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Art on the line
Hello! Art on the line has its own page on this site now.
Feel free to let others know about it.
If you've got any suggestions to make, let me know it.
Almost all the postings below are by the untiring art historian Katherine Knight.
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- Artists forums kick off for 2008
Posted: 12th February 2008
Photo: Billy Burke
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Burn
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“Beginning without thought” is an attempt by artist Billy Burke to explain the foundation of his work practice. Billy will be a presenter at the first 2008 Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, February 16, at 4pm. He is likely to be joined by other artist friends in presenting work.
“My work and its construction is about the culmination of physicality, randomness, manipulation and emotional discharge into a piece of 'abstract' art,” Billy says. “The idea of creating a foundation dwelling in automatic or unthought (even 'dethought' if that is passable) gestures of highly physical nature is derived from things explored in dada and expressionist abstraction.
“The idea of a mark drawn from no real preposed place as a foundation creates a shaky but subsequently unique base for a work which then dwells on manipulation and layering of colour to achieve its ends. So a charcoal or paint frame is developed with mood derived painterly modes,” he says.
Billy will discuss influences in his works and the materials he uses in their realisation. “For me my art is about sensory discourse, whether deprived or overloaded or anything in between, and how some sort of understanding can be obtained as a result,” he says.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks, upstairs at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, February 16, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
- Riding the waves of an artist’s career
Posted: 27th November 2007
Photo: Maria Ionico
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Self portrait
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Maria Ionico and Leah Harris discussed their art at the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, November 17. Maria Ionico’s surname reflects the mystery of her father’s birth, she said. He was found on the shores of the Ionian Sea during WW II. The mystery of his Italian birth, his adult work as a tiler and his quest for identity as he moved his family to and fro between Italy and Australia, have had a profound impact on Maria’s life and her professional development as an artist.
She completed a degree in Fine Arts at Sydney College of Fine Arts in 1993 before completing her Master of Art at the same institution. She exhibited in artist run spaces, and won numerous awards and scholarships including one from the Italian Government and the Helen Lempriere, which took her to Italy. The imagery and symbols she uses in her work are very personal in meaning. Maria became fascinated by the pagan/Catholic tradition of healing through the use of life size wax models of affected body parts and began using wax in her work to heal feelings of dislocation – her sense that she was neither Italian nor Australian. Hence her interest in the concept of the 'Non-Place'.
Photo: Maria Ionico
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Maria Ionico’s experimentations with traditional patterns in wax.
The addition of flock is seen on the right.
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Wallpaper, tiles, gates – the patterns of anything architectural began to influence her work in wax – followed by explorations of flock wallpaper, lighting and light boxes. Wax melts in the warmth of light and she wants her work to be really sensual and beautiful. Maria’s experimentation is endless. She creates tiles from wax, prints onto wax and explored layering of wax in a Blake Prize entry in 1999. She has developed a technique where she can apply the soft furry surface of flock in patterns into wax. Maria is also interested in the likeness between wallpaper and paintings, she feels that the only thing that separates them is the artist's hand.
She says she rode a wave of success in 1998 and 1999, with awards and scholarships, including the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, an Australia Council studio residency in Milan and an Italian advanced course in visual arts at the Church of San Francisco on Lake Como with renowned New York artist Haim Steinbach. Since then, she has continued to research and explore her art's practice and taken time out for her young family.
Photo: Maria Ionico
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Photo: Maria Ionico
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Nairnflock Luxury Vinyl
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Nonplaces – Maria Ionico with Paul Lonie
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But despite her awards and recognition, Maria admits to being a little frightened to exhibit on her own and feels that this has impacted on her ability to turn her art into a commercial success. Nonetheless, her imagination and her hands are constantly at work and she is approaching 2008 with a view to riding the wave again. At Parramatta Artists Studios, she is currently moving into 3D works with wax and flock and exploring the idea of non-places. With her husband Paul, she has created a Perspex city and used materials like invisible ink and 3D animation over high rise buildings.
Leah Harris has been drawing and painting since childhood, but her interest in animals led to qualification as an agricultural scientist and work as an aquarium manager. She has always been interested in detail, snippets of life, which her scientific interests have taught her to observe with care. Her work can be intensely personal, even in painting the curve of her own back on one occasion, massaging the paint with her fingers, instead of using a brush.
Feedback for Leah was immediate. Her work was compared to the work of current leading artist Del Kathryn Barton, who makes very subtle use of colour and also to Margaret Woodward, who blends her drawings with colour. Maria Ionico advised against degree and diploma courses, but urged the establishment of links with other artists, exposure to ideas, techniques and advice – allowing Leah to adapt and use them in ways unique to her own expression and needs.
Photo: Fida Haq
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Leah responds to forum discussion
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While Leah continues to draw and paint, has sold some work and been commissioned by friends to design the cover for a CD, she puzzles about whether to take an art course. Some of her recent work has been in colour, but she tends to use only a limited palette. As her audience noted, even her paintings are like drawing with a brush.
Maria urged Leah to establish links with Parramatta Artists Studios, to read a lot – especially on line, participate in exhibitions in artist run spaces, enter competitions, take short courses and attend summer schools. With an appreciative laugh she described the studio coordinator Michael Dagostino as “our pimp”. “He looks out for us and brings us work.” You need to be tenacious and look for an agent or a gallery, Maria said.
In response, Leah, who successfully manages a large business and trains sales staff, was able to offer Maria practical advice about promoting and selling her work. “Instead of seeing yourself as trying to get something out of a potential client, see yourself as offering them a service.”
Dates for monthly forums next year are currently being negotiated with Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturdays, from 4pm – 6pm. Several artists have expressed interest in presenting and more are welcome. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
Photo: Leah Harris
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Photo: Leah Harris
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Back in frame
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Green Leaf
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Thanks to contributions at the forum and an accumulated balance we were able to pay the full fee of $50 for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café. There is now a surplus of $14.50 towards the fees next year. Many thanks.
A correction from last month’s report – Deb Walker was researching a short piece on the Impressionist artist Sophie Steffanoni (1873 – 1906), not working on a project on pioneer women for Parramatta Heritage Centre. An exhibition on the art and life of Sophie Steffanoni is now on show at Parramatta Heritage Centre, 346A Church St, Parramatta, until February 3, 2008.
News updates
- Harris Park Art Gallery is a new community enterprise run in conjunction with an internet café at Level 1, 59 Marion Street, Harris Park 2150, phone 9687 2142. Call in and make contact with organisers and have a look at the latest issue of their community newspaper Harris Park Journo – a terrific achievement.
- Swastik Institute of Dance – contact Ms Sumati Nagpal MA (Dance), 9897 3309, mobile 0402 551 841 or 0431 602 843.
