My dream of becoming a full time artist never came to fruition because one day I woke up, and realised that I would be poor and emaciated for the rest of my le. Seeing that I was already poor and emaciated at the time, I didn't want to encourage that, so nowadays, I just paint for fun. However, there are people out there willing to venture into the unknown and try their hands at an extremely volatile industry, which is something that takes a hell of a lot of bravery (or insanity) to do. Luckily for them, there exists a concept – a kind of abstract ideology, a team of people, whatever you want to call it – that is doing what they can to maximise opportunities for aspiring artists: The Wall.
The name may be obscure (because I totally associate walls with art...PSYCHE!), but the concept is simple and attractive enough to make artists salivate. The brainchild of Dan Chin and Amy Manning, The Wall is an arts based club night where young, old, full-time or hobbist artists can exhibit their work for free for a week. But the sweet ring of free exhibition space doesn't end there. The Wall also organises promotional material for the exhibiting artist through radio, flyers and print media, arranges for entertainment, books DJ’s and sets up sound and any other audiovisual equipment required for the night. Slow down tiger! You might dehydrate if you keep up that salivation!
The Wall came as a response to the lack of artspace available for emerging artists and the rising costs required to secure gallery space. Since its inception in December last year, The Wall has been operating every Wednesday night in Bar Cleveland (corner of Cleveland and Bourke St., Sydney); offering an alternative to artists everywhere to exhibit, free of charge (they only take a 10% commission on artworks that are sold), in a sleek yet welcoming environment with music and a mix of fun insanity E.g. the worlds largest piniata, pin the tail on the fucked up donkey, speed dating, a performance piece when the audience had to draw on the artist and so on and so forth.
In a sense, it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet. There's a bit of everything and The Wall are willing to take on anything: artists, designers, performance pieces; they're even willing to facilitate life drawing, theatre and music performances. It's not just unknown artists being exhibited either - EAMO, Ben Frost, Tim Evans, Jason Goulding, Julia Davies, Jaqueline Manning and James Williams have all had their shining moment with The Wall.
By opening its doors so generously, The Wall provides an outlet for so many artists to gain exposure and sell their works – perhaps saving a good deal from hitting the financial brick wall, whilst keeping the arts alive, kicking and, on occasion, salivating.
