Immemorial: reaching back beyond memory

The Manila/Jogja/Darwin version
Opening 26 October, Chan Contemporary Art Space, Darwin

Territory Time

The Landlord (found photos, late mother-in-law's pillow slips)

Chan Contemporary Art Space

State Square (opp Parliament House) Darwin, Northern Territory

29 June - 24 July 2011

Artist talk: Saturday 2 July 11:30am (hear all the talks here: Territory Time Blog )

 

Artists: Rebecca Arbon, Simon Cooper, Talitha Kennedy, Adrienne Kneebone, Catherine McAvoy, Amina McConvell, Sarah Pirrie, Tobias Richardson, Suzette Wearn, Hayley West, Carole Wilson, Siying Zhou. Curated by Siying Zhou.

Territory Time brings together twelve visual artists who have resided in the Northern Territory presenting their own personal and psychic territory. Each work investigates instinctual feelings and primitive responses with sound, light, figures, colours and vibration in the air. The territory is interpreted as a place where the past is connected to the present to cure psychological wounds; where the memory of other places and people are revisited; where the power of nature is respected. Territory Time invites everyone to come and explore a different yet typical territory. 

featured artist

i'm the featured artist this fortnight on the NAVA site
NAVA National Association for the Visual Arts

goodbye tropics hello mountains

gingers for daphne
bougainvillea for roses
palms for maples
torres strait pigeons for kookaburras
pheasant coucals for lyrebirds
geckos for blue tongues
crocodiles for black snakes
cane toads for foxes
cyclones for bush fires
humidity for mist
papaya for apricots
iced coffee for hot chocolate

something i'm working on

Resonance104.4fm

i'll be talking on a live radio show today (Friday 12 November 4pm London time) with 'Enemies of Good Art'

Resonance104.4fm
Enemies of Good Art
BROODWORK

The podcast is now available: 'Kids in Residence' discussion 12/11/2010

Australia Council Residency - UK

Ramona and i will be staying here in Bow, London until 29 January 2011
The residency is managed by ACME Studios who are wonderful hosts. Can't wait to push that pram around London galleries!

Diversion

PLATFORM 2009-2012 is an ongoing series of changing public artworks designed to engage, inform and entertain. The Museum of Brisbane has commissioned artworks that are installed into photographic lightboxes located on the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Busway Station, Brisbane QLD.

Friday 10 September – Friday 10 December 2010


link : PLATFORM: Public art installations

Ramona Billie Lola Richardson

Created by Tobias Richardson and Hayley West
DOB: 18 March 2010, 3.31pm, weight 3.035kg
Our beautiful Tiger Pisces girl x



photo by my wonderful friend and photographer Fiona Morrison x

'After the Gold Rush' at GRANTPIRRIE

opening 11 March, 2010
if in Sydney go have a drink for me!
i can't make it as i'm expected to lay the golden egg that weekend...

website links:
GRANTPIRRIE Gallery Sydney
ART MONTH Sydney website
ART MONTH Sydney blog

the so far news for 2010

*After the Gold Rush:
GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney - 11 March to 17 April
*give birth:
expected date - 13 March
*Asialink Residency:
Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila Philippines - June & July CANCELLED
*Diversion:
Platform RBWH, Museum of Brisbane public art commission, Brisbane
10 September to 10 December
*Australia Council Residency:
ACME Studios, London UK - November, December, January

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

immemorial - reaching back beyond memory

...is a unique collaboration and dialogue between Northern Territory artists and Indonesian artists. The curatorial rationale of immemorial seeks to investigate commonalities of people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, as they consider their ancestral histories and their present notions of cultural identity.

Exhibition and public forums at Roommate and iCAN, Yogyakarta, opening 14 November, running to 23 December.


My immigrant parents longed to be part of post-colonial Australian history, ignoring London and our sketchy Yenish heritage. Creating a new life in Australia involved constantly acquiring new possessions and attempting to eliminate accents. This work refers to my research into the vestigial, the remnants left behind from the death of loved ones.