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now open at 45 Hunter Street – adjacent to St John’s Cathedral and in the heart of Parramatta’s CBD. A maximum of 15 artists work from studios there. More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Life Drawing at Parramatta Artists Studios. Heath Franco welcomes newcomers to his life drawing sessions at the studios. Self directed sessions in a comfortable, friendly environment – Wednesday, 6 – 8pm, $10 per session. Contact Heath 0412 933 723.
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events – synthetic spaces
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. They have an exciting event at Riverside Theatres on Sunday, June 10, which will include a video made by Fida Haq with NWG member involvement and a talk by renowned Australian author David Malouf. They are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms. More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit, in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Clarifying direction and reason at November forum
Posted: 5th November 2007
Photo: Leah Harris
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Self portrait brunette
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Putting their art “on the line” has a practical purpose for artists Maria Ionico and Leah Harris who will be the presenters at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, November 17, at 4pm. In fact, Leah would probably prefer not to describe herself as an artist yet, because she is still feeling her way towards the professional direction she might take. Maria is well down that path, but needs the questions and feedback that help her clarify and articulate the reasoning behind her work.
Leah has an established professional career, but her continued exploration of drawing, photography and printmaking has friends encouraging her to pursue possible avenues in visual arts. Maria already has a Master of Art from UNSW College of Fine Arts. She has participated in the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Exhibition and studied and exhibited in Italy, as well as in the opening exhibition at Parramatta Artists Studios.
Photo: Maria Ionico
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Highway
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“I recently spoke about my work at the artist studios and found it both cathartic and enriching as I came away more certain of what I am doing and had lots to think about,” Maria says. Her work is installation and often site specific and she is frequently questioned about why she does it.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks, upstairs at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, November 17, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
- Classical traditions and new concepts
Posted: 23rd October 2007
Photo: Fida Haq
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Sumati Nagpal speaking at the forum
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With no time to prepare for her presentation at the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, October 20, Sumati Nagpal decided to provide some background information about Indian classical dance. The result was illuminating. She was followed by Deb Walker, who discussed the importance of stories and symbols in the diversity of her artistic expression. Both artists are associated with the community publication Harris Park Journo.
Whereas Western dance is more for enjoyment and entertainment, Sumati explained that Indian classical dance has strong spiritual and religious associations. There are nine classical dance forms in India, each associated with a specific region. All of them are temple dances, though under British colonial and Muslim influence, some were debased to become entertainment for wealthy courts – and in contemporary times – the dances of Bollywood.
Sumati’s classical training is in Kathak, a north Indian dance form. Bharatha Natyam is a south Indian dance form with different gods and different language. Although she has been learning since the age of six, one lifetime is not enough to learn about Kathak, she says. Sumati’s dance begins each time with a prayer and is taught and guided by a guru, who is looked upon as a god. Each guru has their own guru and dance continues throughout their lives. Teaching is not for money, but for passion, although the requirements of contemporary life are producing changes.
Photo courtesy Harris Park Journo
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Photo courtesy Harris Park Journo
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Sumati, foreground, performs at Rosella Festival with one of her students
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Sumati demonstrates Kathak dance
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Kathak is danced in bare feet and requires a proper ceremony to receive the traditional belt with bells. Sumati wears from 100 to 250 bells in each performance. Swings, hand movements and facial expressions convey atmosphere and story. No words or lip movements are used and rules and regulations govern every aspect of the dance. The depth of spiritual quality is of the utmost importance and any form of self-promotion is seen as contrary to this. Sumati will seek the blessing of her teacher in India before undertaking a performance, which from Australia means permission by phone.
Sumati has set up Swastik Institute of Dance in Harris Park, a branch of her school in India. Not everyone who applies will be accepted, because the level of commitment to the dance and its spirituality requires attendance five days per week and a minimum of one hour’s practice daily. She also teaches semi-classical, folk dance, Western and Bollywood dancing. If you can learn classical dance, you can easily learn other dances, she says.
Despite the horrific associations of the swastika with Nazi Germany, the swastik is a divine and godly sign in India associated with Lord Ganesha, the Hindu elephant deity. Sumati is now studying for her PhD in dance, encouraged and supported by her husband Dinesh Lekhi.
Deb Walker experienced a country upbringing in Queensland and northern NSW. On the Queensland property there were three different houses dating from the 1890s, the early 1900s and the 1960s. The older two houses were in disrepair and no longer occupied and the stories and character of each profoundly influence her and the art work she produces. Her original choice of career lay between art and science and initially resolved as design. She is interested in natural and urban environments, in the spiritual and in alternative religions.
Photo: Fida Haq
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Deb Walker discusses her mixed media work Apollo and Daphne
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Deb works in a wide range of materials and finds her work is “triggered” by symbols or stories. It may be a gumleaf that triggers memories of childhood, she may create a scenario triggered by awareness of people long since gone. From an early age she painted and photographed wildflowers and in her design work created wearable art printed with linocuts on fabrics. A fascination with architecture, fantasy drawing, children’s illustration, sculpture using a variety of materials, including unfired clay were all apparent in the work she displayed and circulated.
She finds herself currently returning to figurative art, but it is from her blurring of boundaries as she experiments with different materials that she finds new concepts emerge. Deb feels she is working on representation of the human condition, times of pain and happiness, the relationships between male and female, the distortions in dreams of waking reality.
Photo: Fida Haq
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Unfired clay head
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Deb has been working with community activist, café operator and publisher of Harris Park Journo, Effie Mats, since the monthly newspaper was launched earlier this year. Effie has made space for Harris Park Gallery to operate from her internet café premises and has now provided space for the operation of Sumati Nagpal’s dance school. (See note in News Updates below and about life drawing classes now at Parramatta Artists Studios)
Deb loves working with the gallery and on the newspaper. She sees it as an exercise in free speech, where people talk about what they want to talk about and in the way they want to talk about it. Deb is also working towards an exhibition about pioneer women at Parramatta Heritage Centre.
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, November 17, from 4pm – 6pm. Presenters are currently being confirmed. In the meantime, consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
Thanks to contributions at the forum, a cumulative balance of $39.50 is now available for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café. Owing to the generosity of café proprietors Kevin and Lisa, the fee was temporarily reduced to $25 – so the balance should allow us to pay the full fee of $50 at the next forum. Many thanks.
News updates:
- Harris Park Art Gallery is a new community enterprise run in conjunction with an internet café at Level 1, 59 Marion Street, Harris Park 2150, phone 9687 2142. Call in and make contact with organisers and have a look at the latest issue of their community newspaper Harris Park Journo – a terrific achievement.
- Swastik Institute of Dance – contact Ms Sumati Nagpal MA (Dance), 9897 3309, mobile 0402 551 841 or 0431 602 843.
