Rural Utopias Residency: Bennett Miller in Mount Barker #2

Bennett Miller is currently working with the community of Mount Barker. This residency forms part of one of Spaced’s current programs, Rural Utopias.

Bennett Miller works across sculpture, installation, video and performance. In more recent years Miller's work has moved out of the gallery and into the public realm, through a series of live art performances for festivals and outdoor contexts.

Here, Bennett shares an update from Mount Barker.

Week 3 of my residency in Mt Barker was a bit of a struggle- mostly because it took so long to actually achieve it. First of all- there were 3 separate Covid based cancellations that prevented me from travelling down in late December and early January.

On top of this- on a subsequent trip down after all the Covid interruptions - next up was a major breakdown on a pretty remote stretch of road. The car in question is now kaput, and it had to be towed all the way back to Perth. It was a slow trip- with my heroic uncles’ DEFENDER lumbering up and down hills with the RODEO at its back. I guess all road trips have their peaks and troughs of conversation, but by the end of this one there was only a deep frustrated silence.

Nevertheless Week 3 did eventually happen, and by week 4 it was starting to turn around. In week 4 I got to work with the excellent Jane Mcintyre - helping her to install her ‘retrospective’ exhibition at Mitchell House. Jane is a great and extremely versatile artist- a painter, a potter, costume designer, sculptor, textile artist- you name it- she’s done it, and if not- she will likely do that next.

Even more than Jane the artist, it has been really great to meet Jane the person. If you are reading this you will know that this program is themed ‘Rural Utopias’- and within that context (ou ‘not’ + topos ‘place’) Jane has been of great interest to me. Jane was born in Seattle, and lived and worked there until early adulthood. At some point however she took up with an Australian- and moved- of all places- to ‘Shay Gap’- an experimental pre-fab mining town that once existed to the east of Port Hedland. You can watch a great short film about ‘Shay Gap’ here.

After her time in ‘Shay Gap’- which unlike many of the people in the above video- Jane absolutely loved, Jane went on to live and work in multiple locations across regional WA. She spent time in Geraldton- studying art there, ahead of stints in Rockingham, Esperance, Fairbridge, Porongorup and finally Mt Barker.

To hear Jane talk about her spirituality being rooted to the Western Australian landscape has been a great reminder that the virtues of a place are in the eye of the beholder. I would probably prefer to live in Seattle, even more so back in the 90’s, whereas Jane has vowed never to return to the US (after they elected Trump apparently) and instead has developed a great and enduring love of Western Australia.

I doubt anyone needs me to tell them- but obviously this happens the world over- people moving about to different locations, finding the personal interest and sanctuary that works best for them. It has been great to meet Jane in this initially unlikely way- and we are now working on a new, collaborative project together.