The Stony Rises Project

Kit Wise

Kit Wise is a graduate of Oxford University and the Royal College of Art, and worked as an artist in London, Paris, New York and Rome before settling in Melbourne in 2002. In 2006 he undertook an Australia Council Tokyo Studio residency. He has curated a number of international touring exhibitions and also writes for national and international art journals such as Continuum, Artlink, un Magazine and Frieze. Working primarily with found-object based sculpture, installation, digital animation and web-based imagery, Kit has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work shown in Viewpoints and Viewing Points: 2009 Asian Art Biennial (Taiwan) and Experimenta Utopia Now: 2010 International Biennial of Media Art (Melbourne) addressed the increasingly fluid or plastic condition of the work of art and the place of art and artist in contemporary culture. He is currently the acting head of Fine Art in the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University.

Interview

Why did you choose to be involved in The Stony Rises Project?

I was excited by the opportunity to engage with a unique Australian landscape, and by the interdisciplinary, collaborative nature of the project.

What is your connection to the Western District area of Victoria?

None! I am English - but this was part of the attraction: it represents an ‘exotic other'.

Did you have any preconceived ideas or plans for your work before embarking on the artists' camp?

Yes, which were formulated for the original proposal, but I expected these would shift and develop as a consequence of the camp. This did indeed take place, as well as during a period of intense studio investigation immediately afterwards, which resulted in an animation rather than the still image I originally proposed. The temporal aspect of the landscape seemed to require a time-based art work.

How would you describe your artistic practice from concept to making?

Research in the field - often through documentation, appropriation and investigation; initial studio research; revision; more revision; model, test and logistical analysis; produce final work; refine and resolve final work in situ.

What is it about the Western Districts that inspired you?

The beauty and ‘liquidity' of the landscape: found in numerous aspects of its geology, history and identity. Water, or more exactly fluid states permeate the identity of the region, also as an absence. I am a keen open-water swimmer and was immediately attracted to the great lakes, some of which carry myths from Indigenous peoples. I was well aware I was not the first artist to be inspired by their beauty and mystique and this also interested me, as I wanted to pay my respects to that history.

What did you hope to capture in your work?

The notion of a landscape in flux, across eons as well as seasons, and that flux being driven by hydrology. Water is a vital concern not just for the people of this district, in terms of farming practices and water supply, but to all of Australia, if not the world. The Western Districts provided a lense through which to take note of these pressing concerns.

Is this your usual practice or did the project bring about a new direction?

The project allowed me to explore the notion of landscape in detail, for the first time; and to develop a new approach to digital animation, in terms of the relationship between the simultaneous representation of space and time. This interest is now ongoing.

The Stony Rises Project

A NETS Victoria Touring Exhibition developed by the RMIT Design Research Institute. Curators: Lisa Byrne, Professor Harriet Edquist and Associate Professor Laurene Vaughan

Presented by: