Visible Studios - behind the scenes

I've just finished the Visible Studios residency at Federation Square and it was awesome!!

When Sayraphim Lothian first invited me to come and create work in full view of the public it made me feel extremely nauseous as normally it's just me and my camera running around the bush having adventures.  I've never been comfortable with people watching me so the idea of working in the busiest part of Melbourne was freakin. scary.  So of course I had to say yes!  It didn't end up being as petrifying as I thought it would be, I think because we were contained in the glass it allowed me to seperate myself from the onlookers and focus on what I was doing.  Plus I didn't want to fall (you'll see why in the following pics).

The residency was from 19-26 May and my time went like this;

Sunday 19th
Started the residency with burgers and fries (thinking food) and I set up a couple of text based installations for a bit of fun.

Tuesday 21st
Started the day with doughnuts (think there's a theme here).  Thanks to my mum for traveling from Bendigo to babysit so I could grab a couple of hours thinking time at the studio.  I took some reference pics, worked out where I'd be able to climb, bit more pondering, and hatched some plans with Jason Lau (my photog buddy since Uni).

Friday 24th
Friday was my big working day and I have to say a huge thanks Erika Gofton, Yeok, and my sis for helping me photograph and film myself.  I definitely couldn't have done it without them!!

Sunday 26th
The last day of Visible Studios and I brought an assistant along to help.  Little did I realise that Markit @ Fed Square was on and the place was PACKED.  On the upside my friends at write to me were randomly in the stall next to me so I got to hang out with them for a bit.  I had a bright idea the night before to bring in a bunch of branches to hang into, that morning I chopped up one of my trees that wasn't happy, but the idea didn't seem so bright after all when I was trying to navigate that crowd with sharp pointy things.

A massive thank you to everyone that came and visited, to Erika, Yeok and Sayraphim for pressing buttons for me, and the biggest thank you to Sayraphim for inviting me to be a part of Visible Studios.

I can't wait to get to work on the film and photographs, for now here's a little peek...

behind the scenes photo credits to Sayraphim Lothian, Erika Gofton, Yeok, Belinda Suzette, and J my 5yo