LM:

LM:

It didn’t impact on me directly. I had three children and an art practice, which kept me busy, and left little time for political activism. I was aware of the impact on others. Wendy’s friends were more vulnerable to the intrusion of the heavy-handed tactics of Bjelke’s ‘henchmen’. They knew their share house was being watched and their friends and their activities under surveillance. From what I saw, the general impact was to unite various ‘free minded’ people into forms of resistance and subversion. Hearsay at the time was that students were able to produce screen prints at student activities at UQ, which were put to good effect.

So there were communities of like-minded individuals who coalesced in order to support each other in resisting these forms of intimidation. These same bloody minded qualities, brought into being as a result of the social and political climate, were in the eighties put into the service of the arts community. Emerging artists were not supported in any way, and the establishment art scene was conservative in the extreme. The only way any scene could emerge was to ‘do it yourself’ and to do it together.

LM:

While I was at QCA 1980, ’81 and I was producing a commission for some architects which was object based. This involved fibreglass and wood lamination. The toxicity of the materials led to my becoming allergic to the petrochemicals I was using, and this in turn forced a major shift in the media I was using, and consequently my practice. By 1982 I was producing ephemeral works, namely site-specific installations and performance.

1981 and in 1982 while still at QCA, I accompanied John Eliott, now Head of Sculpture, and the 3rd year QCA sculpture students on two significant trips south. The first to the 1981 Melbourne Sculpture Triennial, and the second to the 1982 Sydney Biennale. In Melbourne we all camped at Latrobe Uni with a mass of other interstate students and visiting artists. Wendy Mills (Moss) had an outdoor installation ‘Inland Sea’ in the Triennial. I found this vast and diverse exhibition a game changer. In particular I was fascinated by the landscape installation and performance, ‘Vein’, by New Zealand artist, Andrew Drummond, which in hindsight probably had an impact on the commencement of my ‘Performances in the Landscape’ in 1984. We also helped Richard Harris on his land art installation and he later visited the QCA Sculpture Dept and conducted workshops with the students.

Sydney in 1982 introduced me to the video and sound work of Brian Eno, as well as to other styles of performance art. Adrian Hall from the Sydney College of Art was a friend and colleague of John Eliott, and he billeted us with his students in Balmain. I was billeted with Marie Larson, a student and feminist performance artist. I witnessed a presentation and very edgy performance by Marie, which left a lasting impression on me, especially in relation to the courage required to expose and risk herself in the manner she did. Later on, we all attended a talk at the College by British performance artist Anthony Howell, who was represented in the 1982 Biennale and who spoke of his performance company, ‘Theatre of Mistakes.’ Perhaps more significantly, and also in 1982, I attended a performance workshop at the IMA conducted by Anthony Howell. Stimulated by these excursions and experiences, I decided I wanted to produce a performance.

As a result I organised and collaborated with Jeanelle Hurst, Russell Lake, Linda Wilson and a number of QCA students (Glenda Nalder, Co Oliver et al) on a performance, ‘Rites’ which was presented in a programme, ‘4 Performances’, which was performed over three evenings in August 1982 in the theatre of The Community Arts Centre, (now Metro Arts) in Edward St. Jeanelle produced the video of the event, Russell the sound, Linda the floor design, while Linda and Cameron Whighton were key performers, along with myself and my young son, Josh. The programme of ‘4 Performances’ also included ‘3 Pieces’ by Barbara Campbell, ‘Aural Montage’ by Dgraskne and ‘Hearts’ by 10 People. A stunning poster advertising the event was produced by David Whyte who was working at the print department of QCA, then at Seven Hills. They were perhaps too successful, being unashamedly souvenired by a discerning public. Nancy Underhill, then Head of the Art History Dept at UQ, attended one of the performance evenings with visiting feminist art critic and historian, Lucy Lippard.

Later in 1982, also at the Community Arts Centre, I produced an installation/performance as part of the Sculpture Society’s Festival ’82 Exhibition, which evolved over the duration of the exhibition. This was the first of my performances, which I thought of as ‘performed creativity’, rather than a ‘creative performance’. What was being performed was a series of actions, which advanced the work and made visible to the public the ‘work or agency of the artist’. Likewise, in 1983 for the pivotal, ‘No Names’ Exhibition at the IMA, curated by acting Director, Barbara Campbell and Ted Riggs, I produced another evolving exhibition, which plotted and materialised a light form, which traversed the gallery each day, once again performing ‘the work’ of the artist. In tune with this work, we had a closing instead of an opening. It was in 1984 I commenced the ‘Performance in the Landscape’ series. Then, and subsequently, the documentation of the performances accompanied the installations.

