reinvestigate what occurred in these original presentations?

Timothy P. Kerr Well, every time I do one of those box works it’s different simply because of the nature of that kind of work. They always relate to and explore the architecture of the space. The process is always slightly different, as well. With Minds and Islands there was a really strong divide that developed between a really messy side on the right and the clean, organized side on the left, which is a new development for that work. Usually, it’s a mess of intensely unorganized areas and then really constructed areas all mixed in together.

JL Erika?

Erika Scott It was originally meant to be a rock, but the paper I used leant itself to (an iceberg type of shape). I think Minds and Islands allowed me to spread out a bit more because I had a lot more paper and a lot more objects to work with. But, it’s still a new thing I’m working with – working with new materials and introducing these elements to the work. Living in the space and knowing the space was a good thing too – I could spend ages on it (the installation). I was pretty familiar with (the space) and wasn’t worried about using anything – it was a pretty different experience to making it from The Outgoing work.

JL Boris Groys proposes that ‘the installation demonstrates a certain selection, a certain chain of choices, a logic of inclusions and exclusions. Here, one can see an analogy to a curated exhibition. But that is precisely the point: here, the selection and the mode of representation is the sovereign prerogative of the artist alone’. I wonder what your own experiences are of these working processes implied here by Groys?¹

ES I guess in my work I’m interested in what the viewer does – I’m interested in creating illusions, upturning space, making it harder to get through and move around (the space) …

JL Some people were a bit apprehensive traveling through your work, unsure if they were allowed to move around the work. Are you conscious of setting up that kind of ambiguity or uncertainty?

ES I think so. I didn’t really monitor people that closely. It’s hard to know what people want to do. I sort of form it around what I’m thinking at the time, how I feel around it and how I want to interact with it. And I suppose I expect other people to do the same, but you never know.

TPK I think with that sort of work it’s in the background of my mind when I’m actually building it. But, the way (the work) protrudes all over a given space forces the viewer to interact with it on some level. Whether they’re conscious of that or not … But within these messes, I do try to build in subtleties so that if (an audience does) spend more time and move around (the space) they’ll get more out of the work and see other things in there. There are cutouts in the boxes that lead to tunnels, for example …

JL Erika, how does the selection of certain materials operate within your practice?

ES Well, I guess there are a lot of things that I don’t use. I started off with the idea of the paper, so the (other) materials I used were in relation to the paper being a clean, white material. From there I was interested in materials under the house like the dusty spider-webs and frame boards – I thought they worked well with the paper.

JL And Tim?

TPK The boxes came about because they were free material and it stemmed from a video work I did with the boxes. The installation was a way of framing the video. I question things around me like, why do people choose to use cardboard boxes instead of plastic ones? Or, why are they box-shaped instead of circular? It would be easier to move around because you could just roll it. So, stupid queries like that that I find really interesting. That’s kind of why I had this interest in the cardboard boxes.

ES Is that where the title comes in?

TPK Yeah, just to throw people a bit. I do use titles and dates to make the works more absurd and in a way to try to get people to think about the work a bit more – rather than just stating the work is made from cardboard and tape. The titles are usually sourced from things around me – like a packet of chips. I’ll use the content from that or the flavors they use. Or, use the barcode like (the title) in this work.

JL What is your interest in assigning impending dates to your works?

TPK Again, for me, the dates add to the mockery aspect of a lot of my work. They work in combination with the titles. I try to date them just slightly into the future so that it almost reads like a misprint – when you work with more formal institutions they often correct the dates. The first time I did the box work, I dated it 2009 and in a lot of the catalogues they changed it to 2008, assuming it was a typo. I guess again it’s a way of playing with the art world and the ways things are usually done within this context. That’s what I find most interesting about the titles and dates – it comes back to a low-fi type of aesthetic that I’m interested in.

JL Erika, how do titles operate in relation to your work?

ES Well, I suppose working with different materials I think about text and image and how these things fit together. I don’t want (my titles) to seem too overly serious … I like the real life versus illusion mix of installations and recreating this tension through the text.

JL Erika, I’m interested in the discrepancies – the thundering expressions compared with the discreet and muted tones – you establish in your work. The theatricality elicited by your use of light, for example, as well as the monumental scale of the paper structures in Minds and Islands offered a stark contrast to the unemphasised elements of the work, like the pocket-sized projection streaming onto a torn piece of paper. What is your interest in creating variance through both presentation and production?

ES For me it’s pretty intentional. In my drawings I have competing areas of interest and I like to experiment with quite intense detail against flat, larger shapes. When you spend a lot of time with it (the installation), you don’t get bored but you just feel like working on an area more and get a bit carried away and get a bit intense with it and other areas you feel more confident and think it is ready to go. So it just depends on how much time I spend with different areas of the work.

