Proximity Lab
In 2020 Proximity partnered with DADAA to create a two-week virtual Lab for Australian artists focused on shifting contexts, conditions and expanded possibilities for making participatory and site-responsive works.
Proximity Lab was facilitated by three artists and researchers – Fayen d’Evie, Cassie Lynch and Madeleine Flynn and produced by Proximity in collaboration with DADAA, a leading arts and disability organisation whose programming focuses on access, participation and driving social and cultural diversity in the arts and beyond.
Participating artists in the Lab include Bruno Booth (WA), Dominique Chen (QLD), Hanna Cormick (ACT), Aviva Endean (VIC), Riana Head-Toussaint (NSW), Mei Swan Lim (WA), Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward – A Published Event (TAS), Alec Reade (VIC), Katie West (WA).
About the Lab and it’s intentions
“In this moment, of multiple ecological, health and social crises, Proximity Lab creates space to think and share methodology in response to expanded notions of access and site-based participatory practice. How has our relationship to each other, to place and to audiences has shifted? What new conditions and alternatives do we want to create as we face forward?
Artists are invited to reflect on how they move through, relate to, and care for Country; how to radically open up and embed inclusive and access methodologies into their creative process, and how relationships to intimacy and proximity have altered as we start to emerge from a state of suspension.
What was originally planned to be a Lab taking place on the unceded lands of Noongar Boodjar in the South West of WA, has now turned into a virtual Lab engaging artists across each state. This has given us great ability to think about lasting ways we can design activities taking place between IRL and URL and embed access and equity within these opportunities ongoingly.”
Sarah Rowbottam & Katherine Wilkinson, Lab Curators
Proximity Lab ran from 21 September – 1 October 2020.
Proximity Lab is presented by Proximity and DADAA with support from the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries, and the Australia Council for the Arts.
