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----
Who
The fact is that because no one thing or feature of this universe is separable from the whole, the only real You, or Self, is the whole.
Allan Watts
The Taboo of Knowing Who You Are
Pub. 1973
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 read The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts.
Sue Ford photographs me for a portrait series she is doing.
Artist James Clayden (Jim) 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 everyday moves in slow motion. One move is pouring water in and out of glass milk bottles. Another move is holding in our hands empty yogurt containers and circling them above our heads. A small audience walks around us and stops now and then to watch us through holes cut in the huge canvas drop. Absurd theatre.
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, now owned by Geoff and Alison Goding and two other couples.
Jim and I explore ways of combining drawing, dance, animation and performance. I paint lines between layers of transparent coloured glazes to suggest change and transformation.
Looking through a camera lens, 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 record how tones and colours on enamel bowls and cups slowly change as light conditions change. I start making animations. I hand-process and solarize 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. You can run it through 16mm cameras and projectors, and hand-process both gauges of film with chemicals in OMO tanks.
Ian and I and our son become the first full-time inhabitants of Moora Moora Co-operative Community. We fix up an old cottage to live in. I make and exhibit pictures and films at the Ewing and George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, and become part of a small experimental film, music and performance community. I discontinue study for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne.
1973 Working on the cottage
Photo: Peter Cock
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
