Jeremy Bakker
Where did you grow up?
Canberra
Where do you live now?
North Fitzroy
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Nothing tangible is coming to mind. But I have brought with me a soft spot for Margaret Fulton recipes and having ABC Classic FM on in the background, both of which were always around growing up.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
The work that I'm developing for The Big East project is definitely tapping into some nostalgic memories from a time when I was being endlessly chauffeured around by my parents to sporting events with detours to the shops for lollies and other treats. Putting some imaginative energy into playing around with food feels like a nod to my younger self.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I have exhibited with Kiron in a group project, Immanent Landscape (2012) that the artist Utako Shindo organised a couple of years back. That project took us to a small community outside of Tokyo which had a museum attached to a disused rice store house. Like The Big East, we were encouraged to develop work in and around these spaces that had a traditional function other than a space for exhibiting art.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I can’t remember ever being in a Scout Hall before, though I spent a bit of time at the local YMCA in Canberra when I was young – gymnastics and judo training after school.
Where is your work located?
I’m hoping to make use of one of the kitchen areas attached to the Scout Hall and potentially making a small work to go on the basketball court.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
One of the things that interested me about The Big East was getting out of the traditional gallery spaces or inner city artist-run spaces and coming up with ideas that can hold their own and have some sense of presence in terms of what the location is usually used for. I like the kitchenette beside the Scout Hall as I can imagine all of those pies, chips and lollies served up to excitable kids by Mums and Dads. So I've been thinking about the materials and objects that you might expect to find in this type of space and how I can play with these to find different ways of looking at this familiar space.
Kiron Robinson
Where did you grow up?
Bangladesh, India, Blackburn
Where do you live now?
East Ringwood
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
No not really. Asides from one toy dog I have carried with me.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Hmmm good question. Not in an overt "this is what I will make art about" way but more in the general things that I am interested in. They are less to do with a specific location than a desire to be elsewhere or somewhere.
What is your connection to the Big East (BIGGERER)?
I organised it.
Hey I meant the place not the exhibition:
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
Outside of The Big East the last two scout halls experience was my (then) ten year old nieces dance class recital and before that a friends 21st. This was a scout hall near the Murray River boarder. Her Dad was a bikie. Scouts and bikies
Where is your work located?
It will move through all of the spaces.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
A psychological placement: Community Halls and events that are based there come with a certain D.I.Y psychology. They are places that invite inhabitation, pretending to be empty but actually act as a democratising agent over any event enacted in their space. They dominate the tone. I am counting on this.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Anything by Gerald Murnane. The fact that he wrote from the Melbourne suburbs and longs for a mythical country experience keeps me going.
What prompted you to put together The Big East project? Because of the site, has your approach differed from other projects you’ve put together (such as Hevy, Polar and Doubt)?
The Big East came out of the desire to do something near where I was located. I see my location as a restriction to work around. Could I make art that exists here in middle suburbia? What would it be, how would it look? I travel about two hours a day through the Melbourne suburbs going to my work, studio and my home, mostly along train lines. Along these paths and others that I run around, I see these sites, halls, and they seemed interesting. It is like the back part of a suburb, not good enough for houses, so what happens there? These things combined were enough for me to want to try something like The Big East .
What is your connection to the Big East and how is this further reflected in second iteration of this project?
My relationship has changed somewhat to it. I think in the first iteration of the project to the novelty of it being the first project was really important. The first time people are coming out this way, the first time they will see the types of works etc. and the sites I chose for the first time. This second time I am a little more nervous about it all, as it now has some history. Some of the artists were involved in the first one, some saw the first one. This will be a part of affecting the way that they will respond and to counter this somewhat the conditions are tighter. Less time to install, more space, the halls are closer together. I am worried that some of what just occurred naturally through being the first project will not be functioning as well in the second. I imagine though that something else will happen.
As curator of this project what do you see as some of the themes emerging from the combinations of work that is currently in development? Or perhaps you’re more interested in ‘recontextualising’ as a method and not a theme at all?
I am not overly interested in themes or recontextualisation as methods of curating. I am interested in it being a good show. To this end I select good people.
I’ve selected artists who have elements of something that I can identify with, and that I can identify within the space. This has resulted in artists whose work doesn't address the suburbs in any direct way, but does contain things that I relate to my suburban existence. Transitory, a pessimistic psychology, home. So really I am looking for connections to me.
These artists also have to be flexible people who can problem solve and adjust quickly to what a space might be asking. This is super important. The work needs to coordinate with the space. It cannot try to impose itself, as it will just jar and not in a good way. Some people I have asked for specific works, others I have just asked them to make works to the site. Overlaid on this is the very short time frame that we are working with. Access to the site is only hours before opening, and while some site visits have been possible the normal knowledge of a location is somewhat absent. I need people who can and enjoy working with these restrictions.
