ARTISTS TALKING

Paul Stone talks to Sheena Macrae about her three-month residency at Gertrude in Melbourne, Australia and its huge impact on her practice.

Introduction

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces is a non-profit art organisation located in Melbourne, Australia that supports emerging artists with exhibitions, studios and professional development. Founded in 1983, the organisation is actively engaged in the Melbourne art scene supporting cultural exchanges, public programmes and contemporary critical debate while networking these relationships into the broader state, interstate and international art and cultural practices.

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces states its purpose being “a society which values creativity, risk and experimentation in the visual arts”.

The Studio 18 residency programme, available to international and interstate artists, has flexible timescales from six weeks to three months. London-based artist/filmmaker, Sheena Macrae, was invited as the international visiting artist at Gertrude for three months in 2006.

Background

Located in Fitzroy, a trendy area fifteen minute’s walk from the city centre, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces consists of a combination of three gallery spaces, sixteen studios for local emerging artists and a residential live/work studio. Studio 18 is the only residential studio in the complex and is located on the top floor of an older three-storey building. It is a large self-contained, open-plan live/work space (approximately 96sqm) with good light, wood floors, big wall spaces and a well-equipped flat.

For Sheena Macrae, the time and space provided was ideal:

“While three months is a significant amount of time to dedicate to a residency, I would highly recommend this time frame to get maximum value from the experience. I find it takes time to get settled into a schedule, learn the lay-of-the-land, find appropriate materials, work on research ideas and get to know people – by the end you are always wishing you had a couple more weeks. Australia is a great place to make work – straightforward, friendly and efficient, materials are inexpensive, easy to source and readily available, people are unwaveringly helpful, transportation is efficient and all levels of industry are nearby and available for the most demanding production.”

Application

Applications are sought from ‘contemporary visual artists pursuing an innovative practice in a professional capacity’ and have to be made around six months in advance.

For Macrae, it helped that she had already had the opportunity to research the residency first:

“My initial contact with Gertrude was a face-to-face meeting while I was traveling in Australia having finished a residency at Rawspace, Brisbane. I was able to meet and talk about the residency with the Director, Alexie Glass and Programme Manager, Jacqueline Doughty. It allowed me to see first-hand the studios, gallery and get a sense of the people, all of which were impressive, welcoming and organised. I was invited to apply formally, which I did when I got back to London. A selection committee is made up of gallery staff, practising artists and other art professionals.”

Support

Studio 18 comes with a rent of AU$165 per week, so external funding is required for this residency. They provide a standard contract with a deposit required before arriving. No subsistence funding is provided. Being born in Canada, Macrae was eligible for a Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant, which covered the majority of her costs.

On the top floor of a busy three-storey building, but with a separate staircase, Studio 18 allows residents to move between different types of spaces and environments. There is access to the fax, photocopier, basic computer and email for a small user’s fee. The studio doesn’t have any tools, equipment or technicians, although some basic tools can be borrowed: for instance, Macrae needed a VHS/DVD player and projector, which at the time was available to borrow:

“I am fairly self-sufficient with equipment during residencies; bringing a laptop, hard drives and camera equipment will cover most of my daily needs. I was able to bring my portable wireless hub, which gave me an internet connection, although I believe they now have wireless throughout the building. They were very helpful finding me the necessary resources at every stage. For me that included sourcing video materials – a great rental shop around the corner and the Australian Centre for Moving Image Film Archive, which has a vast array of VHS, DVD, 16mm and 35mm film prints. General art consumables were obtained at an art supply store a few minutes away and Melbourne city centre is five minutes by tram with everything you could want. There are several good libraries, a museum and public and private galleries within a short distance.”

Motivation

“The main motivation was the ubiquitous lament for time and space – to be away from the consuming details of what can constitute ‘normal life’. There is often a cost, both economically and personally, to detach from daily life for a portion of time and, while wary, I’ve never regretted the investment of a residency. Gertrude offered a large live/work studio affording time to focus and lightly play out ideas/sketches with no expectation of an exhibition, then to have time to step back and evaluate if it worked within a larger framework. I find new perspectives tend to make positive cracks in my normal sightline. I also find meeting people a big connector into knowledge of new ideas, conversations about work and opportunities offered that can’t be predicted otherwise.

