As part of Brisbane Art Design (BAD) in 2021 – which profiles more than 60 venues across four weeks with a curated programme of art installations – art remix project RMX will invite selected participants to test their creative agility in RMXTV.
The project sees artists guided by a series of directions and prompts via video, as they draw and paint in a purpose-built environment remixing and transforming the space as visitors watch and follow along.
Here, we get some more information from the LA-based brains behind the RMXTV activation, Steve Alexander.
Tell us a bit about RMXTV.
RMX is a series of collaborative projects and workshops where artwork is reworked and reinvented step by step, modified, added to and erased. The goal is to liberate creative thought by playing and taking risks. Since the project began, participants have remixed digital images emailed from person to person, reworked sewn toys and mailed them round the world, and layered paint to transform and recreate a workshop space. Sometimes the remixing has spanned years, other times it’s taken place over the course of hours. Like every RMX project before it, RMXTV was born from technical limitations and practical restrictions. This iteration has had to respond to a world dealing with COVID, so instructions will be delivered via screen to the artists who will be working alone or in pairs.
What can audiences expect to see in this activation?
Audiences can expect to see 22 local artists painting on a purpose-built stage. They will be responding fast and furiously to a series of prompts, remixing their own and other artist’s efforts and constantly transforming the space. Each artist was chosen for their unique approach to the creative process, as well as their ability and resilience.
And what are you hoping attendees take from it?
I hope the audience will bring their iPad or sketchbook to the event, so they can join in by responding to the prompts. They’ll also be able to remix on the STICKRMX wall using sticker shapes we’re providing. I’d love the audience to leave feeling inspired to make art with their friends and to play games with the creative process. It’s time to break free, experiment and play!
Where does the idea for RMXTV come from?
We did an RMX project in Sapporo, Japan where we spent ten days painting and repainting a space with a small group of artists. It was an inspiring and energising experience and we wanted to share it with more people. I worked with the team at the Museum Of Brisbane to adapt the concept to the realities of COVID, and RMXTV was born.
Steve Alexander
RMX came to be in 2000. What do you think has kept it going for more than 20 years now?
The ethos of RMX is similar to that of the Dadaists and Surrealists, who were disillusioned by artistic norms and world events. When we started the project, we were a bunch of young designers frustrated by the limitations of the business world and hoping to bring the thrill back into creation. Twenty years on, the focus on social media popularity often causes artists to inhibit their creativity in order to conform. Then and now, RMX has been a way of shaking things up.
This is happening as part of Brisbane Art Design. Why do you think it fits so nicely within this event?
The RMX project started in Brisbane, and it’s great to see it return home. BAD connects the city’s designers and artists, with an audience hungry for new and unexpected ideas. RMX is all about the unexpected and by its very nature we don't know what the results will be. One thing is for sure, though, there will be some magic.
What are you most looking forward to about it being a part of BAD?
It’s going to be exciting to see the continually changing outcomes, and to share them online for the world to see. I would love to be in Brisbane in person, but with travel restrictions being what they are, I will be witnessing the project unfold from Los Angeles.
In your opinion, what makes art so special?
Art is our way of making sense of life. We communicate things that exist, experiences and even possibilities. It gives us all the ability to see even the things that can't be described.
RMXTV is on throughout Brisbane Art Design at Museum Of Brisbane from 7-30 May.