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now open at 45 Hunter Street – adjacent to St John’s Cathedral and in the heart of Parramatta’s CBD. A maximum of 15 artists work from studios there. More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Life Drawing at Parramatta Artists Studios. Heath Franco welcomes newcomers to his life drawing sessions at the studios. Self directed sessions in a comfortable, friendly environment – Wednesday, 6 – 8pm, $10 per session. Contact Heath 0412 933 723.
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events – synthetic spaces
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. They have an exciting event at Riverside Theatres on Sunday, June 10, which will include a video made by Fida Haq with NWG member involvement and a talk by renowned Australian author David Malouf. They are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms.
More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit,
in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western
Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Xanthe at Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Colour and movement at October forum
Posted: 16th October 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Photo courtesy Harris Park Journo
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Deb Walker
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Sumati Nagpal
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Two artists associated with the enterprising community publication Harris Park Journo will be the presenters at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, October 20, at 4pm. Deb Walker is a colourist who works mainly in a contemporary style in a variety of media, including sculpture and wearable art. Sumati Nagpal is an Indian classical dance specialising in Kathak dance, who arrived only recently in Australia with her husband Dinesh Lekhi.
Deb is a well established local artist whose studies began at the National Art School and progressed through the Julian Ashton Art School, Hornsby TAFE and University of Western Sydney. Rituals and mythmaking hold a special interest for her. Sumati completed post-graduate studies in Kathak dance at Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. She joined the Institute of International Repute, which had 145 branches in India and soon became head of the dance department. Sumati performed in the recent Rosella Festival at Harris Park.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks, upstairs at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, October 20, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Video and writing celebrate second anniversary
Posted: 3rd September 2007
Photo: Katrina Stewart
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Fida Haq
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Art on the Line – 15th September 2007
Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta
Hosts: Lisa and Kevin Crouse
This month’s meeting was Art on the Line’s second anniversary, a milestone recognised by warm applause. Presenter and host Fida Haq said he was honoured to share his work for the third time since the Parramatta Community Cultural Forum started Art on the Line monthly meetings at Mars Hill Café. Around twenty artists and writers attended. Before the meeting commenced, Fida had joined the writers in their usual gathering of readings, news and discussion.
The focus of Fida’s presentation was two works….
The Road Home Part 1 and The Road Home Part 2 were created by Fida for Synthetic Spaces : Western Front 2007. (Western Front is a biennial event which encourages and celebrates the work of Western Sydney artists).
The works were first shown at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, June 8 – July 22. The Road Home Part 1 was also screened at Riverside Theatres on June 10 as part of the HomeWord Western Sydney Writers’ Festival and more recently ‘Synthetic Spaces’ has been on exhibition at Castle Hill Community Centre, Castle Grand (until September 13).
Photo: Fida Haq
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Still from The Road Home Part 1
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The Road Home Part 1 is a video work running for 17 minutes shot in colour with a Canon XLH1 camera but screened in black and white. During discussion, the choice of black and white was commented upon as ‘making the familiar unfamiliar’ helping us see well-known Western Sydney scenes with fresh eyes.
Part 1 has been shown in galleries on a loop using large screens. The work was shot all in one day. The goal of capturing the first light necessitated an early rising for the members of New Writers’ Group Inc working in collaboration; however the magnificent moon images at each ‘end’ of the loop are clear proof that the artist rose much earlier. Additional shooting and sound recording was done at Mars Hill Café and Merrylands library to capture the writers’ stories, poems, and faces in close-up. Fida explained that the work is an experimental media cross over of visual art and writing and that Kath Von Witt, Curator at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, found the work to be a draw card in the exhibition. Fida thought that community participation made The Road Home readily accessible as an artwork to gallery visitors, some of whom were heard to puzzle over ‘who are these people?!’
This video reveals something new each time it’s seen. The artist had no say in how writers interpreted the theme ‘The Road Home’. He received a batch of many different story styles, personalities and voices with which to weave his scenes of busy streets, tranquil water, contemplative figures at Lake Parramatta, close-ups of writers’ reading their pieces, and an enormous Rouse Hill crane which seemed to represent the sometimes dysfunctional power of change in the spaces of our lives, the feelings of loss inherent in so-called success and progress. It is fascinating to follow Fida’s selection, layering and sequencing of these images and words as they travel together against a sound track of sirens, lorikeets, kookaburras, road traffic and jet aircraft overhead. Here is the catalogue entry:
“The Road Home alludes to the sense of loss, displacement and at times bewilderment – even anger – that the fast changing spaces of Western Sydney evoke. Want it or not, the rapid disappearance of homes and roads, to be replaced by McMansions and freeways, leaves a lasting impression on our psyche – be it individual or collective. The Road Home is a collection of individual responses of reverberating words intermingled with the broad and expansive landscapes, waterscapes and skies of Western Sydney that create an elegiac visual tapestry of loss.”
Photo: Sue Crawford
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Fida’s ‘models’ at Lake Parramatta
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The Road Home Part 2 (i) Dear Father, is described by Fida as a “brief and personal v-log about life on Windsor Road when stuck in a jam in the evening rush-hour traffic”. The video runs for nearly three minutes and confirms the artist’s own talent for story-telling. As we gaze with the artist across the dashboard into the Windsor Road logjam, we hear his voice and see his words crossing the screen, in a spoken letter addressed to ‘Dear Father’. The letter speaks of the narrator’s experiences since leaving his parents to make a new home in a Western country, truths about his life as a Muslim in Australia that he expects would surprise, even cause pain to his widowed father. This short, intimate work resonates with viewers from completely different cultural and spiritual backgrounds who have also experienced the disconcerting aspects of ‘success’ when the geographical and cultural gaps widen between the old life and the new, between parents and children, to become seemingly impassable canyons. The work has previously been shown at galleries on a small TV screen only, with head phones provided for private viewing, emphasising the personal depth of the work.
The Road Home Part 2 (ii) Flotsams runs for just over a minute, a spirited challenge to political leaders, racism and war-mongering. It is narrated by the artist in Bangla, with written English translations that pass across the scene in airy speech bubbles containing pungent messages eg “casual chronic racism has done Johnny good”.
After the screenings, a lively exchange of ideas ensued on the generation gap (including our tell-tale loss of good hand-writing in favour of keyboard speed) and the future of The Road Home works. The artist is in discussion with New Writers’ Group Inc about producing the dvd for public sale. Nathan Judd of NWG Inc suggested that the in-house booklet which records the full text of the writers’ works on The Road Home theme be re-printed as a leaflet to accompany the dvd. Jim Spain read his poem describing the pleasure of being on locations with The Road Home Part 1 and Lil Scully, NWG Inc president thanked Fida for the presentation and the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with him in the making of The Road Home.
http://www.westernfront2007.com.au/index.html -
Synthetic Spaces : Western Front webpage for details on exhibitions and participating artists.
http://www.fidahaq.net.au - the artist’s site
- NWG Inc’s webpage on The Road Home
(Warmest thanks to Sue Crawford of NWG for providing this report)
The next Art on the Line forum will be held on Saturday, October 20, at 4pm, at Mars Hill Café, when there will be presentations from Harris Park Gallery and Journo artists.
