Curator Bianca Tainsh  

Host Grayden Shelley 

 

The initial stages of Interventions Rejecting the Spectrum drew the gallery out into the streets, and in the natural cycle of things, introduced the streets back into the gallery. A team of participants, artists and non-artists alike, made interventions into the urban landscape of their own chosen object painted white in representation of the gallery. These introduced white objects, odd in their new settings, were created to attract the attention of the passerby, reminding them of the individual and prompting contemplation and enquiry. 

 

The participants were directed to record their interventions into public space by whatever means or methods they chose, and it’s this documentation that was exhibited in the gallery. The diversity of media and personality in the resulting works attributed to a dynamic culmination of aesthetic and conceptual approaches. 

 

It seems apparent that creativity is not a quality elite to the artist, and neither is self-expression. Public participation in art projects embraces this concept and establishes an opportunity and a platform where anyone can contribute, and this sense of equality, community and inclusion acknowledges the individual, introducing them to art in way that disregards exclusivity and academic background. 

 

Another benefit of participation is the breaking down of the physical and interactive divide between artist and audience that is often formed by the artmaking process, which in turn opens up opportunities for communication and mutual understanding. The removal of this divide allows a relationship to form between the artist and the participant, and from their contribution and inclusion in the project, the participant subsequently forms a bond with the work that a conventional gallery viewing cannot offer. This process aids in removing inhibitions surrounding the white-walled gallery, and particularly so for the participants in Interventions Rejecting the Spectrum as they have temporarily interfered with its legacy. 

 

Interventions Rejecting the Spectrum also offered an opportunity for the participants to alter their environment and animate public space. This injection of personal expression disrupts the passivity of civil society, and is a liberating experience in a time where there is such social turbulence about public space and the restrictions on its use. 

 

It is the interplay of these phenomena, and the unique individual input of the participant’s creative productions that have made this an engaging and provocative project. Bianca and Shelley would like to thank all of the participants for their wonderful contributions to Interventions Rejecting the Spectrum and the enthusiasm they applied to their creative endeavours. We hope they found it as much of an enjoyable and rewarding experience as we did. 

 

We would also like to thank RMIT Link Arts for their kind contribution of funds to Interventions Rejecting the Spectrum and all the volunteers that have helped make this such a great event.

Bianca Tainsh