Simon Zoric
Where did you grow up?
East Bentleigh, Melbourne.
Where do you live now?
Northcote, Melbourne
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
No
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Yes. Because I've moved back there so many times, to the same house I grew up in, I'm still deeply affected (and troubled) by it.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
My connection is through Kiron, and conversations we've had. I suspect he could easily see through my 'cool inner city person' persona quite easily and tell I was from the burbs.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I cannot remember the last time I was in a Scout Hall. I was in a Masonic Hall for a wedding last year, which I know is quite different, but it had a similar feel and seemed to be from the same place in time.
Where is your work located?
Outside somewhere.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
The work is a direct response to the location, so it provides the context for viewing the work.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
I think about shopping centres and food courts a lot. Where I grew up there was a bus that went from Southland Shopping Centre to Chadstone Shopping Centre, so I spent most of my time as a teenager hanging out at both of them and would still go to them often whenever I had moved back home to see how they had changed (Chadstone is so posh now).
Sharon Goodwin
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Dandenong and spent my first 7 years near there in Hallam, after which I lived in North Ringwood.
Where do you live now?
Flemington
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Quite a few little things, all of which fits into boxes and drawers.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
I think so, but it’s hard to tease out exactly where and how.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
Besides being my old neighbourhood and really enjoying the previous Big East project, I was really interested in the aesthetics and code of the Scouts.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I was in a church hall recently for a memorial service, besides that, the last Scout hall was maybe a 21st or other birthday party. I used to see a lot of bands in Scout halls around the Ringwood area in my late teens. The acoustics in them is the cause of a great deal of my hearing loss!
Where is your work located?
I think it will be in the community hall
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
It’s a huge space, and I think the tension of such a large space and a simple work is something I’m looking forward to seeing.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Hoarders!!
Sanja Pahoki
Where did you grow up?
Grow up? In terms of height, most of my growing up occurred firstly in Osijek in Croatia. Then it was Deer Park in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. Where I learnt hand combat out in the paddocks behind school portables.
Where do you live now?
Ah-hem, East Melbourne, thank you very much.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
I found this bowl that I made in Metal Craft the other day. (see Exhibit A).
Where did you grow up?
Canberra
Where do you live now?
North Fitzroy
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Nothing tangible is coming to mind. But I have brought with me a soft spot for Margaret Fulton recipes and having ABC Classic FM on in the background, both of which were always around growing up.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
The work that I'm developing for The Big East project is definitely tapping into some nostalgic memories from a time when I was being endlessly chauffeured around by my parents to sporting events with detours to the shops for lollies and other treats. Putting some imaginative energy into playing around with food feels like a nod to my younger self.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I have exhibited with Kiron in a group project, Immanent Landscape (2012) that the artist Utako Shindo organised a couple of years back. That project took us to a small community outside of Tokyo which had a museum attached to a disused rice store house. Like The Big East, we were encouraged to develop work in and around these spaces that had a traditional function other than a space for exhibiting art.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I can’t remember ever being in a Scout Hall before, though I spent a bit of time at the local YMCA in Canberra when I was young – gymnastics and judo training after school.
Where is your work located?
I’m hoping to make use of one of the kitchen areas attached to the Scout Hall and potentially making a small work to go on the basketball court.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
One of the things that interested me about The Big East was getting out of the traditional gallery spaces or inner city artist-run spaces and coming up with ideas that can hold their own and have some sense of presence in terms of what the location is usually used for. I like the kitchenette beside the Scout Hall as I can imagine all of those pies, chips and lollies served up to excitable kids by Mums and Dads. So I've been thinking about the materials and objects that you might expect to find in this type of space and how I can play with these to find different ways of looking at this familiar space.
Kiron Robinson
Where did you grow up?
Bangladesh, India, Blackburn
Where do you live now?
East Ringwood
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
No not really. Asides from one toy dog I have carried with me.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Hmmm good question. Not in an overt "this is what I will make art about" way but more in the general things that I am interested in. They are less to do with a specific location than a desire to be elsewhere or somewhere.
What is your connection to the Big East (BIGGERER)?
I organised it.
Hey I meant the place not the exhibition:
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
Outside of The Big East the last two scout halls experience was my (then) ten year old nieces dance class recital and before that a friends 21st. This was a scout hall near the Murray River boarder. Her Dad was a bikie. Scouts and bikies
Where is your work located?
It will move through all of the spaces.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
A psychological placement: Community Halls and events that are based there come with a certain D.I.Y psychology. They are places that invite inhabitation, pretending to be empty but actually act as a democratising agent over any event enacted in their space. They dominate the tone. I am counting on this.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Anything by Gerald Murnane. The fact that he wrote from the Melbourne suburbs and longs for a mythical country experience keeps me going.