- Fida Haq – making The Road Home
Posted: 3rd September 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Fida Haq
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The Road Home is a video work made by Fida Haq with members of New Writers Group for the exhibition Synthetic Spaces – Western Front – contemporary art from Western Sydney. It was first seen at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in July. Fida will show the video and talk about the development of this work at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, September 15, at 4pm.
The Road Home was displayed at this year's HomeWord Festival at Parramatta Riverside Theatres and a printed supplement of literary works written specifically for the project was published. The work is currently being displayed at the Castle Hill Community Centre at Castle Grand, Castle Hill along with other works from Synthetic Spaces exhibition that took place at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.
Photo: Fida Haq
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A composite of images from The Road Home
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Art on the Line organisers are very glad that NWG members will have their regular meeting just before the forum at Mars Hill Café, at 3.15pm, so that they can contribute their own experience of The Road Home to the forum.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks, upstairs at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, September 15, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Complex and poignant “baggage” of a creative life
Posted: 23rd August 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jacqui Douglas displays work and family memorabilia
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In preparing for her presentation at the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, August 18, Jacqui Douglas decided she would bring a suitcase of memorabilia. It would represent the “baggage” that all of us accumulate and carry through life. For Jacqui that baggage includes much that is complex and poignant and reflects her development as an artist, a writer, a wife, a granddaughter and grandmother and her quest to find closer connection to her indigenous ancestry – a “longing for belonging”.
From her suitcase, Jacqui took a drawing she did as a nine year old, a lolly wrapper, butter wrap and roughs of artwork done as a commercial artist “BC” – before computers. She described the challenges of preparing artwork layouts and the development of materials and equipment that gradually made these intricate tasks easier. Creating artwork for Reg Livermore’s shows had been an immense pleasure – he would sketch ideas, but give her free rein in their development.
Video still: Fida Haq
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Jacqui explains the skills required for hand lettering a Reg Livermore poster
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Jacqui said she grew up in a slum in Lewisham, where peeling walls and narrow pathways provided constant visual stimulus to her imagination. As a pre teen she overheard a comment that alerted Jacqui to her grandmother’s Aboriginality. Jacqui had always assumed she was Indian. Questions to Grandmother were not encouraged. Great aunt and grandmother spoke to each other in a different language, but Grandmother did not share language with her grandchildren.
“Our family had many secrets and was deeply dysfunctional”, Jacqui said, but no-one offered an explanation. Even now, at 65, she is still piecing together her family’s story. Her great uncle’s death certificate reveals many relatives as “unknown”. An old luggage label suggests her grandfather was not who he seemed to be. She used to feel ashamed that she was not black enough to be recognised as a descendant of the Malyangapa language group of the Broken Hill area, but is comforted that modern science has identified the continuation of their DNA in her blood.
Jacqui is grateful to have connected with Koori groups who have recently made her welcome and helped her to understand the spiritual dimension of their world. In fact some consider they may even be her family members.
Jacqui showed more samples of her art work. Although she enjoyed employment as art director for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust and other commercial undertakings, most of her clients could not afford full colour printing. As a sole parent of two young daughters, she had to work hard and became adept at doing quite a lot with very little for her clients.
She had been living in Guildford for more than a decade when the economic downturn of the early 90s persuaded her to volunteer to work with community groups, while accepting occasional public art commissions. Jacqui laughed when describing her art studio as a community artist – a shopping trolley full of materials and equipment. People came up to chat and one person asked with concern – “Are you homeless?”
Video still: Fida Haq
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Jacqui discusses public art projects she has worked on
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Her sense of “longing for belonging” has been partly eased by her warm acceptance into community groups, she says. Jacqui illustrated how so many older people were taught to believe in the racial inferiority of Aboriginal people and quoted from a 1936 school book describing the Australian Aborigine as “among the lowest of the tribes of mankind”.
In the early 1980s, Jacqui successfully completed a visual arts degree at City Arts Institute and entertained her audience by reading excerpts from a story she wrote for “Old Enough to Know Better” – an exuberant anthology published by Sydney U3A in 1999.
Jacqui ended her presentation by circulating The Invasion Wheel, a graphic she re-created for Aboriginal activist, Betty Little, whose words vividly illustrate the consequences of European invasion and colonisation on the indigenous people of Australia.
For everyone, one loss means one traumatic experience, one loss to grieve about.
For Australia’s First Peoples, look at my wheel.
There are so many losses within losses, traumas after traumas.
So much for us to grieve about. Frustration comes out of the losses and what stems from this, aggression – a lot of anger for us to work through.
More time is needed.
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, September 15, from 4pm – 6pm. Fida Haq and members of New Writers Group will show and discuss the poetic black and white video Fida made with them – The Road Home. It was first shown at the Hawkesbury Gallery as part of Synthetic Spaces – Western Front and is now on show at Castle Hill Community Centre, adjoining the central library.
On October 20, Indian dancer Sumati Nagpal will describe and demonstrate her art form and artist Deb Walker will give a presentation about her art. In the meantime, consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au. We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
A contribution of $36.50 was collected towards the fee for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café. Owing to the generosity of café proprietors Kevin and Lisa, the fee was temporarily reduced to $25 – so the balance has given us a surplus of $9.50 towards the cost of the next forum. Many thanks.
News updates:
- Australian Business Arts Foundation – Artist Business Online Services
ABAF has been funded by the Federal Government to assist visual artists to strengthen their business skills.
They provide various services including workshops, fact sheets and an arts business directory. www.abaf.org.au/artistbusiness
- Sydney Olympic Park Industrial History - Olympic Transformation & Sydney Olympic Park - Artworks made on site
Building 18, Newington Armory Gallery, Jamieson Street, Sydney Olympic Park
23 June to 30 September 2007, weekends only – 10am to 4pm
Come to the Armory and see two new exhibitions offering unique insights into the site’s transformation from an industrial wasteland into the venue for the “best Games ever”, and a survey of the diverse array of art created by participants in the Artists at the Armory program – including Fida Haq.
- Harris Park Art Gallery is a new community enterprise run in conjunction with an internet café at Level 1, 59 Marion Street, Harris Park 2150, phone 9687 2142. Call in and make contact with organisers and have a look at their first issue of a community newspaper Harris Park Journo – a terrific achievement.
Watch out for the performance by Indian dancer Sumati Nagpal at the Rosella Festival on September 16. Sumati and her husband Dinesh Lebhi have only recently arrived in Australia and are living in Harris Park.
