Officeworks

Usually a place reserved to conduct business, professional duties, clerical work, etc., the office, is not normally a place that one would find creative insight. Administrative processes, carried out, result in by-products that are disposed of in rubbish or re-cycle bins.  Liberated and fished out from the bins, refuse items such as paper, toner, pens, hole punch confetti, stamps, paperclips, correction tape etc., are collected and employed as materials in the art making process.

Office Worksis the title applied to a unique body of works that use the office environment as a place for artistic inspiration.

The proposed exhibition comprises of seven artists of varying disciplines and backgrounds. Curated by Kaye Strange, the exhibition will showcase the artists’ individual responses to working with materials that are mass produced and considered perfunctory.

Works will be diverse, ranging from one-off pieces, constructed in-situ, to multiple works on paper (in set formats) with some sculptural pieces. Traditionally the materials are monochromatic and, as a result, works may be limited in colour.

The artists have used the concept to explore their own ‘take’ on the office and the machines and materials within them.  The line-up of artists includes Christian Bök an internationally recognised, award-winning poet from Canada. He is best known for his constraint-based writings that explore the limit-cases of linguistic experimentation.

Bill Davies a local artist whose practice consists of two streams of work. While his randomly marked works on paper is a process driven response to see where the materials will take him, his hard-edged paintings using sign writing skills and materials are a much more controlled response to the Urban Environment.

Stuart Gluth an award winning pop-up designer and paper artist, typographic designer, illustrator and researcher into creativity, typographic legibility and design as research. He has also conducted workshops into creative idea generation across a diverse range of disciplines. His personal work reflects the exploration of minimal visual and material means to express and communicate ideas, particularly the interplay of positive and negative space and the interaction of light and shadow on plain paper form.

Christian Clare Robertson a painter who lives and works in Darwin. She sees this project as an opportunity to consider the office environment with its structures from office layout to personnel hierarchical arrangements as inspiration for art works that utilise limited materials and employ focused concepts.

Koulla Roussos a Darwin based barrister, lecturer, curator, artist and creative producer whose curatorial approach is influenced by her experience living in a culturally diverse location. Koulla has been using things that pre-exist in her works for a while.  She sees this project as an opportunity to develop something new from post cards and ephemera from overseas trips pasted together with office stationary and materials.

Kaye Strange has, over the years, held various administration roles.  This experience has familiarised her first hand with office stationary, processes and systems. Kaye takes great delight in taking these materials away from their practical use!