Who is Oliver Watts?
I’m a practising artist and academic. I’m also Senior Curator at Artbank, Australia’s national art collection and leasing program.
What would you do differently from what you do now?
I always dreamt of being a playwright or theatre director. I love working with performers and actors, and all of my work has a theatrical element. I think exhibition making or placing art in interiors is a spatial art, creating a feeling or emotion in space.
Who inspires you and why?
I am moved by art in general from music to theatre, but I am inspired by the visual arts in a really powerful and visceral way. It is a great privilege that through my role at Artbank I get to work with and speak to so many artists.
Travelling around the country to find and acquire the most significant Australian art, we were able to visit many places, from Darwin Art Fair to galleries in Hobart. There is so much to see and it is always provocative, challenging and joyous.
Most recently I was hugely inspired by Yolngu Power: the art of Yirrkala at the Art Gallery of NSW. I attended the opening of the exhibition and there was a palpable sense of the historic occasion: that for the first time in many decades the blockbuster show was home grown and Indigenous.
I think it did what good art is able to do, which is to de-centre you and change your coordinates somehow. It was inspiring to see art used as a way to change the world and to insist on rights and a position in the country. But it was the beauty of the stories, which of course you can only half know, that really struck me.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
I have to believe that art is a way to make a difference in the world. Art is way of expressing life and your challenges and desires. When we encounter art, we are encountering the mind of someone different to ourselves. I think if we can be open to the challenge it is the best way to affect the world.
I believe that to find some sympathetic aesthetic response to the world is a miracle. Isn’t it wonderful when a friend agrees that a film is wonderful even if it is terrible? You feel a connection and love through sharing art.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
I have a great time in a small cabin at Mt Wilson with my family and sometimes friends. The smell of the soil and the big winds, the sound of tawny frogmouths chanting and hopefully when they come back the buzz of insects is for some reason really calming and meaningful to me.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
The natural beauty of Sydney Harbour is a gift that keeps on giving. There are literally hundreds of beaches but I regularly only go to two, and I think other people are the same. There are kingfish on the run, bull sharks, snakes and bats, and water monitors and kingfishers if you know where to look.
I love how alive Australia is compared to other places. But then, wonder of wonders, we have the miraculous Opera House and the platonic curve of the Harbour Bridge to bring us back to culture.
What are you currently reading?
I have recently finished Miranda Darling’s (very Sydney) Thunderhead, because I wanted to read that before tackling her new book in the same series, Fireweather. Currently, I am reading Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz, which Stephen Fry said in a recent interview was “laugh out loud” funny.
I have worked with Toby before and always love his take on life and writing. I was honoured to do the illustrations for the book. Finally, my friend Nathan Dunne has written a memoir, When Nothing Feels Real, which sounds like an intense read but I am really looking forward to it.
What are you currently listening to?
When I am in the studio I like listening to TV shows or films I have seen multiple times. Then I see the images in my mind’s eye. It makes you pay attention to the script in a different way.
Happiness is?
Late night painting in the studio.
What does the future hold for you?
We are about to mark Artbank’s 45th Birthday with celebrations across Melbourne and Sydney. We have some great exhibitions coming up as part of these festivities, and we are launching a publication that documents Artbank’s formation, acquiring and leasing since 1980. In Melbourne, we are presenting an exhibition that brings the pages of the book to life in the space.
In Sydney we asked James Kenney (Artbank’s first curator, 1980 – 1996) to revisit the collection, and he has put together an amazing group of artists that use both image and text, from Tom Polo to Darcey Bella Arnold, Justin Trendall and Fiona Hall. I think what sets Artbank’s exhibitions apart is the opportunity to also explore the vast and visible storage holdings, to discover the many treasures held within the collection.
I am currently working on a series of paintings on the theme of shipwreck and The Heads.
Oliver is the Senior Curator at Artbank – which celebrates 45 years with exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney this August, and the launch of the landmark publication, On Display: The story of Artbank, Australia’s most visible art collection. For more information, visit: www.artbank.gov.au for details.
Image: Oliver Watts in the Artbank Sydney collection – photo courtesy of Artbank