Adapting to rapid change

While Southbank’s Arts Precinct has been shut down to the world, the next generation of students aspiring to fill these spaces from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) have too had their creative pursuits disrupted by COVID-19.

Former VCA student and now Southbank News journalist Rhonda Dredge conducted a Q and A with the VCA’s head of art associate professor Kate Daw on April 2 to gain an insight into how students and teachers were adapting.

Rhonda Dredge (RD): Where are all the art students?

Kate Daw (KD): At home, like the rest of us. We closed VCA Art last week. There were tears and an enormous sense of uncertainty. It was awful to say goodbye to staff, students and the studios, not to mention our beloved workshops, labs and offices.

RD: Have you changed the curriculum?

KD: We have! We have written a brand new curriculum in the past three weeks. We have moved our entire programs online, and all teaching and research is being delivered in the virtual realm, via Zoom, Skype, Instagram, telephone and other online apps and tools.

RD: How can a sculptor work without a studio or equipment?

KD: They can use anything to hand – look at Duchamp’s urinal for instance, one of the most famous objects of the 20th century. This is a great time for new forms to emerge, ideas to flourish and deep contemplation to take place. Our students are brilliantly imaginative and we have already seen new performances take place, for instance, in live time on Instagram.

RD: Will artworks get smaller as a result of the isolation?

KD: I don’t think we will see a new dawn of minaturism as a result of COVID-19, although you never know. At its best, art is always surprising. I think there could be new conversations about the value of art, what art can be, how it can exist and what is really important subject matter right now. We know our students want to stay connected and are valuing the moments where they can still come together. We had Brook Andrew, the artistic director of the Biennale of Sydney, present a lecture at our art forum today, and over 300 staff and students attended on Zoom!

RD: When we first met, you encouraged students to think big - to design billboards! Can you still have a large vision while confined to a small house or flat?

KD: Definitely! Think about how many artists today conceive an idea and hand the specs over to someone else to make. It’s a time for rich research, reading, thinking, dreaming … when we are back we expect our workshops and studios to be pumping! All those ideas will be turned into artworks.

RD: What are you working on? Have you got a studio at home?

KD: I do have a studio at home, and I am hoping, now I am in it all week, to finish a new series of paintings. However, I seem to have spent most of my week on emails and Zoom organising things at VCA Art. I am hoping it will settle down a bit and I will get some studio work underway.

RD: The last show I saw was at the Margaret Lawrence - lovely little still lives and whimsical text. I love your little narratives. Have you got one for the crisis? Is this the blue hour you predicted?

KD: I am still working with similar subject matter. Much of the new painting is based on a design of a vintage Gucci scarf, and I am pulling in texts, other patterns and motifs and fragments too. There is a blue flower, closely related to the concept of the blue hour – let’s see how it all pans out … •