Support PSpace to keep artists thriving... Creating in Quarantine with Deborah Kelly
Welcome to our fourth week of Creating in Quarantine, a series of specially commissioned artists' self-portraits reflecting on the changes in creative practice that are happening through these unpredictable times of isolation and crisis.
The world is in flux around us, and we’ve seen the power of mass collective action unfold in numerous ways: whether ignited by a virus and the need to protect our most vulnerable, or the roaring fire of those of us battling world-wide racism. This time has shifted differently for everyone, with some taking pause to consider what fuels the fire inside them, and what they can do to address the collective need for change.
Our fourth artist in the Creating in Quarantine self-portrait series is Deborah Kelly. Deborah’s self-portrait, created through her celebrated collage practice, speaks to the fire that has been stoked by her ability to pause and regather her focus.
Deborah says of her work:
The weird stretchy time of the global pandemic has somehow given me time to deepen and sharpen my impossible feelings about the misogynist church in which I was raised. In lockdown I have renewed my white hot hatred of its flamboyant embrace of obscene wealth, of resource profligacy, of ranking paedophiles, of imperial patriarchy. The world seemed to stop still for me, with my immense privileges of safety and health. But all the while, Cardinal Pell was being released from prison, Rio Tinto was preparing to blow ancient cultural sites to smithereens, coal mines were being greenlit in critical habitats, fossil fuel barons were being given power over the entire nation's public health. In my quiet solitude, I chafed impotently against the bit.
Deborah Kelly, 2020
Your support this year will enable PSpace to:
• Support artists to experiment and creatively develop their work through the various stages of lockdown.
• Develop arts experiences that will bring our community together as soon as it is safe to do so: including a radical reimagining of our 2020 Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art.
• Adapt our programs and create new initiatives that enable art to thrive throughout this strange and unpredictable time.
While our artists invent new ways to work and dream, we are right by their side, creating support structures and leaning in, as we have been for 35 years.
Please support us to ensure Artists can continue to live, work and flourish through the chaos of these times.
When the virus breaks, we’re going to share this work with you. It will be beautiful, surprising and new. And we will have come through it together.
