Artist Collaboration / 05
In 2021/22, Georgia Szmerling from Arts Project Australia in Melbourne, and British artist Holly Stevenson delved into their shared interest in flora and fauna. Notebooks, collages, and textiles were sent to each other to inspire the creation of new ceramic works. Find out more about each artist and follow their international project below.
Georgia Szmerling
Georgia Szmerling’s multi-disciplinary practice includes ceramics, painting and drawing, with a dominant interest in portraying the natural world. Rich in texture and highly expressive, her wild plant formations on paper and canvas often suggest a sense of lyrical movement, while the artist’s abstract, colourful ceramic creatures and layered forms exude a tender, fairy tale-like charm.
Szmerling has been a studio artist at Arts Project Australia (APA) since 2003 and held her first solo exhibition in 2005. She has exhibited in numerous group shows at APA and at galleries across Australia including Group Show, Chapter House Lane, Melbourne; Spring 1883, The Establishment, Sydney, Renegades: Outsider Art, National touring exhibition; and Darebin Art Prize, Melbourne. In 2021, she collaborated with Australian fashion brand Gorman, resulting in her artworks inspiring an extensive clothing and homewares range. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection and in private collections throughout Australia.
Holly Stevenson
Holly Stevenson’s art practice explores Sigmund Freud’s favourite ashtray and last cigar as a metaphor with which to discuss the concept of femininity. Her ceramic sculpture diligently embodies the ashtray and cigar as though they were two gendered forms, the yonic ovular dish representing the female and the cylindrical phallic cigar the male. In the studio she habitually re-makes these forms in clay reconfiguring them into a figurative language of her own with which to engage in the issues of being female.
Recently Stevenson was selected for the Mother Art Prize 2020 and a New Commission by Procreate Project funded by the Arts Council England. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design Fine Art MA in 2011 with the generous help of the Stanley Picker Foundation. Her graduate degree show featured in The Creative Cities Collection, Beijing and The Catlin Guide. She was awarded the MFI Flat Time House Graduate Award, supported by the John Latham Foundation and held a Guest Fellowship at UAL.
Inspiring Each Other
Over the course of eight weeks, UK artist Holly Stevenson collaborated with Melbourne based artist Georgia Szmerling, of Arts Project Australia (APA) – a supported studio in Melbourne. By sharing sketches, objects, and videos of their local environment and studios, Holly and Georgia discovered they have a lot in common, including a love of nature and animals.
Neither Holly or Georgia had worked on an international ceramics collaboration before, so it was a new experience for both of them. Challenges with the different time zones in London and Melbourne meant it was too difficult for the artists to connect on the phone or Zoom. However, the process of sending packages and videos inspired them to push their work in new directions. Toward the end of the project, they shared the ceramic sculptures they had made during the project.
Below, Holly and Georgia reflect on the project, what being an artist means, what the best things about the experience were, and what advice to give other artists thinking of collaborating.
The Power of Making
Holly Stevenson reflects on her collaboration with Australian artist Georgia Szmerling with Art et al. co-founder Lisa Slominski.
I had never been to Australia. As children my brother and I dug a huge hole in the lawn in an attempt to get to the other side of the world. The exchanges between Georgia and myself have come to represent a journey, one that I have long desired to take.
My interest in Australia originally came from having seen a koala and indeed I am sad to say in those days souvenir koalas were made from real koala fur and I was given one as a present, I loved it! This intense interest in flora and fauna became the communal focus of our collaboration because we swiftly recognised that Georgia and I both took great inspiration from the nature of things.
Holly with her first public art commission ‘Another Mother’ Temple Gardens, London Embankment
Thames-Side Studios in the UK, with Holly’s studio the blue building at the end that you can almost see in this image.
Package in the post from Holly to Georgia in 2021.
Australia and England we know are very different. Georgia was always dressed in beautiful floral summer outfits, sending me videos of her baking hot studio and a sketchbook of images from the rainforest. In exchange I sent her videos of freezing cold duck ponds, icy images of the Thames, and soggy oak leaves, from beneath my woollen pink hat. We both love the colour pink, I am excited to see our works together, to see how our thoughts about glazing and colour have materialised.
As you will see our collaboration has yielded amongst many things ceramic birds, a form that I may never have made had it not been for Georgia’s influence. Importantly this collaboration has given me the opportunity to think about what Georgia sees as an Australian artist: the joys of her nearby Merri Creek, her walk to work compared to mine, what it means to consider the animal as a ceramic form, and what the power of making can do for us all.
