December / 2021
An inclusive, curated international art platform that commissions and presents collaborations between artists from supported studios, artist peers and arts professionals. We elevate diverse voices and creative practices.
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art et al.
Sandra Lott × Emily Ferretti
Peer / Peer Through Peer to Peer, we commission new artwork created by two artists internationally, with one artist working from a supported studio. Over several months, the artists have conversations over zoom or through shared video content, with the creative output taking any form, and in any medium or scale.
For six weeks, Australian artist Emily Ferretti and London studio-based artist Sandra Lott, set weekly briefs for each other. The briefs were never strict, with the aim of just using art to communicate and play, then come together to share the results.
Thom Roberts × Cherelle Sappleton
the fountain in the first week, and others where broader and based on both our general interests like abstraction. I wanted the work I made to reflect this playfulness and willingness to see what happens. Overall, how have you found the whole six weeks? Sandra: It’s been fantastic, absolutely fantastic! I have done my poems, and images of London, Dolomites, and landscapes. I’ve enjoyed working with abstract and cubism. Emily: It’s been a privilege to get to know Sandra as a person and artist over the past six weeks. I have enjoyed very much our conversations every week and getting to know more about her working methods and time at the ‘Submit to Love’ studios. Sandra was so easy to collaborate with because she has a very positive attitude and willingness to try new things.
Over three months, and a shared interest in the process of photocopying, Sydney studio-based artist Thom Roberts and UK based artist Cherelle Sappleton, communicated through video messages and sent each other digital artwork files to develop a collaborative series.
What has been your favourite part of the collaboration? Sandra: I like it because at first it felt hard, but now it’s easier. And we are staying in touch. Emily said we could email each other. Emily: My favourite part was opening up Sandra’s emails to receive her new weekly creations. The works were always filled with autobiography, intuitive colour combinations and bold visual language. It was a privilege to hear Sandra talk about her works and the life and memories that she had used to inform them.
Who is Woody Tiger? In March 2021, Thom Roberts and Cherelle Sappleton were introduced as the paired artists for Art et al.’s second Peer/ Peer Collaboration – a series that commissions new openended artistic output between two artists internationally, with one artist working from a supported studio. Residing on opposite sides of the globe, Sappleton in the United Kingdom and Roberts in Australia, they communicated virtually via video messages. During his introduction video, Roberts shared an artwork portrait of ‘Woody Tiger’. This elusive, vivid female portrait became a key thread in communication and collaboration.
Process also became key to the collaboration through image layering and reproduction, as well as a shared interest in visually examining text. Consistent with their existing practices, this was evident through Sappleton’s digital collages and the manipulation of physical photocopies/prints by Roberts. Over the three months, Roberts and Sappleton exchanged videos and artworks digitally back and forth exploring, manipulating and developing.
CHERELLE SAPPLETON / UK British born, Cherelle Sappleton studied Fine Art and Drama jointly at Bath Spa University (2006), then she completed a post-graduate diploma in Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art (2011), and MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins (2013). Her practice centres on photographic media utilising abstraction and surrealist aesthetics. Blending these elements together, the work she makes uses the black female body as a starting point to explore and respond to issues of representation, agency and sensuality via collage, moving image and photography whilst also investigating the power and materiality of photographic images. She has exhibited in a variety of exhibitions, commissioned by the National Theatre, Harpers’ Bazaar China, The National Trust and Adidas. THOM ROBERTS / AUSTRALIA Thom Roberts’ painting practice is one part of his varied oeuvre: a keen collaborator, he has also worked in performance, video animation, installation, and design. Roberts is a skilled draftsman, able to quickly translate landscapes and portraits in a traditional and representational style. Yet, his primary interest is in his installation practice. In 2016/17 Roberts was a collaborating artist on the birdfoxmonster project with Erth Visual and Physical Inc, supported by Carriageworks, Eveleigh. In 2017, he exhibited at Cementa Festival in Kandos. In 2019 he was one of 70 artists chosen for The National: New Australian Art at Carriageworks.
LEFT: Thom Roberts in collaboration with Cherelle Sappleton, untitled, posca on scanned collage, 2021
December / 2021
RIGHT: Cherelle Sappleton in collaboration Thom Roberts, Who is Woody Tiger?, digital drawing, 2021
SANDRA LOTT / UK When Sandra describes her art she says, ‘imagination, music, art, creativity, poetry, passion, happiness, freedom, peace, strong and lasting friends.’ Lott has been attending Headway East London and the Submit to Love Studios since 2016 and has quickly established herself as a unique artistic voice in the art studio. Her artwork has an immediacy that is full of joy and playfulness, expressed in a riot of colour and pattern. Hidden underneath this naïve surface is a darkness that is only revealed on closer examination. Lott always has a firm grasp on the narratives within her work, expressing them clearly with enviable confidence. EMILY FERRETTI / AUSTRALIA Emily Ferretti is a Melbourne based painter who grew up in country Victoria, Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. Dedicated to a full-time studio practice over the past fifteen years, she has exhibited widely and undertaken studio residences including Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Cite de Arts International, Paris, and Australia Council’s Green Street Studio, New York. Her work is held in public and private collections and she is currently represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne.
If you could describe the other artist’s work in three words, what would you say?
A Playful Collaboration Over August/September 2021, Australian artist Emily Ferretti collaborated with London based artist Sandra Lott, who attends Submit to Love Studios – a supported studio space in East London that works with artists who have acquired brain injuries. Over the course of six weeks, they set briefs and prompts for one another, like the use of a limited palette of three colours one week, artwork based on a poem sent by the other another week, abstract art another, and artwork based on a favourite trip another. The briefs were never strict, with the aim of just using art to communicate and play – and play they did! It was great to share the excitement each week over zoom, of seeing what the other had created, and how they had interpreted their briefs. Neither artist had worked on a collaboration in the past, so it was a new exploratory experience for both. Art et al. chatted with both artists to hear about the collaboration, the art, and what they got out of it. Can you tell us a little about the work you have produced during the collaboration? Sandra: I love the abstract, and that it is changing my work for me. When I go to the park, I sketch the trees and now I can do it how I want to do it with the abstract. We change everything every week. Emily: I produced a mixture of drawings and mixed media works for this project that all were prompted by themes that Sandra and I decided and changed every week. My aim was to make work intuitively, but sticking quite closely to the weekly prompts. This willingness to shift themes and react to the next prompt happened naturally and I enjoyed going in many directions. Some of the works I made over the weeks were in direct response to Sandra’s work itself, like
Sandra: Collage, New York, landscapes. She’s the same as me! She likes abstract as well, and we both like our colours. Emily: Bold, enchanting, vibrant.
— It’s been fantastic, absolutely fantastic! I love the abstract, and that it is changing my work for me. When I go to the park, I sketch the trees and now I can do it how I want to do it with the abstract. We change everything every week.
