alixbeattie

Street Art &Turkey

Published on September 18, 2019October 28, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

I recently visited Turkey to undertake some research around Istanbul’s street art.

Istanbul is a vibrant city with deep traditional and contemporary culture including an energetic night life. The city is a visual delight, so much to see from the vocal shopkeepers to the food culture, the smell of Turkish coffee and the street animals (so many cats) that are well fed and seem well cared for – something that is rare from what I have witnessed in my travels abroad.

Various pieces | Istanbul, Turkey | 2019 | Photo by the author

I was captivated by the graffiti written all over the streets, juxtaposed against old buildings within the city.

Studying street art, in its many forms, has meant my eyes are now accustomed to looking for some form of communication that invites me to become embedded into the urban landscape. An escape from the everyday, this disruption of thought – particularly when experiencing a new city where everywhere you look you see different and new things. I still see the art that jumps out at me from the street – this visual megaphone of information.

Continue reading →

An ephemeral artwork that continues to live through the internet

Published on September 3, 2019October 28, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Mainstream media outlets in Australia recently focussed on a controversial work by stencil artist, Luke Cornish (ELK). Luke created a mural on the Bondi Beach seawall that generated conversations about the treatment of refugees in Australia, the right to free speech and the impact of artworks that adorn the urban landscape. The imagery of the mural caught the attention of the media, Australia-wide, and the conversation reverberated through social media.

Before continuing, it is important to note that Luke has always confronted controversial topics: from the war in Syria to the impact of the Afghanistan conflict on veterans.

Luke’s mural depicts 24 Australian Border force officers standing in a line with the words “Not welcome to Bondi”. The mural was designed by the artist to create awareness around refugees and asylum seekers. The number of officers stencilled represent the 24 suicides that have occurred in Australian detention facilities – both off and on-shore – since 2010.

Since the late 1970s, the Bondi Sea Wall has been open to artists to submit artworks and, as stated on the Waverley council’s website, the wall “…has featured a mix of street and contemporary art with strong social and political messages throughout the decades.”

Continue reading →

Street Art: Re-shaping audience engagement in the city

Published on August 13, 2019August 13, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Over the last two decades, street art has become an integral part of the urban landscape. While this might seem natural to contemporary readers, it is in fact a remarkable change, given that the history of street art is linked to the criminality and vandalism of graffiti culture. Indeed, many cities around the world now hold street art festivals, signalling the location-based nature of the art form and reflecting its concern with contemporary social issues.

Although all art attempts to communicate, a unique feature of street art is the immediacy of the communication within urban landscapes – not locked away in galleries. One prominent example is Australian female street artist, Kaff-eine, who has an increasing global footprint through her artwork that raises awareness around issues of poverty and LGBTQIA+ communities.

Continue reading →

OBJECTIVES

Published on May 15, 2019October 28, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Career Objectives

Over the last eight years, I have been fortunate to work in an area where I pursue my passions: the art industry. Working for a small, independent, for-profit gallery, I have the opportunity to work with a wide range of artists as well as the Art Director, Gallery Manager and various art’s administrators. With experience in the art world working at Nanda\Hobbs for 8 years, the skills I gained through this experience included all administration skills and practical skills in running a gallery.

I have leveraged this knowledge when pursuing my research degrees by focussing on a small but important and cutting-edge subculture: female street artists.

As a researcher, I have developed a wide range of skills through both my Master of Research and PhD projects and am developing the ability to apply these skills within different contexts. As a researcher I have the capacity to provide analysis, critically think, problem solve, and translate information.

My career ambition is to take the knowledge of working in the art sector combined with the cross-section of research skills, my aim is to work with artists and galleries to document emerging art movements.

A second goal is to act as an intermediary between the formal art sector and street artists. There is a great deal that contemporary galleries can learn from the increasing popularity of street artists. Likewise, street artists can benefit from working with galleries. This objective is captured in my DCA creative project which is focussed on establishing an online gallery space for street-artists.

Research Objectives

The stakeholders identified within my research area are the artists, galleries, art institutions and the viewing public: all of whom are part of the focus of my creative project.

Specifically, my creative outcome for my DCA is producing an alternative and informative virtual space ‘exhibition space’ for street art. Exhibitions in traditional settings such as galleries and museums, both private and institutional based, have historically been very formal and conventional – but over the last decade, this has dramatically shifted with increasing levels of engagement.

