Deb K Williams

I have been selected to participate in a residency over part of summer at Testing Grounds. Testing Grounds is a 2000sq m green space, behind the Arts Centre that is open to the public and supports and encourages all manner of artistic enquiry. The site is where the old YMCA built in 1925 used to be. In 1983, structural damage caused by the construction of the Roy Grounds designed Arts Centre and Concert Hall meant that the building needed to be demolished. The land was acquired by the State of Victoria as Crown Land and is reserved for arts purposes. Today the space is flanked by tall buildings and the ferociously busy City Road. An island in a sea of urbanity. I'm still finding my feet so I brought in some old work for a new setting.

T he objects and drawings that comprise The Enchantment Compulsion reveal a playful marrying of materials and processes that refer in some way to the natural world and to the world of ritual. Using materials that are often mundane, discarded or redundant, I like to create a series of samples or experiments that not only evoke the forms and textures of nature but also reference themes of play, connection and performance.                              

I spent eleven days at the June Heddich apartment at Julia Street Creative Space in Portland during January 2014. It was an intense period of discovery, culminating in a small exhibition held within the apartment. The building which includes the upstairs apartment was built in 1859. During my short stay there, the structure of the building; the many rooms, the two staircases, the studio area and the various north and east facing aspects created a flood of ideas resulting in mini installations, series of drawings and photographic works.

The Earth Bling Experiment.  While flicking through a 1960 Scientific America magazine,  I was struck by two phrases, which have been instrumental in creating this body of work. One posed the question   “What kind of jewels will they take to the moon?” the other   simply stated, “Arranging a room for conversation”.  These two phrases spoke to my interest in using a range of  materials and processes to create formal sets of objects that   not only respond to the multiplicity and complexity of the  natural world but also to refer to notions of connection and display. Using materials such as sand, salt, clay, graphite, cotton, wood, plasticine and plastic,  The Earth Bling Experiment   is a set of formal, interconnecting objects that could be a meditation on the common elements of the earths crust or merely a grouping of elaborate, decorative earthly ‘gems’.

The Earth Bling Experiment is a playful display of interconnecting hybrid forms that reference the wonders of the earth crust, in a formal library setting. While flicking through a 1960 Scientific America magazine, I was struck by two phrases, which have been instrumental in creating this body of work. One posed the question “What kind of jewels will they take to the moon?” the other simply stated, “Arranging a room for conversation”. These two phrases spoke to my interest in using a range of materials and processes to create formal sets of objects that not only respond to the multiplicity and complexity of the natural world but also to notions of connection and display.

Preamble (Everything has a beginning) curated by Emma Benichou.  Participating artists: Clare Collins, Sean Lingens, Grant Stewart, Cherine Fahd, Deb K Williams and Ted McKinlay.  Monday Week Gallery - 685 Nicholson Street, Carlton North.    h