LEFT: Sandra Lott, Cubism, 2021, felt pen on paper. This work was created with the ‘abstract’ theme that week.
BELOW: Emily Ferretti, NYC 1, 2021, pencil on paper. This work was based on Emily’s memory of a residency in New York.
SANDRA LOTT
— For others potentially doing the peer-to-peer collaborations in the future, what would be your advice to them? Sandra: You can do whatever you want. I used my big table at home, my sketching and I could do whatever I wanted to. It’s been really helping me with what I want to do – with my art or something else. Emily: If you have the wonderful chance to become a peer to peer collaborator you are about to have a very rewarding experience. Being able to meet online with an artist from a supported studio is a very special experience because their unique story unfolds and this informs the collaboration. It’s a great opportunity to have fun and experiment with themes and processes you might not usually engage with. I also found it a great way to learn about the role of a supported studio like ‘Submit to Love’ and the brilliant job they do to support artists creatively and professionally. December / 2021
art et al.
art et al.
Sandra Lott × Emily Ferretti
Peer / Peer Through Peer to Peer, we commission new artwork created by two artists internationally, with one artist working from a supported studio. Over several months, the artists have conversations over zoom or through shared video content, with the creative output taking any form, and in any medium or scale.
For six weeks, Australian artist Emily Ferretti and London studio-based artist Sandra Lott, set weekly briefs for each other. The briefs were never strict, with the aim of just using art to communicate and play, then come together to share the results.
Thom Roberts × Cherelle Sappleton
the fountain in the first week, and others where broader and based on both our general interests like abstraction. I wanted the work I made to reflect this playfulness and willingness to see what happens. Overall, how have you found the whole six weeks? Sandra: It’s been fantastic, absolutely fantastic! I have done my poems, and images of London, Dolomites, and landscapes. I’ve enjoyed working with abstract and cubism. Emily: It’s been a privilege to get to know Sandra as a person and artist over the past six weeks. I have enjoyed very much our conversations every week and getting to know more about her working methods and time at the ‘Submit to Love’ studios. Sandra was so easy to collaborate with because she has a very positive attitude and willingness to try new things.
Over three months, and a shared interest in the process of photocopying, Sydney studio-based artist Thom Roberts and UK based artist Cherelle Sappleton, communicated through video messages and sent each other digital artwork files to develop a collaborative series.
What has been your favourite part of the collaboration? Sandra: I like it because at first it felt hard, but now it’s easier. And we are staying in touch. Emily said we could email each other. Emily: My favourite part was opening up Sandra’s emails to receive her new weekly creations. The works were always filled with autobiography, intuitive colour combinations and bold visual language. It was a privilege to hear Sandra talk about her works and the life and memories that she had used to inform them.
Who is Woody Tiger? In March 2021, Thom Roberts and Cherelle Sappleton were introduced as the paired artists for Art et al.’s second Peer/ Peer Collaboration – a series that commissions new openended artistic output between two artists internationally, with one artist working from a supported studio. Residing on opposite sides of the globe, Sappleton in the United Kingdom and Roberts in Australia, they communicated virtually via video messages. During his introduction video, Roberts shared an artwork portrait of ‘Woody Tiger’. This elusive, vivid female portrait became a key thread in communication and collaboration.
Process also became key to the collaboration through image layering and reproduction, as well as a shared interest in visually examining text. Consistent with their existing practices, this was evident through Sappleton’s digital collages and the manipulation of physical photocopies/prints by Roberts. Over the three months, Roberts and Sappleton exchanged videos and artworks digitally back and forth exploring, manipulating and developing.
CHERELLE SAPPLETON / UK British born, Cherelle Sappleton studied Fine Art and Drama jointly at Bath Spa University (2006), then she completed a post-graduate diploma in Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art (2011), and MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins (2013). Her practice centres on photographic media utilising abstraction and surrealist aesthetics. Blending these elements together, the work she makes uses the black female body as a starting point to explore and respond to issues of representation, agency and sensuality via collage, moving image and photography whilst also investigating the power and materiality of photographic images. She has exhibited in a variety of exhibitions, commissioned by the National Theatre, Harpers’ Bazaar China, The National Trust and Adidas. THOM ROBERTS / AUSTRALIA Thom Roberts’ painting practice is one part of his varied oeuvre: a keen collaborator, he has also worked in performance, video animation, installation, and design. Roberts is a skilled draftsman, able to quickly translate landscapes and portraits in a traditional and representational style. Yet, his primary interest is in his installation practice. In 2016/17 Roberts was a collaborating artist on the birdfoxmonster project with Erth Visual and Physical Inc, supported by Carriageworks, Eveleigh. In 2017, he exhibited at Cementa Festival in Kandos. In 2019 he was one of 70 artists chosen for The National: New Australian Art at Carriageworks.
LEFT: Thom Roberts in collaboration with Cherelle Sappleton, untitled, posca on scanned collage, 2021
December / 2021
RIGHT: Cherelle Sappleton in collaboration Thom Roberts, Who is Woody Tiger?, digital drawing, 2021
SANDRA LOTT / UK When Sandra describes her art she says, ‘imagination, music, art, creativity, poetry, passion, happiness, freedom, peace, strong and lasting friends.’ Lott has been attending Headway East London and the Submit to Love Studios since 2016 and has quickly established herself as a unique artistic voice in the art studio. Her artwork has an immediacy that is full of joy and playfulness, expressed in a riot of colour and pattern. Hidden underneath this naïve surface is a darkness that is only revealed on closer examination. Lott always has a firm grasp on the narratives within her work, expressing them clearly with enviable confidence. EMILY FERRETTI / AUSTRALIA Emily Ferretti is a Melbourne based painter who grew up in country Victoria, Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. Dedicated to a full-time studio practice over the past fifteen years, she has exhibited widely and undertaken studio residences including Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Cite de Arts International, Paris, and Australia Council’s Green Street Studio, New York. Her work is held in public and private collections and she is currently represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne.
If you could describe the other artist’s work in three words, what would you say?
