Upcoming Exhibition: 2-30 July 2021

Exhibition time is approaching. Exactly in one month's time from now and during the month of July, you are welcome to ‘Unseen’. Although the near future is uncertain in terms of Covid, the time is ripe for this concluding Creative Occupation 2018-2021 event. After it, Creative Occupation will continue to live as a Collective.

The exhibition will reflect the restrictions in place in Geelong and adapt to the challenges and opportunities that the near future will bring. News and updates of the programming will be posted on the website. I hope you will appreciate the new art and messages from the Island! - Marita Batna, Curator of Creative Occupation project

Full Stream ('Feature Film') of Dark Night Movie Sessions

Thank you to those who attended Dark Night Movie Sessions on 25 and 26 July 2020!

And yet if you were not present during the original screening, you can still watch the full movie - as a Creative Occupation feature film - consisting of the most important movies produced over time.

Session 1 - Creative Occupation 2018 - 2019 films and videos (the classics and the films produced upon the first encounter with the Island of South Channel Fort)

Session 2 - Creative Occupation 2020 films and videos, including previously unpublished work & premieres of fresh work developed in isolation / Covid-19 era

26th July 7pm live stream

Watch in the video player below. Or - to watch in the YouTube with live chat replay activation click on Creative Occupation icon and title top left of the video.

Dark Night Movie Sessions

When?

Saturday 25 July 2020, 7:00 pm- 9:15 pm
Sunday 26 July 2020, 7:00 pm- 9:15 pm
Sunday 26 July 2020, 10:00 am- 12:15 pm (repeat)

ACCESS VIA  YouTube (live video)

PROGRAM for each Night consists of Session 1 and Session 2:

Session 1 (Creative Occupation 2018-2019 films and videos) - 01:18:16
- Creative Occupation Trailer (2018), 01:02
- Scott Welsh. The Island Play. Zac Schubert-Youston film (2018), 20:45
- Ingrid Petterson. Flag Process (2018)*, 05:51
- Michael Morgan. Requiem Ritual (2019), 02:52
- Laine Hogarty. Defence Mechanisms: Projection – Island Performance (2018)*, 05:49
- Laine Hogarty. “In the shadow, I see myself”. Defence Mechanisms: Projection – Gallery Performance (2019). With contribution from Jess Williams*, 12:38
- Artists’ Conversations (2019), 29:19

*Previously unpublished.

Session 2 (Creative Occupation 2020 films and videos) - 42:26
- Ingrid Petterson. Island Pilgrimage (2020), 06:57
- Scott Welsh – Part I – Isolation (2020), 04:54
- Jennifer McElwee. Isolation Island (2020)*, 04:59
- Jessica Laraine Williams. Nullified Performance (2020)*, 04:37
- Michael Morgan. Miasma (2020)*, 05:12
- Michael Morgan. Hidden Realities (2020)*, 5 min
- Dark Night Physical Documentation July 2020, 10:47

*Premiere

The selection of the best of the best films and videos from the Creative Occupation 2018-2019 and Creative Occupation 2020, including previously unpublished work and premieres of fresh work developed during the isolation/ COVID-19 era.

Dark Night Movie Sessions are run recognizing that there is not much information around - about Creative Occupation and that there is a lack of winter art festivals (this year).

Make a mulled wine or tea brew and let us entertain you.

Creative Occupation is a project and an artist collective initiated in early 2018 by Marita Batna through the encounter with the man-made Island of South Channel Fort in Port Phillip Bay (between Queenscliff and Sorrento), Victoria, Australia. A group of artists has begun a process of ideas, projects, and discoveries… they grapple with the subjects of remoteness, artificiality, entropy, fear-related architecture, and possibilities for radical creative (co)production.

Creative journeys and experiences have developed into a form of collective practice and an expanding cultural project.

Creative occupation produces cross-artform works and engages the audience via the ongoing Postcard Project, live events, and more.

Creative Occupation contributes to artistic research related to curatorial practice.

Image: Scott Welsh – Part I – Isolation – Monologue (film Michael Morgan). 2020

Postcard Project News

!!! Attention !!! to those postcard senders who received back a postcard of Series One last year (from the Island), in the middle of 2019.

According to terms of the continuation of the Postcard project you are to receive another postcard from Series Two one year later, - now in the middle of 2020! Creative Occupation has released Series Two - Special Edition, in response to COVID-19 conditions. And yet, another release of Series Two will go forward in the future and this will be sent to you as per terms of the project.

Meanwhile, let us know that you would like to be sent and collect an artist-stamped card from the Special Edition of the COVID-19 era! We would appreciate if you take a picture of the card as you receive it and email or text that picture back.  By sending a picture of a documented postcard you give us permission to reproduce it on the internet or via publication, anonymously or with your first name (if the address is visible in the image it’ll be made unreadable).

