|
Like the rest of society in this economic-rationalist era, the art
scene in Sydney seems to be experiencing an increased polarisation. While
there is a sense of buoyancy in the Australian art market unseen since
the 1980s along with a proliferation of festivals and biennales, the "emerging" artist's
situation seems to be in a state of crisis. While more people are enrolling
in art schools than ever before, cuts in government funding and the subsequent
restructuring of bodies such as the Australia Council has resulted in
a dearth of opportunities at entry level for young artists and administrators.
Artist-run spaces have traditionally enabled those at the start of their careers
to get crucial exhibiting and curating experience. The nature of these spaces
is a volatile one almost by definition: often staffed by overworked and unpaid
young artists, running on the most limited of funds, these spaces, despite the
best of efforts, seldom last longer than a few years. Jacqueline Millner's recent
article in Artlink magazine (vol. 17, no. 4) suggests that the short lifespan
is a way of maintaining experimental integrity. This may be so, but very few
spaces would close given the choice; and the longevity of spaces such as First
Draft and CBD work in their favour, bestowing a prestige that is of benefit to
the artists that show there.
One gallery that attracted an enormous amount of interest right from the start
is side-on inc. Run by four young artists from Sydney College of the Arts
(Melanie O'Callaghan, Tim Silver, Carla Cescon and Grant Ayre), the space in
one year had exhibited a wide range of artists, was profiled in a number of publications,
reviewed in Art and Text, and had collaborated with the Australian Centre
for Photography.
In a small shopfront on Parramatta Road, Sydney's main east-west traffic artery, side-on
inc. had been operating for a couple of years as a space showing mostly SCA
student painters. Directed by Dominic Garcia, the gallery was an offshoot of side-on
inc. film production, which had its premises upstairs. Under its new directorship,
the agenda was to expand and diversify the programme, as well as to bring it
to a wider audience. A large part of this strategy was the intention to show
both young and emerging artists and those with commercial careers. "Our
whole platform was showing younger artists like ourselves alongside more established
artists, so the work would be assessed at the same level," Silver explains. "Most
artist-run galleries in Sydney were catering for particular generations of artists.
We wanted to create a cross-generational dialogue."
From the first exhibition, Evil Art, held in February 1997, the professionalism
of the team was in evidence. The show included Adam Cullen and Paul Saint, and
the gallery aesthetic was slick and resolved. The directors organised the mail-outs
and promotional material, rather than leaving it to the artists, enabling a consistency
throughout the year's programme. This was a conscious decision, flowing on from
strong curatorial input from the collective. "We liked to know what was
going in there", says O'Callaghan. "We made decisions about what was
to go in. Every show was very much the side-on taste." Silver agrees. "Ultimately
we were all coming from the same head space; there were never any issues about
what was being shown."
This curatorial approach is an intriguing development in the artist-run space
scene. One of the main attractions of such spaces is the lack of pressure for
commercial viability, enabling a freedom to make work that may never gain entry
into more mainstream galleries. For side-on inc. this freedom is tempered
with a far more rigorous approach, from both curators and artists. It's not good
enough to have a photocopied flyer and a cask of moselle at the opening any more:
the artist must have a neat proposal on hand and a good line in networking. A
large part of this is due to the lack of venues, particularly in Sydney. "I
think [art] becomes a more rarefied experience in Sydney," speculates Silver. "You
are in a situation where you are unable to have a lot of shows a year, so therefore
the work that is being produced has more emphasis on refinement."
There is a simple reason for this of course: money. There isn't enough of it
and Sydney is a big city with the highest rent and lowest property vacancy rate
in the country. As a consequence, the competition for space is extraordinarily
high and the low-earning artist-run space is hardly an attractive option for
landlords. "Towards the end of last year the building we were in went up
for sale and got sold when our lease was up," explains Silver. "We
were forced into a situation where we had to relocate. Unfortunately we have
run into some difficulty in finding a new venue, due to out-of-control real estate
in Sydney-but we're still anticipating a mid-year opening." The situation
is typical: despite the support and goodwill engendered by an innovative programme,
the lack of money and of an institutional infrastructure has resulted in the
gallery being placed on hold. "We've looked at so many places," says
O'Callaghan. "It's really disappointing and disheartening not to have a
space, because you lose the momentum, which we were really building up."
Other spaces seem to be running into similar problems. First Draft, Sydney's
longest running space, has just lost its funding after over ten years of operations.
It is still open, but has had to charge higher rents for the artists exhibiting
there. This is something that side-on inc. are keen to avoid. "The
whole problem for an artist-run space is keeping the cost minimal for the artist
so that it's feasible," says Silver. "The purpose of a space is that
it gives people opportunities. If you have too high a rent, then you eliminate
a lot of people." "We could charge $2,000 for a show, which has been
done," says O'Callaghan, "but that's not what an artist-run space is
about." Other spaces such as CBD and 151 Regent Street also face possible
relocation, both being in prime inner-city sites. Pendulum, Selenium, Toast and
Airspace have all had to close in the last couple of years. It's a dire situation.
One part of side-on inc. which is still operating is its website, a key
element in the gallery's agenda to bring the work to broader audiences. Artists
were encouraged to use the site as an extension of their exhibition (this, however,
didn't always happen). Each exhibition was documented, with Ayre maintaining
the site with slides of the shows and artist statements. The directors found
it useful for enquiries and proposals, with interested parties being directed
towards the website for information.
The Internet presence also tied in with the nature of some of the exhibitions
which were often temporal or off-site and relied on the documentation as evidence,
which became the work itself. Other work, such as Daniel Malone's exhibition Gondwanaland,
took a different approach to documentation, the work being a litany of recordings,
childlike in their banality. Marathon consisted of "all the ink of each
pen and the empty pen, on A4 paper." Handshake was an A4 colour photocopy
of "a strawberry milkshake and hand." Film, video and sound pieces
were also shown during the year-in a Net interview, Silver explained that the
gallery steered away from traditional 'on the wall' media because "there
are already plenty of places where you can go and show that kind of work." This
kind of work doesn't sell, so the gallery didn't see too many collectors (where
are the Saatchis in this town?) but it did attract a lot of interest from curators
and the art press. "It wasn't an artist-run space community, because people
from the commercial world came as well," says Silver. "We'd all been
about and involved in the art world, so we were talking to these people and generating
interest." The final show for the year was a joint effort with the prestigious
Australian Centre for Photography, with side-on inc. being the venue for
part of the New Photo Artists exhibition.
Despite this, the gallery is still without a space; and while the directors are
looking at two or three sites a week, there is still the fundamental problem
to contend with. Sydney has always been a city of greed-the landscape is dotted
with its symbols (East Circular Quay is merely the latest example). Philanthropy
is not widespread, and the collectors are a conservative bunch, by and large.
The money being paid to artist-run spaces by the government has been concentrated,
so that one or two venues (such as Artspace) get more money, while spaces such
as First Draft get their funding cut. The directors remain resolute that the
gallery will reopen mid-year, with a hopeful note being struck with the first
scheduled exhibition, entitled Good. It's because you have to be.
side-on inc. website:
http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gayre/sideon.html
Russell Storer
|
|