Pictures 1973
Catalogue / Memoir
Introduction
Pictures
Objects
Animations
PICTURES are both finished and ephemeral works made for animations.
1949---- 1950---- 1951---- 1952---- 1953---- 1954---- 1955---- 1956---- 1957---- 1958---- 1959---- 1960---- 1961---- 1962---- 1963---- 1964---- 1965---- 1966---- 1967---- 1968---- 1969---- 1970---- 1971---- 1972---- 1973---- 1974---- 1975---- 1976---- 1977---- 1978---- 1979---- 1980---- 1981---- 1982---- 1983---- 1984---- 1985---- 1986---- 1987---- 1988---- 1989---- 1990---- 1991---- 1992---- 1993---- 1994---- 1995---- 1996---- 1997---- 1998---- 1999---- 2000---- 2001---- 2002---- 2003---- 2004---- 2005---- 2006---- 2007---- 2008---- 2009---- 2010---- 2011---- 2012---- 2013---- 2014---- 2015---- 2016---- 2017---- 2018---- 2019---- 2020---- 2021---- 2022---- 2023---- 2024---- 2025---- 2026----
Women
1973 Portrait
Photograph: Sue Ford
1973 Jumping Girl. Still from film
Hand processed and solarised standard 8 film.
Screened: Ewing and George Paton Gallery
Artist's collection, Sydney
1973 Mugs. Still from film
Hand processed and solarised standard 8 film.
Screened: Ewing and George Paton Gallery
Artist's collection, Sydney
1973 Sue Ford, Lucy Lippard and others at the Ewing and George Paton Gallery
Photo: Lisa Roberts
I live in share houses around Melbourne.
I meet Sue Ford who photographs me for a portrait project she is doing.
James Clayden (Jim), artist, film maker and performer, introduces me to experimental film. He lends me a standard 8 movie camera and gives me a copy of the I Ching Book of Changes, the book he uses to guide his choreography for films and live happenings.
At La Mama I perform with Jim in one of his first happenings. In a small central space surrounded by a huge canvas drop, we perform a series of slow moves. One move involves pouring liquid in and out of glass milk bottles. Another move involves holding empty yogurt containers in our hands and circling them above our heads. A small audience moves around us and stops now and then to watch us through holes cut into a huge canvas drop. Absurd theatre.
To me it seems there's no line between the audience and performers. Everything is connected.
Jim stays with us at Lake Tyers House, an old stopping station on the Cob and Co stage coach line. The property is owned by Geoff and Alison Goding and two other couples.
At Lake Tyers Jim and I spend days and nights exploring ways of combining dance, animation and performance. I paint sharp lines and amorphous forms between layers of transparent coloured glazes, to suggest change and transformation over time.
Spending time with Jim, looking through his camera, seemingly simple things capture my attention. Things that move and change. A ball rolling on the tray of a truck I see as we drive along behind it. I notice how tones and colours on enamel bowls and cups slowly change as light conditions change. I become obsessed with recording movement of all kinds. I start making animations. I hand-process and solarise movie film. I practise 'in-camera' time-lapse and multiple exposure effects using standard 8 film in a 16mm film camera. Standard 8 film has twice the number of sprocket holes as 16mm film. This means you can run it through 16mm cameras and projectors, and hand-process both gauges of film with chemicals, in OMO tanks designed for 16mm.
I live with my husband Ian and our son at Moora Moora Co-operative Community. We fix up an old cottage to live in and became the first full-time inhabitants of Moora Moora. Ian trains to be a teacher. I make and exhibit pictures and films at the Ewing and George Paton Gallery, Melbourne. I become part of the small experimental film, music and performance community. Sue Ford comes to visit at Moora Moora and photographs me as part of a portrait project she is developing. I formally discontinue study for my Bachelor of Arts and the University of Melbourne.
The book Australian Nudes is published with a photo of me on the front and back covers.
1973 Australian Nudes
Front cover photo: Geoffrey Smith
EVENTS
1973: The National Gallery Art School ceased existence as an independent entity in 1973 when it became the foundation school of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The VCA became an affiliated college of the University of Melbourne in July 1991.
National Gallery of Victoria Art School
1973: The Sydney Opera House opened after 16 years in the building at a cost of $100 million (compared to the original estimate of $7 million).
1973: By the end of this year Prime Minister Gough Whitlam could announce that his Cabinet had made 1,675 decisions between January and November, the equivalent of four a day including weekends.
1973: Patrick White was the first to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel The Eye of the Storm
1973: Rudolf Nureyev in Australia danced Don Quitote with the Australian Ballet.
1973: The Government paid $1.2 million for 'Blue Poles' by the American artist Jackson Pollock for the Australian National Collection.
The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985
Written by me, Lisa Roberts/Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill), on
21/04/2026
