Welcome to CityChats, where Brisbane Times meets our city’s most interesting characters on our most iconic form of transport.
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Times → welcome → transport
This week, visual artist and director of Merivale Studios Phoebe Paradise tells us about making Brisbane-centric artwork, getting involved in Brisbane Writers Festival, and her thoughts on the Brisbane 2032 emblem.
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Paradise → tell → emblem
We meet Paradise at the Orleigh Park ferry terminal on a very hot Brisbane day – so hot she immediately pulls sunscreen out of her bag and hands it to Dominique to put on her bare shoulders.
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she → meet → shoulders
When you started making art, what were you drawn to?
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you → start → art
I think my artwork had always been Brisbane, but I hadn’t known it.
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I → think → it
I think I’d always been really interested in sort of punk subculture.
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I → think → subculture
I’ve been playing in bands for most of my life, but my interpretation of that illustration style was always accidentally coming from a very Queensland lens because I hadn’t travelled much when I was a kid.
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I → play → lens
And so outside of what I’d seen in books and movies and TV and art, my world was very small.
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world → see → books
That’s changed a lot over the years.
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That → change → years
I’ve travelled a lot now and I’ve seen a lot of the world, but I still come back to that lens.
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I → travel → lens
Maybe it has grown and developed over the years.
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it → grow → years
Didn’t you start out making punk band posters?
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you → start → posters
I did.
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I → do → ?
I wanted to be a singer.
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I → want → ?
And when I went to Melbourne, I hadn’t yet started really playing in bands, but I wanted to be involved in that scene.
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I → go → scene
So the way I wanted to be useful and establish myself in that world was by making posters and that kind of thing.
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I → want → thing
When I came back to Brisbane, that was when I started really making a go of doing illustrations for bands.
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I → come → bands
What kind of clients do you work for now?
It’s changed over the years.
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It → work → years
I do a lot of commercial work, but a lot of the work that I do now is for institutions like galleries, museums, libraries.
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I → do → galleries
All the corporate clients I do work for now, I can’t tell anyone about.
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I → work → anyone
So it’s not really exciting.
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it → ’ → ?
It’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m doing this really awesome project.
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I → ’ → project
You probably won’t know about it for about four years.”
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You → know → years
But that’s a good problem to have.
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that → ’ → ?
All the artists that I really love and admire are people who have diversified their practice a lot.
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who → love → practice
These are people who are making merch, they’re doing commercial work, but they also have a very, very strong conceptual practice as well, where they’re able to do exhibitions and installations.
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they → make → exhibitions
I want to be like them, basically.
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I → want → them
How has your experience been in the Brisbane art scene and watching it change?
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it → watch → scene
In my mind, the central thesis of Brisbane for the last 50 years has been: yes, we’re not like the biggest cities, we don’t have the big museums, we don’t have the big institutions.
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we → ’re → institutions
Obviously, that’s changed now, but the thesis was that we could afford the big house with the big backyard, and that’s where the culture would happen in this city.
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culture → change → city
That’s where the punk shows would happen – under the cavity of the Queenslander.
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shows → ’ → Queenslander
The sharehouses would have art shows.
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sharehouses → have → shows
Of course, nobody can afford a big house with the big backyard in Brisbane any more.
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nobody → afford → Brisbane
So that emerging art scene has had to move outwards into art studios or commercial spaces.
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scene → emerge → studios
And I think likewise, to exist and survive as an artist, you need to have a commercial practice or a city job – that’s the way it goes.
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it → think → practice
Do you wish that was different?
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that → wish → ?
If you’re asking me whether I wish I could afford a house, the answer is yes my friend, absolutely.
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answer → ask → house
I think it would be great to have more support for arts businesses and studios like mine.
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it → think → mine
Of course I would love that.
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I → love → that
But I also think it would be great if there were more commercial opportunities for artists as well.
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it → think → artists
…and 50 more, not listed.
The Aporia
