A Q&A with curators Kat Stevens & George Jefford from the Emerging Artists Collective in Melbourne.
To the uninitiated, what is a paste-up?
A paste-up is basically art that is 'pasted' up onto a wall, typically outside. You may see some paste-ups that use traditional poster paper and wheat paste, which glue the work to the wall. These are common, especially in cities, for advertisement. Our paste-up is a little different, we print our artist's images on adhesive paper and stick them to the wall. This way there is no residue or mark when it comes off - think removable wallpaper. The purpose of a paste-up is to be super accessible to the everyday public. Our exhibitions get seen by passers-by at all hours of the day and night, not just by the guests on opening night.
Putting on a traditional gallery exhibition can be a very expensive process. After the printing, framing, gallery rental (+cut of sales) and maybe some publicity costs – you could be looking at $1,000 - $10,000 and up. Do you mind us asking how much a typical paste-up would cost?
It’s true that a typical gallery exhibitions cost a lot of money and we found this out with our second exhibition last year. As our number one goal is to support emerging artists, we found regular gallery prices are just not accessible.
Our very first exhibition was a paste-up that we paid a company to print and install it for us. This also had the limitation of being up for only two weeks with a hefty price tag attached. The cost was shared between 32 artists for this show, so it was manageable.
With each show, EAC aims to improve our work, streamline the process and for it to be more economical for our artists. Our current show in Collingwood has achieved just that. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by Culture Focus and Down the Lane Studios, who have connections to the space - so there weren't any permits or costs involved.
The main costs we have is advertising, printing, and paper. Sponsors are a huge help when putting these exhibitions on and we were lucky enough to receive sponsorship from Kayell, FeeFee's Bar, and The Bendigo Hotel.
Paper can cost anywhere between $500-$700 while printing can cost $200-$500. It all depends on what kind of paper you print on and where you print it. The last cost is advertising, which is really determined by how much money we have left over. We are a non-profit collective that strives to put 100% of our money back into the shows we create, to always benefit the artists. This current show cost us less, but we put in more effort as we had to put it up ourselves. But this extra work made the exhibition feel more special and created a real sense of community. We are so grateful for the companies who sponsor us, and the individuals in our community who help support us with putting these shows up and on.
Is it a big process getting permission through council? Have you done any paste-ups on commercial / private properties?
The spaces we have used so far are private. The only issue we’ve ever had is other residents around the area having issues with an opening night. Luckily for us we attempt to create relationships with the people around the area and they are genuinely very understanding. Most people in our community love art and love supporting the small guy. Council permits are something we would have to consider if we attempted to do a paste-up in a publicly owned space.
It’s such an accessible way to share your photography in a different format. While we are often glued to our phones and screens indoors, it’s nice to have an excuse to get out, grab a coffee or drink and see public artwork. It’s also great for the real life social aspect. Do the opening nights have a good turn up?
Our opening nights are always incredible and we love seeing the community rally around us and our artists. All openings have had hundreds attend, seeing the incredible art and having a drink to celebrate. The Bendigo Hotel was amazing at our most recent opening, and made sure we had a fantastic night, as well as hosting one side of our paste-up along their alley wall. We meet so many people at these openings and create some fantastic connections, helping us to put more and more shows on with these relationships we foster. Whether it be more artists getting involved, or being introduced to people who have unique spaces where we could potentially put shows on.
There is some intriguing work on your website. What about print sales? Is there an option to buy printed work from the artists?
Thanks! We try to showcase all the artists from our previous shows on our website, linking their social media. We have attempted to sell art previously, mainly at our gallery exhibition. Unfortunately, EAC just doesn’t have the clientele or audience yet to really facilitate art sales. However, the QR codes on our paste-ups link to our artist pages and their Instagram, where anyone can purchase prints directly from the artist.
Are you planning on doing Paste-Ups on a regular basis? Or is it based on accessibility to new spaces? Any hints on upcoming shows?
We hope to do a paste-up again in the future, but EAC likes to keep things different to create accessibility for all artists. Different spaces are better for different artwork, and we also like the skills we gain as a collective, trialling various spaces. We have a few plans coming up, to give a little hint - art shows in bars are gaining popularity in Naarm, and we are excited to become a part of this! We are in talks with a fantastic bar in Fitzroy and are very keen to share details in the coming months.
Any final words to the readers?
We appreciate Capture taking an interest in EAC and we hope to see you and any readers at one of our upcoming shows! Thanks for supporting us and emerging artists in Naarm. Please check out our Instagram: @emergingartists_collective or Facebook page to keep up to date and see pictures from all our previous shows.