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Ruth Claxton examines the changing aspirations of artist-led spaces.
I recently spent two weeks in Melbourne undertaking a research and development residency with artist Kelly Large at the invitation of Ocular Lab, an artist-led space in the north of the city. Whilst there, we operated as ‘art tourists’ visiting and talking to a wide range of artists, curators and spaces, infiltrating, navigating and utilising the complex networks of groups and individuals we uncovered. Melbourne is the undisputed, heavyweight champion of artist-led activity in Australia with a long history of influential projects and initiatives. Space is relatively cheap, there is a large community of artists, graduates stay in the city and the standard of living is good. However, as we met more people and saw more artist-led initiatives (and in such a short time we only really got a snapshot), we were struck by a number of apparent anomalies. The overwhelmingly predominant model is the clean, white cube gallery space, run by a committee of artists and often with a longstanding director, mimicking the structures and organisation of the institution. This seems remarkable given that there is little funding available and that, even in the most established spaces, it is...
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