TPK I guess it comes down to what we spoke about before – inclusions and exclusions – but also the formal composition of a work. To make an interesting composition I try to find areas that are going to be a lot busier and other areas that are quieter, so that as a viewer it gives you more to look at rather than just a clump.

JL How much does chance or premeditation play a part in your making processes?

ES I don’t go (into a space) thinking about what I’m going to do. But I don’t know whether it’s called chance. I don’t really know what chance is, whether you know you’re doing something or you’re just doing it or someone else is doing it. It’s more about the initial communication with the materials and the space and thinking about what I did that day or what materials are at hand and how they might work together.

TPK It sort of comes down to conscious and unconscious decisions. When you’re setting up a work I think chance does come into it in a way. For me, I start by reacting to a space with the materials and (from there) see if it’s going to work or not. Often I tear down and rework areas. There’s always a chance element there. I don’t really plan what I’m going to do but when you get into a space you start working and whether the work is going to be successful or not comes down to chance, I guess.

JL The essay from your exhibition (the Timothy P. Kerr Memorial Show²) discusses the tendency for viewers of art to establish an intellectual engagement with a work and assign a specific reading to an artist’s practice. Can you explain your interest in the role of the viewer in an exhibition context?

TPK I’ve always found it interesting how people read almost absolutely anything into an artwork and everyone gets something different from a work. I like to play with that. So, constructing these sorts of confusions that people will be able to make up their own mind about – the work will cue to something but won’t completely do that. It will skew off into different tangents. And in a way I think it makes a joke of the viewer in the art world and how art is read. Yes, there are a lot of things that you can read into my work but whether they’re there or not, my intention about making the work is based on a different matter. I like to leave (the work) more open-ended.

JL (Question directed to ES). Olafur Eliasson is interested in luring a spectator through his works into a position of awe and wonder only to interrupt their absorption by disclosing its artifice.  In doing so, the artist invites an individual to intervene in the work and become aware of the mediated experience that they are witness to. What are you thoughts on this type of reflexive construction in terms of your own work?

ES I think even if I do try and pull off the best illusion that I can it will almost always fall short. It’s kind of like watching a movie, you can look back at it and think that was really badly acted … I’m interested in doing that myself. I do try to create that dramatic light, something that is entertaining. But at the same time you can see all the sticky tape. You can see the paper scrunched up and the junk that is pushed up against it.

JL How do you view the documentations of your works? Do they merely serve as some type of record? Or are they an integral aspect of the work?

TPK I think with my work it really is just a way of documenting. Actually being in the space of the work is what I’m mainly aiming for the viewer to see. So the photos are secondary to the work. And that might be because of the different types of elements to the work. It’s hard to get these elements into one photo. It’s the subtleties of these works that I want people to spend more time with. They can do that with a photo but I guess for me it’s about being in the space with the installation.

ES I think the experience of the installation is important but a lot of the time I use photos of previous installations in present installations – so it’s kind of like putting all of these different areas of spaces together. I do actually prefer the photos because they’re more intense – they’re like small intense areas of information. It’s not necessarily that (the photos) are more successful, it’s just … the reality of the installation is not always as magical as the image. Sometimes I prefer the reality. Sometimes I prefer the superficial, flat photograph. It depends what I’m working on and what (materials) I’m using.

TPK And that’s it. A photo can really change the work. It’s always going to change the reading of it. Whether that’s problematic or not …

JL Erika, video and light is used in your work to elicit a sense of dynamism and disrupt the otherwise immobile expression of the installation. What is your interest in this type of contrast?

ES I’m interested in bringing as many spaces into one space as possible – movement is really important (in my works). It pulls you out and creates interest in areas that maybe aren’t so interesting and it’s another way to activate the space and to make the space seem larger than it is or smaller. I can play with projecting still images … It’s another (medium) to work with that I find exciting and challenging to figure out how to work it in with still materials.

JL Tim you mentioned before the importance of dating your works. What is your interest in assigning impending dates to your works?

TPK Again, for me, the dates add to the mockery aspect of a lot of my work. They work in combination with the titles. I try to date them just slightly into the future so that it almost reads like a misprint – when you work with more formal institutions they often correct the dates. The first time I did the box work, I dated it 2009 and in a lot of the catalogues they changed it to 2008, assuming it was a typo. I guess again it’s a way of playing with the art world and the ways things are usually done within. That’s what I find most interesting about the titles and dates – it comes back to a low-fi type of aesthetic that I’m interested in.

JL In terms of the curatorial directive of Minds and Islands, do you think the show was successful in determining the differences and similarities between your practices?