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now officially open and the first four artists selected are occupying studios.
More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Affordable Australian Art – Colour and Form is a new exhibition presented by Affordable Australian Art at Historic St Bartholomew’s, Ponds Road at Prospect (just off the Great Western Highway), 25 - 26 August 2007, Sat and Sun 10am-4pm. Opening and drinks with the artists Friday 24 August at 6pm. Check out Jenny Cheeseman’s website www.affordableozart.com.au. Among AAA artists’ work displayed is Jake Soewardie who presented at July’s Art on the Line forum.
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events – synthetic spaces
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. The Road Home, a poetic black and white video made by Fida Haq with NWG members will be the subject of our next Art on the Line forum. NWG members are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms. More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit, in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western
Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Xanthe at Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
- Tom Dunne Gallery – while her exhibition with friends has now ended, forum participant Dell Walker writes that the Tom Dunne Gallery, 11 Burton St, Darlinghurst, is a “beautiful, purpose-built new gallery, still with reasonable rent – three floors and a lift”. Phone 9331 5863.
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Jacqui Douglas – community artist and writer
Posted: 7th August 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jacqui Douglas
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In the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year, Jacqui Douglas was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for “service to the community of western Sydney through a range of roles with cultural, indigenous and welfare groups”. She describes herself as a community graphic artist and writer in a long career that began in commercial art. Jacqui will show images and talk about her work at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, August 18, at 4pm.
Jacqui is a great great grand daughter of Topsy and Jimmy Crow of the Malyangapa language group of the Broken Hill area of NSW – a relationship with a key role in her life. She was employed in a wide range of positions including with Hoyts, art director for the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and with Village Roadshow. Among many other commissions as a free lancer, she created art work for Reg Livermore shows.
Photo courtesy Liverpool City Council
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Jacqui was assistant artist on last year’s Warwick Farm Public School murals
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Jacqui has lived in Guildford for almost 30 years and since 1990 has worked as a community graphic artist, sometimes in a voluntary capacity. Her 1997 Silent Boundary proposal to Holroyd Council has led to research and projects associated with local Darug history. In 2002 she was founder and secretary of the New Writers’ Group and coordinator of the first HomeWord Writers’ Festival in 2003. She participated in this year’s “The Road Home Part 1” video made by Fida Haq with members of the New Writers’ Group, for the regional contemporary arts program, Western Front.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks, upstairs at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, August 18, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Jake Soewardie tells a vivid story
Posted: 26th July 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jake Soewardie enlivened his audience with vivid descriptions of his childhood experiences, the development of his art and its expression of his personal perspectives
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Jake Soewardie confessed to being nervous before his presentation at the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, July 21. But once he knew the atmosphere was relaxed and informal, he just perched on a stool and spoke from the heart. His audience responded with keen interest and plenty of questions.
Jake knows little about his history except that while a small child in Redfern, he lost his carer from within his family and became a ward of the state. He was not a member of the Stolen Generations, but a state ward, he says. Children’s homes were hard places. Kids were known as “brains or numskulls” and through a series of homes, he was quickly defined as a numskull. He hated school and would abscond whenever possible. He headed for the bush, looking for the horizon and building cubby houses in the scrub. Life for him was a constant movement between city and the bush.
A dead-end job in Kangaroo Valley brought him into contact with an old Aboriginal campsite at Bomaderry, where people still got together to socialise. It was a meeting place for Aboriginal people. About half were NSW tribal people, the other half Stolen Generations. His memory is alive with images from the Bomaderry campfire gatherings – the flicker of light and shadow from fires in old oil drums, people moving around and drinking in a circle – the substitute for a corroboree. In the firelight there was a sense of the spiritual, which increasingly finds its way into his paintings.
Photo: Katherine Knight
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A section of Jake’s audience at Mars Hill Cafe
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When he lived in Redfern in the 1960s, the streets were sometimes very violent, Jake said. It was also the era of the Black Power movement in the USA, the 1967 referendum, which effectively recognised Aboriginal rights, and the establishment of the Redfern Aboriginal medical and legal services. His great fear is that the political gains and recognition won since then are currently being completely eroded.
“Indigenous people are on the wrong end of the economic scale,” he said. “So many in country towns are trapped in poverty. They see others kicking on and they are being left behind. If the infrastructure is not there, they can’t move on.”
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Photo: Katherine Knight
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Three Heroes lost in the Landscape
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Two Seasons – a work in progress – Jake Soewardie
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Jake started painting in 1969, inspired by the Renaissance. He developed his skills in wet on wet using house paints, which was all he could afford, and did it for the love of it. As urban Aboriginal artists pushed for recognition in the 1980s, he became involved with Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. With his Mars Hill Café audience he discussed issues of appropriation in art, authenticity, what constitutes “traditional art” and contemporary politics.
“I only want a fair go,” Jake said.
The authenticity of Jake’s art is its powerful expression of his own experience. He always tries to consider his audience in creating his work. His culture is street culture, he says and as he grows older, his work is increasingly spiritual.
See more of Jake’s work on www.affordableozart.com.au
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, August 18, from 4pm – 6pm. Commercial and community artist and founding member of New Writers Group, Jacqui Douglas, who was recently awarded an OAM for “service to the community of western Sydney through a range of roles with cultural, indigenous and welfare groups”, will display and discuss her work. In the meantime, consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
A contribution of $52 was collected towards the fee for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café. Owing to the generosity of café proprietors Kevin and Lisa, the fee was temporarily reduced to $25 – so the balance helped reduce our shortfall from the previous forums to only $2. Many thanks.
News updates:
- Australian Business Arts Foundation – Artist Business Online Services
ABAF has been funded by the Federal Government to assist visual artists to strengthen their business skills.
They provide various services including workshops, fact sheets and an arts business directory. www.abaf.org.au/artistbusiness
- Sydney Olympic Park Industrial History - Olympic Transformation & Sydney Olympic Park - Artworks made on site
Building 18, Newington Armory Gallery, Jamieson Street, Sydney Olympic Park
23 June to 30 September 2007, weekends only – 10am to 4pm
Come to the Armory and see two new exhibitions offering unique insights into the site’s transformation from an industrial wasteland into the venue for the “best Games ever”, and a survey of the diverse array of art created by participants in the Artists at the Armory program – including Fida Haq.
- Harris Park Art Gallery is a new community enterprise run in conjunction with an internet café at Level 1, 59 Marion Street, Harris Park 2150, phone 9687 2142. Call in and make contact with organisers and have a look at their first issue of a community newspaper Harris Park Journo – a terrific achievement.
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now officially open and the first four artists selected are occupying studios.