I had proposed a rough film idea that I was looking forward to spending time unraveling and doing research with the resources of the Australian Centre for Moving Image Archives. While there wasn’t a technical resource of equipment and technicians, I built into my schedule my first HD film shoot to act as a challenge/experiment with sourced locations and ideas from the residency. Needless to say, expectations were more then exceeded...”

Goals

“Initially I was expecting the residency to be a relaxed and quiet time, engaging in and working through new ideas for my film. I had no expectations of an exhibition. During the first week I settled into a relaxed, daily routine of screening difficult-to-find 16mm films in the comfortable projection room at Australian Centre for Moving Image Film Archive, aided by an incredibly knowledgeable projectionist who seemed entirely at my disposal. The next week I was emailed an invitation for a monograph at the Musée d’Art Contemporain Val-de-Marne (MAC-VAL) near Paris, an opportunity that offered great possibilities. As a result my tactic changed and I went flat out on research and development for the exhibition.

Ultimately it was ideal, I was in a residency space at a crucial production time and it allowed for an intensive working space away from the constraints of daily life in London. I was able to live with the new work-in-progress as it was spread around the studio or looping on a projector endlessly throughout my day. I had excellent resources and support from the film/video resources of the Australian Centre for Moving Image, staff and artists at Gertrude and formed engaging dialogues with other artistic professionals. The ideas and formulation progressed significantly within this mental/physical envelope of time and space. It was also a time to see and extend knowledge of new work and artistic practices in Australia, meet people and have a social time, which has extended into long-term friendships.”

Outcomes

“The main outcome was a successful new body of work for the MAC/VAL monograph show – primarily the film installation Odyssey (an Op Art slice up of Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey) and a reworking of Dallas (a collage of episodes from the TV series). In addition, a body of fledgling works was produced that have unfolded over the following year, forming the main body of a subsequent show at Fieldgate Gallery in London, including Stereo Alphaville (the Jean Luc Godard script reworked into a sound wave) and the idea for the The Projectionists (enlarged film frames from the realised urban film legend of projectionists who steal souvenir film frames from favourite movies).

I gave a number of talks and screenings at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, at the local Monash University in the Faculty of Art and Design and the Architectural Faculty at RMIT University. The staff at Gertrude linked me into meetings and studio visits with local curators, critics, theorists and artists, creating long-standing links and working relationships and friendships that continue to evolve in Australia and the UK. Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces included new work into their final year catalogue.”

Legacy

“The longer-term outcomes have been consistent and ongoing and were underpinned by the exhibition at the MAC/VAL museum. I linked the curator at the MAC/VAL in dialogue with the visiting curator programme at Gertrude. Through studio visits during my residency the curator, Karra Rees at the Centre for Contemporary Photography invited me to exhibit at Gallery Four in Melbourne (2008). I have been involved in various group exhibitions including Australian Centre for Moving Image (Melbourne), Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney), Rawspace (Brisbane) and Electrofringe Festival (Newcastle).

Through my talk at Monash University and subsequent meetings with the faculty staff, I was invited to be a visiting artist and returned for a fully-funded two-month residency based at the university in 2008, where I continued to produce new work based on The Projectionists. During this residency I gave talks, critiques and taught at Monash University Faculty of Art and Design and have been included in the publication of Women in Research. In addition, I gave screenings and talks at the Horse Bazaar and RMIT University Design Hub Gallery and found representation by a commercial Melbourne gallery called Arc One.

I have continued to be in contact with curators, writers and artists as they filter through London, meeting and keeping in touch though email and ongoing working relationships. There are future plans for collaboration with Monash staff for an Australian/British exhibition in 2010 and discussions of a number of exhibition opportunities. The initial thread of this residency has had a huge impact both on production of work, exhibition opportunities and continuing dialogues and future collaborations.”

Contacts

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
www.gertrude.org.au

Sheena Macrae
www.sheenamacrae.com

The writer

Paul Stone is a Director of Vane gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, and an artist.

www.vane.org.uk

Paul Stone

Paul Stone is a Director of Vane gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, and an artist.

www.vane.org.uk

First published: a-n.co.uk July 2008