INTERVIEW:

Rebecca: I’m Rebecca Kate. I’m 22 years old and I’m a visual artist. I do a number of different kinds of art stuff; I suppose mostly photography and installation art. Recently I’ve been getting more involved in performance art as an extension of installation. So yeah that’s mostly what I do, but I like to dabble in lots of different creative things like sculpture and drawing and painting occasionally as well.

 

Bekii: Could you tell me a bit about your most recent art installation, performance art piece that I saw the other day at girlhood?

 

Rebecca: Yeah sure. As you would have seen, upstairs was [decorated] like a girl’s bedroom, which looks much like my own bedroom. We had about.. I think there was 25 artists in the show , and so we all made the decision to set it up so all of their work would be on the walls kind of like posters in a girl’s bedroom. And then, I furnished the room with one of my mattresses and all of my bedding and just some of my favourite things from my room. And a television and a DVD player and plants and things to really make it feel like it was someone’s room [that] you were stepping into.

 

The piece that I did, I guess anyone could sit on the bed during most of the evening of the exhibition, but then I did a performance art piece at around 10:30 pm I think and it goes for about 10 minutes. I’d never done performance art before myself, I write other pieces for other people to do , but I never perform them myself , but I was like this is really relevant to me and I don’t really feel like I should hire someone else to act out my experiences. I’m quite a shy person though, so I found it quite confronting to do this, but I really enjoyed it. I had a soundscape that I made for it which goes for about 10 minutes and basically it’s mostly spoken word oriented ,

 

I wrote all of the writing in it, and it’s just lots of effects pedals and that, and loops of it going over each other to feel like you’re in someone else’s head basically. The soundscape is quite important to the piece because my piece is all about following the transition from being a child to whatever I am now. I guess a young adult. It follows that so it kind of starts out more innocent to not so. I did a performance piece to accompany it , which was supposed to be a kind of reflection on the soundscape to mirror it.  Ah it’s so hard talking about your own work! …

 

Bekii: How was the reaction to the performance?

 

Rebecca: [It was] received really well. I wasn’t expecting so many people to come upstairs to see my piece. I run a lot of events and sometimes I do my own pieces in it, but I don’t know, I just really didn’t think so many people would come upstairs. I thought my friends would, but I didn’t think that complete strangers would, I thought that they would just stay down in the beer garden or whatever.  There was actually a line to get upstairs which I thought was like woah okay! I was so incredibly nervous , but I don’t know once I started performing I didn’t really feel nervous anymore. I felt like, I don’t know most of you so it’s okay and I’m just going to be really vulnerable and show who I am and I might not see any of you again,but that’s kind of beautiful, opening yourself up to strangers.

 

The piece was quite , kind of interactive, because there was a storyline that I was following , but people were allowed to , I guess change my story in a way if they wanted to.A lot of people came onto the bed and interacted with me so that was quite interesting. A few people at the end said that they wished that it had gone longer ‘cause they were hoping to get to interact with me, but yeah … ran out of time unfortunately! I thought ten minutes was like a long time though when I wrote it and I like practiced it in my bedroom and I just thought I’m never going to be able to fill the ten minutes up but when I was performing it, it felt like it was only two minutes or something, there was so much I wanted to do , but I didn’t get to , so i kind of had to rush the end of it. But i think i might want to do something similar one day, to that, but a longer piece so I can actually do the full thing what it was supposed to be.

 

 

Bekii: Awesome. Have you done any formal art school training  or have you just been doing this in your own time.

Rebecca: Originally I went to a steiner school , when I was in high school which is like a music and arts based school , so it’s mostly art that you learn there. I learnt a lot of what I know there and that’s how I kind of got into installation art. But then I had a gap year and then in 2013 I studied first year photography , but since then I haven’t studied or anything I’ve pretty much just done free lance art stuff. Mostly been focusing on organising events and stuff.

 

Bekii: Yeah could you tell me how ‘Girlhood’ started and how you got involved?

