RAYGUN Co-Directors Tarn and Ali met Torres Straight Island artist Glen Mackie at the University of Southern Queensland when Ali invited him to work with the School of Creative Arts to run a workshop for First Nations young people and become the NAIDOC artist in residence at the University. Tarn and Glen also facilitated a Drawing/Painting workshop together during NAIDOC week during which time many beautiful chats were had, we wanted to capture some of Glen's stories for you.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales asserts 'Glen Mackie, who is also known as Kei Kalak, has been at the forefront of the Torres Strait Islander print movement since the 1990s. He was taught to carve and paint by members of his extended family and explores both family stories, and environmental issues in his works. Mackie has developed a distinct infill design or minar, which is informed by his family’s design and employs an inverted water pattern that is repeated across his works, giving a sense of the ebb and flow of the tides that inform his home environment.
In this chat Glen talks about making art, his family and his culture.
Check out some more of Glen's work here:
Thorgej Steen-Hansen first showed with RAYGUN in February 2013. His painting practice is heavily influenced by music, historical art references, social space and architecture.
Back in 2013 Thorgej wrote about his exhibition with us at RAYGUN Projects in Toowoomba; ‘This is 1,2,3, ‘This is my art. Burning black rock’n’roll. Conceptual Constructivism, Colourful soul dancing on all materials. Groovy minimalism. Happy rage and black lines about Babylon burning’. It was so good to reconnect with him and do a deep dive into the different works he makes and how they continually evolve to create a dynamic working whole. We talk about art philosophy, influences and life and we loved every second of it.
Extra reading and mentions from the podcast:
Sal Randolph first showed with RAYGUN in 2014, with her project 'Library of Art', which we also took to Alaska Projects in Sydney. Sal came back to Raygun in Toowoomba with ESTAR(SER) in 2015.
Sal says, 'I am an artist and writer living in New York. My current work takes the form of multimedia performance, experimental language, publishing, and the creation of social spaces. I frequently write about attention and the experience of art, and my research interests include the intersection of time, feeling, capital, and crisis.'
In this podcast we discuss Sal's Library of Art, she also explains the investigation of historical practices of attention as part of the research consortium ESTAR(SER). We don't chat about it, but Sal also has undertaken a series of linguistic interventions in social media, including a novel written on Twitter (@driftictation).
This podcast was made by RAYGUN - Tarn McLean and Alexandra Lawson. We acknowledge the Giabal and Jarowiar peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast has taken place.
Here's a link to Sal's website.
Jude Taggart Roberts first showed with Raygun in September 2012. Jude is a visual artist with a focus on the changing terrains of inland Australia including the history and interconnections to the water and land systems she has lived on or journeyed into. Her works on paper and mixed media reveal the hidden interrelationships of the watersheds that we cannot visibly experience such as the artesian basins and springs.
Since moving to Brisbane the artist has continued to make direct encounters with the land and people of Western Queensland through various arts projects where Jude sets up alternative studio spaces to work in situ.
The artist acknowledges the Gunggari, Bidjara, and Kooma Peoples as the Traditional Owners of the Land that is the area of her research and where the work was created.
This podcast was made by RAYGUN - Tarn McLean and Alexandra Lawson. We acknowledge the Giabal and Jarowiar peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast has taken place.
Here's a link to Jude's exhibition at Raygun
