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So, you think
you can be an art collective? You and a few uber-oganised mates have
stocked up on rice-crackers, tzaziki dip and cask wine (red), arranged
your kitchen chairs into a conciliatory circle reminiscent of AA meets,
and now, with pad and glitter pen in hand, you await the arrival of
friends who also call themselves ‘artists.’
This is
serious business. You’re here to talk about, and hopefully execute,
artwork of your own devising, using your own means, outside the
constraints of the gallery of the demands of the institution. You are to
be free, seeking a new form of creative production more relevant to your
own generation. You will lead the march in your field and build bridges
between individuals.
But what exactly is an
art collective? To simplify, history tells us they date back at least to
the Renaissance. By the time Bohemianism had set in, artists were
bedding down together all over the place under the banner of the
“isms:” There were Fauvists, Cubists, Minimalists and Maximalists,
Chauvinists, Xylophonists, Cists and general Gists. Now we are all so
postmodern we have collaborations and collectives; something between
corporate board meetings and student piss-ups.
And so it was that the
Spill Collective was formed, and, after much wine and microwave naans,
it was good. Since November 2007 Spill has convened regularly to plan
and discuss collaborative art events. According to founding member
Allison Wiltshire, the project began as a response to dwindling
resources on the Melbourne Uni campus, and the lack of peer support and
enthusiasm that pervaded the Melbourne Model regime. Working beyond the
university, the members of Spill allied with students of other
institutions and active artists within the community who indeed felt
that they could themselves dream large beyond the binge marketing of a
neoliberal invasion that implicitly and unapologetically crushed the
visual arts scene on campus.
Spill was made to love
and indulge in, as a guilt-free pleasure zone of art adventure. In April
2008 they commandeered an East Melbourne terrace, transforming it into
the House of Pleasure. The event showcased Spill poetry, music,
installation, photography, prose, endurance work, dialogue, sideshow,
sound and video art, collage, animation, cooking, eating and
interpretive dance. In October, Forest of the Inside saw Spill
load a Clifton Hill warehouse with a forest-full of broken memories,
while outside a performance looped against a live backdrop of passing
trains. Since then the collective has only continued to grow in size and
in ideas.
With
luck and hard work, their next event will bring a new
species of artists to Melbourne’s Federation Square in June 2009.
Taking hold of the Atrium every day for an entire week, Spill's latest
event will fuse experimental music with body performance, animation and
installation.
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