More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Affordable Australian Art – Check out Jenny Cheeseman’s website www.affordableozart.com.au
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events – synthetic spaces
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. They have an exciting event at Riverside Theatres on Sunday, June 10, which will include a video made by Fida Haq with NWG member involvement and a talk by renowned Australian author David Malouf. They are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms.
More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit,
in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western
Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Xanthe at Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
- Tom Dunne Gallery – while her exhibition with friends has now ended, forum participant Dell Walker writes that the Tom Dunne Gallery, 11 Burton St, Darlinghurst, is a “beautiful, purpose-built new gallery, still with reasonable rent – three floors and a lift”. Phone 9331 5863.
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Jake Soewardie – urban Aboriginal artist
Posted: 10th July 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jake Soewardie, left, Michael Jagamara Nelson and Danny Eastwood
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Jake Soewardie hails from the Kamiloroi Tribe, Caroona Mission NSW and was born in Redfern in 1948. He describes himself as an urban Aboriginal contemporary artist and works in a European surrealist style. Jake will show images and talk about his work at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, July 21, at 4pm.
With his son James and other local indigenous artists, including Danny and Jamie Eastwood, Jake participated in Crossing Cultures 2 – the second stage of a developing relationship between the recently formed Corroboree Arts and Crafts Co-op Ltd of western Sydney and Papunya Tjupi in Central Australia. Through the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, the project provided the local and visiting artists with unique printmaking experience. Their work is on show at Blacktown Arts Centre until July 14.
Jake was a student of fine arts at Nepean TAFE for 6 years. He has exhibited in multiple group exhibitions, Parliament House indigenous awards 2005 and 2006, The Olympic Rowing club Penrith and The Penrith Regional Gallery, Blacktown Arts Centre and Liverpool Regional Museum. His works are included in collections across the country including venues like Sydney University, Blacktown Council, Mt Druitt Hospital and the Nepean Health Authority.
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Forgotten Warriors – Jake Soewardie – shown in Crossing Cultures 1
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On Saturday, July 14, Jake will conduct workshops for children at the Aboriginal Art Showcase at the Powerhouse Discovery Museum, Showground Road, Castle Hill, as part of NAIDOC Week. Affordable Australian Art will also display the work of local Aboriginal artists. For further information and bookings see www.castlehill.powerhousemuseum.com .
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, June 16, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Creative exploration and professional survival
Posted: 20th June 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Darryl Gibbs discusses his exploration of materials and ideas
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Despite miserable weather and the smallest attendance to date, Darryl Gibbs generated lively discussion with his presentation at the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, June 16. Failing eyesight caused a career shift after 25 years in advertising and graphic design and his subsequent seven years have been filled with diploma studies at Meadowbank TAFE followed by creative exploration, experimentation, selling his art work and teaching.
Darryl majored in painting and sculpture, but if drawing had been offered as a major in TAFE, it would have been his first choice. The opportunity to teach arose unexpectedly five years ago, when he heard of a vacant position at Art on King, Newtown – an art supply shop with teaching studios upstairs. Since then he has also spent a lot of time working with different materials – pastels, acrylics, plaster, glazes, cardboard, scrap timber, wire and whatever else might have a use.
He described and illustrated processes, where he has looked at vertical space over cities as if from a helicopter, using plaster acrylic and glazes. With a group of other artists, Darryl built a cardboard village, photographed the environment and space, looked again, flattened the village and created abstracted forms from this (see above). He works with fragments of found objects in the urban environment, creating works that explore landscape and environment.
Although Darryl first worked exclusively in pastels, he later pursued other mediums as in the example below. While on holiday in Hawaii, he photographed a shell and then later repeated the form in impasto, wax and acrylic. His works are commonly sized 1200mm x 700mm.
Photo: Darryl Gibbs
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Darryl Gibbs’ work inspired by the Hawaiian shell
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In some works he referenced Robert Klippel’s use of old wooden containers and showed a variety of examples recycling timber into new forms and using different materials with them. From cardboard images to painting, oils, sand and glazes – he enjoys a free association of ideas. He explores the influences of artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko working from their ideas and materials until the expression becomes his own.
Darryl describes these processes as being like a conversation with himself. He talks about taking common objects as resource material and peeling open their layers to create new work, not trying to correct unintended results, but turning them into something else. He often takes images of previous work into Photoshop for manipulation using the modified image as source for new work.
He also remains very interested in figure work using pastels, charcoal, graphite, ink and paint. He waits until he has enough work to show and then looks to opportunities to exhibit – sometimes in fundraising exhibitions, group shows or solo.
Photo: Darryl Gibbs
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Neptune 2 – charcoal on paper – Darryl Gibbs
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While he talks about his own work in these ways, he also encourages his students to have continuous “conversations” with themselves (and each other) recognising and creating layers of meaning through technique and materials in their own compositions.
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, July 21, from 4pm – 6pm. Award winning indigenous artist Jake Soewardie will display and discuss his work. In the meantime, consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
A contribution of $30 was collected towards the fee for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café. Owing to the generosity of café proprietors Kevin and Lisa, the fee was temporarily reduced to $25 – so the balance helped reduce our shortfall from the previous forum to $29.
The forum also endorsed a letter of support for Harmony Day in 2008, requested by the Sydney Youth Dragon and Lion Dance Troupe.
News updates:
- Sydney Olympic Park Industrial History - Olympic Transformation & Sydney Olympic Park - Artworks made on site
Building 18, Newington Armory Gallery, Jamieson Street, Sydney Olympic Park
23 June to 30 September 2007, weekends only – 10am to 4pm
Come to the Armory and see two new exhibitions offering unique insights into the site’s transformation from an industrial wasteland into the venue for the “best Games ever”, and a survey of the diverse array of art created by participants in the Artists at the Armory program – including Fida Haq.
- Harris Park Art Gallery is a new community enterprise run in conjunction with an internet café at Level 1, 59 Marion Street, Harris Park 2150, phone 9687 2142. Call in and make contact with organisers.
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now officially open and the first four artists selected are occupying studios.
More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Affordable Australian Art – Check out Jenny Cheeseman’s website www.affordableozart.com.au. Among AAA artists’ work displayed is Jake Soewardie who will present at July’s Art on the Line forum.
- Blacktown Arts Centre - upcoming events and the current Western Front – synthetic spaces – info – 9839 6558
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. The Road Home, a poetic black and white video made by Fida Haq with NWG members is on show at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, as part of Western Front – Synthetic Spaces, until July 22. Hopefully, it might be shown later in the year at one of the Art on the Line forums.
NWG members are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms. More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit,
in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western
Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Xanthe at Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
- Auburn Community Development Network – for information about part-time job-share – Auburn Arts Officer - deadline 29 June – centremanager@acdn.org.au
- Tom Dunne Gallery – while her exhibition with friends has now ended, forum participant Dell Walker writes that the Tom Dunne Gallery, 11 Burton St, Darlinghurst, is a “beautiful, purpose-built new gallery, still with reasonable rent – three floors and a lift”. Phone 9331 5863.
