Emily Simek and Shelley Watters: with, together: greens and browns
about exhibition
An expansive, collaborative project between Emily Simek (Naarm/Melbourne) and Shelley Watters (Gadigal and Wangal/Sydney) that explores gardening as a context for art-making mediated by technology.
The foundation of the project is informed by each artists’ established processes in composting as part of their experimental art practices. The title “with, together” is drawn from the etymology of the prefix “com-”; which appears frequently in daily use; compost, commune, communicating, computing, combining, companionship, and compassion.
Approaching collaboration as an invitation for action, the artists “dig into each other’s compost piles” so to speak, where the term “pile” refers both to the literal compost piles in their gardens, and the sharing of archival work, materials, skills and technologies within their respective art practices.
Living apart and unable to meet together in their physical gardens, the artists ask the question of how to compost together at a distance. This unfolded over months of weekly online calls and messages, through a co-mingling of art practice, friendship and skills exchange, alongside embedding of technologies such as endoscopic cameras and flat-bed scanners within the garden ecology.
with, together: greens and browns culminates in a joint studio residency and work-in-progress showing at Invisible Art Space, where “greens and browns” is the ephemera that has emerged from a nutrient rich layering of distinctive practices.
Shelley Watters (she/they) is an artist and curator who resides and creates on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples. Their practice is driven by an expansive, action-led approach that often invites community participation. They work fluidly across installation, photo media, textiles, sound and video to investigate entanglement and repair.
Emily Simek (she/her) has a relational, interspecies approach to her art practice which comprises textiles, digital art, writing, gardening and social practice. Informed by methodologies in composting, and grounded by a commitment to group processes, she develops her work through participation in food webs, local networks of exchange, and collective gardening. She lives and works on Wurundjeri Country, Victoria.
Residency runs from 09-29 November, with a video workshop on 14 Nov, 2-4pm and work-in-progress showings in the gallery on 21, 22, 28, 29 Nov, 12-3pm at invisible art space, 141/2-18 Buchanan St Balmain