Site 3065 South East Corner

30/06/15

Manon van Kouswijk, Fitzroy Findings no.14

Site 3065 South East Corner is a public Jewellery project by Manon van Kouswijk & Roseanne Bartley, situated amongst the streets, lanes and shop fronts of Fitzroy. It draws together a diverse range of works - spatial, participatory, intervention, performance, text, image and object based.

The individual artists’ projects elaborate on methodologies and strategies that have their origins in fine art but are interpreted through a ‘Jewellers’ process, history and or discourse.

Their works reflect on jewellery in response to site or situation, or activate public / social spaces. They consider how jewellery as an object, idea or process can form, perform or inform in this public context. 

How did this event come about?

Roseanne and I had been discussing the idea of curating an exhibition together at some stage, so when we heard about the plans for Radiant Pavilion it just made sense to use this as an opportunity for a first collaborative project.


Are there themes that run through these artists’ work?

The artists we have invited to participate in Site 3065 share a multidisciplinary approach to jewellery practice.

In their practices jewellery is a subject that is explored through a range of different media resulting in diverse outcomes that can be object based, spatial, printed matter, photographic, participatory.


How did you decide on the way the work would be presented?

Because our project is based on working in a public space, we have to make individual decisions for each artist’s work as to where and how it will be presented or take place. These decisions are directed by the nature of the works. Some of them will be installed outdoors along part of Smith Street and Gertrude Street, other works will be programmed in a specific place at a particular day and time during the first week of September: watch this space!


What are the benefits and restrictions of showing work in unusual spaces?

I don’t think this is about benefits and restrictions: we have asked the artists to develop a work that considers a site or a situation in a public space, so the space where the work is shown follows the content of the work. It is just a very different starting point and process from showing work in a regular exhibition space where you can control the circumstances a lot more.

In this project the work or the way the work is presented has a connection to the site where it is shown, which is not necessarily the case in a gallery exhibition.

How has your own practice informed this exhibition?

I think for Roseanne as well as myself this project is a logical extension of our own practices. We are both interested in exploring different formats for jewellery works, and in incorporating other media, i.e. choosing the medium that suits the idea rather than working from a fixed premise.


What do you hope people's reaction will be?

We hope this is an active engaging viewing experience, seeing jewellery based works in a public context that activate ideas about jewellery differently. It would also be great if the works are noticed by passers-by, an audience that is not familiar with contemporary jewellery practice.