TPK If we did it again, I would like to work more closely with Erika and try to combine the works a bit more to see how that would operate.

ES That might have been a better idea to establish how the practices are different or similar by putting the works together. I think it worked well, though.

Minds and Islands was presented as part of the 2009 Accidentally Annie Street Space Exhibition Program / March 3 2009.

^{1 Boris Groys, Politics of Installation, e-flux Journal, www.e-flux.com/journal/view/31
2 The Timothy P. Kerr Memorial Show was held as part of the 2009 BoxCopy Exhibition Program at Metro Arts, Brisbane.}

Jade Williamson

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Ruth McConchie’s installation The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk is enveloped by the dark, painted walls of Metro Arts’ second gallery space. Light emitted by a series of reading lamps permeates this dimness, their golden glow revealing a complex and curious arrangement of mundane objects. Swollen ballpoint pens are wedged upright in the cracks between the gallery’s wooden floorboards. Two rectangular light boxes also share this space and bleach any objects within range of their fluorescent radiance; reflective metal bowls, resting on one light box, appear shapeless in its white light. The purity of this light contrasts with the griminess of the bath tubs positioned alongside. Soap scum and dirt stain the tubs, which show signs of rust. Triangular forms are also repeated throughout the arrangement. Oblique fabric pyramids stand erect on a secondary light box. Architectural drawing boards cut into trilateral forms are adjusted to varying heights and black Velcro tape erratically zigzags its way through the space. The central motif of the installation is a suspended network of timber laths that have been screwed together to form an irregular design that appears to defy gravity. This illusion contrasts with the electrical cords and tape visible elsewhere in the space, which permit the viewer to realise the technical workings of the installation.

The artist suggests that the work experiments with the potential of the installation to immerse or dissolve the viewer in its complex order¹. Jean Baudrillard wrote ‘the pure object, devoid of any function or completely abstracted from its use, takes on a strictly subjective status: it becomes part of a collection’². Certainly, the objects assembled by McConchie have been abstracted from their function. The now ‘pure’ objects together form a system, a constructed totality that is removed from the external world. Within this system, each object refers to the other only inasmuch as they refer to the underlying artistic schema of the collection. This produces an equalising effect where each element is valid and necessary.

An interesting tension in the work is generated from the apparent impossibility to define what binds these objects together. The nonsensical title of the work reflects this difficulty. The arrangement appears to be irrational and exist in a state of inherent disorder, yet meticulously planned, as if a defined process or set of criteria underpinned its creation. The work challenges the viewer by not (quite) allowing them to take refuge in an identifiable synchronicity. As the viewer searches for underlying rhythms or sequences within the work, and begins to identify meaningful relations between various parts of the work, they swiftly diffract. The work remains elusive and unclassifiable. This prevents the viewer from classifying and ‘making sense’ of what they see in ordinary terms and renders the work indefinable.

The proposition that the installation explores the potential to immerse or dissolve the viewer presents an interesting quandary. It seems that McConchie’s experimental work both immerses and dissolves the viewer. But how can these two conflicting possibilities both exist? The viewer is dissolved by the work because they exist outside of the collection. For the objects to be ‘pure’ and freed from their functional constraints, they must exist outside of the world of the viewer. Yet, for the viewer to perceive the subjective status of the object, they are automatically subsumed within the complex order of the collection. To perceive the objects as abstracted from their function the viewer must do so within the bounds, or rules, of the collection. Accordingly, the viewer is immersed by the work because by definition the installation is a comprehensive totality. As this paradox unfolds, it becomes apparent that these two notions interconnect to the extent that they both cannot be true, and yet they both cannot be false. Similar to opposing terms like ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect’, both propositions must exist for either one to be possible.

The howl of a big hot jug of General-Purpose Milk was presented at Metro Arts, Brisbane / August 22 – September 5 2009

Jade Williamson lives in Brisbane after recently returning from studying her final semester of Art History in the UK. She is currently working as a Curatorial Assistant at the Ipswich Art Gallery.

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^{1 What’s on @ Metro Arts, www.metroarts.com.au (accessed August 2009)}

^{2 Jean Baudrillard, 2005, The System of Objects, Verso: London and New York, p.92}

Curated by Dani Woolbank for Accidentally Annie Street Space, POW showcased a motley collection of performance-based works that materialized at different times and within different areas of this residential-cum-gallery space. What follows is an unedited conversation, held on MSN Messenger, on Monday 8 June 2009, between members of the Brisbane collaborative group The Crash Crew about their contribution to the exhibition.