A Playful Collaboration Over August/September 2021, Australian artist Emily Ferretti collaborated with London based artist Sandra Lott, who attends Submit to Love Studios – a supported studio space in East London that works with artists who have acquired brain injuries. Over the course of six weeks, they set briefs and prompts for one another, like the use of a limited palette of three colours one week, artwork based on a poem sent by the other another week, abstract art another, and artwork based on a favourite trip another. The briefs were never strict, with the aim of just using art to communicate and play – and play they did! It was great to share the excitement each week over zoom, of seeing what the other had created, and how they had interpreted their briefs. Neither artist had worked on a collaboration in the past, so it was a new exploratory experience for both. Art et al. chatted with both artists to hear about the collaboration, the art, and what they got out of it. Can you tell us a little about the work you have produced during the collaboration? Sandra: I love the abstract, and that it is changing my work for me. When I go to the park, I sketch the trees and now I can do it how I want to do it with the abstract. We change everything every week. Emily: I produced a mixture of drawings and mixed media works for this project that all were prompted by themes that Sandra and I decided and changed every week. My aim was to make work intuitively, but sticking quite closely to the weekly prompts. This willingness to shift themes and react to the next prompt happened naturally and I enjoyed going in many directions. Some of the works I made over the weeks were in direct response to Sandra’s work itself, like
Sandra: Collage, New York, landscapes. She’s the same as me! She likes abstract as well, and we both like our colours. Emily: Bold, enchanting, vibrant.
— It’s been fantastic, absolutely fantastic! I love the abstract, and that it is changing my work for me. When I go to the park, I sketch the trees and now I can do it how I want to do it with the abstract. We change everything every week.
LEFT: Sandra Lott, Cubism, 2021, felt pen on paper. This work was created with the ‘abstract’ theme that week.
BELOW: Emily Ferretti, NYC 1, 2021, pencil on paper. This work was based on Emily’s memory of a residency in New York.
SANDRA LOTT
— For others potentially doing the peer-to-peer collaborations in the future, what would be your advice to them? Sandra: You can do whatever you want. I used my big table at home, my sketching and I could do whatever I wanted to. It’s been really helping me with what I want to do – with my art or something else. Emily: If you have the wonderful chance to become a peer to peer collaborator you are about to have a very rewarding experience. Being able to meet online with an artist from a supported studio is a very special experience because their unique story unfolds and this informs the collaboration. It’s a great opportunity to have fun and experiment with themes and processes you might not usually engage with. I also found it a great way to learn about the role of a supported studio like ‘Submit to Love’ and the brilliant job they do to support artists creatively and professionally. December / 2021
art et al.
art et al.
David James × Alasdair McLuckie Australian artist Alasdair McLuckie and Manchester studio-based artist David James worked collaboratively over two months. With an open brief, an 11-hour time difference, zoom sessions, and a willingness to just see what happens, they explored and experimented with each other’s practice.
Digital Curation
#Monday Muse
Exhibitions & Events
Curating Collections with Michael Camakaris & the Cranford Collection
An open call to neurodiverse artists, presenting themed artwork on social media
Commissioned projects presented in the UK & Australia
Snail vs Architecture
Every Monday, Art et al. features a new artwork on our social media that has been submitted by an artist under the title #MondayMuse. We have a theme that changes very two months, so be sure to check our website or social media to see what the current theme is and the deadline it will change. In 2021 we promoted 30 artists through this platform to our audience of 2000+ followers.
In the initial conversations between David James and Alasdair McLuckie they discussed different animals they liked including those native to the UK and Australia. They also spoke of their mutual interest in great architectural structures like Blackpool Tower, the Sydney Opera House, and the incredible buildings in Federation Square, Melbourne. David talked about looking down from platforms within buildings alongside looking up from the ground level at the various shapes created. With an open collaboration framework, they set to work in their respective countries, using these ideas as a departure point.
How to get involved: Are you an artist that identifies as neurodivergent, intellectually or learning disabled? Would you like to email us your work for a themed open call? If you need help, please ask someone you know for support, or email us and we will attempt to help you.
Alasdair: I carry around a little obsession with Henri Matisse’s late ‘cut out’ work, The Snail (1953). It was with this obsession that I initially arrived to the first meeting I had with David to discuss the possibility of collaborating together. After speaking with David about this project the snail seemed like a perfect place for me to start. My obsession with Matisse’s collage is expressed throughout our collaboration with the snail motif slowly working its way across the project, symbolically representing the process of passing time as well as our ever-moving and evolving sense of place. The hard-edged and ridged structures we take for granted as our shelter here, thinking from a different perspective, becomes light and flexible enough to move along with us. David’s work: David started by looking at printouts of all the buildings that had been discussed initially over zoom and City of Angles was the first drawing he created. He says of it, ‘It’s about perspective and it’s about scope. The buildings are shiny and interesting. I connect buildings’. From this point, he started incorporating topical materials like shiny silver foil as he likes the texture and sheen it creates on his artwork. Alasdair: The works for the project have developed as a series rather than a singular outcome. Initially I was making small gouache paintings simply exploring the formal elements of the snails form as a symbol that I then set up in a scene to photograph as a diorama. This was a response to elements of previous work of David’s he had shown me. Once we had both started making and sharing our pictures I began incorporating David’s drawings into my own work. At first directly, and then over time by mirroring and patterning his works as a print on paper, I would render over the top and through David’s images in an immediate and responsive way. David’s drawings became a starting point, the previous work of David’s informing how the next snail appeared on the page. The more I developed this process the more each snail also reflected the architectural perspectives David was exploring in his drawings. Each work acts as a stepping-stone to the next that makes the project as much about the holistic journey of making rather than simply arriving at the end. David’s work: Across the four weeks, David built on his interest in architecture by starting to form structures from a silver shiny padded fabric. What began as flat 2D creations have developed into a multi-dimensional work that is freestanding. He said of the process, ‘It’s good I like it, I have ideas on the go. I think it’s like, gotta be about the work.’ Even though David and Alasdair’s works are very different on appearance, David said of Alasdair, ‘He uses colours and textures in a different way. But yeah, I like it.’
December / 2021
• You can submit under the bi-monthly theme, in any medium that you, or the artists you support, work in – be that drawing, painting, ceramic, textile, and so on.
Antidote Curating Collections commissions artists working from supported studios to curate projects with artworks from an established collection. Art et al.’s first iteration was a collaboration between artist Michael Camakaris and the Cranford Collection.
Alasdair: Working with David has been a real privilege and pleasure. Apart from admiring his beautiful work, our weekly conversations (via zoom) have been the most interesting aspect of the collaboration, in listening to David respond to my work and articulate his thinking about his creative process. David’s spontaneity of ideas and fascinating ability to make correlations between initially seemingly disparate elements has been fundamental to my own approach and thinking when engaging in making for this project. David’s work: David spoke about the process and that he tried to put different cultures into his work, based on conversations he had with Alasdair. Many of David’s works featured buildings. His final work also saw a snail introduced that is climbing a building, taking inspiration from Alasdair’s works. David said, ‘It has been nice working together in different ways and I have tried lots of new things that I have not tried before.’ Of Alasdair’s work, David said he enjoyed seeing how abstract the snails became and could often see calligraphy in the work.
