The Proclaim Collection
JACKSON SLATTERY |
Since we started in 1999 we have wanted to have a great working environment. Open plan, light, and a little quirky. We want to encourage our staff to think creatively, and to go beyond in finding solutions for customers.
Since 2003 we have been slowly building a corporate art collection to further that objective. The focus is on current contemporary works, utilising our Gertrude relationships. It is intended to further build on our Gertrude relationship, and build a bridge between Gertrude artists, alumni and staff and the good folk of Proclaim.
Artists in the collection include Ricky Swallow, David Noonan, Rob McHaffie, Viv Miller, David Jolly, Raaf Ishak, Trevelyan Clay, Richard Lewer, Chris Bond, Noel Skrzypczak, Louise Paramour, Michelle Ussher, Selina Ou, Jackson Slattery and Nick Selenitsch.
We have also acquired one work per year, either from current Gertude resident artists or from an exhibition at Gertude Street.
2004 - Viv Miller – Volcano
2005 – Koji Ryui - Straws
2006 – Nick Selenitsch – Rebounds
2007 – Rob McHaffie – Tender Age
2008 - Richard Lewer
2009 – Jackson Slattery - Plastic Everything
So what do our staff think?
Staff thoughts on key works in the collection:
Susan Rawling
“watch over us, we need you here”
String art work by Chris Bond
watch over us, we need you here” |
You can hear the trams outside rattling along Flinders street. Most of the time this work would go unnoticed, sitting quietly in a corner where people would have their back to it, oblivious of such a profound and significant piece.
On first view, the work is a collection of approximately 500 cotton threads, suspended from a single point in the wall, fanning out to a bench below. You can’t immediately recognize that the work forms a phrase; “watch over us, we need you here”.
The area is a designated open meeting room at the front of the building. Five large multi-paned windows generously stream light over the piece on the opposite wall. The fan of threads cast shadows on the wall behind. The piece is large, taking up the whole pace. Despite its size, the work is subtle because it is white thread set against a white wall, suspending a white bench.
The work has an ethereal quality, like sun rays streaming down from heaven. The phrase only becomes apparent when you stand over the piece. This is a message for the artist’s wife who died recently at a young age. Each line of thread forms part of a letter, like Morse code to another world, above.
The installation is a work of the heart, a tribute to the artist’s wife whose favourite colour was white. The painstaking detail of the assemblage is a labour of love, a testament of his love for his wife. The work reflects the fragility of life and love, a person dying, a person grieving.
This beautiful and profound piece sits in the middle of a busy urban office unmoved by the hustle and bustle. It stands its own ground, calling for the spirit of the artist’s beloved to watch over us, to keep us safe, give us integrity, and remind us of our mortality.
Susan Rawling
Jon Broome on Nick Selenitsch...Rebound
Nick Selenitsch |
Beautiful, yet beguiling; playful with a touch of comedy. Art meeting sport, two of my favourite subjects. How can you resist a painted backboard that invites you to throw things at it?
At the lift entrance to our third floor are two works by Nick that are colourful plays on basketball hoops. They invite you to disregard art as precious work and throw things at them, much as you would if you were engaging in a combative sport. However in this case the work remains a little unsettling , as sport does collide with art. For Proclaim, these are key pieces in our collection as they are textural but three dimensional; colourful yet basic. Nick, like us, is not too precious about his art, and is often prone to a laugh rather than getting too serious. For us, it is sport meets art, that is where the fun starts.... we just need to try and avoid hitting people in the lift with rubbish as the lift door opens!
Richard Thomas on Richard Lewer – Northside Social Committee
As well as sharing a name, Richard and I share a common homeland. As Kiwis, a large part of our cultural identity revolves around sport – it used to be said that NZ culture revolved around “rugby, racing and beer”. As a performance piece some time ago, Richard joined a boxing gym to train for a feature fight between himself and another artist. The sport and its surrounding culture got under his skin and he is now a part of another community. He won the fight and received the inspiration for this work.
Richard Lewer |
The work on our wall is a monochrome painting of white on a ‘velvet’ canvas cut with care from a pool table. The “Prez”, dressed in singlet and boasting tattooed wings on his chest, looks on from behind his desk at his boxing gym while the Northcote Social Committee meets to discuss meat raffles.
Heavy bags hang forlornly unused, the ring is empty and skipping ropes and sparring gloves are neatly stacked. In the corner of the velvet the “Rules To This Gym” are proclaimed: No Sptting, No Swearing, No Bludging, No Smoking but the pub pool table would have seen all this and more.
The painting speaks to me of crafting the sublime from the mundane and makes an incongruous counterpoint work: the high ideals of art against the base instinct of boxing.
Marianne Lim on "Not the end of History" by Paul Spencer 2004
Paul Spencer |
The intensity of the vibrant primary colours of ORANGE, RED, GREEN, mirrors the frenetic pace surrounding me, but ironically provides a meditative escape from the chaos. I can hear the painting calling to me, impossible to avoid as it dominantly strikes out from the wall.
The mood of the painting changes during the seasons. The bright dappling reflections of early spring bounces on the canvass, evoking energy and lightness. The fire of the RED enhances during the simmering warmth of the cocooned winter months provoking comfort and creativity.
I lose myself in an oasis of serenity, as each paintbrush stroke softly punctuates the room with shapes, sights and sounds of a leafy foliage of the eco forest.
Resonating with the urban CBD jungle surrounds, cajoling me into the wilderness.
Another Proclaim tradition - Friday afternoon music
We also have a tradition of Friday afternoon music. What started as Jon Broome playing some tunes to bring in the weekend has developed into an afternoon slot where a staff member gets to control the stereo. We think it went that way because a lot of the staff got sick of hearing Teenage Fanclub and the Strokes. However, given Jon started this tradition, quality control has been retained through a “banned list” of music which if breached leads to a penalty of supplying lollies to all staff. Music on the banned list can be removed from playing at random (the sooner the better).
Banned list includes:
- Any all boy or all girl bands who don’t play instruments (or their offshoots like Robbie Williams)
- Singers who got famous on Idol or who were on TV before they started singing (inc Kylie)
- Anyone with the last name Iglesias
- Any elevator music (we had gospel versions of Beatles songs once)
- Any modern R’n’b
- Any Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, etc you get the drift.