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Kristine says: (11:07:17 AM) hi, how are you?

rohan says: (11:07:44 AM) hello, ok.

rohan says: (11:07:48 AM) how about you?

Kristine says: (11:08:06 AM) good.

rohan says: (11:08:25 AM) i had two shows this weekend and it was really exhausting

Kristine says: (11:09:01 AM) great! That must be a bit exhausting i´m sure. Was it with your band?.

rohan says: (11:09:21 AM) saturday was with my band and sunday was solo

Kristine says: (11:09:46 AM) nice, was it somewhere in brisbane.

rohan says: (11:10:50 AM) saturday was in mitchelton in an abandoned police safe house. it had been squatted in 5 or 6 months ago and they left all their belongs so we made a fort out of a strangers clothing and played in their room with their bed and tv and stuff

Kristine says: (11:11:50 AM) sounds great, was it called the squat show or something like that?.

rohan says: (11:12:14 AM) yeah, northside squat

Kristine says: (11:12:55 AM) do you think the former squatters knew there was a concert there?.

rohan says: (11:13:59 AM) no. the last news paper was from october last year and it didn’t look like anyone went in. we left the fort up though and we’re going to go back in 3 months and hopefully it’ll still be up

Kristine says: (11:15:11 AM) hehe, would be funny if the squatters came back and found the fort you made.

rohan says: (11:15:52 AM) yeah, I hope they won’t be angry cause it’s all their clothing. but some of it was blood stained and stuff so we washed it, maybe we did them a favour.

David has been added to the conversation.

Kristine says: (11:16:20 AM) do you know why they had left?

Kristine says: (11:16:25 AM) hi david!

David says: (11:16:32 AM) hi!.

rohan says: (11:16:42 AM) hello

David says: (11:16:50 AM) hi.

rohan says: (11:17:15 AM) not sure why, they had all the winning lottery numbers from 2007, maybe they struck lucky?

Kristine says: (11:17:53 AM) hehe

David has left the conversation.

rohan says: (11:20:33 AM) I haven’t done any sculptures this week, but I’ve been thinking about pegs and plates and cups and stuff. maybe adding a sound element to the kinetic sculpture

rohan says: (11:22:22 AM) has david left?

Kristine says: (11:22:47 AM) maybe there´s something wrong with his computer.

David has been added to the conversation.

David says: (11:25:29 AM) had to change computer. at an internet cafe. back now.

rohan says: (11:26:26 AM) that’s ok. I just told kristine, I haven’t done any work on sculptures but was thinking about pegs, plates and glasses. Myabe adding sounds to the sculpture(s)

David says: (11:27:12 AM) by playing the objects?.

rohan says: (11:28:06 AM) having bits (like pegs) that after a while fall on objects (like plates or glasses) on the sculpture and over time putting the pegs back up. so they fall again. thinking of other elements as well

David says: (11:28:42 AM) quiet sounds?.

rohan says: (11:29:17 AM) maybe. it depends how far the pegs fall. no louder than a restraunt

Kristine says: (11:29:32 AM) like everyday sounds?.

rohan says: (11:30:19 AM) could put instruments underneath but I was thinking household objects to stay in theme.

David says: (11:31:35 AM) i did some crappy video experiments… maybe i’ll upload them now

David says: (11:32:30 AM) i did one with an instrument and some household objects

Kristine says: (11:32:30 AM) did some things with my family yesterday aswell

Kristine says: (11:33:06 AM) ok, can you upload them at the cafe?

David says: (11:33:16 AM) yep will start

David says: (11:58:50 AM) just watched your youtube videos…. the guy sleeping at the piano was funny

David says: (12:10:54 PM) sent you a word document on hotmail with pictures in

Kristine says: (12:13:52 PM) ok.

rohan says: (12:16:55 PM) i especially love the last page, bubbles and fan/balancing game next to the sink

David says: (12:17:30 PM) kind of a crappy balancing game….

rohan says: (12:18:11 PM) i really like it, that’s the sort of thing I’ve been thinking of, except the things are meant to fall, it’s just how long they will last

David says: (12:22:09 PM) gravity?

David says: (12:22:40 PM) are you interested in gravity?.

rohan says: (12:23:34 PM) sorry, my brother needed to grab something. yes,

rohan says: (12:24:15 PM) it’s a bit like ross or joel¹ or any sound “scultors” but i don’t want to use electronics.

rohan says: (12:24:22 PM) like fans and stuff

David says: (12:24:50 PM) something i really liked about Kristine’s dad falling asleep on the piano, is that it seems to be exploring gravity….

rohan says: (12:25:32 PM) I haven’t seen the video yet. will check it later, when it won’t be disturbed.