ALASDAIR McLUCKIE / AUSTRALIA Alasdair McLuckie graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) in 2007. He is represented by Murray White Room in Melbourne and Mothers Tankstation Limited in Dublin, and has participated in numerous residency programs throughout Australia, and in New York. With a strong formalist aesthetic sensibility and utilising various techniques, McLuckie’s practice adopts a meticulous process to explore the mythology, history and ritual of making. Recent exhibitions include The Honeyed Moon, a solo show at Murray White Room in 2019, and inclusion in group shows in 2020: TwentOne_004 at TwentyOne in Sydney and The Grey Zone at Artbank in Melbourne.
DAVID JAMES / UK David James is a prolific and ambitious artist who works with various techniques, particularly paint, collage and found objects. James once described one of his intricate and complex artworks as “a never-ending masterpiece”. Inspired by complex structures and textures, he seeks to capture the elusive and transcendent qualities in life and being. James is a practising artist at Venture Arts, Manchester. Recent group exhibitions include Artworks Together in May 2021, Venture Arts Presents at The Manchester Contemporary in 2017 and OutsiderXchanges at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in 2016.
Michael Camakaris is a multi-disciplinary artist from Arts Project Australia – a creative social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promotes their work, and advocates for their inclusion in contemporary art practice. Cranford Collection is one of Europe’s most significant private collections of contemporary art. Featuring over 500 works, it was founded by Freddy and Muriel Salem in 1999 and their curator in Anne Pontégnie. Through zoom discussions and digital access to the Cranford Collection, Camakaris selected 20 works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Ugo Rondninone and Kai Althoff. Titled Antidote, he also wrote a text exploring the themes of his selection and connecting it to his experience of Covid-19. Art et al. produced an online exhibition, catalogue, and a recorded curatorial discussion between Camakaris and Anne Pontégnie as part of Curating Collections.
• To be considered, submit the information requested in the online form on our website or by emailing info@artetal.org. • There is no guarantee your artwork will be selected and shown online, however, we will share as many as possible. • If you run a group and want to submit several works on behalf of artists for a group, please pop the images into an email with all the relevant information that we are requesting on the website. • We will close submissions once we have reached capacity for that theme and it will be noted on our website too. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to submit your work for consideration.
Art et al. × APA | 2021 Melbourne As part of the UK/Australia Season of Culture 2021–22, a major program of cultural exchange is taking place across the two nations. Central to Art et al. X 2021–22 programming is the presentation of two international in-person exhibitions, starting with an exhibition at APA’s Collingwood gallery, at Collingwood Yards. The UK/Australia Season is a joint initiative by the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Season highlights the breadth of partnerships between Australia and the UK and aims to deepen and extend cultural connections. In a four-day pop-up exhibition in Melbourne, audiences will engage with Art et al.’s international commissioned peer-to-peer collaborations and writing from Australian and UK cultural leaders Jennifer Higgie, Kelly Gellatly, Katrina Schwarz and Tiarney Miekus. The theme Who Are We Now? will reflect on our history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together. The Season commenced in September 2021, concluding in March 2022 in Australia and in December 2022 in the UK. The Season will feature programming for all ages and will celebrate the diversity of cultures and languages in both countries. It will emphasise Australia’s First Nations voices, enable cultural exchange with Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, and the diverse societies that have emerged in both Australia and the UK through migration. Designed to strengthen and build cultural connections, the UK/Australia Season theme of Who Are We Now? will be reflected by Art et al. through how these artists felt during and now coming out of lockdown. We are very excited to bring these commissioned international collaborations to people in a physical gallery setting, first in Melbourne at Arts Project Australia in December 2021, then in London at Cromwell Place in March 2022.
TOP: Alasdair McLuckie, The Snail (02), 2021, ballpoint pen and gouache on paper, on paper, digitally incorporating artwork by David James
ABOVE: David James, Trail all over the World, 2021, mixed media on paper
— 2–5 Dec 2021 Opening 2 Dec 2021, 6–8pm Arts Project Australia Level 1, Perry St Building, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne, VIC 3066
ABOVE: Emily Ferretti, Rosella In Flight, 2021, Pencil on paper (detail)
December / 2021
art et al.
art et al.
David James × Alasdair McLuckie Australian artist Alasdair McLuckie and Manchester studio-based artist David James worked collaboratively over two months. With an open brief, an 11-hour time difference, zoom sessions, and a willingness to just see what happens, they explored and experimented with each other’s practice.
Digital Curation
#Monday Muse
Exhibitions & Events
Curating Collections with Michael Camakaris & the Cranford Collection
An open call to neurodiverse artists, presenting themed artwork on social media
Commissioned projects presented in the UK & Australia
Snail vs Architecture
Every Monday, Art et al. features a new artwork on our social media that has been submitted by an artist under the title #MondayMuse. We have a theme that changes very two months, so be sure to check our website or social media to see what the current theme is and the deadline it will change. In 2021 we promoted 30 artists through this platform to our audience of 2000+ followers.
In the initial conversations between David James and Alasdair McLuckie they discussed different animals they liked including those native to the UK and Australia. They also spoke of their mutual interest in great architectural structures like Blackpool Tower, the Sydney Opera House, and the incredible buildings in Federation Square, Melbourne. David talked about looking down from platforms within buildings alongside looking up from the ground level at the various shapes created. With an open collaboration framework, they set to work in their respective countries, using these ideas as a departure point.
How to get involved: Are you an artist that identifies as neurodivergent, intellectually or learning disabled? Would you like to email us your work for a themed open call? If you need help, please ask someone you know for support, or email us and we will attempt to help you.
Alasdair: I carry around a little obsession with Henri Matisse’s late ‘cut out’ work, The Snail (1953). It was with this obsession that I initially arrived to the first meeting I had with David to discuss the possibility of collaborating together. After speaking with David about this project the snail seemed like a perfect place for me to start. My obsession with Matisse’s collage is expressed throughout our collaboration with the snail motif slowly working its way across the project, symbolically representing the process of passing time as well as our ever-moving and evolving sense of place. The hard-edged and ridged structures we take for granted as our shelter here, thinking from a different perspective, becomes light and flexible enough to move along with us. David’s work: David started by looking at printouts of all the buildings that had been discussed initially over zoom and City of Angles was the first drawing he created. He says of it, ‘It’s about perspective and it’s about scope. The buildings are shiny and interesting. I connect buildings’. From this point, he started incorporating topical materials like shiny silver foil as he likes the texture and sheen it creates on his artwork. Alasdair: The works for the project have developed as a series rather than a singular outcome. Initially I was making small gouache paintings simply exploring the formal elements of the snails form as a symbol that I then set up in a scene to photograph as a diorama. This was a response to elements of previous work of David’s he had shown me. Once we had both started making and sharing our pictures I began incorporating David’s drawings into my own work. At first directly, and then over time by mirroring and patterning his works as a print on paper, I would render over the top and through David’s images in an immediate and responsive way. David’s drawings became a starting point, the previous work of David’s informing how the next snail appeared on the page. The more I developed this process the more each snail also reflected the architectural perspectives David was exploring in his drawings. Each work acts as a stepping-stone to the next that makes the project as much about the holistic journey of making rather than simply arriving at the end. David’s work: Across the four weeks, David built on his interest in architecture by starting to form structures from a silver shiny padded fabric. What began as flat 2D creations have developed into a multi-dimensional work that is freestanding. He said of the process, ‘It’s good I like it, I have ideas on the go. I think it’s like, gotta be about the work.’ Even though David and Alasdair’s works are very different on appearance, David said of Alasdair, ‘He uses colours and textures in a different way. But yeah, I like it.’