Darwin Artists: Tobias Richardson, Hayley West, Min Wong, Jenny Fraser, and Catriona Stanton. Yogyakarta Artists: Wimo Ambala Bayang, Maryanto, Carolina Rika, Lashita Situmorang, and Sigit Bapak. Curators: Sudjud Dartanto (Yogyakarta) & Steve Eland (Darwin). A project initiated by 24hr Art - Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art. immemorial blog

immemorial, Yogyakarta

After the Gold Rush
installation shot at the opening

le 1er festival de video performance de Marseille, France

My work CAN has been selected for the 1st Video Performance Video Festival, Marseille. 16 to 23 November 2009


Selected Artists:
Alex van Jaber, Andreas Pashias, Anna Biskov, Chris Dupuis, Eleonora Giglione, Esther Achaernando, Francisko Orallo, Francisko Gonzales Castro, Fumiko Matsuyama, Giuseppe di Bella, Hayley West, Ignacio Martin, Juan Ji, Kate Tessa Lee, Marta Moreno Munoz, Mauro Romito, Nina Lassila, Pauline Payen, Roland Wegerer, Sabrina Harri, Sergio Cruz, Sinani Gunes, Suzanne Caines, Steef van Lent, Tooraj Khamenehzadeh, Zoe Gruni, Kai-Oi Jay Yung

1st Video Performance Video Festival, Marseille France 2009

Mediamatic Travel Launch

LAUNCH: Friday 16 October, 8pm - Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Mediamatic Travel, a new DIY network to travel to the contemporary art worldwide. It consists of a Travel website, the exhibition at Amsterdam Biennale 2009 and the Mediamatic Travel catalogue Bestemmingen 2010. Mediamatic Travel website

Meet your Darwin Tour Guide: Hayley West!
Guide: Hayley West, Trip: Darwin=Hot

Working in the arts? Planning a trip? 45 euros will get you a consultation session of an expert guide at your destination. This is not your average travel network. Here we work together to help each other to find our way in the contemporary arts scenes in our respective cities. Mediamatic Travel is a collaboration between Mediamatic and Partizan Publik.

The Gleaners

a lost glove project (Paris/Darwin)


61 lost gloves found in Paris have been distributed to 61 artists, writers, psychologists and musicians to create their glove’s missing half, completing the pair.

Gleaned by Hayley West, Tobias Richardson & Asha Richardson
Inspired by Jean-François Millet.

Dates: 25 September to 17 October 2009
Opening: Friday 25 September, 6pm
DEAF Space, DVAA, 56 Woods Street, Darwin NT 0801

SAINTS vs CATS AFL GRAND FINAL!!!

Footy hotshots a Territory artform
Picture: NICK WELSH (NT News)
IN MELBOURNE football is a religion but in Darwin it could be argued it is closer to art... SAINTS vs CATS AFL GRAND FINAL!!! September 26th, 2009.

unfortunately not the result we hoped for: Cats 12.8 (80) d Saints 9.14 (68)

Clothes Drying, India (Paris 2008)

Togart (NT) Contemporary Art Award 2009
2 to 18 September, opening Thursday 3 September, 6pm
Parliament House, State Square, Darwin NT

Clothes Drying, India (Paris 2008) is part of an ongoing watercolour series derived from photographs taken of clothes drying on riverbanks from around the world. Sometimes in the hundreds, newly washed clothes lay side by side in an unknown order, a public presentation of private duties. Interest lies in the traces of presence, and what is left behind.

image is a detail

what to do next? The Creative Industry sector in the Northern Territory

At present i am researching Australian and International creative thinkers from outside of the NT with knowledge of creative capital concepts, to visit Darwin and meet with the NT Government and NT CI sector leaders and thinkers. The challenge is to attract speakers who can work outside of the big city model, and who hold an interest or knowledge of multi-cultural art worlds existing together.

POINTS OF CONTENTION

There is no cohesive industry development strategy - the NT CI sector lets itself down, ideas are not conveyed strongly or clearly enough, community consultations end with the same frustrating results.

On the flip side, the NT government is only listening to what it wants to hear and sees the NT CI sector through a grants-giving lens. There is no arts policy in the NT. The intellectual right to make art purely for art's sake is ignored (see the 'Arts Lives' minutes: NT Govt website, Arts Lives paper here - the NT government seems to be concerned primarily with 'ticking boxes'.

IDEAS FOR CONSULTATION PROCESS

Work with a select group of leaders/creative thinkers from the NT CI sector to build their lobbying capacities and strategic skills

Hold a public seminar that would help keep the profile of these issues on the agenda. Meet with politicians, business leaders and other key contacts to progress the debate

COHERANCY AND CONTINUATION
Presently the NT government is developing a vision for what the NT might look like in 2030, in which the need for stronger investment in the CI sector is mentioned.

