Two things are going to happen tomorrow night, of various magnitude depending entirely on your investment in either.

The first Thing is an astronomical dance, whereby the Earth tilts herself as far away as possible from the Sun, and the Sun responds in kind by halting in his path across her sky and then promptly changing direction. This will be called the Winter Solstice. The second Thing is a multimedia group exhibition, where fourteen Sydney underground artists will bring new work to St Peters newest warehouse space, Tortuga Studios. This will be called “The Longest Night”. Taking inspiration from the urban industrial environment around them, the show is a celebration of “the longest night under a sky of steel.”

We talked to Tortuga director H Morgan-Harris about the exhibition, the studio, and the warehouse utopia of which it was an offshoot – the legendary Mekanarky, occupied by forty-some artists until they were evicted in 2008.

“Mekanarky was created out of necessity in 2001 by a group of ten anarchy-loving artists who were pushed to the city limits by over zealous real estate developers. In the search for affordable workshop space they discovered the old Streets Ice Cream factory in Turrella. It was a labyrinthine maze, with over 4000 square metres of vast, echoing industrial warehouse space; rusted, warped and unloved.” The drive of the warehouse was to offer artists an opportunity to exist close(ish) to the city. “Because of the semi-derelict state of the building the rent was low and as a collective Mekanarky tried to offer space and facilities to any artist keen to be a part.”

Other than the artists, Mekanarky housed a Ridiculous Amount of Stuff: a recording studio, gallery space, performance space, printmaking, metal and wood workshops, set-building and prop construction workshop, costumes, jewellery and body art, film making, animation and multimedia, painting, sculpture and airbrushing, sound and lighting technicians and designers. “You could turn up and find mechanical ants ripping panels from an old red Mercedes, a kombi filled with water being driven by a scuba diver, or clanking mechanical beasts having a food fight. Mekanarky was a living thing to those that worked there.”

So, understandably, the news of eviction was Very Bad News – and the bump-out itself wasn’t fun. “It was the most harrowing thing any of us have ever done. The entire place had to be gutted, the infrastructure we had built removed and any trace of artistic endeavour obliterated. It took months. We found rooms we had never seen before and discovered long lost treasure. We moved over 40 tonnes of rubbish and 20 tonnes of metal out of the building; we transported the most ridiculous things on the back of trucks, hanging out of car windows and on bicycles and we estimate that we drove over 400kms in the trips between Turrella and St Peters in the process.”

St Peters isn’t the only suburb that benefited from the eviction though – other warehouses have sprung up with the initiative of the core Mekanarky crew; one in Carrington Road, and an almost-there in Arncliffe called Salmagundi Art Studios. Apparently the hard work was worth it, too – the new environments sparked a new creativity. “Mekanarky fought the fight against a narcissistic and vengeful landlord to the point where our creativity was stifled. Tortuga and the other new spaces offer us a wealth of new opportunities, new creative environments and new connections… There’s a shared drive amongst all of us to see any new venture that has emerged from the ashes of Mekanarky not only survive but succeed.”

This seems to be a pretty consistent drive amongst all of the artist-run initiatives (ARI) we’ve encountered in Sydney. But it’s a hard battle to win. “The biggest issues we face are the rising cost of space in the city, a severe lack of funding due to a lack of recognition of what it is that we do and why we are different.” There have been a bunch of ARI’s who’ve felt this pressure a little too hard: spaces like Space 3, Phatspace, Gallery Wren, the Wedding Circle and Knot Gallery have all been forced into closure in recent years.

But these are a resilient people, a fact that H attests to. She sees a rising movement amongst artists towards recognition, respect and funding which will hopefully lead to artist run initiatives enjoying a firm and valued foothold in a city without fear of marginalisation, gentrification or, yes, eviction notices. “There is an awesome future for artist-run initiatives. How do I know? I am the director of one and no matter what happens, I intend to continue doing what I do, and I know that other ARIs feel the same way… ARIs by their definition are not contained, tethered to convention or restricted in where they operate. Yes, there’ve been closures recently, but there are also growing numbers of ARIs popping up.”

And yes, one of them is St Peter’s Tortuga Studios. See what we did there? Full circle; hello Pulitzer. The group show coming up there – ‘The Longest Night’ – celebrates the urban environment of the industrial warehouse space in which the work emerged. And yes, I’m going to hyperlink a collection of words to direct you to Marcus Westbury’s Renew Newcastle – the project reinvigorating the abandoned and disused transitional buildings along Newcastle’s main strip of Hunter Street by finding artists, cultural projects and community groups to use and maintain them until they become commercially viable.

I asked H what she thinks it is about abandoned and disused spaces that seem to inspire so many creative adventures? “[They’re] embodied with a sense of worth; a palimpsest of memory, form and function. For those of us that work in such environments inspiration seeps into the psyche from the physical features of the building, its history and the lingering sense of the past that cloaks it… There’s a beauty in decay and dereliction that is often overlooked, and a profound fascination with any space that has existed in time beneath the shroud of many guises.” On top of all that, there’s the collaborative mindset that a shared space can engender, as well as the whole notion of working creatively somewhere that didn’t expect it: “In a sense it’s about a reclamation of space.”

Come along to celebrate that reclamation at the opening of The Longest Night, 6pm – 9pm at Tortuga Studios. You’ll not only be party to the street art, visual art, photography and sculptures that will be taking up the warehouse until June 26, but you’ll also be at a Snowdroppers gig – they’re filming a clip at Tortuga. What else to expect? “Aside from the anvil swing, which might feel a little freaky, we hope you’ll be inspired, engaged and entertained.”

An anvil swing, you guys. An anvil swing!

The Longest Night
Opens 6 – 9pm June 19, continues until June 26 at Tortuga Studios
31 Princes Highway, St Peters (parking across the road at Sydney Park.)

Top left by Terry Archer, top right by Brian Paisley. Both are exhibiting.

Posted by steph in Art, Features

Tags: Alien Proof Construction, Artist Run Initiatives, Bauxhau Stone, Brian Paisley, Edward Horne, Franco, Jacq Sherry, Jamil Stone, Mekanarky, Perran Costi, Peter Strong, Pirate Photography, Rachel Lafferty, Raul Eduardo, Snowdroppers, Terry Archer, Token, Tortuga Studios, Warehouses