December / 2021
• You can submit under the bi-monthly theme, in any medium that you, or the artists you support, work in – be that drawing, painting, ceramic, textile, and so on.
Antidote Curating Collections commissions artists working from supported studios to curate projects with artworks from an established collection. Art et al.’s first iteration was a collaboration between artist Michael Camakaris and the Cranford Collection.
Alasdair: Working with David has been a real privilege and pleasure. Apart from admiring his beautiful work, our weekly conversations (via zoom) have been the most interesting aspect of the collaboration, in listening to David respond to my work and articulate his thinking about his creative process. David’s spontaneity of ideas and fascinating ability to make correlations between initially seemingly disparate elements has been fundamental to my own approach and thinking when engaging in making for this project. David’s work: David spoke about the process and that he tried to put different cultures into his work, based on conversations he had with Alasdair. Many of David’s works featured buildings. His final work also saw a snail introduced that is climbing a building, taking inspiration from Alasdair’s works. David said, ‘It has been nice working together in different ways and I have tried lots of new things that I have not tried before.’ Of Alasdair’s work, David said he enjoyed seeing how abstract the snails became and could often see calligraphy in the work.
ALASDAIR McLUCKIE / AUSTRALIA Alasdair McLuckie graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) in 2007. He is represented by Murray White Room in Melbourne and Mothers Tankstation Limited in Dublin, and has participated in numerous residency programs throughout Australia, and in New York. With a strong formalist aesthetic sensibility and utilising various techniques, McLuckie’s practice adopts a meticulous process to explore the mythology, history and ritual of making. Recent exhibitions include The Honeyed Moon, a solo show at Murray White Room in 2019, and inclusion in group shows in 2020: TwentOne_004 at TwentyOne in Sydney and The Grey Zone at Artbank in Melbourne.
DAVID JAMES / UK David James is a prolific and ambitious artist who works with various techniques, particularly paint, collage and found objects. James once described one of his intricate and complex artworks as “a never-ending masterpiece”. Inspired by complex structures and textures, he seeks to capture the elusive and transcendent qualities in life and being. James is a practising artist at Venture Arts, Manchester. Recent group exhibitions include Artworks Together in May 2021, Venture Arts Presents at The Manchester Contemporary in 2017 and OutsiderXchanges at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in 2016.
Michael Camakaris is a multi-disciplinary artist from Arts Project Australia – a creative social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promotes their work, and advocates for their inclusion in contemporary art practice. Cranford Collection is one of Europe’s most significant private collections of contemporary art. Featuring over 500 works, it was founded by Freddy and Muriel Salem in 1999 and their curator in Anne Pontégnie. Through zoom discussions and digital access to the Cranford Collection, Camakaris selected 20 works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Ugo Rondninone and Kai Althoff. Titled Antidote, he also wrote a text exploring the themes of his selection and connecting it to his experience of Covid-19. Art et al. produced an online exhibition, catalogue, and a recorded curatorial discussion between Camakaris and Anne Pontégnie as part of Curating Collections.
• To be considered, submit the information requested in the online form on our website or by emailing info@artetal.org. • There is no guarantee your artwork will be selected and shown online, however, we will share as many as possible. • If you run a group and want to submit several works on behalf of artists for a group, please pop the images into an email with all the relevant information that we are requesting on the website. • We will close submissions once we have reached capacity for that theme and it will be noted on our website too. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to submit your work for consideration.
Art et al. × APA | 2021 Melbourne As part of the UK/Australia Season of Culture 2021–22, a major program of cultural exchange is taking place across the two nations. Central to Art et al. X 2021–22 programming is the presentation of two international in-person exhibitions, starting with an exhibition at APA’s Collingwood gallery, at Collingwood Yards. The UK/Australia Season is a joint initiative by the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Season highlights the breadth of partnerships between Australia and the UK and aims to deepen and extend cultural connections. In a four-day pop-up exhibition in Melbourne, audiences will engage with Art et al.’s international commissioned peer-to-peer collaborations and writing from Australian and UK cultural leaders Jennifer Higgie, Kelly Gellatly, Katrina Schwarz and Tiarney Miekus. The theme Who Are We Now? will reflect on our history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together. The Season commenced in September 2021, concluding in March 2022 in Australia and in December 2022 in the UK. The Season will feature programming for all ages and will celebrate the diversity of cultures and languages in both countries. It will emphasise Australia’s First Nations voices, enable cultural exchange with Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, and the diverse societies that have emerged in both Australia and the UK through migration. Designed to strengthen and build cultural connections, the UK/Australia Season theme of Who Are We Now? will be reflected by Art et al. through how these artists felt during and now coming out of lockdown. We are very excited to bring these commissioned international collaborations to people in a physical gallery setting, first in Melbourne at Arts Project Australia in December 2021, then in London at Cromwell Place in March 2022.
TOP: Alasdair McLuckie, The Snail (02), 2021, ballpoint pen and gouache on paper, on paper, digitally incorporating artwork by David James
ABOVE: David James, Trail all over the World, 2021, mixed media on paper
— 2–5 Dec 2021 Opening 2 Dec 2021, 6–8pm Arts Project Australia Level 1, Perry St Building, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne, VIC 3066
ABOVE: Emily Ferretti, Rosella In Flight, 2021, Pencil on paper (detail)
December / 2021
art et al.
art et al.
Writing + Reviews Commissioning distinguished writers to explore the work and narratives of artists from supported studios, and to contextualise their work within international art conversations.
OPPOSITE: Mark Smith, Hope, 2020, mixed media soft sculpture Private Collection
I am grateful for Arts Project Australia artist Eden Menta for their introduction to the term ‘diffability’, which means, in her words “we’re just different and need a little more help sometimes.”
BELOW: Everyday Imagining (2014) curated by Joanna Bosse, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne.