This mention can be seen as a result of the joint Charles Darwin University, University of South Australia and University of Wollongong research project Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin's Creative Industries report: CTC report as well as this year's Garma Festival (Gulkula, northeast Arnhem Land) themed Indigenous Creative Industries: Garma Festival 2009

This interest needs to be harnessed now to further enhance the CI sector’s profile and capacity to strategise with success.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED - these ideas are still working ideas

The Black Show

The Black Show
Darren Sylvester, Rob McHaffie, Tara Gilbee, Nevada Duffy, Rob McLeish, Brigid Healy, Angela Thirlwell, Lisa Benson, Hayley West, Roslisham Ismail aka Ise, Greg Spiller, Tim Sterling, Riki Metisse Marlow, Jon Butt, Eleanor Butt, Pip Davey, Kent Wilson, The White Trash of Asia, Rozalind Drummond, Gabriel Carazo, Mila Faranov

What is this Black?
For the artists participating we asked them to look at black from the centre of their own practice. The possibility exists to explore black as an emotive language or in its literal tome or perhaps re-configuring it in a philosophical sense. All of these possibilities are encouraged.

c3 contemporary art space
Abbotsford Convent St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, Victoria
22 July (opening 6pm) to 09 August 2009

Vestigial Loss

In his publication On the Origin of Species (1859) Charles Darwin referred to the vestigial organs of our anatomy and their role in the theory of evolution. Like wisdom teeth and the appendix, what was once necessary for survival, now merely exists as a reminder of what has been lost. With the death of loved ones, the traces left behind are persistent. Vestigial Loss explores how death can influence the understanding and sanity of what remains.

This is a exhibition of thoughts from a recent residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.

Showing at DEAF Space, 56 Woods Street, Darwin, NT

5-27 June, 2009 (opening Friday 5 June, 6pm)

Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)

Michael has written my life story and posted it today on his blog. I was very detailed with my answers to his questions, so it's curious what parts of my life he chose to use for his project.

See what you think --------------------------------------------->
#171 Hayley West: The Build Up

welcome home

more verlan - the art of parisian slang

métro = tromé/trom
truc = keutru = stuff
cigarette = garetci/garo
gentil = tigen = friendly
enervé = vénèr = angry
moche = cheum = ugly
mater = téma = to check out someone
vas-y = zyva = come on!
carrot = rotca = being deceived by someone

Tidy Town (Paris)

verlan - the art of parisian slang

verlan is l'envers (opposite) cut up and reversed
words learnt so far:
l'herbe = beuh = pot
mec = keum = guy
femme = meuf = chick
chien = niche = stupid looking dog (i made that one up)
actually, it's ienche

wave pool anticipation

Anula, NT
October 2008

exist in 08

exist in 08 is a set of Live Art explorations, collaborations, installations, performances and forums held at five sites across Queensland. Go to the website for details - i'm in the performance dvd program -
exist in 08

Me and my Gold Nugget (after Holterman)

Jean Belette's cottage
Hill End, NSW
Artist in-Residence program through the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
April-May 2008

CAN - the book

This book is a collection of images from an artist in-residence experience at 'Lost Generation Space' Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2008. The images are from the performance/installation for 'Bangun – Abandon Project' (Feb. 1-2-3) and around the abandoned buildings site. CAN transforms the forgotten into the precious. Years of fallen, dirty debris are carefully wrapped for the audience to take away as a souvenir of an abandoned piece of KL history. The souvenirs and myself are protected from further deterioration by plastic, fruity tablecloths.

you can buy it from lulu.com

CAN - the performance

it's a bit fuzzy, but here's the video link:

CAN - a research project

Bangun - Abandon Project

the space before i moved in:

Bangun - Abandon Project

During my residency at Lost Generation Space (KL, Malaysia), i will be participating in this project - click here for updates - Lost Generation Space

Bangun – Abandon Project is an installation and performance project by 25 artists from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the UK, responding to the large abandoned site situated at the end of Lorong Permai.






Dates of exhibition: Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd February, 2008
Opening times: 4.30pm-7pm
Opening night - Saturday 2nd February After the last group has come back from the site, a discussion about the project will take place back at Lost Generation Space from 7.30pm-8pm. From 8pm till late, the opening will continue.
How it works: Please come to Lost Generation first, from there a volunteer will escort a group up to the site. BYO torch, umbrella and wear sensible shoes. Entry is by donation.
Address: Lost Generation Space, 11 Lorong Permai, off Jalan Syed Putra, Robson Heights, 50460, Kuala Lumpur.

Artist Talk at Lost Generation

Saturday January 5, 2008 (8pm)

each night

in my venice apartment i am taking photos of my washing drying, i have no tv or internet...

interpositions - performance art

see performances that happened during the Darwin Festival 2007:
24 HR Art performance events



Exchange Stall (Hayley West) - photos taken by Juliana Yasin

first performance: 11th august parap market 10am-12noon
second performance: 16th august mindil beach markets 5-8pm