Description of the Series Two - Special Edition is found in the Postcards Page.

Please contact Marita with your postal address - marita.batna[at]gmail.com or send a text to +61425326728

-Marita Batna, 4 July 2020

Request artist-made Postcard

Series Two - Special Edition (COVID-19)

Have you received your postcard?

Great News. Here is a video showing that Creative Occupation Series One postcards reached the Island!

Series One postcards of Creative Occupation was released and launched during the project's showcase in January 2019, at The Project Space, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront.

We laid out the postcards for people visiting and invited everyone to write a postcard and send it to the Island. All those precious letters were sent by a special conveyer in the gallery that collected them in a box.

Have you received your postcard (back) from the Island?

BUT.. If you changed your address, went overseas & snails ate the mail, or the Post failed, we've got an e-copy. So, if you haven't received your card, - write now to .... southchannelfort[at]gmail[dot]com, to claim its e-copy from Creative Occupation artists!

program of the Showcase 2019

EXHIBITION AT THE PROJECT SPACE 10-31 JANUARY 2019:

Deakin Waterfront Campus (Sally Walker Building), Western Beach Rd - opposite Cunningham Pier, GEELONG.

EVENTS:

DEFENCE MECHANISMS (Projection – Island occupancy) by LAINE HOGARTY. Photography: Laine Hogarty. Performance: Jess Williams. Creative Occupation stock image at South Channel Fort Island, 2018.

SAT, 12 JAN, 5-7PM:

In the shadow, I see myself: an improvised performance of Laine Hogarty’s Defence Mechanisms – Projection.

The work explores the unnamed projection of fears experienced on the Island and the human drives that instinctually arise from our innate need for self-definition and defence.

Performed in the exhibition space with Jess Williams and alternating musical resonations and collaborations from guest musicians.

Jennifer McElwee. Wallpaper Thin (fragment). Design adapted from drawing room wallpaper in the home of Mr and Mrs Mars Buckley, Beaulieu, Toorak. 1880’s.

WED, 16 JAN, 5-6PM:

Jennifer McElwee’s Wall-to-Floorpaper performance-ritual.

This performance explores the fragility of culture using the impermanent markings of water, chalk, stencil and template. Wallpaper patterns from Ripponlea and Beauilieu of the late 1800’s share the time line of the defences offered by the South Channel Fort. Adaptions of these will slide from wall to floor.

SAT, 19 JAN, 4-7PM:

The Island Play (written by Scott Welsh): a re-enactment of group performance-reading in the gallery in conjunction with the film project. Fragments performed on the hour.

“They thought it was just another job, but even ordinary people can encounter the surreal on the island…”

Island Muse

“Be a creative occupant of the island. Onsite gallery artists will produce, create and make in response to you, oh – precious Island Muse!”

Image: Ingrid Petterson as Island – Woman (#cf69) for The Island Play (written by Scott Welsh). Photography: Lance Youston. Creative Occupation stock image at South Channel Fort Island, 2018.

WED, 23 JAN, 5-7PM:

Send-Receive: launch of Creative Occupation Postcards: Series One – Send It to the Island & Receive scheme (hosted by Marita Batna at the gallery’s Post Office). Followed by re-visitation of South Channel Fort stories and records.

Image: Creative Occupation exhibition image - Post Office and the Conveyor at the Project Space, Deakin Waterfront. Photography: Lance Youston, 2019.

SAT, 26 JAN, 4-7PM*:

Creative Occupation Multi-Channeled (Качанка): a telematic portal – outside.

Drop-in Screening Point: this Creative Occupation's telematic portal (Kachanka) sails to the shore and attracts you with a collage of footage to connect you directly to what was happening on and around the Island.

*This Event was held on the 2 March 2019, at Steampacket Gardens, Geelong.

Image: Creative Occupation, 2019.

WED, 30 JAN, 5-7PM*:

Ingrid Petterson’s Island Exploring – Expanding Self: guided writing, reflection and sharing in the gallery, including the development of a haiku to send to the island by postcard. Free 2hr session, bookings are required. Ingrid 0420 932 751.

*This Event was held on 27 January 2019.

Image: Lance Youston, Creative Occupation stock image at South Channel Fort Island, 2018.

Image: Lance Youston, 2019.

ARTIST OCCUPANCY” EVOLVING COMMUNAL WORK –

Wednesdays 3-5pm & Sundays 2-4pm. Open to fellow artists and everyone. Connect with artists of the showcase.

WHAT TO BRING: NATURE- OR HUMAN- MADE AND MANUFACTURED OBJECTS.