Embracing diversity, inclusion and ‘diffability’ in our art museums KELLY GELLATLY
— Australian arts leader, advocate, curator, and writer Kelly Gellatly on the current social and cultural climate that museums and collecting institutions in Australia operate in, and what is needed to revolutionise it. Revolutions never start at the top. If we dare to dream of a more loving country – kinder, more compassionate, more cooperative, more respectful, more inclusive, more egalitarian, more harmonious, less cynical – there’s only one way to start turning that dream into a reality: each of us must live as if this is already that country. — Hugh McKay in The Kindness Revolution As COVID-19 and its variant strains continue to wreak havoc on the world, and as I write from Naarm / Melbourne during our fourth lockdown, I am struggling to feel the positives that have emerged from the restrictions the pandemic has placed upon our daily lives. While in no way wanting to diminish the severity of the impacts of the disease on whole communities – illness, death, economic insecurity, social isolation, declining mental health – the slow time of lockdown has equally provided space for contemplation and reflection. It has enabled us to reassess the sense of busyness and ‘progress’ underpinning Western notions of success, to interrogate our motivations and values, and to question how we want to be and act in the world. However, once all the baking, making and Netflix binging has ended, what will we learn and retain from this time? Will we allow it to change us for the better, or will we simply return to life as ‘normal’? Against this backdrop, several protest movements have also ignited, building a global momentum fuelled by years of oppression, anger and frustration. Widespread cultural movements such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and the wave of gender protests seen throughout the Trump presidency and beyond, and public actions such as School Strike for Climate, have brought issues of race, gender, power and inequity, and our collective and devastating impact on the planet, into broad public consciousness. Perhaps not surprisingly, these paradigm shifts are also making their impact felt within the international museum sector. Manifesting in long-overdue debates around the connection of institutions and their collections to slavery, empire, and colonisation; the representation of gender and cultural diversity in museum staff, and within collections and exhibitions; the business ties and impact of powerful and high-profile board members on museums, and the ethics of how the money provided by corporate sponsors and philanthropy is generated, museums are now being pressured – from both within, and outside, to change. Discussions about hierarchical and toxic museum work cultures, and bullying and staff burnout, are also prevalent. December / 2021
Even the definition of what a museum is, is no longer agreed upon. This was seen most powerfully in 2019 by the debate that ensued when 70% of delegates at the International Council of Museums (ICOM) 25th triennial general conference in Kyoto, Japan refused to vote on a new definition of the museum; choosing instead to postpone the debate indefinitely. The definition that created the turmoil was criticised by some as ‘ideological’ and politically correct, with little legal value. However, it seems to me, at the heart of the debate (language aside) is the question of how museums, their collections and their programming should actively engage with the issues and wicked problems of living in the 21st-century. The proposed definition read: Museums are democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artifacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people. Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing. As the current debates around museums have shown, deep and meaningful change will only occur when our institutions commit to and implement structural change. This is about leadership and power – about sharing it or even handing it over – not simply about seeing increased diversity and access reflected in programming and collection development. Diversity needs to be embedded within the museum itself, from its Board and CEO, through to its curatorial, programming, education and marketing staff. It is only by introducing and encouraging differences of experience and perspectives across an institution that we can shift the way in which diversity is still largely addressed in our museums – through public-facing exhibitions, events and programs. If we look closely, the scrolling checklist of ‘inclusive’ initiatives that pepper museum exhibition calendars are easy to recognise: the First Nations show, the women show, the ‘such and such’ community show, the disability show … that are ‘done’ and then moved on from. Despite the best intentions of those involved, this ‘tick-box’ approach in no way shifts the dominant white, hetero-
normative, patriarchal paradigm of the large-scale public museum. Such programs remain the exception, rather than the rule; their place within a hierarchy of ‘value’ within the organisation demonstrated internally (and to those attuned to these things) by the budgets and resources attributed to them. When compared to exhibitions of higher priority due to their popular appeal and ability to generate income (the blockbuster), or for their largely guaranteed success through their celebration and reinforcement of existing canons, these ‘special’ exhibitions are usually accompanied by exhibition catalogues of comparatively modest scale (if they have them at all), fewer public programs and smaller marketing campaigns. (As many collection curators bemoan, this is also true of collection-based exhibitions in museums). Equally, by siloing groups within their individual representative programs, cross-pollination across different areas – a women’s show that includes work by neurodivergent, intellectually or learning-disabled artists, for example, becomes difficult to achieve, as the complex, often competing expectations of each group must be met by their one ‘go’ at an exhibition or program until the cycle comes round again. I am grateful for Arts Project Australia artist Eden Menta for their introduction to the term ‘diffability’, which means, in her words ‘we’re just different and need a little more help sometimes.’ Conversely, as Caroline Bowditch, CEO Arts Access Victoria discussed at the recent Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) annual conference, COVID has heightened conversations of relevance and equity: The [current] system is benefiting one part of the population, and we have seen through COVID time that it was a leveller for the disability community. Everyone had a taste of isolation which our community lives on a daily basis. But combatting isolation isn’t simply about ensuring everyone is able to access a building and its facilities. Access is equally about being able to see yourself and your experience reflected in the programs of museums once you have made your way through the door. Unfortunately, this is why so many audience-diversity initiatives have faltered in the past. Different groups are ‘invited in’ when there is an exhibition or program related to them, but once this special event is over, the museum moves on to another group. As a result, the connections established with the former community seem at best, no longer important, and at worst,
opportunistic. Regardless, the community no longer feels welcome to visit, and the museum once again feels like an alienating place – a space for others, not them. Of course, all of this is easy to say, but far less easy to implement. Museums may demonstrate their agility in their programming, but remain, overall, structurally rigid, bureaucratic beasts. While the types of initiatives that we have witnessed recently in the US are welcome – Senior Director of Belonging and Inclusion (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or the MET’s Chief Diversity Officer, and here in Australia, for example, the number of senior positions for Indigenous leaders is on the rise; being the only staff member charged with this responsibility, and being expected to act like an organisational conscience, can be isolating and exhausting, and lead to overwhelm and burnout. Systemic change will only occur through an interrogation of organisational cultures and long-held assumptions about knowledge and expertise, and a willingness to let go of the way things have always been. And this takes money. Employing staff on short-term contract positions may be a band-aid solution, but again, potentially leaves those who are not part of the ‘status quo’ vulnerable; without the benefits and security afforded full-time permanent staff. And simply replacing long-existing, often more senior staff with a new ‘woke’ team is another form of short-termism. While expedient, these types of solutions often mask other kinds of bias or discrimination and can lead to a major loss of collection-based
and organisational expertise. Bringing the old way of doing things together with the demands and expectations of the new is no doubt harder, but the cultural and ‘creative abrasion’ that results will lead to unexpected outcomes and long-term change. As Harvard professor, ethnographer and leadership expert Linda Hill noted in her 2015 TED Talk – How to manage for collective creativity: ‘Innovation rarely happens unless you have both diversity and conflict’. So just what does this have to do with inclusion and contemporary art? Contemporary art – at its most straightforward definition, the art of our time – continues to be made and to exist regardless of whether the museum decides to validate it as such. Yet, by contrast, curatorial practice, and particularly the world of ‘contemporary art’ (a world of which I am part), can often seem, from the outside, as a self-affirming, self-congratulatory club which only invites in a fairly select group of artists. These artists also tend to be supported by an intersecting network of gallerists or dealers, which assists them in establishing a recognisable career trajectory that can be categorised and followed as ‘emerging’, ‘mid-career’ or ‘senior’. In turn, these categorisations assist with the pricing of works and the way in which the artist’s oeuvre is marketed, exhibited and discussed. The contemporary art world, like many other areas of expertise (think for example, of academia), is the result of a complex ecology of knowledge-sharing,
opinions, relationships and connections. However, despite the personal ethics, politics and intentions of the individuals who operate within this world, the system itself can tend to ring-fence the type of art that is seen and how. The sector’s ability to look broadly and to explore without concrete results in mind is also severely hindered by the constant lack of money and resources and the time pressures most curators experience with each new project. Sadly, with the juggle of expectations that many museum curators face today, collection and exhibition development can often feel secondary to the demands of stakeholder relationships, back-to-back meetings and the burden of endless administration. While there currently is a wealth of extraordinary work being made, I believe one of the most exciting things to happen to and for contemporary art is this shake-up of museums. For if museum structures and the composition of their staff change, what they look at, show, and effectively endorse will also change. Bringing different perspectives to bear on contemporary museology will not only change the way we tell stories but who gets to speak. One can only hope that the changes we are witnessing in museums globally result in the work of more artists who exist outside of the canon being embraced not for its representation of the artist’s ethnicity, sexuality, community, or ‘diffability’, but simply because it’s great art. December / 2021
art et al.
