Shot by Connor Sprague
EMILY EBBS / ARTIST
Emily Ebbs’ stain soaked paintings hang on her white NAS studio walls. The light colours and fuzzy textures capture the eye and subdue the mind’s defences, orchestrating somatic awareness and echoing the statement of revolutionary artist Helen Frankenthaler, “I wanted things that I at times couldn’t articulate”.
Shot by Charlotte Macs
Interview with Scarlett Clark
What has been your journey with art?
Growing up my house had this downstairs room with huge cupboards with paints and random craft stuff. I don’t even remember if someone introduced me - I just started. I didn’t have to think about what I wanted to do. I didn’t do that well at school but always did well at art and I was always in the art room. I wasn’t doing stain painting when I was little, I was really lost. I think that was the good thing about coming here [to art school], and sitting down and thinking, “Okay why do you do this, like why do you do this”. I guess it’s like escapism, but it’s also entering into it as well. From doing this I have had to deal with so much. Like writing a whole exegesis on the subject of depersonalisation and looking into yourself. It has been really good for that. And healing from that.
What is your artistic process?
I never plan my composition. It began from being interested in stain painting and the soaking technique. It really connected me to the painting, doing stuff that’s just laid on top didn’t feel right. Process is very important to me, my work is about being in the body and I have found painting has helped me with depersonalisation. It’s very hands on and tangible. I like making my own frames and stretching the pieces with pliers, you feel present using your hands and touching things. I’m not precious about my work. I started doing it on the floor and there would be marks from the dirt which probably isn’t great for a gallery. But I liked the dirtiness, it’s just living. I like the word staining: if something is stained it’s irreversible. With trauma, your mind will forget the trauma but your body always remembers. It’s like internally stained on you in your body. I think that’s why I really connect with staining. It feels very connected with the whole subject.
What is your art about?
I find it a scary question. I find it so hard. It’s all in my brain. I know it all but I find it really hard to articulate. With my teachers I say “something in the past” because when talking about trauma you can feel guilt. Like my trauma isn’t as bad as somebody else’s so I don’t want to delve into my personal story. You just wanna let it fall into this blanket term.
Shot by Charlotte Macs
What is the Pink Place Collective?
Last year, me and my two housemates were living in Glebe in a shop front, so we asked the owners if we could use it. There’s no place to exhibit in Sydney that doesn’t cost a thousand plus a week. The kind of community the art world used to have is almost completely gone. It’s more commercial and bougie galleries. We started an Instagram saying anyone who wanted to have shows could have shows there. We didn’t take any commission, obviously. We just wanted to make a space for people who hadn’t had their work shown or were just coming up and didn’t want to book out a space and do all this press. It’s so much pressure when a place is expensive and takes 50% commission. We paid 100 bucks a week for the space and we charged 100 bucks. Afterwards, we would have drinks in our backyard and it was nice, artists connecting with artists, and that’s what we wanted. Especially people being comfortable asking us stuff because we were just three young, female artists. We weren’t these pretentious gallery owners or anything. It was just like our little shop front in Glebe. We had to move out of that place because it wasn’t approved to be a shop-front, we were kinda doing it sneakily. We really want to set it up again, though.
Why do you think it’s important to you to have and enforce that community?
Before going to NAS I didn’t have any artistic friends. I’ve had the utmost connection to the people I’ve met here because we understand each other. I feel lucky to have the friendship group I have. I hope I can give that to other people who don’t have the opportunity to go to art school and meet people there. It’s so important to look at other people’s art and I find it inspires me to do more. It’s so important not to be too isolated. My friends and I talk about living together and having a big studio. All of us hold the idea that raising a kid shouldn’t be just two parents, it should be multiple people that [the child] can go to for all different things - not just having a little family unit that’s so small.
Shot by Connor Sprague
Top 5 Sydney galleries?
Duck Rabbit Gallery, Redfern
Ambush Gallery, Waterloo
Coma Gallery, Darlinghurst
Anti gallery, Annandale
Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo
Who do you think is the most exciting young & emerging creative in Sydney?
Sadie Whelan
Artist
@ sadie_whelan