the tomboy project

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Testing Grounds Melbourne Residency

Its been a few years since posting on my Tomboy blogspot but I've been very busy with one Tomboy antic after another. I've been to the far reaches of Iceland on a 2 month residency program. To Berlin to meet Australian curator and gallery director Michael DOONEY to discuss possibilities of exhibiting the Tomboy Project with book launch in his gallery Michael Dooney Gallery. I also just retuned from a six month sojourn in my home town of Edinburgh, Scotland. Arriving back in Melbourne I hit the ground running with an incredibly rich opportunity to be involved with Testing Grounds - http://www.testing-grounds.com.au/ and undertake a residency program. Situated in Melbourne's CBD, Testing Grounds is a hub of experimentation and creativity that offers artists free space to work, think and create. The residency commenced in the thick of the Australian sweltering summer time during the month of January and concluded with the erasure of the work in wintery August. The studio space was a white box with an opaque perspex ceiling allowing the sun to belt in. The box had doors like bellows on a ship that swung open wrapping around the side. The heat was harsh, intensely challenging, unbearable and at times difficult to keep ones eyes open due to the extreme white light. I used the space as a photographic studio to shoot portraits. An online call out for participants beckoned potential collaborators. But I must give a special shout out to my very special tomboy-in-arms DR LIZ BRADSHAW for flying down from Sydney for a day of bromancing, arting and creation. The portraits are reminiscent of the American dust bowl, hazy with white light. Thank you Dr! So heres some of the work made during this month - more later on the process and perhaps some stuff about its meaning...