Familiarity and intimacy: ‘Together in Art’

Emily Hunt, (Returned) three Gorgons, 2020, collaged akua ink on paper, 42 x 62cm; courtesy and © the artist

Jelena Telecki, Midnight snack, 2020, oil on paper; courtesy the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney; © the artist

Jude Rae, Out my window 1, 2020, graphite and watercolour on Saunders Waterford rough paper, 37.5 x 55.5cm; courtesy and © the artist

Jumaadi, Sometimes he is a fish. But sometimes he is just a boy, 2020, pencil and gouache on paper, 21 x 29.7cm; courtesy and © the artist

Marikit Santiago with Maella Pearl, age 5; Santiago Pearl, age 4; and Sarita Pearl, age 1, Thank you for keeping us safe in the Coronavirus Days, 2020, pencil, pen and texta on paper, 29.7 x 21cm; courtesy and © the artist

Mitch Cairns, Dice undone (garden view), 2020, linocut on paper, 29.7 x 21cm; courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney; © the artist

Thea Perkins, Raven, 2020, watercolour on Arches paper, 38 x 28.5cm; courtesy and © the artist

Tom Carment, Out the front door, 2020, watercolour and pigment ink, 16 x 11.5cm; courtesy the artist and King Street Gallery, Sydney; © the artist

Tom Polo, nel questo giardino, 2020, acrylic and ink on paper; courtesy the artist, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney

Writing at the start of April about the indefinite closure of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), in the first instalment of an ambitious project inspired by this almost unprecedented eventuality, Director Michael Brand called for action. At first, he conceded, ‘our initial actions might be quite small in scale but they will set the tone for what will follow as we set out larger and longer-term strategies’. In the two months between the gallery’s closure and its scheduled reopening on 1 June, the elaboration of this project – aptly titled ‘Together in Art’ – through the contributions of artists, educators, performers, gallery staff and art lovers across Australia has more than fulfilled Brand’s aspiration. As visitors return to the physical space of the gallery, this virtual space of ‘creativity, passion and commitment’ will remain a monumental achievement, offering ‘humour, delight, curiosity, beauty and artistic uplift’ not only to those unable to visit in person, but even to those who spend every day within the gallery’s walls.

Alongside Brand’s heartfelt reflection on ‘the power of art to connect people in times of crisis’, visitors to ‘Together in Art’ can now read short articles on a diverse range of subjects from ‘the shapeshifting foxes, living teakettles and otherworldly beings of Japanese art’, to the social role of self-portraiture in the twenty-first century. We can browse a selection of ‘pocket exhibitions’ featuring key works from the AGNSW collection, brought together in response to themes that reflect the whole spectrum of human experience, from the reassuringly prosaic to the mind-expanding and sublime. Those seeking to discover creativity in confinement can turn for inspiration to new work by artists Mitch Cairns, Tom Carment, Emily Hunt, Jumaadi, Thea Perkins, Tom Polo, Jude Rae, Marikit Santiago and Jelena Telecki, commissioned ‘to create an image of something familiar and intimate – the view from their window’.

Familiarity and intimacy can also be found in a series of instructional videos, offering lessons in the making of collage portraits, shadow projections, flower patterns, toilet-roll dolls, monsters, dada poems, faces and the solution of problems through diagrams. Artists Marian Abboud, Tony Albert, Adrienne Doig, Deborah Kelly, Desmond Lazaro, Nell, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Ben Quilty take up Brand’s invitation to ‘speak from the heart’, inviting younger family members to join them in their step-by-step demonstration of projects that have likely brought together many families across Australia. Like the ‘Artist Voice’ series initiated by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, another Sydney-based institution scheduled to reopen on 16 June, these videos offer a glimpse into artists’ daily lives, dispelling some of the inhibitions that might dissuade those less familiar with the arts from engaging with their work.

As we move into the next phase of our transition into a COVIDSafe Australia, initiatives like these give us some idea of what to expect in a reopened and revitalised arts community. Long before the outbreak of the pandemic and the subsequent closure of museums and galleries across the world, curators, educators and public programs coordinators realised the value of digital platforms. Many had already started to develop online resources and virtual experiences to attract and retain diverse audiences, seeking to entice younger visitors through their doors while fostering new ways of engaging with art outside the bricks-and-mortar gallery. Digital platforms will never completely replicate or replace the experience of seeing a work of art in the flesh, and the 'ghost exhibitions' of Brand’s imagination will soon be filled once again with the invigorating murmur of hushed conversation. These months of solitude and closure have shown beyond a shadow of doubt, however, that this collective search for meaning, our desire to come together in art, extends far beyond the physical space of the gallery.

Dr Alex Burchmore, Publication Manager