David says: (12:26:33 PM) perhaps it would be funny, if we were slumped around the place on top of things… exploring gravity, like kristines dad?

Kristine says: (12:26:35 PM) i think the guitar and the ideas of patting a pillow for a long time

Kristine says: (12:26:48 PM) is nice

David says: (12:27:18 PM) walking around with the guitar?

Kristine says: (12:27:44 PM) the decorated guitar

Kristine says: (12:27:51 PM) but also walking around

Kristine says: (12:28:13 PM) like you are home alone practising.

rohan says: (12:28:20 PM) prepared guitar is big in the music world.

rohan says: (12:28:24 PM) sticking stuff in the strings

Kristine says: (12:29:43 PM) a bit of freejazz in the living room

David says: (12:30:44 PM) e.g. lying on the couch with the guitar on the floor, plucking one string, while watching tv.

rohan says: (12:31:56 PM) my friend used to play through movies when we watched with him. really annoying.

rohan says: (12:32:54 PM) do you want to be playing music for the performance?

David says: (12:33:30 PM) so, what kind of performance would it be? One action repeated for an hour? such as patting a pillow?.

rohan says: (12:33:55 PM) balancing game when something falls put it back on.

rohan says: (12:33:56 PM) ??

Kristine says: (12:34:22 PM) you can balance several domestic objects perhaps

Kristine says: (12:34:34 PM) like the dish between legs

Kristine says: (12:34:45 PM) a bit like 1 min sculptures

Kristine says: (12:35:10 PM) and maybe also have a couch there…?

David says: (12:35:24 PM) couch is a nice prop

David says: (12:35:43 PM) so, the sound would be sometihgn that you didn’t try for, it just happens when objects fall?

Kristine says: (12:35:48 PM) maybe you can have breaks sitting on the couch.

Kristine says: (12:36:16 PM) yeah, maybe when you can´t balance it anymore, just let it fall.

rohan says: (12:36:17 PM) sorry, “he sound would be sometihgn that you didn’t try for, it just happens when objects fall?” yeah.

rohan says: (12:37:24 PM) sorry, instrument/object balancing

Kristine says: (12:38:18 PM) maybe you could both bring things from your homes to annie st, and it would be a bit like the 2 of you are moving in together

rohan says: (12:39:05 PM) cool. that would be funny if the performance starts with us bringing in personal items

David says: (12:39:09 PM) yeah that’s a nice idea, moving in together.

Kristine says: (12:39:45 PM) and you are balancing things to sort things out

David says: (12:40:51 PM) would it be funny to have an actual see-saw. in the middle of the loungeroom? to balance on either side?.

Kristine says: (12:41:03 PM) yep, maybe the performance could start with you guys coming with a removal van.

rohan says: (12:41:13 PM) maybe use a ironing board?.

rohan says: (12:41:17 PM) as the see saw

Kristine says: (12:41:36 PM) carrying the couch in through the door, unpacking cardboard boxes

David says: (12:42:03 PM) moving in might take the full hour…?.

rohan says: (12:42:07 PM) hehehe, should we tell them before hand or surpirse them. maybe they’d try and stop us hehe

Kristine says: (12:42:08 PM) see saw is nice

Kristine says: (12:42:27 PM) can make a simple one out of a plank of wood and a box

David says: (12:42:37 PM) perhaps could roll things down the see saw to each other… to create noise with wood?

David says: (12:42:56 PM) yeah or an iron barrel

David says: (12:44:47 PM) would be fun to make a seesaw

Kristine says: (12:45:03 PM) yep, could be nice i think

Kristine says: (12:45:36 PM) would you then put your objects on either side of it

Kristine says: (12:45:54 PM) one rohan side and one david side?

David says: (12:46:07 PM) yeah, i think we should have sides….

rohan says: (12:46:14 PM) ok

David says: (12:46:43 PM) like when people draw a line down the middle of the house

Kristine says: (12:46:50 PM) and then try to even out the weight?

David says: (12:47:12 PM) perhaps we would sit on it too?

Kristine says: (12:52:17 PM) is the see saw to illustrative?

David says: (12:53:07 PM) i think it’s interesting using a symbol

David says: (12:53:23 PM) like in a lot of group bonding sessions, they try to pick a symbol….

rohan says: (12:53:34 PM) it might be to illustrative…

David says: (12:53:37 PM) that stands for the whole group, or activity

Kristine says: (12:54:24 PM) it is nice to use “common” symbols that everybody knows about sometimes, it´s true.

