Artists drawn together through RMIT collaboration

An innovative artistic collaboration between RMIT University and East China Normal University will be one of the highlights of Australia’s cultural contribution to the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The Meridians – Shanghai 2010: Transdisciplinary Art and Sound in Public Space Project is part of a satellite event showcasing Victorian arts and culture at the Expo, which is expected to attract a record 70 million people.

Geoff Hogg, Coordinator of Public Art in RMIT’s School of Art, said the project researched connections between public urban contemporary art and international collaborative practice.

“We were initially approached by the School of Fine Art in the ECNU, who were eager to work with RMIT on a collaborative public art project,” Mr Hogg said.

“After months of hard work from the Meridians research team, the end result will be a unique and inventive contemporary art intervention that has been conceived and produced by an intercultural team of Chinese and Australian artists.

“It’s a fantastic example of the ways art can bring people together, building ties and establishing lasting connections through the creative process.”

Meridians has been developed in partnership with Arts Victoria by a research team including PhD candidates Tammy Wong and Clare Leporati, with support from RMIT Alumni and Development, and funding from the RMIT Design Research Institute’s “Intervention Through Art” seeding grants program.

Artist Cameron Robbins, an RMIT alumnus and a lecturer in the University’s Art in Public Space program, will be heading to Shanghai with the team this month to prepare his part of the installation – a series of complex, wind-powered drawing machines.

“I’m hoping to incorporate calligraphy into the work, using Chinese brushes and connecting those to the drawing machines,” Mr Robbins said.

“This is the biggest and most elaborate overseas project I’ve been involved with but after our initial research trip to Shanghai last year, the sheer complexity and the huge scale of the city actually made me feel more ambitious.

“I felt I had to come up with something that reflected that sort of energy.”

The site chosen for the Meridians project is the top floor of the ECNU’s recently constructed School of Fine Art building, in the suburbs of Shanghai.

“It’s a fantastic space for my work because the building is not quite finished so there are parts still open to the elements, which the drawing machines can respond to,” Mr Robbins said.

“As there are no floor coverings yet, I’m planning to set the machines up to draw directly onto the floor and walls, to ceremonially mark the structure.”

Mr Robbins has spent more than 20 years developing his unique outdoor drawing machines, which combine wind, paper, pen, pulleys, weathervanes and drawing arms to produce works that are literally created by the weather.

He often sets them up in coastal areas and though he has left one machine operating for nearly three days, drawings typically take between 15 minutes and four hours.

“I know the machines well enough to know they’ll be okay, that they can withstand the elements and any kind of stormy weather,” he said.

“The most exciting things is coming back to see how the drawing has taken shape as there’s always a real element of surprise.”

Meridians – Shanghai 2010: Transdisciplinary Art and Sound in Public Space Projectwill be officially launched in Shanghai during Victoria Week, 17 to 22 May.

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