Mentorship project with Fiona Hall

© Fiona Hall

I've just received word that I'm about to get to do a project with a big fat lifelong hero of mine... the wonderous Fiona Hall. I recently applied for Experimenta's new Media Art Mentorship scheme - basically you outline a project that you want to do within the realms of site-based and public art, and nominate an appropriate mentor to oversee your work, to give input and generally allow you to harass them on the finer points of artmaking...

© Fiona Hall

I was unsure if Fiona would be into it as she is one very busy lady and constantly here, there and everywhere - however, while Nick was installing our piece for New Nature at the Govett-Brewster in May, he stayed at Rhana's farmhouse, along with Fiona. And the story goes that everyone would just creep off to bed at the end of the night, leaving Nick and Fiona going at it hammer and tongs, covering life the universe and everything.

So, heartened by this indirect bonding and knowing that she liked our work, and cause I cannot think of anyone I'd rather approach, I asked her to mentor me and she was nice enough to say yes. And I applied and was lucky enough to get the funding. So we're off and running! whoohoo.

© Fiona Hall

I'll be doing this project part-time from October 2007 until the end of March 2008, researching and making a heap of site-based pieces in the streets of Sydney and Melbourne (and maybe Adelaide?). During this time I'll also be participating in a few of Fiona's projects, in a capacity yet to be defined - possibly as cook, cheerleader and observer, with small dashes of hands-on help and research. Who knows. Cannot wait.

© Fiona Hall

© Fiona Hall