Later in 1984 after the Landscape I: Mandala installation I moved into studios at 83 St Pauls Terrace, which became my permanent studio base where I produced installations which were also exhibited in situ and at other times were toured for southern Exhibitions.

Wendy Mills, Glenda Nalder, Elizabeth and Iain Turnbull, Brendan Smith, Wayne Smith, Virginia Barratt were amongst the artists who worked on these projects. These also included THAT Space members, Jane Richens, John Waller, and Jay Younger, who was the photographer on a number of my ‘Performances in the Landscape’. Virginia Barratt was still working as an assistant at 83 St Paul’s Tce when she and collaborator Adam Boyd opened John Mills National, an artist-run space dedicated to Performance and Installation Art. They utilised the front studio space at street level on Charlotte street.

LM:

Collaboration during this time was significant. In the 1980s the artists and the ARIs were somewhat fluid. People became involved in each other’s projects. Many of the former students and some tutors from QCA came to John Mills to help on the production of ‘Mandala’. Edith-Ann Murray, accompanied by a set of scales, rode her motorbike kilometres to an appropriate creek bed where she carefully choose the ‘exact’ weight for the pairs of stones that acted as a counterbalances for the double pulley system; Robert Turnbull and my Dad helped me solve the technical difficulties presented by the ‘gadget’ I’d devised to control the flow of water; architect Peter Smith lent his theodolite, as the floor was anything but even; Niels van Amsterdam shovelled sand; Jan Williams patiently stitched the dome for hours on end, day after day, as did Glenda Nalder; Co Oliver photographed the Performance in the Landscape at Beachmere; the two Wendys were ever present. This is to name only a few of those who gave their time. Without this generous support Mandala, would have taken considerably longer to produce.

John Mills Himself maintained a stable presence due to the long term presence and support of the QUT architecture students and became the site of a number of different creative initiatives. In particular the space was a meeting point for the small community of artists interested in temporary works of installation and performance. Other nearby vacant buildings were later used for studio and exhibition spaces. THAT space located to the rear of 20 Charlotte Street and its proximity to John Mills led to cross overs.

This was a time when art students from QCA, artists like Jeanelle Hurst, Russell Lake and Adam Boyd elected not to relocate south as many artists had done in the preceding years, they stayed and initiated important and prolific artist runs like One Flat South Brisbane at 19 Edmonstone Street in 1982 and in 1983 One Flate Exhibit located at 355 George Street, Brisbane.

Jeanelle’s initiative at the former ‘Bank’ at 355 George St, had a fully glass façade onto George St which made this a perfect venue for what were often disruptive public engagements. On one memorable occasion I and Gino became part of ‘Edible Art’, a publically visible ‘performance’ of a dinner produced by a local sculptor Maurie Maunsell, whose food items were more like sculptural objects.

This came about as a result of my ‘waxing lyrical’ to Janelle about a spectacular dinner I’d attended at Maurie’s home. Janelle invited Maurie to become part of a performed (formal) dinner involving Ross Wolf, (then Director of the Australia Council ) and Hilary (and Martin?) Boscott, who attended this one off event. Janelle videoed the dinner as well as the preparation at Maurie’s kitchen. Russell Lake, who supported himself as a student by waiting tables, performed as professional waiter for the occasion.

One key difference that I noticed between Brisbane and the southern art scenes was that Brisbane artists were very supportive of each other’s projects and practices.

It could be argued this commenced as a concept at QCA, where Jeanelle, Russell, Adam, and cohorts promoted ‘Sculpture as Venue’, initiating various projects and performances at the Sculpture Dept. However, the idea of ‘Sculpture as Venue’ arose historically, as sculpture was the only department (at that time) you could come to if you wanted to do installation, or performance, or sound, or for that matter anything at all, including drawing and painting when in conjunction with ‘multi media’. QCA hosted visiting international and interstate luminaries, including performance artists, and while still a student, Wendy Mills was producing interesting installation/performances that were exhibited as part of her final year assessment (1979). This was the year I signed in as a ‘miscellaneous student’, which later turned into ’resident independent artist’.

LM:

My father’s side of the family were Scots. Dad’s parents eloped to Australia and were married by the ship’s captain. They became involved in the sugar cane industry in Ingham. Dad’s father was an only child and brought up to be a ‘gentleman’ by a family who had done well out of the industrial revolution. The family legend has it that they pioneered railway refreshment rooms in Scotland. The elopement was a strategic necessity as no-one was ever good enough for Grannie’s boy.

Dad’s mother was a child prodigy violinist and had worked with the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. The story goes that by 18 she had had enough and became a physical education teacher. By the time I knew her she had developed arthritis and could no longer play. My mother’s father was brought out to Australia from Ireland at the age of 3. He became deputy public curator for Qld. Mum’s mother was born in Australia to a German family. Not a good time to be German.