art et al.
Writing + Reviews Commissioning distinguished writers to explore the work and narratives of artists from supported studios, and to contextualise their work within international art conversations.
OPPOSITE: Mark Smith, Hope, 2020, mixed media soft sculpture Private Collection
I am grateful for Arts Project Australia artist Eden Menta for their introduction to the term ‘diffability’, which means, in her words “we’re just different and need a little more help sometimes.”
BELOW: Everyday Imagining (2014) curated by Joanna Bosse, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne.
Embracing diversity, inclusion and ‘diffability’ in our art museums KELLY GELLATLY
— Australian arts leader, advocate, curator, and writer Kelly Gellatly on the current social and cultural climate that museums and collecting institutions in Australia operate in, and what is needed to revolutionise it. Revolutions never start at the top. If we dare to dream of a more loving country – kinder, more compassionate, more cooperative, more respectful, more inclusive, more egalitarian, more harmonious, less cynical – there’s only one way to start turning that dream into a reality: each of us must live as if this is already that country. — Hugh McKay in The Kindness Revolution As COVID-19 and its variant strains continue to wreak havoc on the world, and as I write from Naarm / Melbourne during our fourth lockdown, I am struggling to feel the positives that have emerged from the restrictions the pandemic has placed upon our daily lives. While in no way wanting to diminish the severity of the impacts of the disease on whole communities – illness, death, economic insecurity, social isolation, declining mental health – the slow time of lockdown has equally provided space for contemplation and reflection. It has enabled us to reassess the sense of busyness and ‘progress’ underpinning Western notions of success, to interrogate our motivations and values, and to question how we want to be and act in the world. However, once all the baking, making and Netflix binging has ended, what will we learn and retain from this time? Will we allow it to change us for the better, or will we simply return to life as ‘normal’? Against this backdrop, several protest movements have also ignited, building a global momentum fuelled by years of oppression, anger and frustration. Widespread cultural movements such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and the wave of gender protests seen throughout the Trump presidency and beyond, and public actions such as School Strike for Climate, have brought issues of race, gender, power and inequity, and our collective and devastating impact on the planet, into broad public consciousness. Perhaps not surprisingly, these paradigm shifts are also making their impact felt within the international museum sector. Manifesting in long-overdue debates around the connection of institutions and their collections to slavery, empire, and colonisation; the representation of gender and cultural diversity in museum staff, and within collections and exhibitions; the business ties and impact of powerful and high-profile board members on museums, and the ethics of how the money provided by corporate sponsors and philanthropy is generated, museums are now being pressured – from both within, and outside, to change. Discussions about hierarchical and toxic museum work cultures, and bullying and staff burnout, are also prevalent. December / 2021
Even the definition of what a museum is, is no longer agreed upon. This was seen most powerfully in 2019 by the debate that ensued when 70% of delegates at the International Council of Museums (ICOM) 25th triennial general conference in Kyoto, Japan refused to vote on a new definition of the museum; choosing instead to postpone the debate indefinitely. The definition that created the turmoil was criticised by some as ‘ideological’ and politically correct, with little legal value. However, it seems to me, at the heart of the debate (language aside) is the question of how museums, their collections and their programming should actively engage with the issues and wicked problems of living in the 21st-century. The proposed definition read: Museums are democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artifacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people. Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing. As the current debates around museums have shown, deep and meaningful change will only occur when our institutions commit to and implement structural change. This is about leadership and power – about sharing it or even handing it over – not simply about seeing increased diversity and access reflected in programming and collection development. Diversity needs to be embedded within the museum itself, from its Board and CEO, through to its curatorial, programming, education and marketing staff. It is only by introducing and encouraging differences of experience and perspectives across an institution that we can shift the way in which diversity is still largely addressed in our museums – through public-facing exhibitions, events and programs. If we look closely, the scrolling checklist of ‘inclusive’ initiatives that pepper museum exhibition calendars are easy to recognise: the First Nations show, the women show, the ‘such and such’ community show, the disability show … that are ‘done’ and then moved on from. Despite the best intentions of those involved, this ‘tick-box’ approach in no way shifts the dominant white, hetero-
normative, patriarchal paradigm of the large-scale public museum. Such programs remain the exception, rather than the rule; their place within a hierarchy of ‘value’ within the organisation demonstrated internally (and to those attuned to these things) by the budgets and resources attributed to them. When compared to exhibitions of higher priority due to their popular appeal and ability to generate income (the blockbuster), or for their largely guaranteed success through their celebration and reinforcement of existing canons, these ‘special’ exhibitions are usually accompanied by exhibition catalogues of comparatively modest scale (if they have them at all), fewer public programs and smaller marketing campaigns. (As many collection curators bemoan, this is also true of collection-based exhibitions in museums). Equally, by siloing groups within their individual representative programs, cross-pollination across different areas – a women’s show that includes work by neurodivergent, intellectually or learning-disabled artists, for example, becomes difficult to achieve, as the complex, often competing expectations of each group must be met by their one ‘go’ at an exhibition or program until the cycle comes round again. I am grateful for Arts Project Australia artist Eden Menta for their introduction to the term ‘diffability’, which means, in her words ‘we’re just different and need a little more help sometimes.’ Conversely, as Caroline Bowditch, CEO Arts Access Victoria discussed at the recent Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) annual conference, COVID has heightened conversations of relevance and equity: The [current] system is benefiting one part of the population, and we have seen through COVID time that it was a leveller for the disability community. Everyone had a taste of isolation which our community lives on a daily basis. But combatting isolation isn’t simply about ensuring everyone is able to access a building and its facilities. Access is equally about being able to see yourself and your experience reflected in the programs of museums once you have made your way through the door. Unfortunately, this is why so many audience-diversity initiatives have faltered in the past. Different groups are ‘invited in’ when there is an exhibition or program related to them, but once this special event is over, the museum moves on to another group. As a result, the connections established with the former community seem at best, no longer important, and at worst,
