MUTUAL REALITIES: FINDING COMMON GROUND IN UNCERTAIN TIMES at Art Gallery of Ballarat

While working alone suits many artists, who appreciate the space and distance, others crave social interaction and stimulus. Eight local Ballarat artists working in a range of media have been paired up and invited to collaborate remotely to create new work responding to the COVID pandemic.

These commissions for the Art Gallery of Ballarat have challenged artists to discover new ways to access the benefits of working together in an environment where many people in the community are pushed into ‘bubbles’ but further away from potential creative collaborators.

The pairs of artists are songwriter Stan Woodhouse (Skyscraper Stan) with illustrator Dillon Naylor; ceramicist Neville French with visual artist Rhonda Baum; sound artist Sarah Barclay (aka Floc) with Yorta Yorta weaver/artist Donna Blackall; and poet Nathan Curnow with visual artist Kim Anderson. These four local creative collaborations remind us of our interconnectedness during this unprecedented time of distant social contact.

This project is a collaboration between the Art Gallery of Ballarat and the City of Ballarat’s Creative City team.