Artist residencies at Clothing Store Studios awarded for 2017

Everyone loves a good artist residency, and none more so than these guys!

• Tony Albert;
• Tully Arnot;
• Mikala Dwyer;
• Samuel Hodge;
• Nell;
• Claudia Nicholson;
• Other Architects (architecture studio); and
• Phaptawan Suwannakudt

The seven artists and one architect are the inaugural recipients of 12 month residencies at The Clothing Store in Carriageworks’ multi-arts precinct, after a public call out for expressions of interest in early 2017 generated over 100 applications. The artists were chosen by Carriageworks based on their ambition and vision, the benefit that the Artist Studio Program would bring to the artist’s practice, and their ability to deliver a workshop program (I think that means can you speak as well as you ‘art’…)

A joint venture between Carriageworks & UrbanGrowth NSW, the newly refurbished and subsidised art studios have been developed as a unique collaborative community space open to a range of arts and community partners. Providing a subsidised and supportive space for artists keen to undertake ambitious projects and engage with local community, The Clothing Store residencies will provide opportunities for locals to take part in art and cultural activities that reflect North Eveleigh’s rich culture and history. A schedule of artist-led community workshops will be announced later in the year, activating the important heritage buildings which date back to 1913.

North Eveleigh Program Director Duncan Read said that UrbanGrowth NSW was “committed to creating community facilities that recognise and celebrate the unique history and contemporary nature of this important part of Sydney. While the long term uses and ownership of the Clothing Store are yet to be decided, the activation will help inform our ideas.”

Good to hear from a government body that at least sounds like it gets the importance of supporting the arts community!

Initially, the building will be used by Carriageworks for 12 months in response to community feedback, while long term uses continue to be explored. Guess we’ll see what that means further down the track, but in the meantime…YAY!

ABOUT THE ARTISTS INVOLVED:

TONY ALBERT

Tony Albert’s art practice interrogates contemporary legacies of colonialism in a way that prompts the audience to contemplate elemental aspects of the human condition. Mining imagery and source material from across the globe and drawing upon personal and collective histories, Albert questions how we understand, imagine and construct difference. Albert’s work has been exhibited at several international institutions, including the Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France; the Singapore Art Museum; the National Museum of China, Beijing; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. His work was also included in the 10^th  Biennial of Havana, Cuba and the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Dark Heart. Albert won the Fleurieu Art Prize (2016); the Basil Sellers Art Prize (2014); and the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (2014). In 2013, Albert was commissioned to create an artwork for the Sydney Hyde Park War Memorial, installed in Hyde Park South on Anzac Day 2015 to commemorate indigenous soldiers. Albert’s forthcoming exhibitions include National Indigenous Art Triennial, NGA (May); and Sydney Contemporary (September). Tony Albert is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.

TULLY ARNOT

Tully Arnot’s work explores the effect that contemporary technology has on human relationships – from interpersonal communication through social media and touch screens to human-robot interactions through artificial intelligence and companionship robots. His work integrates complex technologies with quotidian components, investigating the clash between old and new modes of thought. Recent developments have seen Arnot’s practice move towards the role of touch in 21^st century social interaction. Arnot was the winner of the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship for Sculpture (2015-16); NAB Emerging Artist Award (2014); Qantas Spirit of Youth Award (2012), which included a 12-month mentorship with Liz Ann Macgregor; and has been represented in numerous exhibitions across Australia, UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, China, New Zealand, Russia and America. Most recently, Arnot undertook the Australia Council Greene St Studio Residency in New York.

OTHER ARCHITECTS

Other Architects is a small Sydney practice with a broad and global outlook. Working at a range of scales and across residential, commercial and institutional projects, Other Architects seeks out ‘other’ approaches that challenge conventional wisdom, popular opinion and architectural trends. Grace Mortlock is an architect and curator. Her work explores strategies of spectacle and spatial transformation, and she teaches in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). David Neustein is co-director of Other Architects, Associate of the UTS School of Architecture and The Monthly’s resident architectural critic. He is a recipient of the Adrian Ashton Award for Architectural Journalism and the UTS Open Agenda prize. Mortlock and Neustein have participated in the public program of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, exhibited at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial and were invited speakers at the 2016 New Cities, Future Ruins conference in Dallas, Texas. Widely published, their project Offset House has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, CityLab, Architectural Record, Architecture Australia and Australian Financial Review.

