Simone Johnston & Tanya Lee, Community News (2015-16)
Rosie Halsmith
Artists: Simone Johnston & Tanya Lee (the ST Team) Work: Community News (2015-16) Partners: The Perth Voice newspaper Location: Perth, Western Australia
West Australian artists Simone Johnston and Tanya Lee (the ST Team) came together for an eight-week collaboration in November 2015 and March 2016. Their project, Community News, drew on their shared interests in urban politics, public and private space, and emotional responses to space. Over this time, the ST team collaborated directly with The Perth Voice newspaper, using the paper as a platform to record a series of small public interventions and short, playful performance works. Each weekly work took the form of an advertisement, public notice or short article, responding to recent local issues addressed in the newspaper. These playful escapades engaged the local community in conversations about place and memory, solved neighbourhood problems and explored the potential of selected sites in Perth’s neighbouring communities.