What prompted you to put together The Big East project? Because of the site, has your approach differed from other projects you’ve put together (such as Hevy, Polar and Doubt)?
The Big East came out of the desire to do something near where I was located. I see my location as a restriction to work around. Could I make art that exists here in middle suburbia? What would it be, how would it look? I travel about two hours a day through the Melbourne suburbs going to my work, studio and my home, mostly along train lines. Along these paths and others that I run around, I see these sites, halls, and they seemed interesting. It is like the back part of a suburb, not good enough for houses, so what happens there? These things combined were enough for me to want to try something like The Big East .
What is your connection to the Big East and how is this further reflected in second iteration of this project?
My relationship has changed somewhat to it. I think in the first iteration of the project to the novelty of it being the first project was really important. The first time people are coming out this way, the first time they will see the types of works etc. and the sites I chose for the first time. This second time I am a little more nervous about it all, as it now has some history. Some of the artists were involved in the first one, some saw the first one. This will be a part of affecting the way that they will respond and to counter this somewhat the conditions are tighter. Less time to install, more space, the halls are closer together. I am worried that some of what just occurred naturally through being the first project will not be functioning as well in the second. I imagine though that something else will happen.
As curator of this project what do you see as some of the themes emerging from the combinations of work that is currently in development? Or perhaps you’re more interested in ‘recontextualising’ as a method and not a theme at all?
I am not overly interested in themes or recontextualisation as methods of curating. I am interested in it being a good show. To this end I select good people.
I’ve selected artists who have elements of something that I can identify with, and that I can identify within the space. This has resulted in artists whose work doesn't address the suburbs in any direct way, but does contain things that I relate to my suburban existence. Transitory, a pessimistic psychology, home. So really I am looking for connections to me.
These artists also have to be flexible people who can problem solve and adjust quickly to what a space might be asking. This is super important. The work needs to coordinate with the space. It cannot try to impose itself, as it will just jar and not in a good way. Some people I have asked for specific works, others I have just asked them to make works to the site. Overlaid on this is the very short time frame that we are working with. Access to the site is only hours before opening, and while some site visits have been possible the normal knowledge of a location is somewhat absent. I need people who can and enjoy working with these restrictions.
Simon Zoric
Where did you grow up?
East Bentleigh, Melbourne.
Where do you live now?
Northcote, Melbourne
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
No
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Yes. Because I've moved back there so many times, to the same house I grew up in, I'm still deeply affected (and troubled) by it.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
My connection is through Kiron, and conversations we've had. I suspect he could easily see through my 'cool inner city person' persona quite easily and tell I was from the burbs.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I cannot remember the last time I was in a Scout Hall. I was in a Masonic Hall for a wedding last year, which I know is quite different, but it had a similar feel and seemed to be from the same place in time.
Where is your work located?
Outside somewhere.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
The work is a direct response to the location, so it provides the context for viewing the work.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
I think about shopping centres and food courts a lot. Where I grew up there was a bus that went from Southland Shopping Centre to Chadstone Shopping Centre, so I spent most of my time as a teenager hanging out at both of them and would still go to them often whenever I had moved back home to see how they had changed (Chadstone is so posh now).
Sharon Goodwin
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Dandenong and spent my first 7 years near there in Hallam, after which I lived in North Ringwood.
Where do you live now?
Flemington
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Quite a few little things, all of which fits into boxes and drawers.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
I think so, but it’s hard to tease out exactly where and how.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
Besides being my old neighbourhood and really enjoying the previous Big East project, I was really interested in the aesthetics and code of the Scouts.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I was in a church hall recently for a memorial service, besides that, the last Scout hall was maybe a 21st or other birthday party. I used to see a lot of bands in Scout halls around the Ringwood area in my late teens. The acoustics in them is the cause of a great deal of my hearing loss!
Where is your work located?
I think it will be in the community hall
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
It’s a huge space, and I think the tension of such a large space and a simple work is something I’m looking forward to seeing.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Hoarders!!
Sanja Pahoki
Where did you grow up?
Grow up? In terms of height, most of my growing up occurred firstly in Osijek in Croatia. Then it was Deer Park in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. Where I learnt hand combat out in the paddocks behind school portables.
Where do you live now?
Ah-hem, East Melbourne, thank you very much.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
I found this bowl that I made in Metal Craft the other day. (see Exhibit A).
