The Colour Box Studio Public Art Program exhibits contemporary public art in popup locations in and around Footscray and Melbourne. Past exhibitions have included installation art, sculpture, video, street art and performance. Colour Box Studio’s public art program provides alternative spaces for artists to exhibit, thinking outside the white cube.
If you have an idea for a public art project and a pop up space in mind, please contact: info@colourboxstudio.com with a CV and a short one paragraph project description. If it’s something that we think we can support we’ll ask you to put in a proposal and go from there. All Public Art Program exhibitors are asked to become a Colour Box Studio Member. Please note that we cannot provide funding for projects but we include your project in our programming and provide promotion and assistance to make it happen.
PAST PROJECTS
Colour Box Studio is popping up in a one-night-only installation as part of Wynter Projects’ West Projections Festival 2015.
Enter the cube into an immersive, intergalactic space, away from the ‘real world’; observe as the space is filled with ambient soundscapes and experimental video projections…a place where artists and creatives alike get the chance to inspire one another to collaborate on their own art & projects.
A cosy, warm & ambient environment will be provided; all you need to bring are your sketchbooks and/or any art materials, projects you are working on.
Cosmic Forest by Tasha Whittle: 28 June 2014, 236 Nicholson St Footscray VIC 3011, 12-4pm
“For the Colour Box Studio alleyway wall I will be painting a character from the Cosmic Forest. The Cosmic Forest is a world parallel with ours filled with weird and wonderful characters, landscapes and adventures. Anyone of us can enter into the Cosmic Forest via a Gatekeeper, you just need the right key…
Accompanying the mural I will be offering the public the chance to have their own Cosmic Forest character portrait for a gold coin donation. Through my special glasses I can see your Cosmic Forest self in all its beautiful, colourful, weird, glory. Accompanying me will be Jazz Pianist Victor Dilks as there has to be music playing whilst I draw, otherwise the magic is lost.
Weather depending, portraits and electrical equipment don’t work well in the rain!”
More details about the Cosmic Forest: click here.
More from Tasha: click here.
The following programs were curated by Shae Rooke, Colour Box Studio’s Public Art Coordinator in 2013.
PUBLIC ART PERFORMANCE
‘Thing with Feathers’ by The Space Between Performance Collective
5th & 6th December 2013
Walking the streets of a grey city,
the shadows attempt to penetrate.
From the back recess of an unlikely alley
A twinkle of light demands attention
A shimmer of hope penetrates the soul
something changes.
It ripples far and wide.
‘Thing with Feathers’ is a synonym for hope. Through a Butoh dance performance by Gabrielle New and Kathleen Doyle the audience was taken on journey of discovery and possibility. The performers moved through the alleyway and courtyard of Colour Box Studio, travelling from the mundane trap of the habitual to find themselves awake and alive, very much participants of a living breathing dialogue with their environment. A magical and unexpected performance.
To see images of the performances see our Facebook album here
For more about the artists read here and see a video interview here
ALLEYWAY EXHIBITION
‘The Disposable Camera Project’ Curated by Kristina Arnott
December 2013
This project encouraged participants to find space for creativity in their everyday lives through photography. Each participant was given a disposable camera and 24 hours to photograph whatever they wanted or were able to, Whether it was their own neighbourhood, their friends, strangers on the tram, or their journey to work. The results were surprising and beautiful peeks into peoples everyday lives and the things that captured their imaginations.
Featuring works by Ilona Nelson, Kathryn Goldie, Amie Batalibasi, Jack Dowling McDonald, Kristina Arnott, Phillip Aherne, Olivia Jensen, Cara Thompson, Scott Lyon, Kim Smith, Hollie Heales, Nicole Kennedy, Clare Anderson, Gemila Iezzi, Gareth Kaluza, Charlotte Wardell, Simonn Johansen.
NIGHT PROJECTION WINDOW
‘Interface’ Curated by Shae Rooke
31st August – 13th September 2013 / Screening Nightly 7pm – 3am
‘Interface’ saw Colour Box Studio using its shopfront window on Nicholson Street, Footscray to exhibit an eclectic range of video works by emerging and established artists in a pop-up night projection window display. Passers by enjoyed video works by 7 contemporary artists over 12 nights.
Featuring works by Diego Ramirez, Rachel Main, Nico Reddaway, William Head, Melissa Matveyeff, Trewlea Peters, Shae Rooke & Lizzy Sampson.
PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION
‘Façade’ by Aliça Bryson Haynes
6th August – 10th September 2013
“Façade” is a site specific installation that was created at Colour Box Studio in August – September 2013. Using woollen blankets, Colour Box’s façade was been transformed into a colourful, minimalist painting. The ‘known’ qualities of the materials altered through their unexpected placement, modification and repetition – eliciting a sense of wonder and surprise.
Colour Box Studio recently interviewed Aliça about her exhibition. Read more here
See a video of the installation of ‘Façade’ here
PUBLIC ART PERFORMANCE
‘How to be a good Egyptian’ by Phil Solimon
6th August 2013
‘How to be a Good Egyptian’ is an interactive performance and installation in Colour Box Studio’s courtyard, part of which was transformed into a busy Cairo street. During the performance, the artist served traditional Egyptian street food from a typical food cart, cooked by himself according to instructions given by his grandmother over the phone. The work explores the importance of food and hospitality in Egyptian culture, the current social and political situation in Egypt, and the artist’s complex relationship with his family.
For more about Phil see a video interview here and read more here
PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION
‘Signs’ by Lizzy Sampson
June – July 2013
For the Colour Box Studio alleyway, Lizzy Sampson produced a series of signs that play upon the language used by developers and government to promote the planned changes for Footscray. Taking words and slogans from both local and state government websites, along with phrases used by developers, the new signs offer absurd statements, appropriated from beurocratic visions of community development and re-contextualised for the laneway setting.
Lizzy is a Melbourne based visual artist who recently completed a Masters of Fine Art at RMIT. Central themes within her arts practice include the world of business, the notion of work, politics and the economy. Her work questions established systems, structures and values, and invites the viewer to do the same.
For further images of the artworks see here
For more about Lizzy see here and here