​Emma Rooney

Born ​1966, Sydney
​Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts
Graduation show: ​1990
Graduation ceremony:​ 1991


Artworks in ​Space YZ

Sleeping bag, 1992
Carbon paper, cotton thread, shoelaces
240 x 59 cm

Bound books, 1989-90
Various hand-made drawing journals, covers made from slate, latex printed from newspaper, thread, pine needles, umbrella fabric
Dimensions variable

Sleeping and the hypnagogic (​from Greek ​hupnos ‘sleep’+ ​agōgos ‘leading’ (from ​agein ‘to lead’, leading to sleep​)​ was an underlying theme in my work in my last year of UWS and in the few years following.

‘Under’ and ‘lying’ were key ideas I worked with in this particular work, with the inked and printable surface of the carbon paper being a feature as was the contained yet extended beyond human (in length) stitched-up bag that was, as if lying prone in the in-between states of death or sleep, evoking at once a softening and unknowing - a time capsule asleep. The carbon paper unexpectedly softening over the years, while holding memories of time spent camping in the bush, asleep at night in the warmth of a bag.

This sleeping bag is thus a remnant from 1994. While this was the third sleeping bag I had by then made, it was the first made from packing paper as part of my grad show installation. The second was made from latex with newspaper print for the show Dissonance: Aspects of Feminism and Art at Pier 2/3 Wharf, 1991, curated by Sally Couacaurd (part of a larger site specific installation). This carbon paper sleeping bag was originally exhibited at Street Level in Blacktown, in a show called Remark (1994), where it was laid on the floor along with lengths of extended dried poppy stems (attached together with beeswax) and oiled paper drawings (the underside of butcher paper, backing the carbon paper) on the gallery window glass above. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, a line of ants (from a hole in the wall) found their way onto the linseed coated paper (which they ate!), creating in the process an unexpected living drawing of ants.

It is strange to see this sleeping bag as a single work isolated from the dynamic spaces in which it previously lay. For example, when I displayed it at The Slab (an artist run space in Hazelbrook) in 2016, it was hung vertically on a wall with, projected on the wall next to it, a small image from a 1minute video loop of a red moon that, while it was rising, looked to be hovering still, just above the horizon.

Although it suggests an ending of sorts, being funerary in appearance, it is to my mind quite the contrary. The low elevation base or plinth was made recently, using thin board painted with blackboard paint. It folds out and is supported by its own puzzle-like struts, maintaining the sense that it is hovering just above the ground. The underneath of this ‘hover space’ is a reminder of an ‘under the bed space’ full of shadows and the unknown.

Included is a bundle of handmade journals, containing old drawings and texts from the time.

During the years at UWS, between 1988-90, I was an undergraduate student when the art school was undergoing a transition from being part of the Nepean College of Advanced Education to becoming part of the University Of Western Sydney. Although this was in many ways just a name change, it also represented a major shift in bureaucracy, along with the art school’s incorporation into the structure of the university.

At that time, studios for sculpture and painting and drawing were partitioned spaces that were changed in formation each year by the dedicated technical staff. Peachtree Studios also known as ‘The Factory’ was situated among the industrial factories and workshops on Peachtree Road, Penrith. Foundation Studies was a course that attempted to unravel preconceived ideas about traditional notions of art practice, not in order to undermine but rather to investigate and reconsider perceptions of conditioned thinking in relation to drawing and making. The term ‘drawkwards’, a project coined by Terry Hayes, encapsulated some of those less comfortable ways of being and making. Essentially analytical (asking “what is art?”, etc), it incorporated cryptic and challenging projects which often irritated and ‘upset apple carts’ in a good way. There was often lively debating and conjecture between staff and students that produced subtle thinking that shifted us out of comfort zones, instigating an array of responses, dialogue and happenings from the students, and teaching staff: David Hull, Cheo Chai-Haing, Terry Hayes, Harry Barnett, Anne Graham, Rhett Brewer, Graham Marchant, Peter Charuk, Noelene Lucas, Bonita Ely, Eugenia Raskopoulos, Debra Porch, Jacqueline Clayton, Lynne Eastaway, and others. In those early years, all of these practicing artists brought their own dynamic teaching styles into the mix.

The highly skilled technical staff (also artists), included Jules Gull, Nick Dorrer and Charlie Misfud. They were also essential parts of the working whole, assisting with construction and with helping students to materialise their concepts. Kingswood campus, across those years, also included ceramic, glass, printmaking and photography facilities as well as integrated and rigorous coursework elements, including courses on progressive philosophies, cultural studies and art theory. These courses were initially taught by Donal Fitzpatrick, Alan Krell and then Helen Grace and Phillip Kent.

I have fond memories of walking across what was referred to as ‘Bastard Park’, to the Kingswood campus. A Super 8 film I made from the window of an old Fairlane, while driving down the Great Ocean Road, while on holidays in 1989, was submitted as a part of my theory assignment. The image of Robyn Davidson giving camel rides on the side of the road was caught in the stream, as were a couple on a tandem bicycle, among other unpredictable glimpses of landscape and people in the continuous footage. There was at the time a unit of work on Cultural Sites, which was team taught by guest artists, Narelle Jubelin and Sheona White.

In my second year of study a small group of students decided to form a new elective called Investigative Studies. Terry Hayes was the lecturer, the key instigator and guide for this new unit of enquiry, which was project driven, meaning that we could decide what materials or processes would define the work, eventually writing our own projects rather than being fixed in one discipline. We also drew from areas outside of art, such as science, music and literature. The premise was an investigation, via materials and concepts, with an open ended direction. This course soon became Interdisciplinary Studies.

My graduation work was not a part of the final graduating exhibition of 1990. At the time I felt that the work I was making, being process-based, did not need to be formalised at the cost of losing incidental things that happened in the space while working. At the time, I questioned the notion of an ‘ending’ in a work. When is a work finished?

For me, the self-conscious tidying up for display purpose felt all too final and not attentive enough to the idea that a ‘work’ is always in progress. There may be resolved elements, but not always. Hence, the catalogue of 1990 does not have an entry, image or written reflection for my work. While I was grateful to be offered the Mary Alice Evatt Award that year, I declined it because it meant moving my installation to the Penrith Regional Gallery, which at the time didn’t feel appropriate since the work was about the site in which it had come to life and in which it continued to change or be changed (the ants!). The award then went to Therese Saaib (whose work does not appear in this show) and her wonderful ceramic pod forms, which I can still see clearly in my mind.

I am grateful to have been a student during those years, working among such a diverse and passionate collective of people. I worked as a tutor at UWS for three years from 1992 to 1994, teaching in Foundation Studies. I relish those years as a time where the culture was refreshingly informal and spontaneous. In the early years, UWS was considered ‘out west’ and very much on the cultural fringes. Peachtree Studios were relocated to the Kingswood campus, into Z block where Space YZ became both a gallery and a transitional space for walking between and accessing other buildings.

The closure of the art school at UWS was a real loss. To this day, it is a sign of the times, as the arts and humanities nationwide are still threatened with exorbitant fees for students and funding cuts, and imminent loss of staffing and university degrees. It was a formative art school, which broke ground and opened up diverse and resonant practices for many who went there.

It is an impossible but essential task to try to recapture the essence of that time and place with this exhibition. Writing about the time in retrospect is certainly difficult, being a different person now. The memories I have are also selective and rambling, including those endearing crow calls across the old PA system in ‘The Factory’, care of Sue Hollingsworth.

Paper Weight, 1994, dimensions variable, carbon paper, poppy stems, oiled newspaper, glass bottle stoppers. Street Level Gallery, Blacktown.