Red Comb House Collective established by artist Jeanelle House 1982. Image: Red Comb House Mezzanine, Roma Street, c.1982 Photo and collection Russell Lake
See also;
https://www.oneflat.space/
IMA DECEMBER 1984 ONE FLAT PERFORMANCE WITH DINNER
There are many stories yet to tell and share about artist friend and colleague Russell Lake. In this initial reflective account I give a brief overview of the deeply entwined nature of the One Flat/ O’flate artist-run collective, one that defied disciplinary coherence. The One Flat ARI Safari while not without it’s inner turmoil and cascading emotional intensities of three young people nestled together in a big old Dodge on a wondrous road trip, was a local and national ARI sensation. I was aged twenty when I met Russell and his friends in 1984. I loved that they were going southwards, all anti-Joh and Scooby-Dooby-Doo with their backpacks, tasty snax, artworks and an ARI much like a many-headed hydra all cramped inside a van. This was an Australian road trip with a difference. Much like the actual ‘dodge’ truck they acquired for a song in early 1986, these artful dodgers dodged the adversity of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen factor and the fixity of localised and biogeographic place common to Queensland/Australian artist-run spaces [ARIs] 1940 to Now.
The O’Flate National Art Safari (1986) was a conceptually experimental, cross-country art tour by the Brisbane-based One Flat artists’ collective. ARI members Russell Lake, Adam Boyd, and Jeanelle Hurst travelled across Australia in a one-ton Dodge loaded with video gear, televisions, scooby snacks and camping equipment. The objectives and key highlights of the ARI Safari include exploring the highways, back roads and tracks where the group travelled “west southwest” from Brisbane through Cobar, Wilcannia, Broken Hill, Ceduna, Eucla, Norseman, Esperance, and Margaret River, ending in Fremantle, before returning to Brisbane. They researched, produced and performed works under the title Tyrannosaurus Landscape / Artist Wrex at major experimental art spaces across the country, including Praxis Gallery (Fremantle), Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide), Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (Melbourne), Chameleon Gallery (Hobart),The Performance Space (Sydney),That Contemporary Art Space (Brisbane) and various iterations at the Institute of Modern Art 1984-87). Early Tech Integration – pre-internet- where artist Jeanelle Hurst utilised the journey to scope and road-test the Viatel Videotex system, an early pre-Internet online network, laying the groundwork for her future media projects in the late 1980s. The history of the One Flat collective and this 1986 tour is documented on the One Flat Artist Run Initiatives platform see link below. The collective co-produced the Interface 88 ‘city as a work of art’. This work facilitated by Queensland coordinator Jeanelle Hurst extended telecommunications modalities– altered city building ‘lighting grids,’ bulletin boards and videotex services. Interface 88 ‘city as a work of art’ remains a singular and important large-scale public art event in the 1980s deserving of increased research attention.
Vision of O’Flission, [Belltower Studios] 424 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Art+Design+ Performance, 1 August 1984. From collaborations with One Flat/ O’Flate/O’Flission 1982-1985
Australian artist and educator Russell Lake passed away on September 23, 2024, following a long and complex cancer journey. Known for his arts advocacy, unruly installation, and assemblage art, he was a vibrant co-founder of the One Flat artist collective and a lifelong advocate for the Queensland Artworkers Alliance – previously the Artworkers Union Qld. His works were featured in the ephemeral traces; brisbane artist run spaces in the 1980s an important introductory exhibition to independent DIY SEQ artist-run culture 1970 to Now, staged ‘on a shoestring’ by independent artist-curator Peter Anderson with a team of UQ Art Museum workers.
https://ariremix.com.au/vale-artist-russell-lake-23-september-2024/
This collection of artists’ ephemera depicts examples of Russell’s important work in the 1982-2018 timeframe. This is a work in progress in 2026-27.
Artists Russell Lake and Jeanelle Hurst, One Flat located at 19 Edmondstone Street, West End, 1982. Photo: Kent Johnson.. https://kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/
Russell Lake, Collected Works1979-1986 , John MIlls National., 1986
Russell Lake, Adam Boyd and Jeanelle Hurst exhibition at That Contemporary Art Space, December, 1985
Examples from Russell’s collection shared to ARI Remix 2015-2024 below. Examples of photos of Russell here with artists Dianne Heenan and John Waller in conversation and artistic reflection at the SLQ Cafe with artist Paul Andrew, 2018. Documented on the way to Forty Years of Art Practice exhibition, which took place in January 2018. Hosted at the POP Gallery—located at 27 Logan Road in Woolloongabba—the exhibition celebrated the enduring legacy of artists, ARI members and alumni who graduated from the Seven Hills College of Art (now the Queensland College of Art) in the late 1970s.