Exhibit A.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Most of my work is about where I grew up. It's about the migrant stuff; identity, place, language. I use myself and my family quite a lot in my practice. The work that I am showing for The Big East is a 3-channel video work that features myself and my family, it's all about growing up, growing older, growing dead.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I know Kiron, and we have shown quite frequently together. I think he saw the suburban element in my work and wanted to bring that out in my work, and perhaps others, by doing this show that puts it out front. I guess it's something that he is grappling with a little, living in the suburbs, the family and the kids. By grappling, I don't mean in a heavy way, more artistically. I like how the burbs have featured more in his most recent work. But hey, this is supposed to be about me not Kiron. I guess the suburbs is something most of us who have grown up in Australia can relate to.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I can’t remember the last time I was in a Scout Hall. It’s not somewhere I am drawn to. I tried to get into the Girl Guides once but only made it to the Brownies stage. I found the whole experience alienating.
Where is your work located?
It will either be in a foyer area or in the hall/kitchen area of a building Kiron showed me, maybe one monitor may be outside .... I guess we will see. I guess what these spaces have in common is that they are kind of transitional spaces. I am drawn to these spaces.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
Make it less monumental, more daggy perhaps? Quirky? Might be an interesting tension between the suburban mis-en-scene and human intimate element in my video work and the suburban institutional context in which the work is shown. I am thinking maybe David Lynch? Maybe Lars Von Trier?
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
David Lynch's tv series, 'Twin Peaks'.
Ash Kilmartin
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Papatoetoe, Manukau, New Zealand. Most of the time at my mother’s house, which was 1.8km away from my father’s house.
Where do you live now?
Carlton, Victoria.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Until a year ago, I didn’t. Now I have the dining table that was at my dad’s place, I grew up eating at that table every second weekend. My fridge, soup pot, egg beater, lawn-mowing boots, etc, were also from the same house. And some seeds from the Kowhai tree where the Tui birds sing, but I haven’t planted them yet.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Maybe the regular routine of staying at one house, then the other, for designated periods of time has shaped my need for organisation and planning, my anxiety about spending or wasting time. Knowing that the bus into the city takes 50 minutes might have helped with that too.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I gave a talk at the VCA, about work I made on a recent residency in Paris, and from that Kiron somehow decided that my work might be suitable for a suburban Melbourne Scout hall. I’ll have to ask him what it was!
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I had ballet lessons in a Scout Hall in Papatoetoe, from age 5 to 11 - always the same hall. The strange costumes and rituals are not so different across the two activities. I don’t think I’ve been to any other Scout halls since. (Until today, thinking about it really hard, I couldn’t even remember when I was last in one - I had forgotten about my dance days - but the Ringwood halls feel very familiar and normal).
Where is your work located?
It will be dispersed around and outside the Halls.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
The location has a particular kind of time and occupation, and the work uses this as a model. It’s a space that feels normal but is quite unusual, in that it is occupied by various groups of a specific community, some connected and some not, who all come at scheduled times and use the facilities for their own private purposes. Driving in, dropping off, doing something, picking up, driving out. Coming back next week. Over months or maybe years of a life.
The occupation is ruled by timetables, in weekly rotation, by-the-hour...this kind of shared, multi-functional space seems very specific to the suburbs, or at least, the kinds of societies/communities that suburban living generates.
Each of the groups who use the spaces are training for something - practicing, getting ready for some event or just for life. The educational/instructional, performative, duration-based activities that go on here are rich ground for studies toward works! The ‘found language’ - signs, notes, instructions left around the place by certain people for certain others - is one of the bases for my work.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
I don’t think there’s a ‘text’ of any kind that has stuck with me. But there is a kind of afternoon-feeling - rainy or sunny - no matter which city I’m in - a certain stillness at a particular time of the day when I have the sense of what it felt like to be in Papatoe on a Sunday afternoon. It’s not possible to ‘think’ this moment into happening but it remains a connection with part of my life that doesn’t seem connected to any particular age. The suburbs are always about being ‘transported’, n’est-ce pas?
Paradise Structures
Where did you grow up?
On a farm three hours away from Melbourne in north west Victoria.
Where do you live now?
West Footscray
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Our mum. Also this large pot plant that is 25+ years old - it wilts all the time now that it's moved to the city, maybe it's homesick.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
no idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
Alana used to live in Belgrave and we went to it last time...
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
We saw a guy play keyboards in the hall in the town near where we grew up as part of a daytime music festival in April this year.
Where is your work located?
All around the place, inside and outside.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
It's cool how the whole project encourages people to explore these spaces that they might not have gone to before. So we placed our work all around the place, in all the halls and also outside and went with that vibe of encouraging exploration and interaction... it's like a weird treasure hunt.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
“The Australian Ugliness” by Robin Boyd and The Diaries of Adrian Mole and every local band who has filmed a video clip in their backyard.
Lisa Radford
Where did you grow up?
Coburg. I am Coburgian, not Australian
Where do you live now?