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Professional survival in a challenging world
Posted: 5th June 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Darryl Gibbs
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Most artists struggle to survive professionally in their chosen field. Ermington resident, Darryl Gibbs, returned to fine arts following a 25 year career in advertising and graphic design. Hear him talk about his career pathway and academic training as he displays some of his art work at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, June 16, at 4pm.
Darryl says: “To summarise my career to date, I have been painting for about 8 years, participated in a few exhibitions and sold a few works, however most of that time has been spent in study. Currently I subsidise my art with part time work and a bit of teaching.”
His interests include drawing, pastel, painting, mixed media and sculpture. He has qualifications from TAFE and studied at the National Art School.
Photo: Darryl Gibbs
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Bodiesx2
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Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, June 16, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
(The date for entries to Artfiles www.artfiles.com.au / artfiles@ice.org.au/ 9897 5744 has been extended to June 15, so don’t delay.)
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Growing art business by incremental steps
Posted: 24th May 2007
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Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jenny Cheeseman responds to forum questions about establishing her business as Affordable Australian Art.
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Jenny Cheeseman’s commitment to establishing Affordable Australian Art grew from her discovery of art as a high school student in Blacktown, she told the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, May 19. Although doing art at school, she and most other students had never been into an art gallery, and that continues to be a challenge for audience building in Western Sydney today. She found there was often no “next” for artists from western Sydney who won awards. A passion to provide commercial opportunities for these talented artists as well as opportunities for people in Western Sydney to purchase quality local art was born. Everyone should be able to own an Australian original, she says.
From a background in marketing and creative arts in her adult life, she and a partner began selling art in private homes through a party plan four years ago. It was a low key start, with each of them holding down part-time jobs and a total portfolio of just 12 artists. Most of the people who attended had no prior experience of artists and their work, but welcomed the opportunity to see art and have its background explained. Their sales were quite successful and it was an interesting way to conduct market research. They then went on to provide short exhibitions and open up to larger audiences. When her partner took on full-time work, Jenny decided to give up her part-time job and go solo. By now there were over 30 artists and Jenny decided that a website was the way to go. www.affordableozart.com.au was launched in November 2006.
Photo: Jenny Cheeseman
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Affordable Australian Art gallery at Westfield, Parramatta
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Jenny promotes and sells the work of a selection of artists across western Sydney, including Liverpool, the Hawkesbury, Fairfield and Blacktown. She has a strong representation of indigenous artists and many from diverse cultural backgrounds, whose work ranges in style from contemporary to traditional. She launched the website with a planned two week exhibition in a high profile retail space in Westfield shopping centre, Parramatta, last November. Two weeks eventually became five months with a warm response from the public and continuing support from Westfield.
Jenny anticipated developing the web site as a business tool mainly for use in the western Sydney region, but has been glad to find it expanding sales to clients in Melbourne, the Northern Territory and elsewhere in NSW. Alongside the goals of sales and promotion, has been her broader aim of audience development. She is developing a potential market in western Sydney with a level of success that doesn’t seem to have been sustained before.
A few days before the forum, Jenny participated in a Business Expo in the Hills District, and established links with businesses interested in onsite consultancies about art for their offices and work places. While her five year plan is to have a gallery space, Jenny needs this period of flexibility to reach new audiences and create new markets for artists’ work. She will continue to run the agency as an “online gallery” as well as holding regular exhibitions. Jenny uses her mailing list (built up at exhibitions and added to online) to advise people of exhibition dates and venues. It was discussed that this was almost “guerrilla” in tactic and an interesting way to introduce artists’ work to new audiences.
Photo: Jenny Cheeseman
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Affordable Australian Art gallery at Westfield, Parramatta
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During her period at Westfield, more than 300 artists (an overwhelming number and sadly a number impossible to involve in the business) approached Jenny about selling their work through her website and gallery and she gained valuable insights into helping them make the most of opportunities to promote and sell work through galleries and agencies. Just as she has established a business plan and worked in incremental steps, she advises artists to think carefully through their approach to a gallery or agency.
Don’t make it a spur of the moment action. Decide first, she says, why you want your work exhibited and that will help you decide who to approach. Research, plan, prepare and time your approach to a gallery or agency and don’t lose heart. Attached to this emailed report will be a detailed list of hints from Jenny about preparing to approach a gallery or agency.
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, June 16, from 4pm – 6pm. The presenter is currently being confirmed. In the meantime, consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We have drafted some simple guidelines to assist presenters. We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
A contribution of $26 was collected towards the fee of $50 for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café – so our shortfall from the previous forum is now $34
- Forum Opportunities
- Mars Hill Café at 331 Church Street, Parramatta operates as a non-profit business which offers extraordinary opportunities, employment training and social support for a great range of people. For nearly five years they have created performance opportunities for musicians and songwriters, nurtured the New Writers Group, and provided opportunities for artists and filmmakers – to name just a few.
- Art on the Line forums will be held at Mars Hill Café each month in 2007 from February to November.
News updates:
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now officially open and the first four artists selected are occupying studios.
More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Affordable Australian Art – Check out Jenny Cheeseman’s website www.affordableozart.com.au
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts events – including our Art on the Line forums – http://www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php – a great source of information.
Find more information on Fida’s site about his current work and many other initiatives. He is currently working from a studio at The Armory, as part of the arts program at Sydney Olympic Park.
- New Writers Group meets regularly at Mars Hill Café and members often participate in Art on the Line forums. They have an exciting event at Riverside Theatres on Sunday, June 10, which will include a video made by Fida Haq with NWG member involvement and a talk by renowned Australian author David Malouf. They are keen to cultivate a growing exchange between art forms.
More detail www.nwg-inc.com where they also carry Art on the Line forum reports and notices. Many thanks.
- Opportunities at Mars Hill Café – As always, we are extremely grateful to Kevin and Lisa of Mars Hill Café, who run the business as a non-profit,
in order to support creativity among local people. They offer their walls free to artists to display their work and require only a small commission if work is sold. Go to www.marshillcafe.com.au and click on Music, Events and Arts. Under art exhibitions you will find the contact details for the curators who manage Mars Hill exhibitions.
- Artfiles News – a weekly service. If there's any arts-related events or news you'd like to share with the arts, cultural and community industries in Western
Sydney, send them to artfiles@ice.org.au on Monday of each week. Contact Xanthe at Artfiles to get yourself on the email list, too. It’s a great source of up to date arts information, grant opportunities etc
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- How do artists approach a gallery or art agency?