Kristine says: (12:55:40 PM) but the balancing againts a wall and other objects is also nice, and also has a lot of symbolism in it, but it´s not as straight forward.

rohan says: (12:56:04 PM) i prefer the balance to the wall over the see saw

Kristine says: (12:58:15 PM) maybe if you balanced things to the wall, floor etc., it would be more an interaction between you guys and the objects. You are working/ collaborating more with them

Kristine says: (1:00:40 PM) but if you worked with the see saw it would be more of a clear task of what you are trying to do. It could be more interesting to watch somehow. Or we can try to make the balancing to the wall a more “clear” task

David says: (1:00:59 PM) i agree that we should have a clear task….

rohan says: (1:01:11 PM) maybe we can collaborate on the balancing ktichen one?

Kristine says: (1:01:20 PM) yep, it could look a bit aimless

David says: (1:01:37 PM) i found it difficult to do that with the wall, because i ran out of ideas. and it’s kind of difficult too

David says: (1:02:21 PM) i think a see saw is comedy in itself. Would look so funny in the middle of the loungeroom!

Kristine says: (1:02:22 PM) maybe you can have a set of objects that you are meant to (together) get to all lean against the wall at the same time

Kristine says: (1:03:21 PM) but then it´s almost enough as an object itself.

Kristine says: (1:03:47 PM) I guess it could be standing there, and the people there could use it

David says: (1:03:48 PM) maybe we could just leave it there for people to use?

Kristine says: (1:04:08 PM) hehe

David says: (1:04:23 PM) great minds…

rohan says: (1:05:29 PM) so you want a narrative arc?

David says: (1:06:11 PM) no, not a narrative…

David says: (1:06:18 PM) maybe opposite of a narrative

rohan says: (1:06:53 PM) something that exists for an hour which can be enjoyed at any point the person starts watching?

David says: (1:07:12 PM) yeah, i guess. something that doesn’t have a start or finish

Kristine says: (1:10:02 PM) yep, i guess you have to be able to walk into it at any time

Kristine says: (1:10:20 PM) the see saw could be nice

David says: (1:11:29 PM) maybe it would depend what we did with the see saw?.

rohan says: (1:12:16 PM) try and make it level?

Kristine says: (1:12:27 PM) maybe try and balance each other out, but with as many objects as possible. Let it stand even in the end

David says: (1:12:48 PM) tht’s a really nice balancing game… trying to make it level…. could be done in a number of ways

Kristine says: (1:13:39 PM) and it´s a work where people can come and go, follow the process during the evening

Kristine says: (1:14:13 PM) maybe sometimes it would fall over, making a loud sound

David says: (1:14:28 PM) maybe the plank is a bit precarious on the axis?

David says: (1:24:52 PM) so would we still have a couch?

Kristine says: (1:25:03 PM) maybe not then

Kristine says: (1:25:17 PM) allthough the couch idea was nice too

David says: (1:25:36 PM) but we would still bring in our possessions?

Kristine says: (1:26:09 PM) i think it would be nice if it was your things

Kristine says: (1:26:46 PM) can you think of any domestic object that could have a similar function as a see saw?.

rohan says: (1:27:04 PM) the old time scales ??

David says: (1:27:26 PM) yeah, butter scales…. back to making a cake!

Kristine says: (1:27:31 PM) a broken table

David says: (1:28:37 PM) like a big prop?

David says: (1:29:18 PM) michael hill used to have a door on top of two trestles as his table

Kristine says: (1:32:16 PM) a long kitchen bench or table

Kristine says: (1:32:47 PM) a piece of a wall (planks of wood nailed togehter)

David says: (1:32:47 PM) what would you put as the middle bit that it swings on?

David says: (1:33:06 PM) we could perhaps raid a demolished house?

Kristine says: (1:33:22 PM) maybe that squat rohan?.

rohan says: (1:34:27 PM) yeah, there’re planks out back. that’s quite nasty being big and heavy and splinters, but we could get a plank pretty easily (probably have one at home)

David says: (1:34:50 PM) has that place been demolished yet, or partly?.

rohan says: (1:35:06 PM) the place next door is going to be demolished.

rohan says: (1:35:29 PM) the squat has no apparent plans/use

David says: (1:35:56 PM) is it in michelton?.

rohan says: (1:36:18 PM) yeah. next to the station. I guess we could find a plank in auchenflower just as easily

David says: (1:51:17 PM) how would you describe the task in 20 words or less?

Kristine says: (1:52:18 PM) Try together with one other person to place all your belongings on an balancing plank of wood.

Kristine says: (1:53:10 PM) something like that…

Kristine says: (1:58:21 PM) what should we call it?

