Lisa Walker and Brendan Huntley talk to curator Dunja Rmandić about the exhibition News from Nowhere at MPRG.

Lisa Walker’s vast body of work is a career-length conversation with the question of ‘what is jewellery?’

As well as being the frontman for the Melbourne punk rock band Eddie Current Suppression Ring, Brendan Huntley’s paintings, objects and works on paper depict faces and explore the emotional depth of humanity.

In this conversation they discuss how sitting across both fine art and craft allows them the freedom to break rules.

MPRG Director Danny Lacy and artist and co-curator Rosie Weiss take us through Surreal Landscapes - a group exhibition that explores the way artists position subtle and strange, absurd and dreamlike interventions within the landscape, abstracting and shifting our reading of the landscape. Find out more about works in the show, including artists Hayley Millar Baker, Nadine Christensen, Peta Clancy, Emily Ferretti, Tara Gilbee, Philip Hunter, Raafat Ishak, James Newitt, Emma Phillips and Christian Thompson AO.

Kate Gorringe-Smith sees migratory birds as a metaphor embodying human migration and the search for home and safety. She reveals how she learnt printmaking on Fred Williams’ printing press at school and went on to study printmaking at RMIT. Discover how working at BirdLife Australia influenced her art and the genesis for the Overwintering Project. Kate also discusses how the AGL proposal at Western Port was recently overturned and how the exhibition is a celebration rather than a requiem for this internationally significant site.

A conversation with MPRG Director, Danny Lacy, 2021.

Introduction by Nathan Schroeder, Music courtesy of The Basics

As artists, how can we fill in the gaps of knowledge about our cultural histories? How can nature and country act as a connector? How can collaboration help strengthen our practice?

Tai Snaith kicks off this new series by speaking with Gundijmara/ Italian/ Torres Strait islander artist LISA WAUP about her powerfully personal, shield-like work on paper from the MPRG collection called ‘Admit to Care.’

Together they discuss Lisa’s process of collecting history and stitching it together in order to ‘protect the layers.’

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

What does it mean to push past perfectionism? How can feeling powerless create more power for us in the end? How do we strike a balance between depicting the absurdity of life and the serious nature of compulsion?

In this episode Tai Snaith and Lily Mae Martin start by deciphering her work on paper from the MPRG collection called ‘Wrestling.’ They go on to unpack a series of ideas around how we see the female body, comfort zones, censorship and control.

Together they navigate the very personal terrain of pushing through self-loathing and how making art relates to motherhood, career, health and life.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

How can the way in which something is painted affect the way we read it? How is the self-discipline involved in painting similar to the self-discipline of an athlete? How can we forget the cost of our materials in order to paint freely?

In this episode Tai Snaith converses with Fiona McMonagle about her watercolour painting ‘Wonky’ from the MPRG collection. This work is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Fiona’s fascination with complicated female subjects and making up her own rules. Here, she reveals her understanding of the medium of watercolour and her willingness to fail as part of the process.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

How can the overload of images in daily life be seen as a positive thing? How can we keep ideas alive over decades of practice? How do you KEEP EVERYTHING and not become a hoarder?

In this conversation Tai Snaith and Elizabeth Gower discuss an early work of hers on paper called ‘Precious Life’ from the MPRG collection. They explore the practice of collecting and sorting both actual materials and symbols and how it has adapted and changed over her life. Elizabeth shares how she learnt to ‘accept the chaos.’

Image: Elizabeth Gower in front of 'Found Images' NGV Melbourne,1987 (photo: John Brash) from 'Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman' 1974 – 2020.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

As artists, how we can learn to use our megaphones to create a world we can bear to live in? Can a knife have a mind of it’s own? Can desire be an animating force?

In this conversation Tai Snaith converses with Deborah Kelly about her animated paper work ‘LYING WOMEN’ from the MPRG collection and the process of making it. They talk of freeing the female figures from white man’s HIStory and letting them rub up against each other in HERstory. They go on to explore a series of juicy topics from starting her own religion to using art-making as an attempt to save her own life.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

How do our gestures and bodies become part of our work? And how is the act of cutting a feminist action?

Tai Snaith and Sally Smart talk about female identity and archetypes of women such as pirates, witches and more- ideas which have been present in Sally’s life and imagination since she was a child. We talk about the act of cutting and how the female identity is both fragile and sturdy, but ultimately ‘re-arrangeable’ and fluid.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.

How do we access our True Selves?

Tai Snaith and Katherine Hattam discuss how making and depicting space can merge the inside (mental) world with the outside (public) world of politics and ideas. Reflecting on Katherine’s interest in psychoanalysis and unconscious time vs real time and how family life can be political.

Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in 2017 at ACCA and has had further iterations and exhibitions at Sarah Scout Presents in October 2018, The Art Gallery Of Ballarat in 2019.