Posted: 8th May 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Jenny Cheeseman at her exhibition of indigenous art - Art in the Round – finishing April 7
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One of the big challenges for most artists is finding a gallery or agency to promote and sell their work. Now they have the opportunity to ask questions and find answers at the next Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, May 19, at 4pm. Jenny Cheeseman has acquired valuable experience as both an agent and a gallery director in the last three years and will pass on the benefits of lessons learned. More than 300 artists approached her about selling their work while she was conducting the very successful Affordable Australian Art gallery at Westfield, Parramatta, earlier this year.
Approaching a gallery requires careful preparation, Jenny advises. You need to decide why you want your work exhibited and then to do some careful research, planning and preparation. She will explain what this means at the forum. Jenny has generously agreed to explore other related topics with the audience according to questions they may have. Her talk was deferred from the April forum, when there was so much interest in Janine Sager’s discussion of audience responses to contemporary art that time ran out.
Much of Jenny’s business is conducted through her Affordable Australian Art website www.affordableozart.com.au and she has been very pleased by the growing response. Check it out before the forum and see how the process works.
Meet local artists and keep up to date with arts developments in Parramatta over coffee and snacks at Mars Hill Cafe, 331 Church St, Parramatta, Saturday, May 19, at 4pm. Donations at the forum towards the fee of $50 for the sole use of the upstairs room would be appreciated.
(The April forum report Audiences respond to interaction with art was emailed on May 1. If you did not receive it, please let us know by return email and we’ll have another go.)
Email artontheline@iprimus.com.au if you would like to make a presentation about your art at a future forum. More forum information at www.fidahaq.net.au/artontheline.php
Katherine Knight – Coordinator Parramatta Culture and Community Forum
- Audiences respond to interaction with art works
Posted: 1 May 2007
Photo: Katherine Knight
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Janine Fenton Sager made some surprising observations when she set out to study the behaviour of audiences at the Singapore Biennale
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Listeners became so absorbed in Janine Fenton Sager’s presentation to the Art on the Line forum at Mars Hill Café, Parramatta, on Saturday, April 21, that her co-presenter Jenny Cheeseman willingly agreed to defer her talk to the May forum. Janine’s topic was her research into audience responses to contemporary art and as the director of gallery/art agency Affordable Australian Art, Jenny was keenly interested in the subject.
The “zone of interaction” between audience and contemporary art is the focus of doctoral research being undertaken by Janine at the University of Western Sydney. Rather than using the traditional research methods of interviews and questionnaires, Janine has opted for direct observation. She employs the retail market research model using video surveillance, personal tracking and participatory observation, where she behaves as part of an audience and interacts with them. As a result, she is acquiring data about the viewing experience which has previously gone unnoticed.
Photo: Janine Sager
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Photo: Janine Sager
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City Hall, Singapore (exterior and interior views) main site of the Biennale
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Janine conducted research in Singapore during the recent Singapore Biennale. Audience development is an ongoing area of interest within the art museum/gallery arena. By observing behaviour while the audience is engaging with the artwork, the site and each other, specific and relevant information about that viewing experience is collected and analysed.
One of the most interesting works, because it elicited the most profound response from the greatest number of viewers, was Japanese artist Takashi Kuribayashi’s installation ‘Aquarium: I feel like I am in a fishbowl’, 2006. This site-specific installation relies on the interaction of the viewer to realize its full effect. At Tanglin Camp, one of the sites used for the biennale, a large glass aquarium stands alone in a room. Inside the aquarium is a smaller glass tank.
Photo: Janine Sager
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Photo: Janine Sager
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Tanglin Camp, Singapore: one of the varied locations for the Biennale
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It is not until another viewer, from beneath, raises their head into this smaller tank that the notion of portals through which one can see and be seen is realised by all viewers. This discovery was met with much enthusiasm marked by astonishment, laughter and clamourings of delight as members of each group would run below the building to become part of the artwork when they raised their head into the tank to be viewed by fellow viewers from above. This outward display of enthusiasm to be involved in the work revealed the audience’s pleasure in placing themselves in an active role of discovery. Views of Kuribayashi’s installation and site give some indication of the works influence on the public.
Photo: Janine Sager
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Aquarium: I feel like I am in a fishbowl, installation by Takashi Kuribayashi
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Another outstanding work was, South African, Jane Alexander’s installation ‘Verity, Faith and Justice’, 2006. It was installed in a courtroom in City Hall, which was the main venue for the biennale, (City Hall is no longer used as a courthouse and had been empty prior to the exhibition). Alexander’s work dealt with concepts of the application of laws and lawlessness and was made up of multiple elements contained within the space of the courtroom making it a journey of discovery as the viewer explored the multiple elements of the work.
Janine was able to install video surveillance equipment in this room and analyse the movements and reactions as the audience members explored the room. The most profound observation was the behaviour in relation to the taking of photographs and how this action determined much of the relationship with the work. Also, the propensity to touch elements of the installation and how that was inspired by the work itself became evident.
Photo: Janine Sager
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Verity, Faith and Justice, 2006,
installation by Jane Alexander
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For the producers and providers of contemporary art these insights offer an enhanced quality of understanding concerning the reactions, needs and general behaviours of their audiences. Acting as the audiences’ advocate, Janine hopes to be able to improve the viewing experience for the users and providers of contemporary visual art.
The next forum will be at Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta, on Saturday, May 19, from 4pm – 6pm. The presenter will be Jenny Cheeseman, director of Affordable Australian Art, who will discuss how to optimise the opportunity to have your work included in a gallery/art agency and answer questions. There is also the possibility that another presenter will continue Janine’s discussion into children’s reaction to art in schools, either in May or at a later date.
A contribution of $65 was collected towards the fee of $50 for the use of the upstairs room at Mars Hill Café – a big help in reducing the shortfall from the previous forum to only $10.
- Forum Opportunities
- Mars Hill Café at 331 Church Street, Parramatta operates as a non-profit business which offers extraordinary opportunities, employment training and social support for a great range of people. For nearly five years they have created performance opportunities for musicians and songwriters, nurtured the New Writers Group, and provided opportunities for artists and filmmakers – to name just a few.
- Art on the Line forums will be held at Mars Hill Café each month in 2007 from February to November.
- In the meantime, please consider applying to make a presentation about your art at one of the forums. Email your interest to artontheline@iprimus.com.au We have drafted some simple guidelines to assist presenters. We look forward to hearing more about you and your work.
News updates:
- Affordable Australian Art – Check out Jenny Cheeseman’s website www.affordableozart.com.au
- Parramatta Council’s Artists Studios are now officially open and the first four artists selected are occupying studios.
More information www.parracity.nsw.gov.au or email arts@parracity.nsw.gov.au
- Blacktown Arts Centre – upcoming events
Info – 9839 6558 artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
- More information about arts ev
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