This increasing engagement is evident by the increasing number of interactive spaces created by taking advantage of new technologies such as AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and social media. Such tools encourage the audiences to interact beyond the imagery of an artwork. Such technology is generating an additional space for audiences to engage.

My project aims to leverage such innovations with a focus on creating a different way to view street art and as such, providing audiences with an alternative experience. I will do this by using this technology to create, amongst other information, additional documentation and research about the street art and graffiti subcultures.

This alternative space also aims to provide street artist with an alternative way of showcasing their work whilst simultaneously affiliating with the changing nature of museum and art exhibition spaces. Street artists aim to create works within the urban environment. This project will work with the artform, in keeping with its original goals, whilst aligning with the art practices that are exhibited within traditional settings. This engagement argues for a positive way that street art can be both addressed and protected within the public domain – creating a space that activates the city.

Education

Published on May 1, 2019October 30, 2022 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

DCA Candidate WSU
Jul 2018 – Present
Thesis Title: Refracted cubes: Altering the audience experience through street art engagement
A four year full time research project

Master of Research WSU
Mar 2016 – Oct 2017
Thesis Title: Women on walls: engaging street art through the eyes of female artists
A two year full time degree, one year course work training as a researcher and one year for research and writing the thesis.

Bachelor of Arts WSU
Mar 2007 – Nov 2009
A three year full time degree majoring in Art History and Film Studies.

Experience

Published on April 23, 2019May 31, 2020 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Professional Experience

Client Service Manager
Nanda\Hobbs
July 2011 – June 2019
Nanda\Hobbs is a commercial art gallery located in Chippendale. The gallery represents over 30 artists and has an exhibition calendar that runs throughout the year with an opening every two/three weeks. The gallery also has a corporate art rental side, art valuations, tours at the AGNSW and art consultation for artworks outside of the gallery.
Duties: My position at Nanda\Hobbs has been one that has been highly client based, stock administration and administration with the database for clients and artworks for the business.
Achievements: Streamlining and changes of processes for the client rental program. Nanda\Hobbs changed over the client management system to Salesforce in 2014 and my role was to guide the project with the developers, implement the system and train staff in the use of this new CRM.

Research Assistant
SDN Child Services
January 2012 – February 2012
Short term research project for a tender to obtain access for under privileged children into their programs. Tender was accepted.

Hotel Manager
West Ryde Hotel
October 2000 – June 2011
A local family run hotel that has two bars, a beer garden, bistro and gaming lounge.
Duties: Event Management, staff co-ordination and roster for over 20 employees, opening and closing of the hotel, banking and finance, customer service, bar duties, kitchen duties, cellar operations, ordering of stock and crowd control.

Courses and Development Opportunities

Graduate Certificate in Researcher Engagement, Development and Impact
Western Sydney University, AUS
Jul 2018 – Present
A course that is available to PhD students to track and achieve the outcomes of their research journey. The course provides guidelines to completing a PhD whilst engaging with career aspects for after the completion of the PhD.

How to structure your thesis
Western Sydney University, AUS
May 2020
A course facilitated by Dr Geoff Hyde that provided the framework to write my thesis.

Symposium on Democracy
Washington Jefferson College, USA
February 2020
A day symposium on democracy in America which included three key note speakers and two break out sessions. The talks and breakout sessions discussed issues and challenges that democracies are facing, both in American and around the world.

An Introduction to American and Wyoming Politics
University of Wyoming, USA
August 2019 – November 2019
This is a first year core subject for students at the University of Wyoming. I am taking these classes to give me an insight into American politics both on a federal and state level. Various works I come across on the street – both inside and outside the USA – have political connotations hidden within the imagery. A deeper understanding into politics is vital to understand what the artist is conveying.
Please note – I am only attending the lectures as a learning aid, I am not enrolled in the course.

Street Art Tours
Strawberry Tours & Street Art London Tours, UK
Sept 2019
These tours guided me around the street art capital of the UK – Shoreditch. Both tours provided information about local artists, international artists and the collaboration that occur within the community and with other artists. I was able to view works of artists for the first time as well as directly engage with members of the street art community. The tours gave me a contextual understanding street art and graffiti are used to activate the public city in specific areas.

