STUDIONONSTOP

Train travelling to Brisbane for some winter warmth.

Inversions workshop with Jessica Stickler
Handstand, forearm balance, headstand & shoulderstand.
Jivamukti Yoga, Newtown

Winter Mushroom Workshop
with Will Borowski
Alexandria Park Community Centre
Milkwood Permaculture

7/4/11-24/4/11

ANNA JOHN
IAKOVOS AMPERIDIS
LISA KELLY
SACH CATTS

55 Sydenham Rd
Marrickville NSW 2204 AU

Life Signs

1. Throughway for a lizard

On the 2nd of March I made a first visit to 55 Sydenham Rd. We sat in the space and had a long chat about the effort that went into renovating and constructing the studios and gallery, what kind of work we were doing when we were both in the M.H Franks Upholstery building studios in Camperdown back in the Nineties and the increasing drift of artist-run spaces out to Marrickville. We reflected on the disquieting role of artist-run initiatives in the gentrification of neighbourhoods – triggering the urban change that ultimately displaces artists and other poorer locals.

Looking around the room for points of interest, I found a small hole passing right through the concrete floor to the level below. It was described how during the months of building work a lizard was seen coming up through this hole, crossing the room and under the wall to another part of the building.

A hole in the new gallery wall temporarily restores the potential passage of a lizard across the upper floor of an industrial warehouse building in Marrickville.

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Walking in the back streets of Enmore and noticing a mature macadamia tree in a front yard. A nice man coming out of his house says “Want some nuts?” Sharing them with Michelle Margolis when I get to her house for a garden tour as part of National Permaculture Day, May 1st 2011.

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Taking a self-sown mulberry tree for a walk along Parramatta Rd and planting it alongside the Hawthorne Canal bike path for future fruit foraging. May 1st 2011.

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Admiring the many mushrooms up after all the autumn rain.

Reading:

Mycelium Running:
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
by
Paul Stamets
Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California 2005

‘Year-round, fungi decompose and recycle plant debris, filter microbes and sediments from runoff, and restore soil. In the end, life-sustaining soil is created from debris, particularly dead wood. We are now entering a time when mycofilters of select mushroom species can be constructed to destroy toxic waste and prevent disease…’ p.10

One year off.

Field left Fallow

Some notes on a year off art practice.
January – December 2010

THE LAB

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK FOUR

NOTES.

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Adding the post-dinner loo bucket full of wet sawdust and wee to the growing heap. Seeing my regular route through the weeds now visible as a pathway at the compost site. Replacing the toilet bucket, topping up sawdust and cleaning the loo.

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THE LAB

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK THREE

NOTES.

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Riding week two’s collected toilet and organic material back to the compost site on Thea’s bike as honey-wagon. Weeding the overgrown house garden and feeding it to the heap, enjoying time in the sun and air outside in this grassy meadow.

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THE LAB

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK TWO

NOTES.

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Clover seeds pushing up through soil and sprouting.

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The red rose Bianca brought on my first day, opening and changing.

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THE LAB

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK ONE

NOTES.

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For the first week it felt right to observe things as they were in the Lab. The given conditions, the objects in the room when I arrived – a plinth, a ladder, a trestle table, an amplifier and some foam – and the movement of light and air into and through the space. It was surprising how much was going on in and at the edges of an empty room. I felt no need to remove the objects, figuring I’d wait to see who had left them and what they might be useful for. For the first few days I was strongly mindful of the practices of Thea Rechner and John Borley, as I paid attention to air and light and sat on the front step with the doors open making eye contact with passing drivers.

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THE LAB

For the month of October Lisa Kelly will be developing an open residency project at Ocular Lab, Brunswick West, Melbourne. Less an exhibition than a set of actions, processes, reading and renewal, THE LAB will draw on the Lab’s past use as a private artists studio and observe its shift to a public gallery. Combining the dual purposes of work and presentation space while being attentive to the specific conditions of the site, Kelly will engage in simple process cycles that annex the basic functions of a public venue. Areas of exploration will include onsite waste, streetfront visibility and natural lighting.

This project for Ocular Lab continues the artist’s practice of using critical frameworks to investigate the institutions her work is hosted by. In 2008 her project THE__HALL explored the re-purposing of a community hall into an art gallery by a local council.

Ocular Lab
31 Pearson Street
Brunswick West
VIC

Open & in progress:
Wednesday to Sunday 1pm-5pm
10th October to 1st November.

Closing gathering:
Saturday 31st October 3-5pm

Urban grassland &
inner city seagull sanctuary
Prince Alfred Park pool
Surry Hills
Sydney

Closed for redevelopment and growing over.
Walk around the fenceline and seedball action.
27.11.08

Rainfall:
28/11
29/11
7/12
8/12
10/12
11/12
12/12

Mowed down & whipper-snipped:
17/12