By Travis Johnson
What was the genesis of Shock Art?
I guess the masterminds behind Shock Art are really Sam Field, the director, and Alice Ross, the producer. They were interested in artworks that have created a lot of controversy in Australia, and were also perplexed as to why certain artworks were more controversial than others. So that was the little seed that was planted in their minds, and it kind of grew from there: finding out that there are quite a lot of artists who were not necessarily working in practices that seemed shocking from the beginning but have been taken to court or have had a lot of bad press because someone was offended by their work.
And how did you become involved?
They did a call out for presenters and they were looking for a female academic who has a PhD in Art History. There were a few people who auditioned for the role and after doing my audition, ABC were interested with the way that I presented, engaged with the artists and dealt with the work. That’s how I became involved.
Did you have any role in writing or guiding the direction of the show?
I guess my expertise as an academic and knowing quite a lot about the artists beforehand anyway, because I’m also an arts writer and am part of the arts community. So it was actually quite a collaborative project between the three of us because Sam and Alice weren’t as confident talking about contemporary art or art history as I was. And all the presenting and interviewing, all the conversations with the artists, were all me, and I was able to give more theoretical background to the content of the show.
How did you go about selecting the various artists featured?
Each episode follows a theme, so there was a research phase where we were looking at these different themes and different episodes, and it kind of all really clicked into place. A lot of the artists we’re talking to are dealing with contemporary issue, so once we sorted out what sort of themes we were after, everything came together quite nicely. Already being a part of the arts community meant that I was able to show mock-ups of each episode to Sam and Alice, and then we worked from there.
As an arts professional, are you even shock-able any more? Your tolerances must be wildly different to the average punter.
That’s a difficult question because I see so much art. The more you see, the more you become less… I guess you get a thicker skin. It’s harder to shock me. And I’m also someone who generally likes more shocking material in life anyway. But I was really surprised with getting up close and personal with some of the work and I had quite physical visceral reactions to some of them, because I was working with faeces, or touching hundreds of people’s hair that had been donated and turned into a sculpture. That tactility is perhaps what surprised me.
And perhaps the more participatory nature of that interaction – you don’t have the dividing line between audience and object.
Sure. And as an academic I’m often analyzing work and spending a lot of time with them, but not necessarily participating directly, so having an interview while also participating in an artwork really did sort of put my senses on edge – like getting into a bath full of soup!
What advantage did your involvement in the Perth arts scene give you?
Coming from Perth and being a part of the Perth arts community made it easier to suggest certain participants for the show, and they were more than willing to work with us as well, because it’s a very supporting community and participating in these kind of projects is great for everyone, really. And I think it also provides a different edge to thinking about contemporary art in Australia, rather than only thinking about those larger centres or satellites. It rather shows that there’s a whole breadth of art going on in Western Australia, but also elsewhere as well.
What are you hoping audiences take from the show?
What I would really love for audiences to take from this show is to spend some time with the artists and see how artists explain their work. I think it’s important in our contemporary society where we react quite quickly to images and headlines, to wait for the explanation behind an artwork before you judge it. All the artist who were in the show were incredibly giving and generous and charismatic. It’s a great insight to see the thought processes behind certain artworks that might seem repulsive from the outside, but are actually about something else once you spend some time with the artists.
There’s definitely scope for more here -can we expect a follow-up series?
Yeah, we could definitely expand. There have definitely been conversations about more projects and I would be super excited to be a part of them, but I guess time will tell at this stage.