opportunistic. Regardless, the community no longer feels welcome to visit, and the museum once again feels like an alienating place – a space for others, not them. Of course, all of this is easy to say, but far less easy to implement. Museums may demonstrate their agility in their programming, but remain, overall, structurally rigid, bureaucratic beasts. While the types of initiatives that we have witnessed recently in the US are welcome – Senior Director of Belonging and Inclusion (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or the MET’s Chief Diversity Officer, and here in Australia, for example, the number of senior positions for Indigenous leaders is on the rise; being the only staff member charged with this responsibility, and being expected to act like an organisational conscience, can be isolating and exhausting, and lead to overwhelm and burnout. Systemic change will only occur through an interrogation of organisational cultures and long-held assumptions about knowledge and expertise, and a willingness to let go of the way things have always been. And this takes money. Employing staff on short-term contract positions may be a band-aid solution, but again, potentially leaves those who are not part of the ‘status quo’ vulnerable; without the benefits and security afforded full-time permanent staff. And simply replacing long-existing, often more senior staff with a new ‘woke’ team is another form of short-termism. While expedient, these types of solutions often mask other kinds of bias or discrimination and can lead to a major loss of collection-based
and organisational expertise. Bringing the old way of doing things together with the demands and expectations of the new is no doubt harder, but the cultural and ‘creative abrasion’ that results will lead to unexpected outcomes and long-term change. As Harvard professor, ethnographer and leadership expert Linda Hill noted in her 2015 TED Talk – How to manage for collective creativity: ‘Innovation rarely happens unless you have both diversity and conflict’. So just what does this have to do with inclusion and contemporary art? Contemporary art – at its most straightforward definition, the art of our time – continues to be made and to exist regardless of whether the museum decides to validate it as such. Yet, by contrast, curatorial practice, and particularly the world of ‘contemporary art’ (a world of which I am part), can often seem, from the outside, as a self-affirming, self-congratulatory club which only invites in a fairly select group of artists. These artists also tend to be supported by an intersecting network of gallerists or dealers, which assists them in establishing a recognisable career trajectory that can be categorised and followed as ‘emerging’, ‘mid-career’ or ‘senior’. In turn, these categorisations assist with the pricing of works and the way in which the artist’s oeuvre is marketed, exhibited and discussed. The contemporary art world, like many other areas of expertise (think for example, of academia), is the result of a complex ecology of knowledge-sharing,
opinions, relationships and connections. However, despite the personal ethics, politics and intentions of the individuals who operate within this world, the system itself can tend to ring-fence the type of art that is seen and how. The sector’s ability to look broadly and to explore without concrete results in mind is also severely hindered by the constant lack of money and resources and the time pressures most curators experience with each new project. Sadly, with the juggle of expectations that many museum curators face today, collection and exhibition development can often feel secondary to the demands of stakeholder relationships, back-to-back meetings and the burden of endless administration. While there currently is a wealth of extraordinary work being made, I believe one of the most exciting things to happen to and for contemporary art is this shake-up of museums. For if museum structures and the composition of their staff change, what they look at, show, and effectively endorse will also change. Bringing different perspectives to bear on contemporary museology will not only change the way we tell stories but who gets to speak. One can only hope that the changes we are witnessing in museums globally result in the work of more artists who exist outside of the canon being embraced not for its representation of the artist’s ethnicity, sexuality, community, or ‘diffability’, but simply because it’s great art. December / 2021
artetal.org
COVER: Emily Ferretti, experimental piece created through UK/AU collaboration with Sandra Lott
BELOW: Lisa Reid, 1990s Sony Mega Bass Walkman with a Dolly Parton Tape, 2020 glazed earthenware #MondayMuse #Nostalgia
Creating an open, diverse, & inclusive contemporary art world In 2020, founding partners, identified a need for more inclusive programming and access in the contemporary arts for neurodivergent, intellectually, and learning disabled artists to be seen, heard, and participate. Art et al. was conceived and developed by Arts Project Australia (Curator Sim Luttin), Slominski Projects (Curator Lisa Slominski) and Jennifer Lauren Gallery (curator Jennifer Lauren) in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts. The project is funded through arts funding from the Australia Council, DFAT through their Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program (ACDGP), British Council AU/UK Season 2021–22, and the Aesop Foundation. Advisory Groups Art et al. is shaped by Australian and UK advisory groups of artists who self-identify as neurodivergent, and intellectually or learning disabled. They provide essential feedback for the intercultural growth of the platform. The Australian advisory group consists of emerging and mid-career artists from ‘The Northcote Penguins’ at Arts Project Australia. Artists include Amani Tia, Monica Lazzari, Christian Hansen, Mark Smith, Jordan Dymke, Michael Camakaris, Lachlan Turk and Robin Warren. The UK advisory group consists of three artists from across the UK: neurodivergent artist Sonia Boué, Billy Mann who attends Submit to Love Studio in London, and Stacey Fish who attends Artists First in Bristol.
Founding Partners Arts Project Australia / Australia Arts Project Australia, led by director Sue Roff, is an internationally renowned social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities through its studio and gallery, promoting artists and advocating for their inclusion in contemporary art practice. Slominski Projects / United Kingdom Slominski Projects is a leading international curatorial platform and consultancy collaborating with significant private collections, institutions, supported studios, and archives with an interest in neurodiversity and self-taught practices in a contemporary art context. Jennifer Lauren Gallery / United Kingdom Jennifer Lauren Gallery is a highly respected UK-based gallery that champions, exhibits and shares voices from international self-taught, disabled and overlooked artists who create works outside the mainstream art world and art history. Thanks to Katrina Schwarz Curatorial advisor, international
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Liz Cox, www.studiomono.co Branding & design Artists, writers, supported studios, staff, board members and funders who have supported Art et al.
@art.etal | #ArtEtAl
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