Spencer Lai, Rafaella McDonald, Georgia Robenstone and Isadora Vaughan
“Improvements & Reproductions”
Improvements & Reproductions, Exhibition Video
Improvements & Reproductions was West Space’s inaugural exhibition at Collingwood Yards, co-curated by West Space Director Amelia Wallin and Nicholas Tammens of 1856. Set to open in March 2020, the exhibition was disrupted by the global pandemic; despite being installed for eight months, it was only open to the public for a number of weeks. To increase public access to the exhibition and share the work of the artists, we produced a short video. In this video Amelia Wallin speaks with local artists Spencer Lai, Rafaella McDonald, Georgia Robenstone, and Isadora Vaughan about their commissioned works for Improvements & Reproductions.
Produced by Tamsen Hopkinson for West Space.
Filmed by Justin Balmain.
Edited by Tamsen Hopkinson and Justin Balmain.
Audio Mastering by Bonnie Cummings.
Special thanks to Spencer Lai, Rafaella McDonald, Georgia Robenstone, Isadora Vaughan, and Amelia Wallin.
Spencer Lai is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist, curator and writer. Spencer’s practice navigates the visual lexicon of design, fashion, and window display, with specific interest in subcultural identities and aesthetic cultures. Their process involves the collation and editing of found/personal materials, objects and clothing to reflect and disseminate narratives surrounding consumer cultural consciousness.
Rafaella McDonald has a painting and sculptural practice, working across gallery settings, public spaces, and clothing. Her practice is concerned with the gestural elements of materials, documenting interactions between materials and the body.
Georgia Robenstone is an artist and writer currently based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She has recently returned from studying at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. She lives and works on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pays her respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Isadora Vaughan is a Melbourne based artist working in sculpture. Her practice unpacks and experiments with material as geological, temporal, associative and emotional. Her works manifest out of a chaotic exploratory process into basic states of matter and a desire to personalise, dislocate, and disrupt traditional material hierarchies.