Fran's lecture was quite fresh compared to past lectures I thought. She didn't seem so wrapped up in herself which was nice, maybe this is a result of being part of Weeds.
I liked how she compared collaboration to a flat or a club, pooling resources. It must be easier all round for the individual, and take a lot of pressure and stress out of making works. I imagine only specific types of people would be suited to being involved in a collaboration, Fran said you have to be very democratic, this doesn't surprise me but made me wonder how you choose people to collaborate with. Like interviewing flatmates, maybe you interview artmates? Being part of a collaboration must have a very interesting effect on your practice. Fran said it becomes quite a safe space to pursue ideas because responsibility and consequences get divvied up. I think a collective differs from this, in that everyone is working towards the goal and has separate tasks to complete. Whereas a collaboration rolls all ideas and skills together.
I really could not help but make comparisons of Fran with Frances Hansen, and Mary Curtis. The way Fran collects cake tins (baskets in Frances's case), uses domesticity as a theme, and explores materiality is uncannily alike what Frances is into. The result of all of this however, is more fitting to compare with Mary Curtis's pieces, and in fact both Mary and Fran cited Helen Britton as an inspiration. Helen Britton's pieces are trinkity and often floral, this is a theme that also flows through Fran's work. When I viewed Mary Curtis's work in Object Space I talked about how a really wanted to touch then, I get the same sensation when looking at Britton's and Allison's pieces.
The one solid similarity you can make about these four artists is that they all generate work from giving life to old and used objects. Fran quotes Julian Schnabel in saying "I work with things left over from other things", which I suppose is a less attractive way of saying it. I compared Schnabel's work to Hansen's earlier on, and I fell he lends his ideas and techniques quite easily to Fran's practice as well.
Thanks Max, a good response, but what's missing is the discussion of a further collaborative practice that wasn't mentioned by either me or Fran. In other words, can you think of an artist collective out there? There are heaps when you search on them...
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you're right that there are a lot of commonalities between Frances, Mary and Fran. I think it has a lot to do with having worked together at this school for so long... so in a way, without them even intending it, they have formed a kind of collective!
TX