Kristine says: (1:58:25 PM) title

David says: (1:59:17 PM) Try together with one other person to place all your belongings on an balancing plank of wood (?)
Kristine says: (1:59:50 PM) o, nice

Kristine says: (2:00:32 PM) maybe try with your housemate to place….²

David says: (2:01:00 PM) yep

David says: (2:01:38 PM) do you think that it would create sounds that you would like rohan?

rohan says: (2:02:04 PM) not really. been trying to think. might have to try harder but currently no.

David says: (2:06:56 PM) could there be possessions that make noise rohan? such as a radio?

rohan says: (2:07:40 PM) i guess so. i was thinking more subtle like in a house (though they have radio’s on in a house)

Kristine says: (2:11:29 PM) you could try and place objects rhythmically

David says: (2:16:15 PM) maybe as things got precarious they would fall and make a noise.

rohan says: (2:16:28 PM) yeah it’s likely..

Kristine says: (2:18:07 PM) maybe you should just finish when you feel like the work is done

David says: (2:18:38 PM) we don’t have to put all our possessions on?

Kristine says: (2:19:22 PM) no, maybe just when you feel that it is balanced out…allthogh the title suggest that you should put them all on

David says: (2:19:51 PM) hopefully we could walk away and it would stay balanced….

David says: (2:20:34 PM) people might steal our cd’s….

The Crash Crew consists of Rohan Bridge, David Creed and Kristine Dragland. The collaborative group make three-dimensional, video and sound works. The three artists in the group have a common interest in the poetics of everyday objects and symbols. Through a process based working method, they draw their ideas from their daily lives. The group likes to intervene and create atmospheric works that are humorous, absurd and political.

The Crash Crew have previously exhibited at 23 degrees at Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Shared Sounds, a public art project in Bundaberg, Object, Attack!! at Metro Arts Gallery, Everything Must Go at Raw Space Gallery, and many more.

POW was presented as part of the 2009 exhibition program at Accidentally Annie Street Space, Brisbane / June 19

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^{1 Ross Manning and Joel Stern.
2 The title settled on by The Crash Crew was Place all your personal belongings on the end of a balancing plank of wood with your share mate.}

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Jacina Leong  Art writer and curator, Rosemary Forde, indicates that the driving force behind the establishment of un magazine was to address an imbalance that (founder) Lily Hibberd recognised between a proliferation of artist-run spaces in Melbourne and the lack of critical response about works and practices operating within these structures and outside of existing institutional or commercial gallery systems¹. I wonder whether there are any similarities between the impetus outlined by Forde and your own involvement with the co-development and management of the publication Local Art ². Was the function of Local Art to redress an absence of critical dialogue or debate about visual culture in Brisbane at the time?

Grant Stevens  I think the situation in Melbourne was a bit different to Brisbane.  Like you’re saying, in Melbourne there was a whole network of artist-run galleries, but no specific framework for formalising the critical debates they were generating.  So Lily started un as a way to harness, disseminate, and in turn, further stimulate those debates.  In Brisbane, there were just a couple of artist-run spaces.  Generally, the art scene was concentrated on the major institutions (the IMA (Institute of Modern Art), QAG (Queensland Art Gallery), MoB (Museum of Brisbane), and the university museums).  And these galleries had in-house publications and/or were being reviewed in the major art magazines (Eyeline, Art & Australia, etc).  This is all quite normal of course, but we didn’t just want to visit exhibitions and read magazines – we wanted to actively participate in what was going on.  We felt like there was a bunch of artists making interesting work that weren’t being accounted for – and if we wanted to engage with this work we had to generate the forums ourselves.  This is why we ran Local Art at the same time as the gallery space at The Farm.  They were both about creating opportunities to present the work and ideas of the people around us.  (Hopefully they don’t mind me speaking for them, but I should mention that my co-editors on Local Art were Dirk Yates, Sally Brand and Natalya Hughes, and it was Dirk and I that ran The Farm).

JL  If art magazines are a sign of their times in terms of providing an archive of a particular moment in thinking about art, what were the critical issues affecting the production and presentation of contemporary art in Brisbane during the circulation of Local Art?

GS  I wouldn’t say that there was any one thing that bound art practices in Brisbane at that time, but I guess there were some common threads.  It’s probably my own biases, but I was excited about artists who were really pushing their practices and engaging with the more difficult aspects of contemporary art.  Whether it was Chris Howlett converting The Farm into a cardboard cave for his political posters, watercolours and videos, or Peter Alwast mixing different representational systems into his paintings and installations, or Jemima Wyman using video and performance to play with the discursive interfaces of gender and the body, the most interesting work seemed, at least to me, to be grappling with and reconfiguring dominant forms of representation – and in ways that challenged my expectations and assumptions about what art should be like.