CBD
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
A box of photos, my Mum's wedding. Ring and a carved chest that she bought OS. Some tea towels and tablecloths. Some cassette tapes and records.
I think more than anything I have transplanted the inability to organise 'things'. Clutter? Is this what it is called? Everything all at once seems irrelevant and important.
Everything, all at once….tell me more….
Everything all at once... well it was the title of the show at ML Gallery. But I think I say it a lot.
It is something Sam and I talk about, and it is something Sam, Kim and I talk about. We are trying to write a script. When I described it to Simon he said, that sounds like a crazy person’s head. I said, Sam and I are crazy. He said, I know.
I have pieces of paper with one word written on them from 10 years ago that I can't throw out. This paper does not have a home, a shelf to go on, a draw to live in, a book to slot into. Or if it is slotted into a book, the book is irrelevant, or there are 50 of the notes, with 89 different words. This note exists alongside that ring of Mum's, my PhD writing attempts and the books I am reading (or reading via osmosis), the DVD of Malcolm (and all the other DVD's), some USB sticks, too many pens, unopened mail, photo's from 10 years ago when you went to Kodak to get prints, and open pack of nori, the dust that is between the floorboards that I can't seem to get rid of, the dead maiden hair I keep trying to resuscitate, and then plus all my thoughts and conversations with all those people, the 23 tabs that are open in my firefox - Update: Ariel Pink, Sherman galleries, Malcom, Kenneth Goldsmith, The Guardian, The Honourable Woman, Adtran Broadband, BOMB, Generation Wuss, Susan Miller's Astrology Zone etc etc.
I can't figure out their order. Some are more important than others at different times, depending. And so you pull one of those things out, and you frame it or decontextualise it, or re-contextualise it with other things and words and marks and mistakes, and then you put it back again. Nothing is ready made, it’s always just ready to be made. Or something.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
A Coburgian mix of difference?
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I interviewed Kiron about it last year for Stamm. I wonder if this is why I was asked. We also work together but on different days.
I used to teach in Wantirna.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I think in 2002 in NZ with my partner at the time. Simply looking at spaces we hadn't looked at for a while.
Where is your work located?
In the girl guides hall.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
I like my paintings being a backdrop to something else. Or supported by something else. I've asked Simon McGlinn to write something. Notice boards seem like the right place for them.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Malcolm! The movie Malcolm!
You know I went back and looked at Malcolm after I intuitively replied to your question, and the movie is so tangentially similar to the context within which I grew up, it’s not funny. A kinda quirky sincerity and inventiveness paralleling the quirky sincerity and desperation (and inventiveness) of crime. A web of high low culture mash up shot in Brunswick.
Anyway, Nadia Tass made the film and dedicated it to her brother who had died prior to the making or writing of the film. I like how so many things that are made are kind of like deadications (excuse the pun).
Anyway, here is my soppy bit: I always feel like death is chasing me a bit (I wonder if you feel like this too sometimes). And then I wondered, whether I am actually always looking for it. Like looking for the life after death? Anyway.... existential musings because I am in the studio and have time....
It really is my favourite film. And if you haven't seen it you should. I first saw it with my mum at the movies when I was 10
http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/malcolm/clip2/
Eliza Dyball
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Chelsea on the Frankston line.
Where do you live now?
I've just moved to Coburg in the last week, I've been in the inner north for the last 10 years.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
My Dad’s 35mm camera, I think is the only object I've held onto. I have behaviour that’s been transplanted. The house I grew up in has a very strong character, full of forces.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Most definitely but I'm not sure if it’s more of the ‘how’ as opposed to the ‘where’- family dynamics, social structures, class, domestication, chaos, the body. Where I grew up I was very aware of the class structures in place and what held me in place, it was a pretty rough area, for me. I was always pushing for something else, I remember I was really surprised when I went to high school, being the 3rd of 4 children, my brother and sister had already behaved in a certain way, there was a certain expectation there that I would be difficult. I was trying to move out of that trajectory - trying to understand what held me in place and how I could potentially subvert that.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I'm not sure if it was a specific discussion - more cumulative, Kiron was one of my lecturers at VCA, we've continued the friendship and dialogue outside of that structure. It feels like it was around a conversation we had about my sound work I did for The Next Wave Festival in 2012, it was a public work and was very site specific. I was interacting with the patterns and behaviours of the public in a civic space, trying to disrupt movement with the vocal direction taken from Merce Cunningham dance classes.
