Vienna October update

James Hancock
Austrian Chancellory Residency 2006
www.jameshancock.net


It’s a frosty morning in Linz in upper Austria I’ve just woken up in a one bed capsule hotel in a park made from a concrete stormwater tube. How did I get here?

In July/August 2006 I completed a residency and curatorial project as part of the Gang festival in Indonesia (www.gangfestival.com). This developed an interest in working, researching and collaborating on creative projects in overseas environments.

I wanted to follow on from this experience and build on the skills I learnt by utilizing contacts built up in Europe to do a residency there. Through my involvement with the SPACE3 artist run initiative in Sydney (www.space3.org) I had a number of contacts in Austria a knew there was a very active young art scene there.

I was keen to build on these connections and create an opportunity to live and work creatively in Europe. When I found the Austrian Chancellory residency I submitted a proposal outlining a rough project.

My initial idea was to utilize the context of Vienna’s famous decorative arts and architecture to create sculptural or animated works that could be drawn from, and placed back into, these opulent environments. Re-interpreting and intervening somehow with the experience of these sites.

After I was accepted by the Chancellory I applied for funding from the Freedman Foundation and received this to assist with travel costs which made the whole project a reality.

This whole process required a lot of forward planning, the turn around for the application process and actually arriving was more than a year. Consequently my ideas have changed both with time and the unpredictable influence of being here in Vienna. The unexpected reactions and influences are taking hold. Things you could never plan become important. This is exactly why I wanted to be outside of the routine at my studio at home, to be able to draw from new environments and people on a daily basis. It is of most importance to be able to feel like I live in these new places to really develop new ideas and works beyond the initial feelings of awe when you arrive.

Being in Vienna I have been trying to get in touch with as many contemporary artists as I can. I have been researching and talking with. Artists such as Erwin Wurm, David Moises, Markus Hofer, and Andreass Strauss. These artists all seem to have similar playful approaches to their work, utilizing recycling and re-interpretating everyday objects.

A great introductory tool is the SPACE3 catalogue we recently published which gives a good idea to people of previous work and the network of people I am involved with at home. It has also been important to have something to exchange with artists I meet. Another great tool is my website which has a wide range of projects with heavy visual documentation (www.jameshancock.net).

While on a trip to Linz in upper Austria I spent a night in Strauss’ project ‘The Park Hotel’. This is a project which converts approximately 2metre diameter concrete tubes usually used for stormwater into hotel style accommodation. For this version of the project it is installed in a beautiful park near the Danube river, and during the summer you can book through the internet where you get a code to check yourself in with when you arrive.

My initial ideas to intervene with the architecture in Vienna in someway, with public sculpture, still remains. I have begun drawing and collecting elements from my surroundings.

Every time I travel I am always struck by the way the 'edges' of the urban environment are different. The way the dust is somehow different, how civic details like the way pavements are made and the markings on the road change.

In Vienna the architecture is constantly striking, with every building demanding attention whether it is from immense detail, its place in history, or as its part in my culture shock.

I have previously been interested in the way we perceive our environment and through research into psychology have explored methods of visual perception and representation. It is interesting to translate these ideas into ides of cultural difference and being lost in a city – with particular interest being in the building up of familiarity, the collapse of the new and the entry of a familiar perception of surroundings.

I typically work in a wide range of mediums with previous collections of work encompassing photography, collage, painting, and printing. My plans for new work while in residence is to try to consolidate these practices somehow - potentially through installation and sculpture. With collection adventures in the flea markets I have begun the collection process - keys, cogs etc. Referencing early work of mine with mechanised machines I have started to use my usual collection of mediums to work towards new works.

Thoughts I'm having after being in residence for 1 month here are building on these ideas of the urban fabric. I have begun engaging with the architecture through drawing, both from life and in the studio. It is interesting to note with Vienna the lack of high rise buildings and the consistent appearance of ornate 4-5 storey buildings. I have begun to think that I could influence this lack of difference and unfamiliarity of Vienna’s specific cultural urban dust.

I have just been awarded a second residency at the AGNSW Cite Des Arts in Paris and after a break in January will hopefully be taking this up. Once this is completed I will be showing work from these two residencies at a gallery in Sydney around the middle of the year. I will also be organizing small events in Vienna and hopefully Paris while I am here.

SPACE3 is also in the process of setting up a relationship with a Tasmanian artist run initiative called INFLIGHT with which we hope to do a studio and gallery exchange with also in the middle of 2007.

I learnt a lot from the process of being an artist/curator in Indonesia, and also learnt a lot from the Indonesian people about being resourceful with what you have. They are amazing at recycling and adapting the materials they have at hand. It was interesting being there as a consistent hoarder and collector because there aren't any piles of 'stuff' there, everything is re-used and recycled in some way. In order for me to undertake my typical collection processes of pieces of the cities fabric I had to buy what could typically be found in skip bins in Australia - junk objects.

This resourcefulness has stayed with me and I brought with me a limited box of drawing materials as a basic starting point. As my plans for work here come to fruition I will be gathering materials here. Though the Austrians are slightly obsessed with cleaning there are urban spaces left with their treasures, and the gutters gather everything.