“Project Space Life”
Natalie Thomas
19 July → 10 Aug 2013

I always make my best art when it’s real close to home. Metaphorically speaking. So I’m going to curate aspects of my life into Project Space Life and I will work through some art issues I’m having, live in the Project Space Gallery. Project Space Life will have a free jazz approach to art production, because at the end of the day, it’s all about the vibe on the day.

Project Stage Mom
I manage my daughter’s band Gravity. Maxine writes songs, plays keys and her Dad Morgan plays drums. I was feeling left out, so Maxine said I could book the gigs. With family harmony as a starting point, I will program a Gravity performance into the Exhibition Opening. Maybe another performance if it goes well. Which it will. Maxine would like a gift shop of merchandise. Gravity CDs, Gravity T-shirts, Gravity stickers. She gets all the money. Maxine’s the only artist in our family who gets paid from art. I’ll get Maxine’s Godfather to flog the merch, he can’t say no. I love watching Gravity perform! They’re really really really good!!!

The Art Object Project
I’ve been sticking shells to inanimate objects. I will unveil my new work at the opening of Project Space Life. After Gravity play their gig. They’re playing a brand new song and Maxine will perform live on drums, for the very first time. Art commodities make me nervous. I will workshop how best to convey this nervousness to an audience throughout the course of the show.

Project Space Art Business Card
Who you know is really important in this game. This art game. It’s so important that there are courses and professional development seminars that include tips on how best to network an art opening or launch. There are strict rules for how you are to behave. I’ve been collecting Art Business Cards. Hundreds of Art Business Cards. I will display them during the show. And try to make art out of them. It’s like a portrait of the Art World. I must design a business card for Gravity…

Project Social Page
I am the Melbourne correspondent for the CCAS Social Pages, posting photos and words, live from the Melbourne Art scene. The blog delves into the social side of Contemporary Art. Even though they are not visual artists on the scene, Gravity photos are available for viewing on the blog.

Project Career Limiting Moves

This is where I get over excited or under excited at Art events, drink too much and mouth off. It’s an ongoing project. It includes counter-intuitive performance, writing and photos and the exchange of business cards. I will further this work for Project Space Life.

Project Intern
I will work with an Intern to further realize my projects. I can’t do it alone.

— Nat Thomas

Biography:
Following her graduation from Victorian College of the Arts in 1999, Natalie Thomas has maintained a diverse independent practice focussing on media, issues of authenticity and methodologies of collaboration. She achieved significant national recognition as one of nat&ali (1999-2005) whose works were shown in Primavera 2003 at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, New 2004 at the National Gallery of Victoria and, not only but also at, the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, in 2005.
In collaboration with Concertina Inserra she was awarded the 2008 William and Winfred Bowness Prize for Photography at Monash Gallery of Art. Melbourne collective DAMP produced work for the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane.
Natalie’s career has included a number of residencies including Viafarini in Milan, Kelleberrin International Artists’ Residencies in outback Western Australia, Queens College at the University of Melbourne and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne. Natalie also undertook a Marrickville Cultural Residency, Sydney in 2009, engaging with collaborative gardening ventures. The resulting work Dynamic Lifter included a poster of gardening tips generated on the Big Fag Press and exhibited at Basel Art Fair, 2010.
A passionate advocate for the participation of women in the arts, Natalie’s curatorial projects include of Girls Girls Girls at The Carlton Club in 2008 and I like your small opening at Hell Gallery in 2010. She also produced That Went Well at Platform ARI in 2010, engaging an audience of commuters with contemporary art practice.
Her most recent projects include Yesterday’s News, a multi media investigation into the impact of the trash media on contemporary society, exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne and Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 2012.
Her objects using shells, referencing a childhood spent in Queensland, were shown at the Melbourne Art Fair in 2012 and purchased by Artbank who have also used her work for their Christmas card.
Forthcoming at Sydney’s Artspace in August 2013 she is contributing work to The Financial Report a major project that focuses on how artists work to understand, challenge and subvert systems of capitalism and financial exchange.
Currently Natalie is the Melbourne correspondent for the CCAS Social Pages, a popular blog that focuses on the social side of contemporary art.