I do remember the conversation Kiron and I had when he invited me to take part in the first Big East, I was trying to get him to give me a picture of what Heathmont was like, what it was near, you know its redeeming or particular character….growing up in Chelsea for me the beach was the thing that gave us a sort of environmental grounding, inescapable. The weather was a very present factor, something I miss living in the north is the sea breeze and the rapid changes in temperature, a cool change really comes, a storm actually rolls in.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I'm not sure if this is the last time but its certainly my strongest memory - I was a Joey in Chelsea, we would have members of the community who would visit and tell stories of their life and that would somehow give us the opportunity to get a badge. Anyway we had this man who visited for maybe 2 weeks in a row. I'm not sure the nature of his visits perhaps it was some sort of community program - he had tried to commit suicide. The bullet cut through the back of his eye sockets missing his brain completely but leaving him blind. I can’t remember the badge we were working towards, but I do remember convincing him to take off his wrap around Oakleys to reveal his eyeless sockets.
I've just been invited to my cousin’s wedding just out side of Echuca, my uncle - not her father is the custodian of the Scout hall...I don’t think its really in use as a Scout hall anymore but my cousin, who I think I have spent a whole of 13 hours with in my entire life is having her wedding there, very casual. She has invited everyone with just a couple of weeks notice and we have been encouraged on the invite to bring our dogs. I don't have a dog but I'm looking forward to that.
Where is your work located?
That hasn't been worked out yet...
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
I'm imagining it on the floor.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
http://www.sistersinside.com.au/media/refocusingSpeech.pdf
Sean Peoples
Where did you grow up?
Glen Waverley first. Tecoma second.
Where do you live now?
Belgrave
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
My books. Mad Magazines. Tintin. Where's Wally?
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Everything I've done and everywhere I've been has affected my practice in some way. I spent most of my childhood inside though so maybe geography doesn't have much to do with it.
The other side of my practice, The Telepathy Project, has extensively used dreams. In this work childhood, home and place are very present.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I saw Kiron at Gertrude Street a while back and he invited me then and there.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
Last year when Kiron did this.
Where is your work located?
Not sure yet
What do you think its location give the work, as you imagine it now?
It gives the work a home.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
They did a dream episode of Neighbours that I've never forgot. I also remember when Karl became a musician and Susan regressed to the mind of a 7 year old.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Most of my work is about where I grew up. It's about the migrant stuff; identity, place, language. I use myself and my family quite a lot in my practice. The work that I am showing for The Big East is a 3-channel video work that features myself and my family, it's all about growing up, growing older, growing dead.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I know Kiron, and we have shown quite frequently together. I think he saw the suburban element in my work and wanted to bring that out in my work, and perhaps others, by doing this show that puts it out front. I guess it's something that he is grappling with a little, living in the suburbs, the family and the kids. By grappling, I don't mean in a heavy way, more artistically. I like how the burbs have featured more in his most recent work. But hey, this is supposed to be about me not Kiron. I guess the suburbs is something most of us who have grown up in Australia can relate to.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I can’t remember the last time I was in a Scout Hall. It’s not somewhere I am drawn to. I tried to get into the Girl Guides once but only made it to the Brownies stage. I found the whole experience alienating.
Where is your work located?
It will either be in a foyer area or in the hall/kitchen area of a building Kiron showed me, maybe one monitor may be outside .... I guess we will see. I guess what these spaces have in common is that they are kind of transitional spaces. I am drawn to these spaces.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
Make it less monumental, more daggy perhaps? Quirky? Might be an interesting tension between the suburban mis-en-scene and human intimate element in my video work and the suburban institutional context in which the work is shown. I am thinking maybe David Lynch? Maybe Lars Von Trier?
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
David Lynch's tv series, 'Twin Peaks'.
Ash Kilmartin
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Papatoetoe, Manukau, New Zealand. Most of the time at my mother’s house, which was 1.8km away from my father’s house.
Where do you live now?
Carlton, Victoria.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Until a year ago, I didn’t. Now I have the dining table that was at my dad’s place, I grew up eating at that table every second weekend. My fridge, soup pot, egg beater, lawn-mowing boots, etc, were also from the same house. And some seeds from the Kowhai tree where the Tui birds sing, but I haven’t planted them yet.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Maybe the regular routine of staying at one house, then the other, for designated periods of time has shaped my need for organisation and planning, my anxiety about spending or wasting time. Knowing that the bus into the city takes 50 minutes might have helped with that too.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I gave a talk at the VCA, about work I made on a recent residency in Paris, and from that Kiron somehow decided that my work might be suitable for a suburban Melbourne Scout hall. I’ll have to ask him what it was!
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I had ballet lessons in a Scout Hall in Papatoetoe, from age 5 to 11 - always the same hall. The strange costumes and rituals are not so different across the two activities. I don’t think I’ve been to any other Scout halls since. (Until today, thinking about it really hard, I couldn’t even remember when I was last in one - I had forgotten about my dance days - but the Ringwood halls feel very familiar and normal).
Where is your work located?
