Libby: “Hello and welcome to Data Bodies Anatomical Art and Digital Trace exhibition.
“My name is Libby Pownall and today we are talking with artist Vicki Attenborough”.
Vicki: “Hello Libby” Libby: “Tell me a little
bit about yourself” Vicky: “Well I'm a Phd student at Southern Cross University in
the visual arts department and this is my virtual exhibition looking at
how life drawing and digital art combine. Libby: “And what's your background and how has
this shaped you as an artist today”. Vicky: “Well I was born in the UK and I moved to “Byron Bay”
in 1990 where I took up life drawing and it's become a major practice for me all through my
work. I went to TAFE and studied ceramics and then I became a studio potter and exhibited and sold my
work in the local area after a period of time I decided that I wanted to extend my practice so I
came to Southern Cross Uni and did a Bachelor in Visual Arts where I was introduced to drawing and
painting sculpture installation and the theories and concepts that sit behind a body of work
and give it depth and meaning and in my honours I kept bumping up against digital technology which
actually surprised me because I'm not a digital native as you can tell by my age but it's become
the foundation for my phd question which is looking at how life drawing can be extended
with these digital mediums. I work across a number of mediums as you can see from this exhibition
but when you use digital technology it creates data and so data is the medium
that I'm mining currently and that's what I'm interested in in looking at repurposing it
to see how it can affect and alter my work.” Libby: “And what do you like most about your
work” Vicky: “I think I like the way it challenges my perceptions of what art can be, what it can
look like, what it can be made of and what it can mean. I'm influenced by many artists but
Cornelia Parker a conceptual artist is somebody who really inspires me she's fearless in her use
of tools and technologies and materials and she's always poking our perceptions and twisting
them around so we think things in different ways and that's what my research is about.”
Libby: “So what is this exhibition that we have here today in the Learning Centre” Vicky: “Well
this exhibition for me is asking a question if life drawing can be a form of data mining we swim
around in oceans of data without even realizing it, whereas I'm actually deliberately capturing
the data that I make as I go about my practice and then repurpose it through my research.
This exhibition for me is more about us an assemblage of ideas rather than a finished artwork
so for example this work is a digital print that comes from the mesh that sits around
the figures the 3d figures that I make, whereas this work is charcoal on paper and it's the human
skeleton which has been abstracted and came from work that I'd done on my stylus and tablet. These
works these sculptures come from my honours and they're made of timber stainless steel 3d figures
and they came from an excel spreadsheet where I was keeping a note or a note on my practice.
These two works over here this work comes from directly from my life drawing practice
where I took one of the images enlarged it and then screen printed it back onto
a very thick architectural tracing paper. And the work on the discovery wall is
a time lapse of my life drawing showing the marks I make moment by moment as I make them.
And this what I call my workbench is using cardboard and timber
it uses laser technology to cut the shapes from the timber and the cardboard and it also uses I
designed it in a 2d design software program and the idea was that this was going to be
a place where people could come and make their own sculptures using these pieces but obviously
because of COVID that hasn't been possible” Libby: “Do you have a favourite piece in the
exhibition?” Vicky: “Um not really not per se because it's all connected and it all has
the potential and it's exciting because it's new ideas so I'm enjoying it all at the moment”.
Libby: “Has Covid-19 influenced your art in any way?” Vicky: “Yes like everybody else it
was very disruptive because the Southern Cross University fab lab, fabrication lab where all
this technology is housed I can't actually access it so I had to adapt so I've had to
use external fabrication people which has brought about interesting collaborations.
I've also had to take my life drawing online,
which because we can't meet as a group or we couldn't meet as a group and so that created a
lot of interesting connections because obviously you can talk to people all over the world and
the other aspect was this virtual exhibition I would never have had a virtual exhibition
had it not been for COVID, so some really interesting things have come out of it for me
however I will be very happy to go back next year into the fabrication lab because practice-led
research is about embodied making and that's where that will happen. I'd just like to quickly do a
shout out to my supervisors Dr Wes Hill and Dr Erika Kerruish just to say thank you for
supporting me through this time it's been great” Libby: “Well I was going to say, which leads me
to the next question, so have you enjoyed your art degree and your journey and why have you enjoyed
it?” Vicky: “Yeah I really enjoy studying and I really enjoy the open nature of practice-led
research and I think that universities are very important places to help us to look at some of
these wicked problems that we're dealing with in the world and perhaps in a very small way my
research might help me and maybe other people to look at the things that we take for granted
in a different light.” Libby: “What role does Libraries play
in art?: Vicky: “I think they're amazing resource for art students because of the theories and
concepts that give the work depth and meaning they also provide a huge amount of services,
one of which is an exhibition space and the technology to be able to take that exhibition
online in a pandemic, so I'd like to thank you Libby and Jeremy and all the staff at
the Library for making this possible for me.” Libby: “You're very welcome and thank you so
much for coming in today and just explaining a little bit more about your exhibition Vicky and
we wish you all the best”. Vicky: “Thank you very much Libby it's been great”.