MIKALA DWYER

For over 30 years Mikala Dwyer has pushed the limits of installation and sculpture, establishing herself as one of Australia’s most important contemporary artists. Full of uncertainties and contradictions, Dwyer’s complex installations never lend themselves to definitive interpretations. Her work has been described as “profoundly sociable”; she asks viewers to come in, participate, and find their own meanings. She sets up open-ended conversations that draw our attention to the unseen – to invisible materials such as helium, or the voids between her forms, but also to hidden histories and our own highly personal relationships with magic, memory, sexuality and ritual. Dwyer explores the ‘consciousness’ inherent in materials, objects and spaces, their emotional tactility and sculptural possibilities. Mikala Dwyer is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.

SAMUEL HODGE

Samuel Hodge is a self-taught artist currently based in Sydney. His projects have taken the form of exhibitions, publications, online platforms, fashion shoots and text-based work. His practice is centred on the re-appropriation of what remains and the merging of images, sometimes assisted with text, dye, play doh, beads, silk and paper. Subjects vary, and often a queerish gaze is applied to manipulate the intention of the original in order to interrogate modes of narrative and constructions of the self at play. The remnants are submitted to ambiguous treatment; to a constant state of ecstatic and desirous resistance to conclusive representation. He has published three monographs to date, the most recent publication,​ Pretty Telling I Suppose, was released by the independent publisher Rainoff, NYC. Hodge has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand. Samuel Hodge is represented by ALASKA Projects, Sydney.

NELL
Nell is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been included in over 200 exhibitions. Nell’s practice has naturally evolved as multifaceted and interdisciplinary. Production of small, intimate objects is just as likely as the creation of immersive installations or performances. Nell’s work is underpinned by an ongoing and committed inquiry into selfhood and mortality and into contemporary manifestations of spiritual traditions. Her career has seen work presented in a suite of three inter-related projects held concurrently at the Museum of Old and New Art and MONA FOMA in 2012, as well as at the Shepparton Art Museum, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Performance Space, PS Project Space in Amsterdam, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, eight solo shows at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, a curated art museum survey and a collaboration with Romance was Born. Nell is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and STATION Gallery, Melbourne.

CLAUDIA NICHOLSON
As a Colombian born artist, adopted and raised in Australia, Nicholson occupies an ambivalent position between Latina/o, Amerindian and Australian cultures. The work she makes is a type of reverse erosion. It is an aggregation of symbols, experiences, cultural practices and art making techniques that highlight the role that volition plays in the construction of queer identity. Her practice usurps historical and colonial accounts of the past, and repositions, reclaims and re-constructs these histories and complex identities. In 2015, Nicholson was awarded the Freedman Foundation Travelling Art Scholarship and travelled to Guatemala to research alfombras de aserrín (sawdust carpets) made for religious festivals and to investigate Cholo and Chicano culture in Los Angeles. Last year she participated in SafARI festival, was a resident at Casula Power House and produced work for MCA Art Bar and Dark Mofo. She recently contributed to the project ‘Women of Fairfield’ commissioned by C3West and Power House Youth Theatre and was commissioned by Runway Australian Experimental Art to generate new digital work for issue #31 West. This year Nicholson has developed a new, large-scale project ‘All I Have Are Dreams of You’ at Carriageworks for The National, and is a finalist in the John Fries Award 2017.

PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT 

Born in Bangkok, currently living and working in Sydney, Phaptawan trained as a mural painter in the workshop of her father, the late master Paiboon Suwannakudt. She led her own workshop of mural painters and completed ten commissioned projects for public spaces throughout Thailand during 1982 -1995. She has participated in international exhibitions on a regular basis since 1990, including the 18^th Biennale of Sydney at the MCA in 2012. Her works are held in public and private collections locally and overseas including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Bank and the National Gallery Thailand. This year, her work will be exhibited as part of Traces of Words; Art of Asia at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Phaptawan Suwannakudt is represented by ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne.

About Carriageworks:

Carriageworks presents a contemporary multi-arts program that engages artists and audiences with contemporary ideas and issues. The Program is artist led and emerges from Carriageworks’ commitment to reflecting social and cultural diversity. The Carriageworks Artistic Program is ambitious, risk taking and unrelenting in its support of artists. Carriageworks is a cultural facility of the NSW Government and is supported by Create NSW. The Carriageworks program can be viewed at www.carriageworks.com.au.

About UrbanGrowth NSW

UrbanGrowth NSW is the NSW Government’s city transformation agency. Their ambition is to drive world class urban renewal that delivers sustainable housing and jobs growth and improves the liveability of our urban spaces. They collaborate with government, private and community stakeholders to deliver projects that create a globally competitive Sydney and NSW.  Visit www.urbangrowth.nsw.gov.au for more information on how they are creating resilient, diverse and connected places.