It will be dispersed around and outside the Halls.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
The location has a particular kind of time and occupation, and the work uses this as a model. It’s a space that feels normal but is quite unusual, in that it is occupied by various groups of a specific community, some connected and some not, who all come at scheduled times and use the facilities for their own private purposes. Driving in, dropping off, doing something, picking up, driving out. Coming back next week. Over months or maybe years of a life.
The occupation is ruled by timetables, in weekly rotation, by-the-hour...this kind of shared, multi-functional space seems very specific to the suburbs, or at least, the kinds of societies/communities that suburban living generates.
Each of the groups who use the spaces are training for something - practicing, getting ready for some event or just for life. The educational/instructional, performative, duration-based activities that go on here are rich ground for studies toward works! The ‘found language’ - signs, notes, instructions left around the place by certain people for certain others - is one of the bases for my work.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
I don’t think there’s a ‘text’ of any kind that has stuck with me. But there is a kind of afternoon-feeling - rainy or sunny - no matter which city I’m in - a certain stillness at a particular time of the day when I have the sense of what it felt like to be in Papatoe on a Sunday afternoon. It’s not possible to ‘think’ this moment into happening but it remains a connection with part of my life that doesn’t seem connected to any particular age. The suburbs are always about being ‘transported’, n’est-ce pas?
Paradise Structures
Where did you grow up?
On a farm three hours away from Melbourne in north west Victoria.
Where do you live now?
West Footscray
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
Our mum. Also this large pot plant that is 25+ years old - it wilts all the time now that it's moved to the city, maybe it's homesick.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
no idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
Alana used to live in Belgrave and we went to it last time...
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
We saw a guy play keyboards in the hall in the town near where we grew up as part of a daytime music festival in April this year.
Where is your work located?
All around the place, inside and outside.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
It's cool how the whole project encourages people to explore these spaces that they might not have gone to before. So we placed our work all around the place, in all the halls and also outside and went with that vibe of encouraging exploration and interaction... it's like a weird treasure hunt.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
“The Australian Ugliness” by Robin Boyd and The Diaries of Adrian Mole and every local band who has filmed a video clip in their backyard.
Lisa Radford
Where did you grow up?
Coburg. I am Coburgian, not Australian
Where do you live now?
CBD
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
A box of photos, my Mum's wedding. Ring and a carved chest that she bought OS. Some tea towels and tablecloths. Some cassette tapes and records.
I think more than anything I have transplanted the inability to organise 'things'. Clutter? Is this what it is called? Everything all at once seems irrelevant and important.
Everything, all at once….tell me more….
Everything all at once... well it was the title of the show at ML Gallery. But I think I say it a lot.
It is something Sam and I talk about, and it is something Sam, Kim and I talk about. We are trying to write a script. When I described it to Simon he said, that sounds like a crazy person’s head. I said, Sam and I are crazy. He said, I know.
I have pieces of paper with one word written on them from 10 years ago that I can't throw out. This paper does not have a home, a shelf to go on, a draw to live in, a book to slot into. Or if it is slotted into a book, the book is irrelevant, or there are 50 of the notes, with 89 different words. This note exists alongside that ring of Mum's, my PhD writing attempts and the books I am reading (or reading via osmosis), the DVD of Malcolm (and all the other DVD's), some USB sticks, too many pens, unopened mail, photo's from 10 years ago when you went to Kodak to get prints, and open pack of nori, the dust that is between the floorboards that I can't seem to get rid of, the dead maiden hair I keep trying to resuscitate, and then plus all my thoughts and conversations with all those people, the 23 tabs that are open in my firefox - Update: Ariel Pink, Sherman galleries, Malcom, Kenneth Goldsmith, The Guardian, The Honourable Woman, Adtran Broadband, BOMB, Generation Wuss, Susan Miller's Astrology Zone etc etc.
I can't figure out their order. Some are more important than others at different times, depending. And so you pull one of those things out, and you frame it or decontextualise it, or re-contextualise it with other things and words and marks and mistakes, and then you put it back again. Nothing is ready made, it’s always just ready to be made. Or something.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
A Coburgian mix of difference?
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I interviewed Kiron about it last year for Stamm. I wonder if this is why I was asked. We also work together but on different days.
I used to teach in Wantirna.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I think in 2002 in NZ with my partner at the time. Simply looking at spaces we hadn't looked at for a while.
Where is your work located?
In the girl guides hall.
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
I like my paintings being a backdrop to something else. Or supported by something else. I've asked Simon McGlinn to write something. Notice boards seem like the right place for them.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
Malcolm! The movie Malcolm!
You know I went back and looked at Malcolm after I intuitively replied to your question, and the movie is so tangentially similar to the context within which I grew up, it’s not funny. A kinda quirky sincerity and inventiveness paralleling the quirky sincerity and desperation (and inventiveness) of crime. A web of high low culture mash up shot in Brunswick.