 

Rebecca: Yeah sure. Well… it’s a bit of a long story but in 2013 I was studying photography and I [became] quite unwell and I actually had to drop out of my course a few weeks before I would have completed it which is kind of annoying but I got quite sick and I didn’t know what was going on with my body and I was going through a lot of changes at the time like I was in a long term relationship and that ended and I started seeing someone else and yeah i’d been living in Melbourne and because of [circumstances] changing I had to move to South Morang and live with my grandparents for while. It was supposed to be a short term thing, but I was too ill to do anything so I didn’t actually do anything.

 

It’s kind of embarrassing but I didn’t actually leave my house in South Morang for a few months except for going to see different doctors to try and figure out what was wrong with my body, but other than that I became quite isolated and I wasn’t doing anything with myself. The only thing I did was watch movies. Nothing at all. The only person who I was seeing was my boyfriend at the time he would come and visit me like once a week, but other than that, no contact really with the outside world. Yeah I got quite depressed because I was in pain a lot of the time, but also when you isolate yourself I guess you get really sad and my boyfriend at the time Michael said “Bec you need to do something. You might not be well enough to work right now, but (that’s another thing I had to quit my job) you need to do something because you’ve become quite sad.”

 

Whilst I had a lot of spare time I was looking online a lot and started hearing about different collectives overseas and I became quite inspired by what they were doing. And so we he said I think you should do something, I started thinking okay let’s think about what I really like doing and I thought I really like art and I’ve run an art exhibition before and been in lots of different group shows so i thought why don’t I try and start something similar to the people I admire? And so it started off a few friends would have exhibitions and then I extended it to anyone in Melbourne can be in it. And then it kind of turned into this whole thing of pretty much any creative person can be in it like writers, musicians, etc. It’s just grown. It’s almost been 2 years now. I’ve basically been running the shows myself the whole time . Occasionally I get volunteers and stuff, but it’s a lot of work.

 

Each show has a different theme. I kind of wanted to do something to channel all of the frustration with how i was feeling because most of my health issues were to do with my sexual organs and I was feeling really unhappy being a girl because of these things and yeah I wanted to do something kind of personal and I know that there’s a lot of people that struggle with different things whether it’s health or gender identity and stuff like that. And so I just sort of decided let’s do something constructive with all this sadness that I’m feeling and turn it into a show and to my surprise it was really popular. Lots of girls wanted to be in it.

 

The first one we did, we had 50 artists and in the second one we had 80 artists in it and then the third time, which was the other day, I decided to do something a bit different because they always have just visual art and so I was like let’s do it at the Old Bar because I already have  residency there . Let’s add some bands to the mix to shake things up a bit I guess and add another element. So yeah, I tried to turn a negative experience into a positive and it seems like it is that for lots of girls.

 

Bekii: Yeah it is absolutely. Thank you for that.

 

Rebecca: Sorry its a bit of a long story!

 

Bekii: No, it’s great to hear. (and HI if you're reading through!) How long do you spend doing art in a week?

 

Rebecca: Ohh...umm. It kind of ranges. I don’t make as much art as I would like to. I’m trying to focus now and do that more because sometimes I get a little carried away with my events so much and other people’s art projects or music projects. I try and help so many people that I sometimes forget to do my own stuff.But lately I try and do a creative thing at least every few days really. But I do lots of different things with art , like paint or draw or sculpture, interactive art or writing as well because I see that as another art form. I’m trying to get more into it.

 

Bekii: How important would you say art is to you? And how important do you think it is to the rest of society?

 

Rebecca: Well for me, I think it’s really important I would call myself more of a documentary artist , although my pieces can be quite whimsical , essentially i use it as like an outlet for however I’m feeling at that time.  I try and make pieces that are just what I’m going through at that time to share with people. I don’t know I find it quite therapeutic I guess, so it’s really important for me because i feel so much better once i’ve just made something and shared something. I guess it’s like the equivalent of what some people get from seeing a counsellor or something like that. I get that from making art so it’s really important to me.

