Portable cubes are providing a space for artists in regional Victoria to show their work — an idea aimed at helping the COVID-hit industry get back on its feet.
South Gippsland is now home to a trio of recycled shipping containers that have been converted into pop-up art galleries.
Historically synonymous with football and dairy farming, South Gippsland has no centralised performing arts centre or art gallery space, and few places to showcase art beyond small town country halls and artist-owned studio galleries.
Touring from town to town in three-month residencies, the art cubes bring a vibrant new experience to small Gippsland towns, attracting tourists and fostering social interaction between locals.
Refashioned from recycled shipping containers, the 2.5×3-metre structures were born of the South Gippsland Shire’s $2 million COVID Support Program, including $252,000 in funding to revive the shire’s arts sector.
“With COVID being so dissipating the idea was to bring people back together again,” said arts development officer for South Gippsland Mary Sullivan about the shire’s push to reconnect communities.
South Gippsland towns can apply to host the art cubes for three months, curating and designing their own unique programs by inviting local artists to apply for a residency.
This could involve anything from exhibitions to installations, pop-up performances and workshops, to running quirky events.
“All of the artists who participate get a free space and a small fee for materials and time,” Ms Sullivan said.
“The artists that have exhibited in them have really loved the exposure that it gives because you’re dropping them into street frontage and they’ve got this presence and they really invite curiosity.”
Typically located in the parklands of a town, the art cubes attract a passing parade of dog walkers, cyclists, scooter riders, parents with toddlers and people who might not typically venture into a traditionally quiet, solemn gallery space.
Creating a lively and festive town square atmosphere in small towns where there is typically not much to do at weekends or at night, the art cubes not only provide an instant tourist attraction, but a setting for spontaneous social interaction.
“All the feedback on the cubes has been really positive,” Ms Sullivan said.
“It’s a really important principle for art to be a connector, we’ve seen through so many projects the value it brings to communities and how it changes people’s lives.”
An opportunity to exhibit
The cubes are currently based in the prolific arts town Fish Creek in time for the Prom Coast holiday season.
Helen Sammonds from the Fish Creek Arts Cube Committee said of the 14 local artists who had applied for a residency, all had been accepted into the town’s summer roster.
She said the cubes gave local artists who wouldn’t normally exhibit, due to the expense and commitment, the opportunity to use the cubes as work studios, gallery spaces and workshop venues.
“It’s really up to artists to choose how they use them,” she said.
“It’s up to the artist to open them whenever they want. We are encouraging artists to open them as much as they possibly can, especially at weekends, and if they are not open to have work visible through the windows.”
South Gippsland all ability’s theatre company It’s No Drama has contributed an Andy Warhol-inspired multimedia installation of photographic portraits with its exhibition No Sudden Moves.
“It’s a light-box sound installation based on people’s objects that are special to them and the stories that they hold and the memories that they evoke,” said artistic director Samara Cunningham.
“I like the way that Warhol breaks down the hierarchy within the art world, and in a way It’s No Drama does that too because we’re working with artists living with disabilities.”
Off-grid galleries
Solar-powered and self-sufficient, the off-grid cubes have the capacity to run interior and exterior lighting, and sound and audiovisual components, making it possible to run programs in unusual locations and at night.
“You can put almost anything into them, and display almost anything you wish to,” said No Sudden Moves lighting designer and technician Mark Harrison.
In designing for the small space, with two windows, he said creativity and lateral thinking was required to make the space work for visitors when it was open, and for looking through the windows when the cube was closed or unattended.
“It is that voyeuristic thing to look through the window to see most of what’s in the cube, through either of the two windows,” he said.
No Sudden Moves sound designer and composer Michael Shirrefs said weaving the voices of participants with sound created a more immersive experience in the art cube, that revealed the playful humour and mischief of the subjects in the portraits.
“The idea of a sound loop allows people to be quiet, sit with something for a time and meditate on it, rather than simply glancing at it an moving on — it changes people’s timing with art,” he said.
“The stories start to seep into you.”
Rope-making and nature immersion
Filmmaker Kate Russell was inspired by the spectacular landscapes of South Gippsland to create a video project and various projections for her Fish Creek Art Cube residency.
Southlands is a pop-up cinema experience exploring the rail trail, the waterways and the wilderness of the Prom Coast and features collaborations with dancers and musicians such as ethereal Melbourne duo The Orbweavers.
“One of the most important things that came out of COVID was the role of art in people’s mental health,” she said, referring to the experience of regional artists.
“Doing work was just so good for the soul. We’re very lucky out here in this location.”
Fish Creek rope artist Sarah Parkes is using her cube residency to demonstrate how to make rope out of recycled malleable materials with a customised drill.
“I do a lot with silage wrap, there’s lots of old silage wrap around — you can use any old bedsheets, clothing, soft plastics — even paper to make rope,” she said.
Well known for her lavish cathedral-scale macrame wall hangings, Parkes plans to “knot up” a few pieces during her residency to demonstrate the potential of rope art.
Blending art, nature and community
Ms Sullivan said the $170,000 legacy investment in renovating and fitting out the three cubes served South Gippsland’s decentralised, largely volunteer-driven arts scene.
She said a dramatic influx of sea and tree changers during the pandemic was creating a diverse and flourishing South Gippsland arts scene.
“There’s those people that have moved here and say, ‘I want to do something, make stuff and get involved’.
“They bring their skills, and then you find them on committees directing festivals or making things happen — it’s exploding here in South Gippsland!”
Ms Sullivan said the pop-up art cube business model was “less resource hungry” than a traditional fixed gallery space in terms of staffing and overheads.
With tenancies in Loch, Coal Creek, Mirboo North and now Fish Creek, Ms Sullivan said the art cubes brought something unusual and interesting to small towns and the tourists who frequented the spectacular Wilson Promontory region for its rugged coastline and green rolling hills.
“Hopefully the art cubes will to keep circulating forever. At the moment they are booked out till mid 2025.”
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