Resilient Research
Western Sydney University,AUS
June 2019
A course that provides guidance for post PhD, including transferring skills from the PhD to professional life, insights into resumes and how to create an online prescience through LinkedIn. The workshops were facilitated by Dr Shari Walsh from Growth Psychology

Social Media Analytics: A practical Introduction
Western Sydney University, AUS
May 2019
An introductory course to analyse social media data using the program Tableau. The course was facilitated by Prof Axel Burns.

How to structure your Confirmation of Candidature document
Western Sydney University, AUS
September 2018
A course facilitated by Dr Geoff Hyde that provided the framework to write a research proposal.

Salesforce Training
Salesforce, AUS
September 2014
Training to use the cloud based customer relationship management (CRM).

#FaceOfTheDaySG

Published on April 22, 2019August 13, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

On a recent trip to India to attend a friends’s wedding, I had a day lay over in Singapore. During my stay I visited the National Museum of Singapore to see an exhibition on Polaroid cameras that I was interested in, In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology.

During the visit I stumbled across DigiMuse Connects, which was a part of Singapore Art Week 2019. DigiMuse is a program curated by the National Museum of Singapore for creative people, to design a projects that engages technology within the cultural sector.

One particular project caught my eye was, #FaceOfTheDaySG by fashion Designer Yang Derong. The designer used Instagram as a visual diary and documented his creation of a different outfit and persona for everyday of the year on the social media platform. The project focussed on creating a visual dialogue of these personas that reflected everyday events, social issues, icons and trends with the aim of starting a conversation with the online audience. The engagement was designed to make the audience think and reflect on contemporary issues through the images they were viewing.

Continue reading →

Can-advertising-be-considered-an-act-of-vandalism?

Published on April 20, 2019May 30, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

The best part of travelling to my uni – Western Sydney University – is the train journey from Central Station to Parramatta. Viewing ‘pieces’ created by graffiti writers on the walls that encase the railway tracks. The combination of text, characters and symbols that allow the names to jump out of the wall. A blur of colour – depending on the speed of the train – or a slow train that allows for the gallery of work to be exhibited with every detail viewed.

Recently, I saw an image on the train that caught my eye: a mural of a bear (which reminded me of Lotso from Toy Story 3). My initial thought was, ‘I want this image for my instagram’ but I was too slow and missed the shot. I spent the day hoping it would be there the next day – always a risk when you research an ephemeral art form, how long it lasts depends on too many factors.

Whilst waiting on the station the next day, I watched the train roll in and was silently outraged to see the carriages were covered in advertising – including the windows – making it difficult for me to look out and see passing artworks.

Continue reading →

BAMBI IN SITU 33.8863° S, 151.1999° E

Published on March 30, 2019May 30, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Install shot from exhibition | Image by the Author | March 2019

Essay from Bambi’s Australian Exhibition, Nanda\Hobbs, 21 March – 30 March 2019

Street artists have always been at the forefront of political and social commentary. These artists use the urban environment as a canvas, creating images to respond to contemporary events that are occurring around us.

Street art is an art form that breaks the gallery space and brings art into the everyday. This reclaiming of space in the public eye allows artists to create site-specific works that can act as an image-based megaphone: conveying a message, telling a story, commenting on a controversy and reflecting the thoughts of the artist. In this way, it is a media that invites communication. It creates conversations between the audience, the artwork and the artist.

Continue reading →

Darwin-Street-Art-Festival

Published on November 29, 2018May 28, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

September 2018 saw street artists, both local and international, head to Northern Australia to participate in the Darwin Street Art Festival. The festival, which was held on the 15-16 September, included live music, family activities and the chance to see street artists creating their murals in the heart of Darwin. The festival turned the boring back laneways of Darwin into an urban gallery and included imagery of some of the well-known locals, Australian fauna and flora as well as a series of abstract designs.

Andrew Bourke & Jessie Bell | Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu | 2018
Image by the author

Street art has the ability to tell a story, convey a message and liven concrete walls that are contained within our cities. The artworks act as a vehicle to create conversations between the artist and the audience. These conversations have always intrigued me as I find myself asking questions such as: What is the artist trying to tell me? Why have they selected this imagery? What inspires them?

Continue reading →