Robin Paris - Recent News and Events

January 2008

For most of last year I was without a car - I'd had a seizure out of the blue a year earlier and had to stop driving. For the first part of the year I continued exhibiting with either friends taking me and/or work to the gallery or sending the work by courier. But by the middle of the year the cumulative effect of time taken to organise getting the work to/from places (including my work unit in Launceston) on top of the limitations in getting anywhere or doing much independently in my private life made me decide to stop showing altogether until I could drive again. This particular part of the country has only a few weekday shopper buses to the local town, and getting anywhere else (larger towns/cities, railway stations, anywhere out of the village at night or weekends) required someone else driving (for practical time-based reasons or due to no choice). I bought myself a new bicycle part of the way through the year, and am delighted to be cycling again, but again distance-to-time as well as tourist-laden roads limits where I can practically get to - when earning a living remains part of the game.

Although it was an exceptionally frustrating year it brought benefits too. I've had a practice run in downsizing, something that is creeping up on all of us with peak oil imminent (or already here). I have had to consider distance, time and cost factors for pretty well anything and consequently have been thinking, doing and "being" more locally. Now I'm driving again I feel liberated that I can go anywhere anytime with the flexibility that our society demands of us - and vice versa - but feel my downsize is here to stay. For instance, it's great that I've exhibited internationally, but I don't feel ambitious in that direction any more. That's not to say I won't show again internationally (or that I will!) but I feel my future lies in making art that is relevant locally and relevant to ecology and sustainability.

News 2007

News 2006

News 2005