Tracey Lamb

 A starting point for your work in your grad show was the invisibility of Eileen Gray. Is this a continuing theme in your work and / or life? Do you still think this is the case for women and for women artists?

The starting point for my MFA grad show was the erasure of the architect Eileen Gray by the very well-known architect and master of self-promotion, Le Corbusier. The invisibility of women is a theme I have engaged with my large modular installations.

Women artists are far less visible than male artists, this is especially prominent with large scale sculpture.

A devastatingly clear example of this can be seen at the Point Leo Estate Sculpture Park, Mornington Peninsula. On the artists’ page on their website,there are a list of 50 large sculptures in the park, only 4 of those works are by women, that means a whopping 92% of the works were made by men.[1] Do curators honestly think women can’t or won’t make large outdoor sculptures? The Heide Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture park in Bulleen, Melbourne have 37 sculptures listed on their website with only 7 women, around 81% by men with both examples so far below parity as to be ridiculous.[2] This is utterly disgraceful and disappointing for the existence of women in sculpture today as we have many highly talented and exceptionally capable women sculptors working within Australia and internationally.

Your grad show moved between many media – from painting that was presented as object, through cast works – why did you chose to develop your practice through making large scale welded structures? What is it about this medium that you love?

Welding appeals to me because I can produce such a large variety of forms. Clean lines, architecture, modernism and minimalism provide a strong sense of direction and steel is an enjoyable challenge to work with.

I’m a self-taught welder which is part of my feminist methodology, working with materials and processes that have been historically employed by men. I used to design and sew my own clothes and can see a connection between sewing and welding. Both are creative mediums where one can achieve an outcome reasonably quickly. I would cut and sew an outfit over a weekend, often staying up all night to complete the work. In a way welding can be like that, I can cut the steel to the size and shape I want, tack it together and begin to realise the form in a relatively short amount of time. It’s the little adjustments, the finishing off and cleaning up that takes me a long time.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to make a large welded installation at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012 as a 3rd year undergraduate. I made a text that read “PERFECTLY POISED”, 6.5 meters long, and 1.65 meters high.[3] A large team of us from the VCA installed it on the water at Victoria Harbour, Docklands in Melbourne where it was shown for a month. This work was made with the significant assistance of my brother Martin, it was my first experience working with steel on a large scale.

I subsequently had a studio at Artery Co-operative for about 4 years and this also allowed me the room to experiment on a large scale as they have a spacious workshop and a great project space for setting up big installations.

I love the idea of making a large scale installation of multiple interconnected architectural frameworks that you can step into, sit inside, inhabit, share, perhaps one day … as a reflection of what we are going through at the moment, as we all isolate in our separate homes with the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

Perfectly Poised, "Rising: the Victorian Harbour Young Artist Initiative” Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Melbourne. Materials: welded steel, enamel paint, LED lighting. H: 165 x D: 30 x W: 650 cm. 2012 Image by Tracey Lamb ~

Do you think this medium is somehow gendered?

The representation of sculpture, especially large-scale sculpture and welding as a process is gendered.

Welding was historically gendered as it was not something women had access to, this is also reflected in the historic nature of sculpture generally. Now women can embrace this medium and this should be celebrated and encouraged more widely. Welded sculpture by women is particularly suited to being on display outdoors in those big sculpture parks. Dudes with power please step aside and let some lady sculptors and others who are in the minority have some of that space.

Who would you consider has influenced your practice?

So many creative practitioners have influenced my practice. I admire strong women who have achieved some pretty amazing creative projects against the odds. Architects such as Eileen Gray, Marion Mahoney Griffin and Charlotte Perriand, designers Ray Eames and Alma Siedhoff-Buscher and artists such as Inga King, Barbara Hepworth and Eva Hesse. I also love the work of Anthony Caro, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt.

I have been fortunate to study under some fabulous contemporary Australian artists whilst undertaking my BFA at the Victorian College of the Arts and my MFA at MADA, Monash University such as Simone Slee, Bianca Hester, Kate Daw, Emily Floyd, Kathy Temin, Spiros Panigarakis and Callum Morton.

These artists have contributed to my practice in many positive ways. The combined influence of all of these people is so varied, yet come together to demonstrate their tenacity for ideas, processes, materials and enduring power and belief in a creative practice and a sense of self.

This large melting pot of influence is manifested in my art by giving me the ability to keep going, to have belief in myself and my direction. I am not afraid to try new things, knowing I will make some mistakes which leads to problem solving and ultimately discovering something new about myself, my abilities and my practice.

You have been consistently prolific over your art making career – what is your daily routine?

As I now work from home, it is easy to work on art every day of the week. If I am not physically making work, I’m researching, sketching ideas or working on the administration side of my practice. I put my overalls on almost every day, have breakfast and get out to the studio. I am continuing to work on my current series which will be heading to a gallery as soon as it’s done. When I have a project on the go, I’d easily work at least six hours a day, seven days a week, - especially at the moment as there are no distractions due to being physically isolated from the outside world.

