Curating
Collections.

Billy Mann X Monash University Collection

Curating Collections commissions artists working from supported studios to curate projects with artworks from an established international collection.

For Art et al.’s second Curating Collections, Billy Mann was paired with the Monash University Collection, in Australia, over several months in late 2021-22. Billy Mann has been at Submit to Love Studios, London for nine years, following a brain injury that cut short his career as a magazine journalist. Submit to Love Studios is home to a group of artists living with a brain injury who work collectively in an open studio environment, empowering one another. Their mission is “discovery through art” – be that discovering new culture, new connections or new identities. Managed by Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), the Monash University Collection includes a diverse range of media from painting, sculpture and photography to video, installation and new media. Known for its adventurousness and commitment to contemporary art as it develops, the Collection is recognised nationally for its currency, depth and diversity.

Australian Memoir.

Following on from our first Curating Collections titled Antidote, between Arts Project Australia artist Michael Camakaris, and the Cranford Collection in London; we bring you a new collaboration between London-based, Submit to Love Studios artist Billy Mann, and the Monash University Collection in Australia – a university art museum collection which is actually quite rare these days. With virtual working now often the norm, as the world shifts in and out of Covid-19 restrictions, these sorts of collaborations seem less overwhelming, and open a world of opportunities never thought possible before.

With collaboration at the core of Art et al., we are constantly thinking about the act of exchanging ideas and how significant this can be for all involved. Across several weeks, Billy chatted with staff members working with the University Collection, learning and sharing stories of his travels across Australia in 1997. These stories triggered ideas and were a source of inspiration for staff when thinking of artworks to share with Billy. After a period of reflection and writing his story down, Billy chose 24 artworks that reminded him of memories and scenes from his three-week Australian camping trip. This includes a thread, linen and bronze work by Teelah George that Billy chose for its lush, sprawling expression of colour and spirit, as well as a highly patterned painting on canvas by Yikartu Bumba that Billy chose because ‘it pulled me into a vast exploration of concepts about mapping and pathfinding’.

Australian Memoir is the title that Billy chose, and it is just that, but Billy takes us on his journey in a very animated way. We hope you enjoy reading Billy’s story alongside exploring his chosen collection of artworks.

“The project was a joy right from the start. The Monash University Collection is so vast and rich, that I felt like a child in a sweet shop. And once I found a way to describe how it spoke to me (i.e., travelling), I became determined to suck as much excitement out of it as possible.”

– Billy Mann, Submit to Love Studios

“I can best describe this process as a lively ‘call and response’. Billy’s selection of works is idiosyncratic, moving across genre, media and time. It connects beautifully to his written piece that reflects on the act of travelling itself, as well as the Australian landscape and life in our cities — from the perspectives of both Indigenous and settler artists. Creating new narrative links between works, we hope his thoughtful selection will inspire more journeys through our Collection.”

– Charlotte Day / Director Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA