“History is our audience”
Craig Burgess, Marcia Jane, Taree Mackenzie, Ronen Becker, David Chesworth, Dirk de Bruyn and John Nixon
22 Nov → 14 Dec 2013

History is our audience is intended to interrogate the role of the audience, history and community within experimental artist run initiatives and contemporary art organisations. Craig Burgess, Marcia Jane, Taree Mackenzie and Ronen Becker have been commissioned to produce three new site-specific works, which will be accompanied by a selection of film works by David Chesworth, Dirk de Bruyn and John Nixon, from the 1970s and 80s — works produced in creative spaces not too dissimilar to West Space.

History is our audience marks the 20th anniversary of West Space by recognising a history of experimental practice in Melbourne more broadly. The project will attempt to write an alternate history, one that bounces between the present and the past, or one that attempts to merge a sense of history with the contemporary, whilst wishing to refrain from a nostalgic reading of history itself.

Artists who’ve all worked at West Space previously produced new site-specific works that will either sit literally in the windows of the Front Space, Gallery 1 and the Back Space, or near them, playing with the light in the space and in particular, how it dramatically changes during the course of the day. At times these works will be seen and at times they will fade away. The ephemeral nature of these pieces act’s as a metaphor for the West Space’s current situation — caught somewhere between being a small artist run initiative and a larger contemporary art institution — a kind of liminal zone within our own history.

Giving these new works context will be a series of films made by David Chesworth, Dirk de Bruyn and John Nixon from the late 70s and 80s, made in or for experimental Melbourne spaces like the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre, Arts Projects or the George Ewing Gallery. The inclusion of these films is an attempt to recognise the trajectory of West Space, born out of a rich local experimental arts and artist-run-initiative community. A history of an organisation is not merely it’s own, but is a gathering of other histories around it.

Launching toward the end of the exhibition and to wrap up our 20th anniversary will be the History is our audience publication. Not intended as a substantive history of West Space, the publication, will gather small pieces of writing by a large collection of people — artists, curators, writers, volunteers and audience members — with varying degrees of connection with West Space. These small pieces will form a series of vignettes of particular moments in the history of West Space and the independent contemporary art scene of Melbourne.