As you know, running a magazine is partly about reflecting on what’s going on, and partly about trying to focus your readers’ attention towards the things you’re interested in.  We consciously tried to direct the content of Local Art (which is not to say that we wanted to direct writers’ opinions!) towards art and writing that was critically engaged; perhaps more experimental, more challenging and/or more oblique than what was happening elsewhere around town.  If you look through copies of the magazine now, it does seem to focus on video, performance, and installation practices, as well as issues around Australian and Indigenous art.  This is mostly because that’s what our peers were making and writing about, but it’s also because these practices and debates seemed a bit left out of what was happening elsewhere.  It’s also for these reasons that the magazine didn’t just review art exhibitions.  We published film and performance reviews, interviews, artist-pages, artists’ writings, etc. because it’s what we, and our peers, thought was interesting and important at that time.

JL  Do you think that these issues are currently evident within Brisbane’s visual culture or has focus shifted towards other concerns?

GS  I’m not sure.  The dynamics of Brisbane have definitely changed over the last couple of years (with GOMA (Galley of Modern Art) and Tony Ellwood, Robert Leonard at the IMA, Nick Mitzevich at the renovated UQAM (University of Queensland Art Museum).  The work being shown in Brisbane has shifted, and if I had to generalize, I’d say overall it’s probably changed for the better.  But I think it’s important for you guys – for emerging artists, recent graduates, students – to decide what’s important and to actively practice and pursue your agendas.

JL  It would be interesting to hear more about your association with the artist-run space The Farm ³.  There is an increasing tendency in Brisbane for emerging artists to establish an alternative platform for works and practices that are not always readily supported by the commercial gallery system.  This DIY approach is also prompted by a lack of affordable spaces to charter as a gallery.  Did The Farm share similar motives in terms of its objectives as well as the reasons behind its establishment?

GS  Like I was saying earlier, The Farm came about because Dirk and I could see a range of artists – recent graduates, our classmates – that were making really interesting work with nowhere to show it.  There were some rental spaces around at that time, but they seemed too expensive and therefore restrictive.  We wanted to have a space that was free for the artists – primarily to decrease the financial burden on the artists, but also to give us some control over who we worked with.  We were so committed to making it free that it took us over a year to find a space.  Eventually we came across that place on George St (Brisbane) where we could live (so Dirk and I paid the rent) and therefore accommodate a free gallery.

JL  Louise Martin-Chew lists The Farm alongside other less formal exhibition or artist-run spaces, such as Shop 49B, Satellite Space, Someone Else’s Studio and Smith and Stoneley⁴.  These spaces (including The Farm) are now inoperative.  I wonder what factors might have contributed to this end result?  Does this type of model (one that does not necessarily mimic the structure of institutional or commercial spaces or generate financial profit through the commission of artworks and artist fees) run the risk of cutting short any long-term prospects because of these factors?

GS  Shop 49B, Satellite Space and Smith and Stoneley were all around when we went through undergrad.  I wouldn’t say that they were more or less formal than what we did – each had quite a distinct operational model, and they all served as different examples for us to consider when we were setting up The Farm.  Our “business model” was determined by our desire for a free space, and like I was saying, we made this happen by living there and paying the rent.  This isn’t always possible – each location has its own potentials and limitations, and each set of gallery directors have their own agendas, desires, requirements.  And so each ARI (artist run initiative) necessarily has a different model.  There are examples of ARIs that have continued over a long period of time and/or morphed into commercial galleries or institutions, but again, each one has a different working model – and of course, they all have their pros and cons.  We wanted to run a focussed program that was free for artists – and we knew from the start that it wasn’t the kind of thing that would go on forever.  I don’t think it’s a problem for spaces to open and close periodically.  Actually, I think it would be ideal if we had artist-run spaces continually popping up every six months, running for a couple of years and then moving on.  It’d be a pretty dynamic environment to make and show work in.

Grant Stevens is an Australian artist currently based between Los Angeles and Australia.  He has held numerous solo shows in Australia, as well as in Berlin, Rome, Auckland and Utah.  His work has been exhibited in many group-shows including at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Queensland Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria as well as in Singapore, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Serbia.  Between 2002 and 2004 he was involved in the artist-run space The Farm and the publication Local Art.  Grant received his PhD in fine art from the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, in 2007.  He is represented by Gallery Barry Keldoulis in Sydney.

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^{1 Forde, R. 2007. Crisis What Crisis? Independent Publishing on Contemporary Art in Melbourne. Broadsheet: Contemporary Visual Arts and Culture 36 (1): 69 – 70.
2 Local Art operated from March 2003 to December 2004.
3 The Farm operated from September 2002 to December 2004.
4 Martin-Chew, L. 2003. The Artists. Artlink 23 (2): 56 – 59.}