Australia Council London Studio
May - August 2012
The current Australian studio is located in the East End Tower Hamlets in The Bow Quarter, a converted industrial site that once housed the Bryant and May match factory, and situated right next door to London’s enormous Olympic Stadium. Next to the Stadium is Anish Kapoor’s 115-metre ArcelorMittal Orbittower, his ‘awkward but beautiful’ £20 million extravaganza which, in the light of the day, looks a little like a construction accident – one of the many metal cranes around London twisted about itself.
The day I arrived the stadium was still very much under construction, so everyday though the following months I watched it grow. I was a pretty amazing time to be in London. The Olympics, the Jubilee, and Black Caviar at Ascot. Even the water tower above me was kitted out with ground to air missiles. And, it was the 30th Anniversary of the Australian London residency with ACME studios. Daily doses of art and culutre, met heaps of people and it rained continuously.
During my stay I exhibited my work Nanoplastica at an independant project space, So Far the Future
Met up with Curator Paul Bayley who took me on the tour of the Bargehouse for the exhibition Time & Vision celebrating 30 years of the Australia Council Studio.
I wrote a bit more about my experience for the Art Monthly Australia October issue #254, ‘Oz East Ender,’ page 44-46.