Anyway, Nadia Tass made the film and dedicated it to her brother who had died prior to the making or writing of the film. I like how so many things that are made are kind of like deadications (excuse the pun).
Anyway, here is my soppy bit: I always feel like death is chasing me a bit (I wonder if you feel like this too sometimes). And then I wondered, whether I am actually always looking for it. Like looking for the life after death? Anyway.... existential musings because I am in the studio and have time....
It really is my favourite film. And if you haven't seen it you should. I first saw it with my mum at the movies when I was 10
http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/malcolm/clip2/
Eliza Dyball
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Chelsea on the Frankston line.
Where do you live now?
I've just moved to Coburg in the last week, I've been in the inner north for the last 10 years.
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
My Dad’s 35mm camera, I think is the only object I've held onto. I have behaviour that’s been transplanted. The house I grew up in has a very strong character, full of forces.
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Most definitely but I'm not sure if it’s more of the ‘how’ as opposed to the ‘where’- family dynamics, social structures, class, domestication, chaos, the body. Where I grew up I was very aware of the class structures in place and what held me in place, it was a pretty rough area, for me. I was always pushing for something else, I remember I was really surprised when I went to high school, being the 3rd of 4 children, my brother and sister had already behaved in a certain way, there was a certain expectation there that I would be difficult. I was trying to move out of that trajectory - trying to understand what held me in place and how I could potentially subvert that.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I'm not sure if it was a specific discussion - more cumulative, Kiron was one of my lecturers at VCA, we've continued the friendship and dialogue outside of that structure. It feels like it was around a conversation we had about my sound work I did for The Next Wave Festival in 2012, it was a public work and was very site specific. I was interacting with the patterns and behaviours of the public in a civic space, trying to disrupt movement with the vocal direction taken from Merce Cunningham dance classes.
I do remember the conversation Kiron and I had when he invited me to take part in the first Big East, I was trying to get him to give me a picture of what Heathmont was like, what it was near, you know its redeeming or particular character….growing up in Chelsea for me the beach was the thing that gave us a sort of environmental grounding, inescapable. The weather was a very present factor, something I miss living in the north is the sea breeze and the rapid changes in temperature, a cool change really comes, a storm actually rolls in.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
I'm not sure if this is the last time but its certainly my strongest memory - I was a Joey in Chelsea, we would have members of the community who would visit and tell stories of their life and that would somehow give us the opportunity to get a badge. Anyway we had this man who visited for maybe 2 weeks in a row. I'm not sure the nature of his visits perhaps it was some sort of community program - he had tried to commit suicide. The bullet cut through the back of his eye sockets missing his brain completely but leaving him blind. I can’t remember the badge we were working towards, but I do remember convincing him to take off his wrap around Oakleys to reveal his eyeless sockets.
I've just been invited to my cousin’s wedding just out side of Echuca, my uncle - not her father is the custodian of the Scout hall...I don’t think its really in use as a Scout hall anymore but my cousin, who I think I have spent a whole of 13 hours with in my entire life is having her wedding there, very casual. She has invited everyone with just a couple of weeks notice and we have been encouraged on the invite to bring our dogs. I don't have a dog but I'm looking forward to that.
Where is your work located?
That hasn't been worked out yet...
How do you imagine location will have an impact on the work?
I'm imagining it on the floor.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
http://www.sistersinside.com.au/media/refocusingSpeech.pdf
Sean Peoples
Where did you grow up?
Glen Waverley first. Tecoma second.
Where do you live now?
Belgrave
Is there something you have now in your current home, that you’ve transplanted from the place where you grew up?
My books. Mad Magazines. Tintin. Where's Wally?
Do you see any hints of where you grew up in your practice now, do you see it seeping in, or perhaps it has in previous work?
Everything I've done and everywhere I've been has affected my practice in some way. I spent most of my childhood inside though so maybe geography doesn't have much to do with it.
The other side of my practice, The Telepathy Project, has extensively used dreams. In this work childhood, home and place are very present.
What is your connection to the Big East? Perhaps your connection is through Kiron and a conversation you’ve had?
I saw Kiron at Gertrude Street a while back and he invited me then and there.
When was the last time you were in a Scout Hall and why (apart from this project)?
Last year when Kiron did this.
Where is your work located?
Not sure yet
What do you think its location give the work, as you imagine it now?
It gives the work a home.
This project is in part about communal or community spaces in suburban areas. Is there a portrait of the suburbs in a book, piece of writing, snippet of television or film (or just anything other than art) that captures a sense of the suburbs you’re familiar with?
They did a dream episode of Neighbours that I've never forgot. I also remember when Karl became a musician and Susan regressed to the mind of a 7 year old.