Trying Something New
Georgia Szmerling chats with Art et al. co-founder Sim Luttin about her collaboration with Holly Stevenson.
Sim Luttin: Before we have a chat about the Peer/Peer project, I just wanted to know what it means to you to be an artist and work at Arts Project Australia?
Georgia Szmerling: It means I am doing something I enjoy that I am good at. I get to share my work with other people, and I hope that they like it. It’s good to get the support from staff at APA to make art and to work with friends in a safe space. Working in a safe space means the world to me.
Sim: Describe was it like working with Holly Stevenson, an international artist?
Georgia: Working with Holly was different but interesting. It was good to get to know someone from England, who had the same interests as me. It was interesting to get to know someone else and see what was in Holly’s environment; like the scenery on the way to her studio. It was nice to see the work Holly made that came out of her kiln and for her to share the work with me. I shared my work too. Also the book that Holly sent over for me, that (APA staff artist) Marcel showed me of Holly’s writing and pictures of her environment. I liked using the book and the things she sent over to me. That was really enjoyable.
Sim: What was the Peer/Peer process like?
Georgia: It was good, but the time zone was hard. It would have been good to talk on zoom or the phone but the times were too tricky. But it was a good experience to work with someone on the other side of the world, even if it was on email and packages were sent in the post. It would be good if Holly could come to the studio here in Melbourne and catch up face to face and see where I work.
Images clockwise from top left: Art et al. co-founder’s Lisa Slominski and Sim Luttin,. talking to APA staff artist Marcel Cooper, and UK artist Holly Stevenson about the logistics of an international collaboration across two time-zones.
Georgia in the Arts Project Australia studio in 2021, working with the sketchbook, oblects, and material sent in post by Holly.
Georgia’s artist bench, in the process of making her ceramics work for Peer to Peer 05.
Sim: What was your favourite thing about working on this project?
Georgia: I liked trying new glazes that Holly suggested. It was good to see what Holly does and see her ideas. It would be nice to hear from Holly again and work on another collaboration. It would be nice to see her in person.
Sim: If you had the chance to talk to an artist, who is thinking of working on a collaboration like the one you have done with Holly, what advice would you give them?
Georgia: It’s a good experience to try something new and to work with someone else. I’d say, take the opportunity when you get the chance and meet new people. Let other artists and people overseas know who you are.
Sim: Who do you hope will get to see your collaborative artwork?
Georgia: I hope other artists and people who live in England see the work. I hope Holly likes it and artists from other supported studios like APA in England like it. Are there other studios like ours over there?
Sim: There sure are.
Georgia: Also people in school and other people who live in the UK get to see it and like my work.
Sim: Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?
Georgia: If it wasn’t Covid, it would be good for Holly to come to APA and see the studio, or for me to go to her studio in England and see how she works. I wouldn’t go on my own, but if I had the support I’d love to see her studio.
Georgia working from the package of goodies send from Holly in 2021.
A close up of Georgia working with the materials Holly send and Georgia collected from around Merri Creek.
Postal / Video / Email Exchanges
“It’s a good experience to try something new and to work with someone else. I’d say, take the opportunity when you get the chance and meet new people. Let other artists and people overseas know who you are. “ - Georgia
Holly Stevenson
Holly Stevenson, A Softening, 2022, glazed stoneware, 28 x 30 x 35 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Holly Stevenson, A Duck for Georgia, 2022, glazed stoneware, 24 x 31 x 16 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Holly Stevenson, With Gratitude, 2022, glazed stoneware, 28 x 25 x 23 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Georgia Szmerling
Georgia Szmerling, Untitled, 2022, glazed earthenware, 8 x 20 x 12 cm. Courtesy the artist and Arts Project Australia,. Melbourne.
Georgia Szmerling, Untitled, 2022, glazed earthenware, 13 x 16 x 12 cm. Courtesy the artist and Arts Project Australia,. Melbourne.
Georgia Szmerling, Untitled, 2022, glazed earthenware, 1 x 27 x 27.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Arts Project Australia,. Melbourne.
Thanks to staff artist Marcel Cooper for assisting Georgia Szmerling in the Arts Project Australia studio, and being the conduit between Georgia and Holly.
Images Copyright: Holly Stevenson, Georgia Szmerling and Arte Project Australia, Melbourne.
Banner image: Holly Stevenson and Georgia Szmerling’s collaborative artworks.