I’ve been following Toowoomba Grammar School’s exciting Artist-in-residence program for several years.

After seeing fellow Toowoomba artists such as Catherine Parker, Alice Weinthal and Vincent Parisi taking up the opportunity and engaging in the program, I decided to apply in 2022 to continue the momentum of my own artist practice.

With the four-week residency wrapping up at the end of October, and some time to reflect on the experience I can write that the experience was a valuable one.

During the residency I was able to set up a multi-faceted studio space in the Henderson Gallery. As students did their own learning in the adjacent Visual Arts and Drama spaces, I was able to do my own artist learning, experimenting, and testing.

While working primarily in video, I was able to explore some ideas I had with painting as well as finish some existing projects, including ‘Has Joined The Room’ which is now on show as part of Outer Space Gallery’s Supercut online exhibition.

Redwood Call I (2022)

One highlight of the residency was exploring ways of getting an audience (here, the students) to question their perception of reality. To do this, I projected a digital, video version of a window onto a white blind which covered the actual window. Each week, I would make subtle changes to the video. If you stayed long enough you would see cadets parading across the oval, ghostly parachutists descending from the sky or the window wobbling and waving out of its frame. Through these experiments, I was able to move through a process of considering the audience and fine-tune how I would explain artistic concepts in a general way, as well as testing what worked and what didn’t under a tight timeline. Furthermore, students were able to ask me questions, interrogate my ideas, participate in artmaking, and be themselves around the art – something that rarely happens in a public gallery, theatre or performance space.

Over the duration of the residency, I was able to see students in their own classrooms develop works of art from concept to the final form. By doing this, it confirmed the value of the Arts as a crucial element in a student’s learning. What other learning experience allows you to develop an idea, problem-solve, work through the challenges of the medium (eg paint, wire, video) while practicing individual self-expression, mindfulness and reflection? The Arts matter!

The final video work I created during the residency titled ‘Endurance Sport’ riffs on this idea. Artists, whether they practice professionally or as hobbyists, are like endurance athletes. This takes training, time and focused attention. In my four weeks as Artist-in-residence I was privileged to be granted all three.

You can view the Final Video here: