Paired
Thom & Angelmouse, Rosie Deacon & Emily Crockford, Arunan Dharmalingam & Jessica Hodgkinson, Glenn Barkley & John and Glenda Havilah (all NSW), Henry Jock Walker & Scott Pyle (SA), Dion Beasley & Johanna Bell (NT), Catherine Bell & Cathy Staughton (VIC), and Kate Adams & Paul Colley (UK).
Curated by Harriet Body
Paired showcases eight collaborative projects between artists living with and without intellectual/developmental disability or cognitive difference (hereafter ‘disability’) – seven projects from across Australia and one from the UK. Each artist in this exhibition sustains a thriving individual creative practice, and many of the artists with disability in this exhibition are supported in their professional art practices by specialised ‘supported studios’. The evolution of these spaces since the 1970s has seen the work of artists with disability increasingly recognised as valid and important. The artist pairs selected for this exhibition are examples of the types of collaborative relationships that are occurring as artists with disability are accepted and embraced as vital voices within the global, mainstream art context.
Four of the eight collaborations exhibited have arisen out of three of these supported studios. Thom and Angelmouse (my own collaboration with Thom Roberts) and Emily Crockford and Rosie Deacon are supported by Studio A in Sydney, Henry Jock Walker and Scott Pyle by Tutti Arts in Adelaide, and Cathy Staughton and Catherine Bell by Arts Project Australia in Melbourne. Each of these studios have recognised that collaboration between their supported artists and artists working outside their organisations is important for promoting equality within the Australian art community and have developed programs that foster such relationships.
It was my own experience of collaborating with Thom Roberts that led to this exhibition. Our collaboration is called Thom and Angelmouse and we have created work together over the past four years, exhibiting in the Underbelly Arts Festival (2015), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (2016), and The Big Anxiety Festival (2017). My collaboration with Thom has had a hugely powerful impact on my art practice and my understanding of disability and neurodiversity. Although I’m unable to engage in rigorous intellectual discussion with Thom, conversations with him are often surprising, intriguing, and inspirational. Through making art together, we are able to share ideas, jokes, our aspirations and our histories. Part of our collaboration and friendship involves me taking on a responsibility of care for Thom – in a way that is different to how I care for my friends who don’t have an intellectual disability. The intrigue of the working studio space is that when we make art together this element of our relationship largely falls away, making for a more equalising space where we become two artists just riffing off each other’s ideas.
Emily Crockford and Rosie Deacon met when Rosie was invited by Studio A to collaborate with a number of artists in creating an installation for the 2015 Underbelly Arts Festival. The pair quickly formed a bond, recognising a lot of similarities in each other’s art practices, and stayed in touch, regularly catching up for studio and coffee dates. In 2018 Rosie and Emily were invited to create a major installation for gallery Cement Fondu’s Project Space – a work they have adapted for this exhibition.
Henry Jock Walker and Scott Pyle were introduced by artist/curator Madison Bycroft who, in 2014, invited the pair to create a collaborative work about their shared passion for surfing in the Australian Experimental Art Foundation’s Project Space. The resulting installation - _No one Double Crosses the Surfies_ - explored painting, sculpture and performance. The two formed a fast friendship and continued working together on a number of projects until in early 2018 they undertook a residency at Sauerbier House, Port Noarlunga, 'Table Rock Surf Centre' where they explored ideas and processes to develop Billy and Rocky Surfboards – their brand of t-shirts, paintings and custom surfboards.
Catherine Bell and Cathy Staughton have been collaborating together for the past eight years after being paired by curator Lindy Judge and Arts Project Australia for the _Portrait Exchange_ (2010) and for the _Knowing Me Knowing You_ project (2014). For this exhibition Catherine and Cathy present a painting and silent film, _The Artists_ (2018) that documents a shared residency they undertook at Melbourne University’s Norma Redpath studio in December last year. Their collaborative work reflects on their relationship, female identity, and feminist practice within a disability context.
I encountered many different types of creative relationships when investigating collaborations coming out of these supported studios, but what really struck me about the four that I’ve chosen to exhibit is the friendship that has blossomed between the pairs. Emily and Rosie are constantly facebooking each other selfies and ideas for future collaborative artworks, Henry and Scott regularly catch up for surfing dates, Cathy and Catherine text each other almost every day, and Thom has dedicated himself Godfather of my soon-to-be-born baby, an honorary role I’m certain he will maintain for the rest of our lives.
The four other collaborations included in this exhibition have formed outside of any supported studio artist-pairing programs.
Arunan Dharmalingam (NSW) works out of the recreational visual arts program at Studio ARTES, a disability support organisation in Sydney. Studio A works closely with Studio ARTES, providing professional development opportunities to artists emerging from the ARTES program. Jessica Raymond is the visual arts program manager at Studio ARTES and provides specialised support and assistance to Arunan in creating his large-scale print editions. Arunan and Jessica’s relationship illustrates the tension between collaboration and facilitation that is often found within these sorts of partnerships. Although Jessica makes some important creative decisions in the production of Arunan’s work, she is reluctant to define her role as collaborative. Jessica is paid to assist Arunan, and her intent and responsibility is to support him in creating his own saleable artwork. Nevertheless the artwork that results from these two working together would not exist without the creative input of both participants. Arunan and Jessica created the prints shown in this exhibition with the support of a Studio A Professional Pathways Award (2017).
A different type of tension exists within the collaboration between Kate Adams and her son, Paul Colley (UK), who lives with profound cognitive impairment. We cannot know how Paul understands himself as an artist or as a partner in making collaborative artwork. Kate is the co-founder and director of UK-based organisation Project Art Works – an artist-led organisation working with people with profound intellectual impairment and complex needs. Project Art Works’ purpose is to provide their ‘makers’ with the space, support and materials to act creatively, ultimately “revealing the essential abilities and nature of all those involved”.[1] In this exhibition, Paul and Kate’s collaborative video work _The Not Knowing Of Another_ reveals a glimpse into Paul’s world through the medium of video and documentary. While the work was created through Kate’s vision, what the cameras record is dependent upon Paul’s movements as they follow him on his journey to the seaside, with one camera even attached to his body. This collaborative work allows the viewer access into Paul’s world, offering us the opportunity to connect to a different mode of being in the world.
Brothers-in-law Glenn Barkley and John Havilah are another pair of artists who have connected to each other's practice via their strong familial relationship. Theirs is a wonderful friendship to witness as they spar with one another, swapping humorously harsh and largely ignored critiques of each other’s artwork in progress. John often gives Glenn objects he has made which Glenn might incorporate into his own artwork, while Glenn supplies John with professional art materials, offers advice, and supports John’s creative development. Although their close relationship has proven to influence and inspire both of their individual art practices, the work they have made for this exhibition, together with Glenda (John’s wife), is their first formal collaboration.
The final pair of artists selected for the exhibition is artist Dion Beasley and writer Johanna Bell. The prints exhibited are taken from the _Cheeky Dogs_ children’s book series that Johanna and Dion created together. Dion and Johanna’s collaboration formed through a common interest in animals and their habits. Johanna – a social researcher and life-long fan of David Attenborough documentaries – came across Dion’s artwork at Nomad gallery in Darwin and loved his attention to detail and talent in capturing the personalities of the animals that he drew. She contacted Dion and their subsequent collaboration demonstrates a world where artists with disability are respected for their talent, a world where artists with different cognitive abilities meet and work together as equals.