 Your work has, over the last year, jumped from almost monumental scale (although not necessarily in mass) to smaller more intimate works.

It takes a lot of materials, money and time to make those large works and they can weigh in excess of 100 kilos. I always make scale drawings and sometimes build a maquette prior to scaling the work up. I then cut and weld the work myself, including painting them, unless I have them powder coated which I do for exterior sculpture. Then due to their size and their site specificity, they are difficult to show elsewhere. One of my works stood 4 meters high, another was suspended from a beam at the Incinerator gallery that was over 5 meters high with the work hovering just off the floor.

The eyes that saw her were closed. Atrium Space, Incinerator Gallery,

Installation suspended from the I-Beam 5 meters above the floor. Materials: welded steel & paint. H: 360 x D: 310 x W: 180 cm. (2018) Image by Jorge de Arauj

I have to consider storage and I’ve recently installed a new shed for storing those large works. I make them as modular works, so they all break down, but they still take up a lot of room.

One of the constraints I have worked with is that all my large modular work has to be able to be moved by me and transported in one trip in my car. I can make something that is 4 or 5 meters tall and 3 or 4 meters wide and deep and still move it about myself because of the way I construct it. Also, 18 months-ago I moved from my large shared studio co-operative into a home studio, so my interior making space is now more constrained.

I want to make work that other people would like to have in their homes. Smaller works are easier to show and to transport and I really want to have a self-sustaining practice. One of the positive results of this change is that I am finding ways to sell my small works which was not feasible with the larger works.

What would you say is your philosophical approach to your art ?

I don’t really make a formal connection between my practice and a particular brand of philosophy. I’m much more of a maker than a philosopher.

I would describe my arts practice as a feminist practice.

I want to see equality in the arts, more women empowered, more women in the galleries and institutions, more women given acknowledgement and more women represented in those heavily male dominated sculpture parks.

This also applies seeing more art by the many minority peoples such as Indigenous people, LGBTQI+, people with disability, people of colour, the list is much longer ... It is important to me that I make work that acknowledges and reflects the strength and abilities of women whether directly or indirectly.

Your artwork refers to and interacts with modernist design – what would you consider to be the difference between design and the artwork? 

This is a big subject, I think there are many examples of where design and art overlap. To generalise, design is functional and has a specific purpose and responds more specifically to a brief.

Tracey Lamb, Ode to Marion ‘Problem no 03 (D) Incinerator Gallery, Materials: welded steel and    paint. H: 400 cm x 350 cm x 200 cm. 2019 Image by Indigo Lamb

Art is a provocation, reflects the artist, the environment, politics, society, many things. Design can inhabit these areas too, perhaps design is more likely to resolve problems whereas art leaves problems and questions unresolved.

One outdoor installation I made for the grounds of Montsalvat, located in Eltham, Melbourne, included two welded bench seats that faced each other, either side of a framework, so perhaps this work has blurred the lines of design and art. Those bench seats are now used regularly at home, placed at each end of my outdoor dining table, which was also made by me.

I have also made other furniture and some jewellery, though jewellery is a nice example of something that can sit anywhere within the design/art spectrum. If I did pursue more functional creative work, it would definitely be further exploration with furniture and/or jewellery.

Colour has appeared as a sculptural element in your latest work – could you elaborate upon the choice of colour and the implications for adding colour that appears to ‘mask’ the material of the artwork?

I am very keen to experiment more with colour and enjoy using it when it works well. There is a certain beauty on the surface of my current body of work when it is left as clear, polished steel, showing the hand of the artist and the raw materiality. It can be difficult to make it look more interesting when adding colour. Using paint can cover up some of the imperfections or character of the welded steel but on the other hand those marks can also be quite engaging which I may be more inclined to show as part of the strength and haptic nature of the work.

 Is there anything else you would like to say?

My early working career has also influenced my arts practice. When I was in my early 20s I worked as a personal assistant to a well-regarded Melbourne architect. Some years later I studied and worked in the interior design area. These earlier career choices continue to speak to my arts practice.

(cover credit: Tracey Lamb: Protect  (2020) material welded steel with enamel paint. H 17 x W 23 x D 9 cm. Image credit: Tracey Lamb.)

https://tracey-lamb.com/

 [1] Pt. Leo Estate, “Sculptures” https://www.ptleoestate.com.au/sculptures/ (accessed 03/04/2020) [2] Heide Museum of Modern Art, “Gardens and Sculpture Park” https://d2x6fvmwptmao1.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/JRFvwlDTdNpAv2I4W56FL70ZFVePjbkd19Q96z6ZJdQ/mtime:1476410266/sites/default/files/432.Visitor_Guide_Map.pdf (accessed 03/04/2020)   [3] The University of Melbourne, VCA Blog, “Rising: the Victorian Harbour Young Artist Initiative” https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/vcamcm-direct/2012/06/22/rising-the-victorian-harbour-young-artist-initiative/ (Accessed 05/04/2020)   ~~