 

As for society, I think it’s really important that we have a creative scene for everyone because I feel like a lot of people do a similar thing to me, it’s a way for them to get their frustrations out , just feelings in general whether they’re positive or negative. But also to inspire other things because I feel like art and music and everything really kind of is a very big thing for people whether they really notice it , it influences pretty much everything around us, so I think it’s important.

 

Bekii: I agree. So we’re talking a lot about how to break into the art scene in Melbourne, we’ve been speaking to people who feel really isolated and really want to get involved , is there any advice that you would have for them? Seeing as you too have at one point felt very isolated?

 

Rebecca: I think you have to dive into the deep end basically. I found it really hard at first. 1, because I didn’t really know anyone in Melbourne really and so I was like how do you even meet people and I have social anxiety as well as physical illness. You have to really just  have to push yourself to do it. I think if it scares you i think it’s important to pursue . I would recommend going to different art exhibitions and stuff like that, group shows or find out about different collectives and just talk to them, maybe you’ll make a few friends, maybe you’ll get to collaborate on a project with them .

 

There’s lots of things to be involved in. Yeah just don’t be afraid to ask people. It can be really, really terrifying, and intimidating to get involved in things sometimes [but] if you want to do it, you should do it because life is too short.

 

Bekii: How do you bring an audience to your work? Is it mostly meeting people and networking ? or do you use social media or a combination of both?

 

Rebecca: I feel like my work isn’t exactly popular online or anything , there’s one particular image that i’ve taken that went viral on the internet but it’s this silly picture of a girls legs with blossoms in a bathtub, other than that, online most people don’t know about my work . I’m not very good at advertising my own work.

 

The only way I get to show my work is through my business, through the shows that I run , it gives me as well as other artists a platform to share our things and so that’s kind of how I’ve gained my audience , from the shows I run, but that was kind of accidental! I don’t exhibit in every exhibition I do, I just do it every now and then.

 

Bekii: What  do your friends and family think about your art practice? Are they supportive?

 

Rebecca: Yeah I’d say my friends are really supportive and my family too. My mum’s a visual artist , she’s a painter so I think she really enjoys what I’m doing. My mum’s quite a shy artist she doesn’t  we’ve actually exhibited her a. She’s extremely talented she should.

 

Bekii:Do you have to work in an area that isn’t art to supplement your art practice?

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Rebecca: Well actually for like the last almost 2 years now I actually didn’t work, this became my business. At first it was just a hobby but as it grew and grew it started to feel like a full time job so I decided to turn it into my job. Other than that I wasn’t working at all. I just found it too hard being quite sick a lot of the time, but fairly recently I got a job around the corner, now I’m a bartender, it’s quite casual,  but that does help my art practice because installation art is actually really expensive to make or transport or whatever. I’m starting to feel like I need to work more, so I can make more larger scale projects.

 

Bekii: Do you have any art aspirations for the future?

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Rebecca: Yeah. I have so many ideas! I really want to get into film, I’d really like to make a short film. I write as well, so I’d like to get my play performed. I guess I would just be able to afford to make the really large scale projects that I want because I really like building structures, but I don’t have the money always to do that and I’d really like to exhibit that more, maybe overseas as well. Actually one of the collectives that I admire the most are based in LA and I’m hoping if I can save enough money  the plan is next year I’m going to go there and I’m going to work on a show with them, so that will be really cool to finally meet the people who kind of influenced my shows. I guess that’s like an art aspiration to exhibit with them in LA that would be really cool.  

 

My events are quite tied in with all of this as well so my ultimate goal is I want to have my own venue , like a community space where people can create art , teach workshops , have exhibitions , spoken word nights, do plays, just everything I just want a community space that’s like affordable for people . There are a lot of galleries in Melbourne, but I don’t feel like there’s that many places that are more community -driven I guess they’re more commercial and I would like to create a space that’s still commercial in a sense, but is a nice place for people to just feel comfortable and hang out- a safe place.

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Bekii: That sounds awesome!  Thank you so much.   

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Interviewed and writtten by Bekii Bialocki (2016)

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